The Scottish Government Cyber Resilience Unit has released a new Cyber Resilience COVID-19 Bulletin. The bulletin shares important cyber security information. The Cyber Resilience Unit state that there is a “significant rise in COVID-19 related scams” and they aim to update the bulletin regularly.
Keep up to date with the most relevant information from the Scottish Cyber Resilience Unit by clicking here
Think you know neglect?
Think you know neglect?
Highland Child Protection Committee in partnership with ourselves here at CALA was delighted to launch the latest free e-learning module ‘Think you know neglect?’, which, since launch 5 days ago has been accessed by 235 users and counting. Encouraging to see everyone working together to keep children safe as now more than ever, Child Protection is everyone’s responsibility.
Access the module at www.calaelearning.co.uk
Child Protection News Bulletin for Keeping Children Safe
Issue 8 of the Child Protection News Bulletin is published and includes important updates including a COVID-19 Statement from Highland Child Protection Committee, online safety, Health and Wellbeing information and much more. Click here to access under KCS Newsletters.
Foundation Apprenticeship: Children and Young People
We were absolutely delighted to welcome new Children and Young People Foundation Apprentices this morning albeit an online virtual session first session. Candidates have got off to a great start with some tasks set for next week to help consolidate learning from today and sessions set from now until the summer holidays.
If you would like to know more about our Foundation Apprenticeship: Social Services – Children and Young People course click here
Volunteer Scotland week
It is #VolunteersWeekScot this week and we would like to take the opportunity to thank all our 26 volunteers who work across the CALA services for their outstanding support and all that they do. THANK YOU from all at #TeamCALA
Family Information Pages
We have all had many weeks of living through the COVID-19 pandemic as safely and as positively as we can. With restrictions beginning to lift we still find ourselves faced with a lot of new information to process and new ways of living to adapt to.
To make this easier for you in some small way we continue to collate the information we hope you will find most useful in the one place, to help you and your family navigate through these unprecedented times.
You will find a wealth of information on looking after you and your child’s mental health, tips on sleep routines, behaviour and play for children of different ages on parentclub.scot as well as the raft of information on these CALA pages.
We were delighted to receive a grant for £1000 form North Highland Initiatives Community Support Programme to provide Playful Project Packs.
Click here to read more about the project in the media article in the John O’Groats Journal and Caithness Courier
With many children and young people spending more time online, it’s comforting for parents/carers to know that you’re doing everything you can to help ensure they do so safely. Have a look at these useful guides providing helpful information to help you keep children and young people of all ages safe online:
Internet matters 0 – 5 years,
Internet matters 6 – 10 years,
Internet matters 11 – 13 years and 14+
Parent guide
Click here to access the resources on our ‘Child Protection Useful Publications’ page under ONLINE SAFETY
COVID-19 – Statement from Highland Child Protection Committee
Due to COVID-19, ‘Opening Doors’ will be taking a break and will return as soon as possible
Need help or advice meantime visit https://www.careandlearningalliance.co.uk/covid-19/
The Care Inspectorate has issued the following information:
“The Care Inspectorate understands that as a result of the current situation regarding Covid-19 that a number of registered care services will not be operational during this period. In normal circumstances, we ask services to submit a notification indicating where the service is ‘inactive’ for any length of time in certain circumstances and we note this formally on our systems.
To reduce further pressure on services and to give maximum flexibility to re-establish registered services as easily as possible, the position is that any registered service not operating directly as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic is not required to submit an application to become inactive during this period”.
The Scottish Social Services Council – ‘Workforce support and wellbeing during COVID-19’
A resource to support the health and wellbeing of staff during the challenging times of COVID-19.
Click here to access the resource
The Scottish Social Services Council – Guidance for employers on core training for redeployed workers, temporary workers and volunteers
SSSC state:
“With the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic across the country, it will be necessary for health and social care staff to be deployed to work in frontline care services they may be unfamiliar with. Temporary workers and volunteers are also being recruited to support services”.
In partnership with NHS Education for Scotland, SSSC has provided this national guidance to support employers with training for redeployed workers, temporary workers and volunteers.
Click here to access the guidance
Disclosure Scotland fee suspension
Disclosure Scotland is suspending all fees for key workers and volunteers who are being drafted to help Scotland fight against COVID-19. This is a temporary measure which will be in place for an initial period of six weeks, before being reviewed and extended further, if needed.
Click here to access information
UK Government Guidance for Employers
Information on claiming back Statutory Sick Pay paid to employees due to coronavirus (COVID-19)
The Scottish Social Services Council has shared the following information in their recent newsletter
The UK and Scottish coronavirus legislation include some important changes for social service regulation so we can support the workforce to keep on delivering high-quality services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To help focus resources on supporting the social service sector during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic we’re making changes to fitness to practise. We’re making changes in the following areas:
Guidance for employers on core training for redeployed workers, temporary workers and volunteers
With the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic across the country, it will be necessary for health and social care staff to be deployed to work in frontline care services they may be unfamiliar with. Temporary workers and volunteers are also being recruited to support services.
Read the latest information for social service workers and employers and what we are doing to help in our role as a regulator.
(last update 17 March 2020).
Well it has been a different but very busy week for us here at CALA as like everybody we have adjusted to the ‘new norm’ for the moment. We are linking closely with colleagues locally and nationally and keeping a focus on our vision and values for: positive childhoods, empowered parents and dynamic communities at the heart of all that we do.
We are working hard to try to meet needs as best we can. Through consultation with our members, staff and parents attending our ELC groups you have told us that you feel a ‘one-stop’ shop to go to that collates lots of the vital information and useful ideas for families would be beneficial so we have added a new dedicated section to our website. This is work in progress, so we’ll continue to develop it over the coming weeks.
Our new dedicated Family Information and Support pages will provide you with:
Over the coming weeks some of the things we will be adding will be:
Check out the new Family Information and Support page at https://www.careandlearningalliance.co.uk/family-information-support/
We hope you will find this useful, meanwhile be kind to yourselves and remember your children are learning all of the time and despite these challenging times, there are lots of examples of people talking to each other more, listening more, being more thoughtful and kind – all good role modelling and experiences which support our children’s all-round development.
Best wishes
Team CALA
Scottish Government issued guidance which sets out the implications for childminding services.
The Third Sector Resilience Fund is now open for applications.
You can find details of the fund here and start the process of applying by using the online eligibility checker.
The Fund will provide grants of between £5,000-£100,000 and 0% interest loans starting at £50,000 to charities, community groups, social enterprises and voluntary organisations working in Scotland that find themselves in financial difficulties directly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Other financial information and support links you may find useful.
Highland Community COVID-19 Response
HTSI has launched a new website to deal with Third Sector issues related to COVID-19 in Highland. HTSI state:
“The Highland Third Sector Interface are working closely with our partners in the Third and Public Sectors and in the community to support the wide range of community support developing in response to the outbreak of COVID-19. This website is intended to provide information which will assist individuals and community groups undertaking work to support people experiencing the impacts of the outbreak and to mitigate the most harmful of those”
The protection of children is still a KEY priority and RESPONSIBILITY of everyone through the changing landscape of services necessary to address the COVID-19 spread.
As always, if you are concerned about a child or young person it is important to speak to a professional as soon as possible using the following:
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