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“WE ARE UP FOR THE CHALLENGE BUT GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO MEET US HALF WAY”
 
The message to Government from the Annual Conference of The Rural and Islands Housing Associations Forum this week was “times are tough and we are up for the challenge but please meet us half way if we’re to do Scotland’s rural and remote communities justice.”
 
Delegates voiced serious concerns that affordable housing development would soon grind to a halt in rural Scotland if a more realistic investment strategy could not be worked out.
 
Under its Homes Fit for the 21st Century strategy the Government aims to build 6,000 affordable homes a year but the budget for 2012 to 2015 will see a 50% cut to £630million.
 
Figures presented by the Scottish Government on their recently announced Innovation and Investment Fund allocation showed that it would deliver 4310 new homes across Scotland although it has not been made clear how it will meet its 6000 houses a year target without increased levels of investment being made available.
 
Mary Taylor CEO of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations said that the key issue for the sector was how to continue funding new supply when the public subsidy on offer had been cut by half in the recent Innovation and Investment Fund allocation to associations by The Scottish Government.
 
Dr Taylor said “We’ve challenged the research which supports the new subsidy rate of £40,000 per unit and it’s difficult to see how Government will meet its target of 6,000 affordable homes a year if it doesn’t invest more in housing. We will soon present to Government the results of a survey of our members into the serious effect the reductions are having on their continuing ability to deliver new supply.”
 
RIHAF Chair, Di Alexander, said “Housing associations which serve rural and island communities have earned a good reputation for being resourceful and innovative but to expect them to come up with new ways of filling the funding gap at such short notice just isn’t reasonable.
 
“We are as keen as Government to develop new and cost effective solutions but subsidy levels must remain realistic meantime or locally affordable housing development is going to slow to a trickle. It isn’t fair either to expect already hard-pressed tenants to face sharp increases in their rents so a bit more co-operation is required if we’re all going to do our bit to overcome the problem.”
 
Kay Barton Head of Housing Supply at The Scottish Government said that the Government’s new subsidy levels would remain unaltered. However, the Government recognised the difficult balance between cost and need and hoped to announce criteria for new three year funding plans by the end of the calendar year to help the sector plan properly for development with permanently lower subsidies.
 
Donald Hirsch from the Centre of Research in Social Policy which is responsible for producing the Minimum Income Standard research findings for The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said that they were expecting to extend their programme to look at rural and remote Scotland. Recent research in rural England had shown that the disposable incomes of households in small rural communities were 20% less than equivalent urban households.

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Used imaginatively large scale marketing and public relations campaigns can and do leverage goodwill and support for charities whether its emergency support for natural disasters or annual campaigns like Comic Relief.
 
Yet there’s a growing tendency for doomsayers to speculate about the value of traditional marketing and public relations campaigns while prescribing technology as the answer for marketing and PR challenges facing the third sector.
 
Yes, technology offers unprecedented opportunities to engage different audiences directly and social media offers the chance to build relationships. Any communications tool offers an opportunity to look creatively at key messages and how to get them across in a fresh way.
 
But social media doesn’t reach everyone. For others it is still a relatively private leisure activity; not all charity supporters engage with charities on Facebook or platforms like Twitter. So while it’s important to make the most of social media and embrace emerging technologies that doesn’t mean ditching other tried and tested techniques.
 
Effective communications is a sizeable challenge rather akin to eating an elephant; it’s best to do it one bite at a time. What’s needed in the long run is a robust approach and that can only be achieved with a good mix of marketing and public relations tools.
 
To capture hearts and minds charities need to use every tool in their box. Large scale marketing or TV campaigns can remind supporters that their chosen charity is out there trying to win support and increasing its reach and impact. And campaigns can reinvigorate the brand helping to avoid charity fatigue.
 
Large campaigns also offer an important educational platform. Charities will only thrive if they inspire the unconverted to get involved. Media, marketing and TV campaigns drive the constant push for greater awareness by engaging with potential supporters who could be just one step away from signing up.
 
For campaigns to have lasting influence it’s vital that they form part of a wider game plan. Growing competition for grant funding and squeezed budgets makes it more important than ever for charities to be sustainable. And having strategic communications is just as fundamental to sustainability as how to diversify your income streams.
 
Take traditional media relations. No matter how many digital ‘experts’ proclaim the death of the news release, recent research proves that good media relations is still a cost effective way of generating long term support. Quality editorial builds trust and credibility.
 
But the impact of media coverage will be limited if it's ad hoc and you don’t link it with your other marketing and PR. The growing symbiosis of traditional media with social media offers HUGE potential for a charity with a social media presence to generate interest from the print media and vice versa.
 
One reason why this blending approach (forgive the eating analogy here) is crucial is that different audiences use and respond in diverse ways to different communications. And it’s too easy to switch off to the same message heard repeatedly through just one channel.
 
So instead of slavishly following social media or any one promotional activity like it’s some kind of silver bullet, charities can reap the benefits of an integrated approach by following the rule (above) for eating an elephant; take one bite at a time, little and often.

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With benefits reform and increasing cuts to care services the debate on independent living for disabled people is often focused squarely on social care.
 
But new research by a Scottish charity has revealed that bad design of housing and products results in disabled people feeling excluded. The same research revealed that disabled people have turned the frustration into a talent for problem solving and design.
 
The Blackwood Foundation was so impressed by the sheer ingenuity of how disabled people have come up with their own solutions to everyday challenges that they have launched a campaign to include people with physical and sensory disabilities in product design.
 
And thanks to the power of social media people can get involved from their living rooms. This week the Edinburgh based charity launched a brand new social networking site www.bespoken.me to help people with disabilities share their tips on how to overcome everyday challenges they face with appliances and technology.
 
The innovative site is also the first in the UK to connect users with developers to drive innovation by tapping into people’s ideas to improve the designs of everything from kitchens, computers and wheelchairs to can openers. Find out more by visiting the website here. www.bespoken.me

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While SSE warn that its domestic customers face yet further hikes in energy bills, predictions about rising fuel prices across the board spells bad news for consumers. And it’s not just for this coming winter.
 
Next quarter fuel tariffs are expected to rise and it has led to warnings that up to a quarter of houses will turn heating off in the winter because they can’t afford the bills. If the predictions pan out more than 6 million households will be in fuel poverty in the UK – that’s a quarter of the country.
 
Fuel poverty is defined as having to spend more than 10% of income on domestic fuel to heat and power the home to an adequate level. Low income and poor energy efficiency are contributing factors but rising domestic energy prices has been the main driver of fuel poverty in the last 15 years, according to the Institute of Public Policy and Research.
 
It’s only going to get worse. The combined impact of increasingly volatile oil and linked gas prices, global demand from emerging economies like China, technical barriers in supply and climate change policies mean the upward trends are set to continue in future decades.
 
From current statistics we know around 810,000 Scottish households are affected. That’s 36% of total number of households or one in three. So, it’s now on a par with the incidence rate of cancer in Scotland.
 
And the latest research shows that living in a cold home not only causes people money worries but that it has a devastating impact on their physical and mental health.
 
Wrap your head around the statistics and it's clear we have a major economic and social problem on our hands.  
Read the full article on Newsnet Scotland

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According to the STV poll after the last leader’s debate around 50% are not sure who they are going to vote for at the eleventh hour. As I shuffle into the booth to cast my vote I will be joining the undecided. 
 
It is incredible how much information we have access to as voters. But how do we make the choice when we are torn between the calibre of the candidates as individuals and their party policies?
 
All the parties want to promote employment, create jobs and reform public services. Yet with the impact of tax and benefit changes, public sector cuts and budget cuts to social care, community and volunteering sector, it’s hard to see how the party policies will make real improvements to the quality of life of our communities in Scotland.
Voting based on policy is not clear cut unless it’s driven by a single issue; independence, graduate contributions or whether to create a single centralised police force.  The real nuances are in the true currency of the election; personality.
 
One or two of the polls have asked who would make a capable leader. Who would we trust to lead the country under pressure? But most coverage has been staked on favourability.  Ultimately, no matter how much we scrutinise the specifics of party policy we have to make a judgement on how much we trust the candidates. Not how much we like them.
 
In the absence of constructive policy debate the pundits have egged the pudding by squaring one leader against another. Iain Gray helpfully hung by his own rope after the sandwich shop fiasco. He reinforced the critics assertions that he was not strong enough to lead the country.
 
Salmond on the other hand has a thick skin. And there is no question that he has charisma in bags. But as we step into the booth what we have to consider is that there is a subtle difference when it comes to perception. Does he have personality is one question. What kind of personality does he have is another.
 
We tend to get dazzled by personality; or to be clear, let’s call it the elusive quality of showmanship. The illusion that personality wins the day in politics played out in the Blair Government. Blair mastered the ear to ear grin and oozed a beguiling brand of public schoolboy ‘charm’. Brown was the brains of the operation. But he was not judged in the media by his track record as Chancellor or grasp of economic policies. He was rejected because he didn’t toss the ball from his nose like a true performer.
 
According to the last poll the SNP is set to win over 60 seats and Labour just over 30. In my constituency of East Edinburgh it’s set to be a close two horse race between Ewan Aitken for Labour and Kenny MacAskill for SNP. Both strong candidates with credible political achievements.
 
Former leader of Edinburgh City Council, Aitken sees himself first as an ordained Church Minister who just happens to be a politician. He has a solid track record in local politics and he has embraced new media as an electioneering tool. I like Aitken. Not only does he admit to being a man of faith and that his faith influences his decisions, he has integrity, he is down to earth, not afraid to stand up for the underdog. And his focus is firmly on local issues.
 
Aitken admitted that Kenny MacAskill’s decision to release Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds has been raised on doorsteps just three times. The former Justice Minister has always been his own man. Despite being a lawyer he was instrumental in the campaign of the 80s against the poll tax and urged the public not to pay their bills. He stood by his decision on Megrahi in the face of ridicule.
Both Aitken and the incumbent MacAskill are heavyweights. So my preference for SNP policy and confidence in their ability to perform in Government does not make this an easy call. It’s arguable that character counts above all else.
 
Take David Cameron. He seems like a nice bloke. He likes to cycle, was educated at Eton and spends quality time with this family. That’s not the personality at work in his politics. It’s a public persona he has cultivated while implementing savage public sector cuts under a guise of ‘the big society’.
 
There is no question Cameron is capable of being Prime Minister. But somehow I don’t trust or respect his character. So as I make the choice on the ballot paper there is only one notable question to settle. Who do I trust to act with integrity?
 
 
 

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A specialist catering company set up by women from a community centre in Dundee has been hailed a success by curry king Charan Gill after just five months of starting up.
 
Curry queens from the Dundee International Women’s Centre (DIWC) have turned their talents for creating Indian cuisine into the Wooden Spoon Catering Company and now count curry king DR Charan Gill MBE among their fans.
 
The Wooden Spoon Catering Company started spicing up Friday nights when a local business was so impressed with the authentic dishes served at the women’s centre they asked them to deliver a bulk order to their office. And now Gill who made his fortune in the restaurant business has championed the unique company which employs up to fifteen women including seven full time staff.
 
After their signature 'Friday Night Curry Night' started in November they were inundated with orders and now deliver curry meal deals direct to over ninety workplaces every week. Their mouth watering curries are handmade using recipes and traditional cooking techniques donated by women who attend the DIWC.
 
The purpose built DIWC, the parent company of Wooden Spoon Catering, is a cultural melting pot where staff speak at least nine languages and with over 500 registered members.  The curries are made by women from all over the world and named after the woman who made it so every curry has a unique story which is printed on the packaging.
 
Charan Gill praised the company in front of 200 guests at their sold-out launch event ‘Jam, Jute and Jalfrezie’ at the Bonar Hall on Thursday 21 April when the company paid tribute to historical jam and jute industries to mark the launch of their new booking and payment website.
 
Gill said, “It’s a fantastic and novel idea. They have expertise, enthusiasm and their success shows that there is a demand for what they are doing. I am excited to be involved and to see their hard work pay off.”
 
Centre Manager Angie Foreman said the women were keen to mark the launch with a celebration of their heritage. “Many of the Asian immigrants worked in the Jute industry when they first came here. The industry may not be alive but Dundee is still a global city. When The Dundee International Women’s Centre opened its doors 42 years ago to bring together women from all cultural backgrounds it started with cooking classes and now the women are earning a living from their cooking skills.”
 
“The company has just taken off! I always had an idea we would do something special with the talents of the women. They have a great sense of achievement. Cooking is something they have always done at home and they didn’t see it as anything special. But now the women and their families recognize that what they do is amazing.”
 
 

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With a swish of golden hair and long limbs lamping under a cornucopia of elegantly coloured clothes, Joy Dunlop beams across the cafe. She is at least 6ft one.

Despite hurrying into the café clearly flustered at being late and the nightmare of finding a parking space in the centre of Edinburgh she exudes luminosity.

As a singer Dunlop has become synonymous with Gaelic. In 2010 she picked up one of two gold medals at the prestigious Mod, awarded for solo singing in Gaelic. It’s such an honor that it has not sunk in yet, she beams. What she does recall is that she was invited to have tea with Prince Charles after he presented the medal to her at a ceremony in Thurso.

“I had to turn him down and take off to a building nearby where I was singing with a couple of choirs. I quickly hoisted up my kilt and ran off, it was really embarrassing!”

Read the full article on Newsnet.  
 

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I have set up a survey to find out more about what would make PR work better for my clients. If you are thinking of hiring external support for your PR and communications, why not think about using a freelancer? We offer competitive fees compared with agency rates and you can be sure to get a more personal, quality service.
 
Tell me what your experience of PR has been and what you want from an agency or consultant by filling in my very short survey at survey monkey. You could win a bottle of Champagne! Winner to be announced end of January 2011.

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No matter what sector you work in, it's a critical time to make sure you stand out from the competition. As the first guest blogger for the Social Enterprise Academy I wanted to send an encouraging message.
 
If you don't have the budget to hire a PR agency or independent professional, there has never been a better time to learn to get creative about how you help promote your organisation. In the spring of 2011 I will be launching a series of free PR guides, essential tools to help you master the basics of PR including how to develop a story, write a press release and more. Meanwhile, read my guest blog post on the Social Enterprise Academy website.

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One fifth of organisations avoid redundancies by introducing flexible working and two thirds said it helped to cut costs, according to IRS research. So why do so few employers offer it?

With an aging population and more people juggling work with caring responsibilities for a child or relative we need to look beyond the desk bound nine to five culture. From April fathers will have extended paternity leave. Last week the government announced they plan to extend the right to ask for flexible work to all employees. Asking for it and getting it are two very different scenarios.

A new Edinburgh based company, the first flexible working hub in Scotland, has set up to help candidates find flexible work - and to work directly with employers to help them overcome the practical challenges of managing flexible working.

Working for Parents is a social enterprise set up by single mum Annabel Latto, a former business brand manager who couldn’t take up a recent executive job offer because the company were inflexible about the working options.

The company is a one stop shop; an online jobs board with flexible working opportunities for parents and carers and for employers the company offers HR toolkits and consultancy to equip them to better manage flexible working. Profits from the job ads will be reinvested to provide support services to candidates including a CV clinic, careers coaching, skills development and childcare information and resources.

Find out more about this innovative enterprise at www.workingforparents.co.uk

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Eilidh Berwick can't dress herself without help from her parents yet doctors tell the young ME sufferer that her severe physical symptoms are caused by negative thoughts.
 
Read my story about the brave teenager in the Daily Record along with a sharp editorial comment on the issue of how young people with ME are treated on the paper's website here

Her mum, Carol, thought Eilidh had been to hell and back after she was put through gruelling physiotherapy and treated by doctors who don’t believe she is genuinely ill. Then they tried to put her in a psychiatric unit.
As if Eilidh and her family don't have enough of a struggle on their hands coping with the debilitating illness, they have been subjected to ignorance and a lack of compassion at every turn. It's time for an overhaul of training for primary health care staff so they can provide the care and support that young people like Eilidh and their families deserve.
 

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Parents of sick children are living in fear of doctors and teachers who threaten to report them to child protection agencies, one of the UK’s biggest ME charities has warned

Many young people with ME and their parents struggle with disbelief from doctors, teachers and social work staff who doubt their condition is genuine. Some professionals even blame the parents for their child’s symptoms and threaten them with social services.

There are 15,000 children with ME in the UK and up to 4000 in Scotland. According to the Alliance of ME charities, numbers appear to be rising. Children who suffer from severe ME cope with complex symptoms, face difficulties in diagnosis and more than half will be bed bound by ME at some stage.

You can find out about parents experiences by reading my story in the Big Issue magazine this week.

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My 13 year old brother is head over heels in love with a hussy who recently dumped him by text. His sympathetic friends told him he should consider himself lucky to be dumped by text. It could have been via twitter. Goodbye romance, hello tweet nothings.   
       
I despair. Amid the explosion of digital and social media, we seem to have forgotten the joys of penning a personal communiqué. Unlike tweet or text, you can always keep a letter - to cherish fondly or bask in glorious smugness for many years to come. Could an entire generation really grow up never knowing the visceral joys of the hand written love letter?
 
Read the full article published in the Leither magazine.

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It would have been easy to ignore the quiet festival of politics amid the loud hubbub of the Fringe. I am glad I didn’t.

Listening to the hopes and dreams of young carers was by far the most inspiring event at the Parliament. Three youngsters talked about what it was like to care for someone in their family. The audience was clearly amazed by what young carers deal with every day. I was completely humbled by these young people; their sense of pride and total commitment to helping their families.

It was soon time for the wake up call. According to latest figures we know there are at least 100,000 young carers in Scotland. That is one in every ten. And they save the public purse 7.6 billion a year. But research shows only 3% currently get any support. According to the latest figures from The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, over 90% said they got no support from their schools or GPs. It’s a shocking indictment.

And with the threat of cuts to services looming, it’s absolutely critical that local authorities sit up and take notice; support is vital to these youngsters. Cuts would have a devastating impact on young carers and the families who depend on them. Improving the care of the family members would have a positive impact on their lives and alleviate their responsibilities. But with services pushed to the brink amid fierce budget cuts and many families living with undiagnosed conditions, the best hope for the families is to give young carers regular breaks, one to one support and a chance to come together and forget about their responsibilities.

Let’s hope the recent Young Carers strategy doesn’t turn out to be a pointless list of targets. Get in touch with Princess Royal Trust for Carers to find out more about young carers.

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Unlike my 13 year old brother, I am looking forward to the start of the new school term. I will carry on doing paired reading with an S3 pupil from a high school, as part of a group of business volunteers who give time and encouragement to young people in North Edinburgh.

My mentee goes to a school that is working hard to help pupils aspire to the future they deserve, in one of the poorest areas of the city where many of the parents don't work. So far, paired reading has proved to be one of the hardest things – and one of the best – that I have ever done with an hour of my week.

As term starts, the news that Scots pupils have passed a record number of highers has been welcomed. But it's overshadowed by the unemployment figures out this week that show rising numbers of young people joining the dole queue. In some areas it has more than doubled.

So it's a good time to ask, what can we do to motivate young people into work and how can schools get the message across about the benefits of a job?

Curriculum reform opens doors to the possibilities. And the business community are well placed to step in here to show the value of problem solving, working with others and what it means to make the most of opportunities. We can’t teach a young person how to be enterprising but we can nurture and encourage curiosity about different jobs and the value of independence. No teenager will argue that it's a good thing to have money in your pocket.

Other volunteers in the North Edinburgh business group are from catering, financial services, fitness and leisure and a range of backgrounds. We get involved in mentoring, shadowing, or leading a workshop in job preparation skills.

The North Edinburgh group was the first in the city set up and delivered by the charity Scottish Business in the Community who now have funding from the council to roll the employability skills programme out to every school, including special schools.

Regardless of what you think about businesses getting involved with schools, the feedback is that the experience is extremely valuable for pupils and staff. Teachers say young people respond differently to adults from the ‘real world’ outside the school walls who bother to take time out to talk to them.

Now, SBC are looking for more businesses to set up groups for every school in the city to get more young people switched onto the opportunities and realities of the range of jobs in different sectors.

It's one positive way to open young people up to possibilities out there; a glimpse of what their future might look like. I remember one mock interview I did with a bright fourth year pupil who was extremely enthusiastic about being a hairdresser. I asked her would she like to work for an existing salon, or set up her own business. Her eyes widened and she said, “Do you think I would be able to?”

I volunteer at local schools because it’s fun, rewarding and because young people need to be able to draw on every resource available to them. If you would like to be one of them you can contact Scottish Business in the Community.

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It’s blindingly obvious that we need a new way of doing business. I for one am sick to the back teeth hearing about bankers and bosses bonuses for average performances. Capitalism and the relentless pursuit of profit at the expense of people and the environment is failing us.
 
Social business models on the other hand prove time and again that businesses can succeed and do 'good'. Microcredit is emering from the social business movement as one of the ways we can bring change, from the bottom up. The news that the Grameen bank could be coming to Glasgow is a breath of fresh air.
 
Grameen started with $27 back in 1983 by Nobel Prize winning economist Muhammad Yunus. He took a radical idea and made history with it. The bank gives small loans to people at reasonable cost to help them start or expand businesses and ultimately get them out of the poverty trap.
 
Grameen, meaning 'village', started as a tiny homegrown project. Today it gives loans to over seven million people, across 78,000 villages in Bangladesh. The majority are women, typically the most powerless group in Bangladesh. And the repayment rate is over 96% which is better than many high street banks can report.
 
It could be because no borrower is left to just get on with it. Each is responsible for their loan. But everyone belongs to a group and every member has to approve all loans. They give each other encouragement and practical help. So it creates a community dynamic, a kind of social pressure. People don’t want to let the others in their group down.
 
These microcredit programmes have expanded into Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and the US. But will it work in Glasgow?
 
Pockets of poverty in Glasgow and across Scotland are different. The poverty is not about a lack of resources. It’s welfare state poverty, a kind of poverty of spirit. Handouts take away people’s dignity, initiative and sense of responsibility. But as Yunus points out, the ability to spot opportunities is universal. And Grameen have shown that genuinely innovative thinking can solve seemingly intractable social problems.
 
Microcredit could create the conditions to turn things around as part of a wider effort. To be free of poverty, all aspects of life need to be addressed from better housing to health, support services and schools. Let’s hope we can embrace this truly innovative opportunity and grab it with both hands.

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