Building the future: shaping our social work identity newly qualified social worker conference was held on 31 May 2018 in Edinburgh. Delivered with the University of Edinburgh (in partnership with the Higher Education Heads of Social Work Group), Iriss, Scottish Social Services Council, the Scottish Association of Social Workers, Social Work Scotland and the Scottish Government, it provided an opportunity for newly qualified social workers to come together to connect and reconnect.

In this episode, we hear the moving story of Jo McFarlane, a writer, poet and public speaker. She provides an engaging story of her early life and journey to recovery, peppered with powerful, and often comic, poetry.

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes

Talking Social Work was an event held on 13 September 2018 to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 - to celebrate, reflect on the journey so far and look to the future.

Jane Martin, Chief Social Work Officer at Dundee City Council reflects on her social work journey, the changes she's seen and her views of the future. Jane is a qualified social worker with over 35 years experience, mainly within children's services and community justice, having worked mostly in Fife and Dundee.

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes

Michelle Drumm interviews Professor Jennifer Davidson, Executive Director of Inspiring Children's Futures at the University of Strathclyde, which incorporates the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS).

Jennifer is driven by a commitment to ensuring children's rights have an impact on children's day-to-day lived experiences, and on the reality of international rights improving local children's services throughout the world. Her range of leadership positions in child and youth care, social work and professional education spans Canada, the United States and the UK. She has served on national and international committees related to children's services, and was a founding member of the US National Campaign for the Ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Freshly Squeezed aims to 'squeeze' information and inspiration from key influencers in social services in Scotland.

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes

Michelle Drumm interviews Jackie Irvine, Chief Social Work Officer and Head of Safer and Stronger Communities in the City of Edinburgh Council. Jackie was appointed as the President of Social Work Scotland in May 2018 and her tenure as president comes to an end in May 2019. However, as Past President Jackie will stay on as a key member of the Executive Group at Social Work Scotland.

Jackie’s previous positions were predominantly in children’s services, but not exclusively, as she has been lead for criminal justice, community based health services, and adult hospital-based social work teams.

Freshly Squeezed is an Iriss podcast which aims to 'squeeze' information and inspiration from key influencers in social services in Scotland.

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes

The Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ) annual conference was held on 19 and 20 June 2019 in Stirling, with the theme 'Youth Justice Through the Ages'.

Michelle from Iriss spoke to some of speakers on the first day of the conference. These included Fiona Dyer, Interim Director at CYCJ; Bruce Adamson, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People; the Right Hon. Lady Dorrian, Lord Justice Clerk; Dr Tim Bateman, University of Bedfordshire; Rosie Moore, Independent Care Review and Co-chair of conference; and James Frame, Co-Chair of the conference. 

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes.

Ensemble is a Loretto Care project that supports young people out of homelessness through song writing and music.

On 19 September, Michelle from Iriss travelled to Stirling to speak with Michael Timmons, Community Engagement Lead for the project, and Andrew Sinclair a participant and volunteer. Ensemble received ‘A 'different approach’ award at the Scottish Social Services Awards 2019.

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes.

Improving justice in child contact is a project exploring child contact decisions in families affected by domestic abuse. It is funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020). Child contact is understood to be the systems and court processes which decide whether and how a child sees a parent that they are not living with.

It is a partnership project across Bulgaria, Cyprus, Portugal, Romania and Scotland.

Professor Kay Tisdall from the Childhood and Youth Studies Research Group at the University of Edinburgh, and Dr Marsha Scott, CEO of Women’s Aid kindly gave me their time to talk about the project.

Note: This episode was recorded before the implementation of social distancing requirements due to COVID-19. However, we are aware that those requirements create particular concerns around child contact and domestic abuse and that this content is therefore relevant to COVID-19 responses. Read: Supporting women and children affected by domestic abuse throughout COVID-19.

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes.

Momentum continues to swell in support of the Open COVID Pledge, with the announcement today by Amazon, Facebook, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Microsoft, and Sandia National Laboratories, that they are pledging their patents to the public to freely use in support of solving the COVID-19 pandemic. Following in the footsteps of Intel, Fabricatorz Foundation, and … Read More "Tech Giants Join the CC-Supported Open COVID Pledge"

The post Tech Giants Join the CC-Supported Open COVID Pledge appeared first on Creative Commons.

Thousands of strangers working together, almost entirely online, to effectively solve an urgent, global challenge is remarkable—and it’s happening, right now. Recently, we published a post titled, “Open-Source Medical Hardware: What You Should Know and What You Can Do” examining the collaborative efforts by volunteer groups, universities, and research centers to solve the medical supply … Read More "Just One Giant Lab Co-Founder Leo Blondel on the Power of Community and Open Source During COVID-19"

The post Just One Giant Lab Co-Founder Leo Blondel on the Power of Community and Open Source During COVID-19 appeared first on Creative Commons.

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LUXOR, Egypt (AP) - Seven tourists in Egypt suffered minor injuries when their hot air balloon crash-landed Wednesday in the pharaonic city of Luxor, police said.
Four of those hurt are Scottish and the others are from Belgium, England and New Zealand, said Al-Shafie Mohammed Hassan, the police chief in Luxor.
Two of the tourists were hospitalized with broken bones, Hassan said.

Hot air ballooning, usually at sunrise, is popular with tourists in Luxor, the site of the Valley of the Kings and other ruins from Egypt's pharaohs.

In 2013-15, the Scottish Government funded 16 projects proposed by criminal justice partners across Scotland to develop community services for women who offend. Developments were based on existing service provision and to ensure changes could be sustained locally at the end of the funding. Funding varied in amount and timeframes. Most of the projects were undertaken by local authority criminal justice social work1 (CJSW) departments with partner providers, including public and third sector agencies. The national evaluation examined how the 16 women’s community justice services (WCJSs) were implemented and to what extent they contributed towards positive outcomes for women. A further aim was to build local capacity for self-evaluation in WCJSs. Findings were drawn from two phases of interviews with practitioners and women, secondary documents, and quantitative data for 1,778 women who were in the WCJSs between April and December 2014. This included outcomes data for 406 women.

This evaluation report is based on feedback from people living with dementia and carers who received an Individual Award from the Life Changes Trust. The Individual Awards Pilot Scheme was run in Argyll & Bute and Edinburgh in 2014-15 and aimed to provide a small amount of additional financial empowerment to a number of individuals whose lives have been affected by dementia, to help improve their well-being and quality of life. A secondary aim of the pilot scheme was to find out what people would spend the Award on when given relatively broad choice, and what benefit that might bring in the short and medium terms.

The Better Breaks funding programme is focused on improving the range and availability of short break opportunities for disabled children and young people, particularly those with multiple support needs, including short break opportunities that families can enjoy together, or which allow parents and siblings to have time away from their caring responsibilities. This is the summary report.

Report 68 published by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) in November 2014. This report will help readers to understand the Learning Together methodology.

The core purpose of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR) is to carry out high quality, internationally recognised research in relation to crime and criminal justice.

The Short Breaks Fund helping to make breaks better and brighter for unpaid carers and cared-for people in Scotland. Launched in 2010 for one year, the fund has now been running for five years and has proved to be a lifeline for many carers. During the past five years the Scottish Government, through Shared Cared Scotland has distributed 12,547,409 to 697 projects to deliver innovative, tailor made breaks to groups and individuals.

This End of Project Report describes an innovative Transition to Work Programme for young people with autistic spectrum diagnoses and is the result of a pilot programme developed by Lothian Autistic Society (LAS) and Scottish Outdoor Education Centres (SOEC) and made possible through funding from Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). The pilot had the twin aims of developing employability skills and exploring the therapeutic value of the outdoors. 

Donald Trump Jr. tried to sweet talk Twitter, and NOBODY was having it. Does the guy just want to be mocked by the masses on a continually often basis at this point, or what? 

Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell on Saturday morning, allegedly by suicide. While the media announced that the sex offender and financier had hung himself, the internet is not as convinced. Most people share the sentiment that he was in fact killed by someone with a whole lot of power. Here are the best conspiracy theory memes that play largely on Epstein's connections with the Clinton and Trump administration, the Clinton body count, and the accusations that many more people were involved in the wealthy man's sex trafficking operation. You don't need to drink the conspiracy theory Kool-Aid to find these funny memes entertaining, so make up your minds for yourselves.

Just two dudes completely roasting the hell out of each other in a distinctively non-PC way. The back and forth here is what makes it. Sorta like this facebook thread that answered funny questions black people had about white people, it's good to see online conversations like this that don't spiral out of control.

North Korea released a smiling picture of Kim Jong-Un and were VERY specific about pointing out the fact that the image was untouched. Obviously the first thing the internet did when they got a hold of the image was to touch it up a bit. The results were glorious.

Slick Willy just had to go and crack a dad joke that simultaneously dug on President Trump and kept the pun game strong, didn't he? Naturally, people were highly entertained and vaguely irritated. 

It's been a fun week for political memes. While Donald Trump's friend "Jim" has been the subject of skepticism since as early as 2016, the marvelous mystery has once again been thrust into the spotlight by the Associated Press. Their July 13th piece, "Trump in Paris: The curious case of his friend Jim" was covered by outlets such as HuffPo and the AV Club, and inspired a healthy number of Twitter jokes. We've put together the most noteworthy Jim jokes from the past year, for your convenient viewing pleasure. 

Look, we definitely don't want to hate on any particular candidate or take sides in this presidential election cycle, but Joe Biden has just been so meme-able this election season that we really had to take advantage of the material handed to us. We think that Biden supporters and haters alike will be able to laugh at these.

Poor ol' Joe Biden has been the subject of many memes in this election cycle. Whether you love him or hate him, you have to admit that they've been pretty amusing. This particular meme mocks a campaign avatar where one can insert their image next to text that says "I'm on team Joe!" It's moderately cringey to say the least, but cringey makes for the best meme material.

The internet is reacting to comments made by Donald Trump during a COVID-19-related press briefing held yesterday. Trump claimed that the virus could be treated by bringing "light inside the body" or injecting a disinfectant. Thankfully medical professionals were quick to denounce these claims, and people on the internet have since been creating some excellent memes on the matter. 

This should go without saying, but please don't inject yourself with disinfectant, y'all.

A super-sized edition of PotterCast, our Harry Potter podcast, awaits you for our 210th episode of Potter news, discussion, and fun including an indepth discussion of the brand new sneak preview for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Episode 210 — Jingle This

Find the latest episode and explore PotterCast interviews, discussions and more at PotterCast.com

Visit the-leaky-cauldron.org for the latest and greatest from Harry Potter's Wizard World.

Welcome to volume two of PotterCast! Just when we thought we were out, she pulls us back in. We gave the show a hearty goodbye this summer but then J.K. Rowling decided to write a few books and announce a new series of Harry Potter-related movies, so we are back. Goodbyes are hard, but reunions are awesome! Join John, Frak and Melissa as they navigate another set of Harry Potter news tidbits. In this episode: The upcoming series of films based on "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" as well as news about the new Harry Potter theme park. Also, a lot of cat imitations. Our first "Cuckoo's Calling" episode will be next!

Episode 251 —  J/K!

Find the latest episode and explore PotterCast interviews, discussions and more at PotterCast.com

Visit the-leaky-cauldron.org for the latest and greatest from Harry Potter's Wizard World.

PotterCast presents their complete 2007 interview with author J.K. Rowling following the hysteria of the final Harry Potter book's release.

Episode 265 — Interview with J.K. Rowling

PotterCast is hosted by Melissa Anelli, John Noe, Frank Franco, and Zack Luye.

Find the latest episode and explore PotterCast interviews, discussions and more at PotterCast.com

Visit the-leaky-cauldron.org for the latest and greatest from Harry Potter's Wizarding World.

Pottercast is back for conclumdrum conjuration as they attempt to answer your burning questions from the Wizarding World!

Episode 268 — Conjuring Conclumdrums

Pottercast is hosted by Melissa Anelli, John Noe, Frankie Franco, and Zack Luye.

Find the latest episode and explore Pottercast interviews, discussions and more at Pottercast.com

Visit the-leaky-cauldron.org for the latest and greatest from Harry Potter's Wizarding World.

Welcome to a very special episode of PotterCast!

This week, J.K. Rowling angered and saddened many fans when she came out in support of a woman whose company had not renewed her employment contract because she refused to recognize the legally protected rights of trans people. In coming back from a months-long Twitter hiatus, J.K. Rowling mischaracterized the facts of the case in support of a dangerous and unscientific movement that invalidates the trans experience, and in doing so flies in the face of medical consensus worldwide.

Her comments also confused a lot of fans who are not fully familiar with the issues at stake, or cannot understand how someone whose book series is so vehemently about tolerance can express support for a woman whose views invalidate so many people's existences. That's why in this episode, we are going over it all.

Jackson Bird, longtime friend of the podcast and of Leaky, as well as author, trans activist and educator, and expert Waffler, joins us to explain and process what this means for Harry Potter fans. We discuss:

• What actually happened
• What J.K. Rowling said versus what happened to the woman in question, Maya Forstater
• Why many fans saw this coming
• What to do now that the creator of the series we love so dearly has taken this stance
• How to support trans and non-binary communities
• How we as fans are feeling about all of this
• What to do now, especially since we still love this community

We hope you'll listen and share. Here are some helpful resources, including things we mention in the show:

• Jack's book! SORTED: Growing up, coming out, and finding my place
• A list of information from medical communities around the world validating that trans and non-binary people exist
• GLAAD's transgender media program has great resources, FAQs, ways to take action, and ways to learn
• Transstudent.org has more Information regarding sex and gender
• GONADS, the great series by RadioLab

News articles regarding this incident:

• The Cut
• Vox (on British culture and the "gender critical" movement)
• The Mary Sue

News articles regarding past incidents that have also upset the community:

• The Mary Sue on Johnny Depp and the Crimes of Grindelwald
• Past indicators that J.K. Rowling was following trans-exclusionary ideologies
• The Guardian on J.K. Rowling's writings on Native American cultulre
• "The Harry Potter Series Makes a Mess of Its Commentary on Racism" — The Mary Sue
• "Is Fantastic Beasts 2 Racist? Not Quite" — The Washington Post

PotterCast and Leaky stand with our trans and non-binary friends and colleagues. 

This episode is in the process of being transcribed. For more, see pottercast.com.

Current job opportunities/vacancies at CELCIS as well as jobs with other organisations and agencies working in residential child care.

View full details for Learning and Development Adviser (Early Years) job in Edinburgh on s1jobs.com

Early Years Practitioner: Location: Banff; Salary: £7,541 - £8,192 per year; closing date: 12/09/2016 https://t.co/THFViQaVmi

Social Care Worker (x2) - Crookston Care Home and Day Centre: Location: Tranent; Rate: £11.05 - £12... https://t.co/uK9f06XYCS #mjsjobs

In the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in London, where 79 people died or are presumed dead and many more were injured, serious concerns and questions around flammability of exterior cladding, the lack of fire sprinklers and the notion of “shelter in place,” among other subjects, have been brought to the forefront by the news media and the public at large. Jim Pauley, president and CEO of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), addressed these troubling fire safety issues in the upcoming edition of NFPA Journal, the association’s membership publication, which will be officially released next month.