JTOL #40 - Common Good Fund awards, Dundee City education and training boost, localism in focus, and sustainability projects at Dundee Uni & the Rowett Institute
Perth & Kinross council issues latest Common Good Fund grants, Dundee City council welcomes improved skills development figures, while localism and sustainability garner political interest.
Good vibes
Latest Common Good Fund recipients announced
My last dispatch highlighted the success of this year's Perth & Kinross Mela, and reported on the gratitude of councillor Andy Chan to stakeholders including the Common Good Fund for providing financial backing to the event.
Well, with almost perfect timing, the latest recipients of awards from the very same funding stream have been announced by Perth & Kinross Council, including the Perth Minorities Association, which was so pivotal in delivering the successful Mela festival.
The organisation has been granted £6,848 from the Perth Common Good Fund, to support its "Safe Space Initiative, which aims to establish a nurturing environment for ethnic minorities and vulnerable individuals/families, fostering mental well-being, social inclusiveness, and community support".
Among the other sums dished out are a £2,000 grant to the Perth Indian Association "to contribute towards their annual Diwali celebrations which take place in November 2024", and £10,000 to St John's Kirk to aid the repair of its church spire.
Meanwhile, the Friends of Letham Primary Parent Council are to receive £2,355, which will be put towards "costs at the school's 60th Anniversary celebration in September 2024", and a £6,320 award has been made to Perform in Perth "to help the organisation to run the Perform in Perth Festival in March 2025".
A total of twelve awards have been made via the Perth fund, while the Kinross edition has issued a £1,000 grant to Kinross Youth Pipes and Drums, and the Pitlochry arm of the fund has given £400 for works to improve accessibility to the town's Serenity Garden, first established in 2020.
Upskilling and education boost for Dundee City
There has also been positive news in the City of Discovery, as Skills Development Scotland's (SDS) tenth Annual Participation Measure (APM) study shows that Dundee City has achieved the greatest increase nationwide in the volume of local 16–19-year-olds in education, employment or training over the last year.
The result has been welcomed by the city council, which had implemented measures outlined in its report titled ‘A Step Change on Positive Destinations for Young Dundonians’, which included the appointment of a senior leader within each secondary school in the area to "lead a multi-agency group and be responsible for ensuring that all 16-19 year-olds in the school’s community achieve a positive destination".
© Skills Development Scotland
Convener of fair work, economic growth and infrastructure at the council, Steven Rome, said:
“This increase over the last year in Dundee is to be welcomed. “Our young people deserve as much support as possible and I am impressed by how partners are coming together to improve prospects for them.
We are all determined to take forward the wide range of actions which will identify the individual needs of young people and provide them with strong guidance.
“It is vital for the future of these young people, and the city itself, that we help many more of them into positive destinations after they leave school and enhance their employability skills.”
© Skills Development Scotland
Although there has been a noted improvement in Dundee for participation in employment or training as highlighted in the SDS study, the overall picture suggests that neighbouring Perth & Kinross - which logged neither an uptick or fall - and Angus - which saw a 0.6 per cent boost - are still slightly ahead.
© Skills Development Scotland
Thus, there is work still to do for each of the local authorities, but at least there has been no marked instances of disengagement in the SDS figures.
Freezing cold takes
Last Friday, your correspondent was in attendance at Holyrood for a debate on "The Scottish Parliament at 25", reflecting on the quarter century of the devolution in Scotland, as part of the Festival of Politics 2024.
The debate was engaging and thought-provoking, and a number of themes emerged from the discourse during the ninety minute event.
One point of reference in particular was the consideration of how devolution had allowed Scotland to embrace more focused policy strategies, relevant to the needs of the people here, and within that, how much further decision-making powers could be transferred to local authorities - in other words, localism.
What a coincidence then, that not one, but two, Scottish-based think-tanks have published observations on the subject of localism in recent weeks.
For its part, Reform Scotland has assessed that "successive Holyrood governments have failed to create the conditions for sustainable local government, and that political discourse has been dominated by “perpetual talk without action”, citing the Christie commission's emphasis of the necessity for "early intervention and preventative spending programmes".
Indeed, the Christie commission, a wide-ranging and detailed report from 2011, written by Dr Campbell Christie, on how best to approach future delivery of public services, was also referenced as part of the discussion in the chamber a week ago, with varying interpretations of how much it had been adhered to in the intervening years between then and now.
What it intriguing is that Reform Scotland notes that, in its view, "prevention programmes are often delivered by the third sector in collaboration with local authorities", adding that "all too often these programmes are first in the line for cuts".
Reform Scotland director, Chris Deerin, said:
“During the 25 years of devolution, we have focused on the transfer of powers between Westminster and Holyrood, but we have taken our eye off the ball when it comes to the power of local authorities.
“Unfortunately, in that time we have seen Scotland become further centralised. This approach must end. Scotland is too diverse to presume that the solutions which can work for Edinburgh can work for Elgin, or those that work for Glasgow can work for Gairloch.
“We need to shift away from a drip-drip approach of devolving small, occasional powers, which simply encourages councils to come cap in hand to the Scottish Government, and towards empowerment and recognising that local communities are best placed to meet local needs.
“We have seen years of broad agreement that a one-size-fits-all approach cannot work, yet this has amounted to little more than perpetual talk, without action. Now is the time for action.”
Meanwhile, the Jimmy Reid Foundation (JRF) has had its say on the matter, publicising a paper titled "Building the Local Economy", and purporting that "governments and councils focus too narrowly on retail operations when developing policies for the local economy".
Fleshing out its pitch further, the JRF explains that an effective local economy "requires investment in the social infrastructure that binds communities together, with decent housing, health, education, transport and a cleaner, safer environment".
Crucially, the left-wing think-tank echoes the message that devolution has been "stopped at Holyrood, and local services have been centralised", an observation which seems to be widely acknowledged across the political spectrum, but seldomly are concrete solutions delivered to address this.
Of course, the facilitation of greater localism, against the backdrop of ongoing friction in public sector pay settlements does not necessarily dovetail well. Yet the slow but steady progress in pay negotiations, with the GMB trade union now announcing its acceptance of the latest settlement offer from COSLA for example, is perhaps a more urgent priority for the moment.
However, even the GMB has sounded a cautionary tone in its affirmation of the pay offer, with Keir Greenaway, GMB Scotland senior organiser in public services, saying:
“Council leaders’ lack of urgency and stubborn refusal to ask the Scottish Government for support meant negotiations and uncertainty went on far longer than necessary.
“It should not take imminent strike action to deliver a fair offer but, while it came too late, the deal was above inflation for all staff and weighted to benefit frontline workers most.
“That was what the unions asked for and, given that, it is not surprising our members accepted it.”
Mr Greenway added:
“Ministers implying a fair pay offer for our members means cuts to spending are only diverting attention from the real cause of the crisis in our public services.
“We have endured more than a decade of cuts not because of staff being paid fairly but because our governments, at Westminster and Holyrood, have failed to properly fund the public sector.
“Government is about choices but, when our public services are struggling to recruit and retain skilled staff, paying council staff fairly is not part of the problem but part of the solution.”
A spotlight on…climate conscious innovation
With economic growth and construction featuring prominently in the respective strategies at Westminster and Holyrood, while remaining mindful of the potential environmental impacts, a new piece of research by the University of Dundee appears to capture the zeitgeist.
Experts from the institution, led by the Mineral Products Association (MPA) and bolstered by funding from Innovate UK, demonstrated that waste clay and brick in concrete production could significantly cut carbon emissions in the U.K. construction industry. The project identified that utilising waste clay and brick in the cement manufacturing process could reduce the material’s embodied carbon by as much as 30 per cent.
In addition, the study estimates that calcined clays from such sources have the potential to redirect 1.4 million tonnes of material from potential waste streams if the materials were adopted by the UK construction industry.
Addressing the findings, Dr Moray Newlands, reader in civil engineering and associate dean for industrial engagement in the university's School of Science and Engineering, explained:
“Supporting the UK construction industry to build on the steps it is taking to become more sustainable and help achieve the Government’s legally binding net zero targets is a key priority.
“Calcined clay is a material that has the potential to make a significant contribution to cutting emissions.
“Our work showed that this material is a viable alternative cement which can be used to supplement Portland cement and provide long-lasting, durable low carbon concrete for many applications including bridges, coastal structures and offshore renewable infrastructure.
“The outputs from this project will also help to develop a stable supply chain for calcined clay within the UK, ensuring the construction industry can have confidence in specifying this material.”
Dr Diana Casey, executive director, energy and climate change at the MPA said:
“Using brick waste and reclaimed clays will not only lower carbon and reduce waste but has the potential to create a whole new market if these clays become widely used in the construction industry, helping to retain economic value in the UK, secure jobs and attract investment.”
Elsewhere on the east coast, academics at the University of Aberdeen's Rowett Institute have been showcasing initiatives to make elements of Scotland's food and drink sector more applicable to net zero ambitions.
Scottish Government deputy first minister, Kate Forbes, visited the food innovation hub on Monday of this week to see the outcomes of projects including examining how hemp can be deployed as an "affordable nutritious food with the potential to help Scotland meet its health, climate and nature targets", and how they have been "working with partners, growers, breweries and other stakeholders to develop new technologies based on AI that can support the agri-food sector achieve net zero", such as strawberries.
University of Aberdeen principal and vice-chancellor, George Boyne, alongside deputy first minister, Kate Forbes © University of Aberdeen
A 2020 report by the estate agency, Savills, examined the long history and various elements of hemp cultivation in the U.K., and the current regulatory context around the material.
Data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) - otherwise better knows as the organisation which runs the Tradle trivia games - notes that in 2018, hemp was the world's 725th most traded product, out of 764, with the Netherlands the top exporter, at USD ($) 6.89m, followed by Romania USD 3.1m, Croatia USD 2.72m, Switzerland USD 1.11m, and the United States USD 1.07m.
Ms Forbes said:
“Driving innovation is key to helping unlock each of the Scottish Government’s priorities of eradicating child poverty, boosting economic growth, achieving net zero and improving public services.
“Our universities play a vital role in fostering and nurturing the ideas and enterprise at the heart of a thriving economy, and I was delighted to visit the University of Aberdeen to see first-hand the research projects and discuss the important work being undertaken to drive real economic, social and environmental impact across the north east and beyond.”
Principal and vice-chancellor at the University of Aberdeen, George Boyne, said:
“We were delighted to welcome the Deputy First Minister onto campus and share just some of the wide-ranging and innovative research that’s tackling the big challenges of our time.”
Will food innovation centred around climate solutions soon be on the docket for legislation in the devolved administration? We shall have to wait and see.
Worth listening to this weekend:
Becoming the Bull [reimagined] [single] (Atreyu - Spinefarm)
Second City [single] (The Menzingers - Red Scare)
Indestructible [single] (Andy C & Becky Hill - Polydor/Eko Records)
Mea Culpa (Ah! Ca ira!) [single] (Gojira, Marina Viotti, Victor le Masne - BMG)
Strange Fruit (arr. Kanneh-Mason & Gillam for Cello & Saxophone) [single] (Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Jess Gillam - Universal Music)
All in My Head / No Fun [single] (Blink-182 - Viking Wizard Eyes)
Worth watching this weekend:
Kaos (Netflix)
Terminator Zero (Netflix)
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power [series two] (Amazon Prime)
Worth reading this weekend:
Francis Ford Coppola: ‘I Have Nothing Left to Lose’ (David Fear - Rolling Stone)
Robert Sheehan: ‘My anxiety had got to the point where if I was left alone I was a twitching mess’ (Simran Hans - The Guardian)
At Liverpool, Federico Chiesa has another chance to live up to the hype (Nicky Bandini - The Guardian)
Tom Brady on the Art of Leading Teammates (Nitin Nohria - Harvard Business Review)
Stone Island: How a luxury label became a must-have footballing fashion item (Omar Garrick - The Athletic)
Mike.