Newsflash

Who Cares? Scotland’s Members’ Newsletter

Winter Aid

Who Cares? Scotland has been provided funding to help alleviate the impact of fuel, material and food poverty during winter and as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This support comes in the form of a one-off payment of £150 and is available to Care Experienced people who have left the care system, kinship carers and parents of children looked after at home on a supervision requirement

Our application form opens on Monday mornings at 9.30am and closes when we reach 100 applications. We will only accept one application per household.

This fund will come to an end on Monday 28th March. Evidence Submitted to the Health, Sport and Social Care Committee

Our Policy Development Coordinator Lucy Hughes gave evidence to the Health, Sport and Social Care Committee to aid in its inquiry into the health and wellbeing of children and young people.

Lucy leant on evidence gathered through our advocacy work and our Annual Participation Programme - particularly the themes of Sexual Health (read the report on this theme here) and Mental Health.

The Young Person’s Bus Travel Scheme

Applications are now open for National Entitlement Cards (NEC) and YoungScot NECs to access the Young Person’ Bus Travel Scheme which gives free bus travel to young people under the age of 22.

Scottish Child Payment Update

Back in February 2021, the Scottish Child payment was first introduced. This is a £10 per week payment that is designed to financially support eligible families with children under the age of 6

We welcomed the joint letter sent by The Poverty Alliance to the First Minister and Scottish Government calling for the payment to be doubled.

In November 2021, the First Minister announced that the Scottish Child payment would double to £20 a week starting from April 2022. The payment will include eligible families with children up to the age of 16 by the end of 2022.

The payment increase is a step forward in tackling child poverty in Scotland.

Every month we send out a digital newsletter called Newsflash to our members. However, we know that not all of our members will have an email account or access to the internet. That’s why we are including a roundup of important headlines from the last couple of months and sharing them again, here in SpeakOut, so you don’t miss out!

If you haven’t been receiving NewsFlash but have a working email address, just email membership@ whocaresscotland.org and we’ll update your details.

Who Cares? Scotland Appears on Scotland Tonight

On Tuesday 1st February, our CEO Louise and Board Member Megan appeared in Scotland Tonight on STV speaking about the progress of The Promise in the two years since it was launched, as well as the importance of independent advocacy.

Sexual Health and Relationships of Care Experienced People

The NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are looking to bring together a group of Care Experienced people to help design new guidance and tools for workers and carers.

Everyone wants to be able to find the right support and advice around their relationships and sexual health. You can help make this a better experience for Care Experienced children and young people.

The Policy and Participation team will be hosting regular meetings between May and October to create and design the new guidance and tools for workers and carers to get clued up on having better conversations with children and young people in care about all things sexual health and relationships.

If you want to get involved contact Jo Mcleod, National Development Officer, by emailing jmcleod@whocaresscotland.org or if you’d like to have an informal chat about the opportunity you can call her on 07598 580 316.

Harvard 2022

After a competitive application process, we are excited to announce that this year, with the support of local authorities, we will be sending 4 Who Cares? Scotland members to the Harvard University Summer School. The programme runs from Saturday 18 June to Saturday 6 August 2022 and takes place at the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. This is a fully immersive, seven-week university experience with rigorous academic requirements. Participants will live on campus with other students from around the world, study two university-level courses and take part in campus life.

We’d like to introduce you to our 4 students, who you’ll be hearing more from them once they start their Harvard journey. Carys

Stephanie Lauren

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