☃️Welcome to the December Network Newsletter!🎄

🧑‍🎄⛄​​​​​​​Welcome to the the December edition of the newsletter and the last one of 2024!  I hope you all manage to get some rest and relaxation over the festive period and look forward to seeing you all in 2025! 🎄❄️

The Scottish Community Link Worker Network is the national network, developed and facilitated by Voluntary Health Scotland for primary care community link working in Scotland.

Please visit our webpage for the latest blogs, reports and information about the Network. You can follow us on Twitter @ScotCLWnetwork and don't forget to share your news and updates with us. 

Events, Workshops and Training

Scottish CLW Network Events

Don't forget that you can find details, presentations and key messages from all of our events on our events page.

Save the Date - Knowledge Exchange - 29 January 2025
Our 9th Knowledge Exchange will take place on Zoom from 10-12 noon will feature speakers from Breast Cancer Now, Making Music and Palliative Care Scotland. Find out more information and book your place here.  Following on from our last knowledge exchange event, Paths for All have shared some more information for CLWs:

• Find out more about Health Walks in your local area here.
• Find out more about the Scottish Health Walk Network here.
• Explore their Walking for Health good news stories here.
• Keeping Active at home ideas here.
• Walk with their mindfulness podcast here.
• Find out more about Workplace walking here.

Peer Support Event - 20 February 2025 - share your ideas!
Our next CLW peer support event will take place in February. Please do let us know if there are specific topics you would like to focus on during the session. In the past we have covered trauma and self-care, challenges, training and good conversations.

Scottish Community Link Worker Network Annual Conference and Awards - 7 May 2025
Our 2025 Annual Conference will take place on Wednesday 7 May at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow. We will be introducing awards in the lead up to next year's conference and will provide more details in early 2025 about booking your place at the conference as well as the award categories and the nomination process. Save the date for now!

Other Events, Training and Resources

Social Security Scotland’s Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance events - 14 and 22 January 2025
Social Security Scotland is running free online stakeholder information events where it will share details on the Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance. 
From early 2025, adults in Scotland in receipt of Disability Living Allowance will see their award transfer to Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance.  The purpose of this event is to share information with stakeholders to enable them to better support clients. Find out more 

Age Scotland - Supporting Older People to Age Well workshops
Age Scotland is also running a 'Supporting Older People to Age Well' workshop across early 2025 that can help groups and services volunteers and paid staff. These workshops will be closely linked to the Take Five to Age Well pledge campaign, supporting you to do this with your group members or service users. These workshops will be held on the following dates and locations:   

• 22 January 2025, Edinburgh  
• 5 February 2025, Perth  
• 19 February 2025, Aberdeen 
• 26 February 2025, Glasgow  

Book your place at one of the free workshops here.  You can also find more information and resources, including a 'Take Five Intergenerational Toolkit', on the Open University’s website here. 

Join VHS at The Gathering - 4 & 5 February 2025
The Gathering is back at the EICC in Edinburgh in 2025! The Gathering, which is organised by SCVO, is the largest free voluntary sector event in the UK. It's an opportunity for all the amazing people working in and with the voluntary sector to network, showcase what they do and learn from each other.  VHS will be exhibiting and also hosting an event on 5 February entitled 'Catalysts for Change - The Role of Third Sector Leaders in Health Creation'. You can book your place here.

NHS 24 Public Health Campaign
NHS 24 Public Health Campaign for winter 2024/5,' Powered by People,' is now live.  Highlighting the convenience and benefits of using digital services which are delivered by experts, the campaign promotes theses services as a great first port of call if people are unwell and are not sure where to get help.

Social Prescribing courses on TURAS
Don't forget we have a dedicated courses page for social prescribers on the TURAS website which you can access here. You just need to set up a TURAS account which is very easy to do.  If there are courses you would like to see on the page, please contact Roisin .

Tackling Poverty Locally Directory 
Managed by the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit (SPIRU) at Glasgow Caledonian University, the Tackling Poverty Locally Directory provides a searchable database of local anti-poverty initiatives from communities across Scotland and beyond. Content is peer-reviewed and designed to inform policymakers, service users and practitioners.  

Highlights from across the Network

Rachel benefits from some rest and relaxation thanks to Turadh
You might remember that earlier in the summer, we asked CLWs to contact us if they were interested in being entered into a draw to have some time away for rest and relaxation in the Highlands, courtesy of Turadh.  Rachel Bower from Perth and Kinross was one of the lucky recipients and recently spent a few days at Taigh Whin which is one of their properties.  Rachel took the beautiful photo (above) during her stay and has taken some time to write about her time there which you can read below.  We hope to be able to offer more opportunities for CLWs to benefit from the Turadh experience in the future. Thanks to Rachel for sharing her reflections.

‘The pace of life and the demands of work, especially work that is primarily centred around the needs of the (often) vulnerable, distressed and lonely does affect me. I get anxiety and episodes of depression, migraines, all the aches and pains of office work. I find it difficult to switch off and would struggle to identify what I would want  to do when I do have time to myself.

VHS opened a door that I would never have tried to open on my own, but it was still a surprisingly anxious leap to make; that someone else would deserve it more, that I wouldn’t manage on my own, that I should share it with someone else.

For the first time in decades, I had the time to just be in a space without expectation or demand. I did jigsaws and sewed, painted, and walked along the beach. Nothing special and yet everything important. I left feeling like a different person - recharged, rested, clear-sighted, better able to work and better able to stop.

World Aids Day Parliamentary Reception
SCLWN and VHS were delighted to exhibit at the Parliamentary Reception with leading HIV charities to commemorate World Aids Day 2024. Terrence Higgins Trust, Waverley Care and National Aids Trust brought together MSPs in the Scottish Parliament to remember those lost to HIV and to look towards a future that is free of HIV stigma.

The Alliance's CLWs on STV News
The Health and Social Care Alliance's community link workers were featured in a recent report on STV News which highlighted their impact in their local communities and GP practices. You can watch the report on their Youtube channel.

Inverclyde CLW team support local foodbank
Brenda, one of the CLWs based in Inverclyde, has been busy along with other volunteers helping her local foodbank with their donations in the run up to Christmas. 

Other News

Neil Gray announces general practice investment at BMA conference
Speaking at the annual conference of BMA Scotland’s Local Medical Committees at the end of November, Neil Gray announced that an additional £13.6m will be invested in general practice during this financial year to support GPs to retain and recruit key staff.

Scottish Government will provide universal Pension Age Heating Payments from winter 2025-26
The Scottish Government has announced it will provide universal support through the introduction of Pension Age Winter Heating Payments next year, ensuring a payment for every pensioner household in winter 2025-26. 

Insights into social prescribing link worker roles in primary care
A new report by Associate Professor Stephanie Tierney and Professor Kamal R. Mahtani goes behind the scenes to understand how link worker roles are really working in practice. Read more about their research.

Public Health Scotland and Institute of Health Equity collaboration
Public Health Scotland (PHS) and the Institute of Health Equity (IHE) have announced a new collaboration on Health Equity in Scotland.  The collaboration which will take place over two years is designed to strengthen and accelerate action underway to improve Scotland's health, increase wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. The partnership is designed to support public service reform and will work with local authority and NHS boards across Aberdeen City, North Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire to develop and implement strategies to enhance health equity.

Audit Scotland Report - NHS in Scotland 2024: finance and performance
Audit Scotland has published a new report which looks at The Scottish Government's need for a delivery plan that clearly explains to the public how it will reform the NHS and address the pressures on services. Read the report here

'Playing Jenga' with the building blocks of Scotland’s health and wellbeing
In a new article, CHEX's Head of Programme, Sarah Boath, reflects on the challenging funding landscape community organisations are facing, and why we need to start thinking of these vital supports as prudent investments instead of short-term new funding opportunities for community organisations.

Maree Todd highlights action to tackle delayed discharge
Maree Todd has highlighted action to tackle delayed discharge with the expansion of the Hospital at Home initiative and the introduction of frailty units at all Accident and Emergency departments with links to community health.

Public Health Scotland publishes National Mission Review Report on drug deaths
The Scottish Government has published a report on the number of suspected drug deaths in Scotland in 2024 to date. There were 833 suspected drug deaths recorded during the first nine months of 2024. This was 7% (67) fewer than during the same period of 2023. Public Health Scotland has published a report which presents findings from 13 confidential key informant interviews about the Scottish Government's National Mission on Drug Deaths.

John Swinney welcomes launch of the Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use
The Scottish Government has welcomed the launch of the Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use, to ensure people know their rights and the support they can expect to receive, and those who use drugs and alcohol and their families, are treated with dignity.

The National Lottery Community Fund announces two new funds
The National Lottery Community Fund has opened two new funds - the Community Action and Fairer Life Chances funds will support communities to come together, be environmentally stable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives.  

New reports published from The Scottish Human Rights Commission 
The Scottish Human Rights Commission (SRHC) has published its new State of the Nation 2024 report. The report collates findings from across the commission’s work on spotlight projects and international treaty monitoring.
The Commission has also published a report on rural access challenges which finds people in rural parts of Scotland are facing challenges accessing their human rights to health, housing and food.