News
Sofia and Ivy win Library Service writing competition
The two young winners of 2024's Library Service writing competition were presented with their prizes on Friday 20 December.
The competition was part of Book Week Scotland, which runs every year in public libraries in November, organised by Scottish Book Trust. The theme for 2024 was Hope.
More than 160 entries were received for the competition, which was publicised in all public and school libraries, online and in media.
‘Hope for the World’ by 10 year old Sofia Skvarnyk of Law Primary School, scooped first prize in the 7 to11 years category. Sofia wrote this moving piece about her experience of fleeing the Ukraine when war broke out.
‘All for a pinch of hope’ by 12 year old Ivy Crawford of Dunbar Grammar School, won in the 12 to15 years category – a tale of friendship, values and fighting for a good cause.
Rebecca Roberts of Night Owl Books in East Linton sponsored and judged the competition and presented the winners with their £50 book tokens. She said: “Hope for the World, by Sofia, was incredibly moving and hope-filled, and I was really impressed by the expressiveness and rich vocabulary of the writing. I was impressed by the quality of the writing in All for a pinch of hope, by Ivy. It was well-plotted and paced and highly engaging, with an excellent, hope-filled message about our potential to bring about positive change in the world.”
East Lothian Provost, Councillor John McMillan, said: “The standard of entries for the competition was extremely high so thank you and well done to everyone who submitted an entry – and congratulations to Sofia and Ivy for their fantastic stories, which were obviously straight from the heart and beautifully crafted.”
The girls said they were delighted to have won and both love books and reading.
Child poverty consultation
One in five children in East Lothian currently live in poverty. As a member of the East Lothian Partnership governance group, East Lothian Council is actively investigating their lives and experiences to support children and their families towards a stable and fulfilled future.
The council is focusing on what matters to families, specifically how services collect, measure, use, and share data that is meaningful to families in East Lothian.
Services are struggling to meet the growing needs of those living in poverty. This project will enable services to better meet the needs of children and families by measuring and analysing lived experience data and embedding this into the way services work.
The council recognises that services and strategies work better when listening and responding to the experiences of communities. While large amounts of quantitative data are collected to inform services and strategies, a more balanced, qualitative approach that values both equally is required.
“This is not just about running more efficient and effective services. The Children’s Services Inspection Report and the Child Poverty Action Report require these improvements to how lived experience is embedded. Child poverty cannot be tackled alone. All partners need to come together to address this at both an operational and strategic level,” said Lucy Higginson, Community Planning Officer (Children’s Strategic Partnership).
Data has been identified as a key area for improvement in many strategic and operational discussions. This survey will help establish what data is currently collected, how, when, and why it is collected, and how it can be better used. This is the first step of a wider test of change for managing data.
The survey is estimated to take up to 20 minutes to complete and can be downloaded here.
Shaping our future
When looking to the council's future, the focus remains on delivering essential services to our local communities. However, with projected financial savings required over the next five years amounting to nearly a quarter of our annual running costs, it's clear that we must adapt and innovate to continue deliver these services. Your skills, experience, and insight are critical in helping us navigate these challenges as we implement new ways of working and build a sustainable East Lothian Council for the future.
Earlier this year, elected members agreed three new short-term priorities to reflect the current financial challenges we face:
- Ensure the financial sustainability of the council through the delivery of approved savings and transforming the way we deliver services
- Target resources on statutory services and focus on the highest risks and those most in need
Deliver key infrastructure, economic development and environmentally sustainable projects within available council resources and maximising external funding.
You said, we did: putting your ideas to work
Your ideas are key to the council’s continuous improvement. At the start of 2024 we asked for your ideas, and we had a fantastic response with 761 suggestions submitted. Over 400 suggestions are being considered as part of continuous improvement within services.
Ideas with broader, strategic implications are being progressed as part of the portfolio of transformation projects, with many already underway and continuing into 2025. Significant projects include:
- Developing a strategy and roadmap for our core IT systems
- New systems for housing management and finance
- New council website
- Rolling out Microsoft 365
- Identifying and prioritising opportunities for using technology to support the automation, simplification and improvement of our business processes
- Sponsorship and advertising
- Parking strategy
- Assessing the potential for using council data to support decision-making
- Energy transformation
- Corporate and place-making asset reviews
- New lets and bookings system
You can read more about what we have been doing on the 'Shaping our Future' page on the intranet.
We want to hear from you!
Do you have an idea?
Your continued involvement is essential in ensuring that we not only meet today’s needs but also build a stronger, more resilient council for the years ahead. Following the success of the Shaping Our Future ideas drive we are opening up the suggestion box again. We are looking for fresh, creative, and impactful ideas that can help address the challenges we face and shape the future of East Lothian Council and the communities we serve.
Tell us about your idea on the Shaping Our Future contact form
Email and voicemail consistency
The following guidance has been created for all corporate staff email signatures and voicemail. Providing a consistent voice to our customers across all our services builds trust and reinforces the customer service standards and strategy that the organisation has in place. Please share widely and ensure that you and your colleagues follow this guidance.
Please use calibri font size 11 in either black or ELC corporate blue (in 'signatures' choose 'more colours' and use the following codes: R-0, G-82, B-147 or hex code #005293)
Email signature
- Name (optional - He/him; She/Her; Their)
- Role
- Team
- Service
- Department
- East Lothian Council
- Comhairle Lodainn an Ear (optional)
- Phone: {Enter}
- Email: {Enter}
- Website: www.eastlothian.gov.uk (or optional link to current service initiative/consultation)
Out of office reply
"I am out of the office until {XX, month}. If you have a query or need support in the meantime, please contact {enter alternative contact details}"
Voicemails
"This is {say name}, {state title} at East Lothian Council. I am currently unavailable. Please state your name and contact details and I will return your call as soon as possible."
or
"This is {say name}, {state title} at East Lothian Council. I am out of the office until {XX, month}. If you have a query or need to speak to someone before then, please contact {provide alternative contact details}. Otherwise, please state your name and contact details and I will return your call as soon as possible."
Prevention of sexual harassment - Incident reporting and training
Dedicated services have been introduced for any employee who experiences or observes sexual harassment in the workplace.
Employees can now report incidents directly via the council’s newly introduced telephone helpline on 01620 827200 or by e-mail at shrs@eastlothian.gov.uk . These services are managed by Human Resources between 9am and 4pm Monday to Friday. All employees are assured that concerns raised via these routes will be dealt with sensitively and confidentially. Employees can also raise any concerns related to sexual harassment directly with a manager or their Trade Union Representative.
To ensure shared awareness of the council’s zero tolerance stance and to keep our employees safe, everyone must complete the new Learnpro Module on Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Work as soon as possible.
The module can be found by logging on to learnPro and selecting the Human Resources section.
Managers are responsible for ensuring that all employees undertake this module and any barriers to access should be discussed with Human Resources.
If you have any queries, please speak with your line manager or contact your Human Resources Adviser.
Accessing your myHR account
The HR systems team is aware that some colleagues may be having issues accessing their myHR account. If you are having issues accessing myHR please email them at hrsystemitrent@eastlothian.gov.uk with details of the issues you are experiencing and, if you are able, please include screenshots showing the part of the log in process you are unable to pass.
For security purposes please include the following information in your email:
- Name (include any other previous name):
- Employee number:
- NI number:
- Date of birth:
- Address:
If the team is unable to resolve your query either by email or by telephone, they will be offering a drop-in session on the date listed below.
Monday 27 January between 9am to 4pm at John Muir House
Please go to main reception and ask for the HR Systems Team and a member of the team will be available to try and help you. More days will be arranged if required.
Update on the new council finance system
The project to implement a new council finance system, called Connected Intelligence Anywhere (CiA), has made good progress. A programme of design workshops has been completed and formal outputs agreed with the system supplier. This allows the project to move forward to the next stage of system setup and testing.
I would like to thank everyone involved in these workshops, recognising that this has been a significant commitment while continuing to deliver day-to-day services. A lot of encouraging feedback has emerged from this work, about the potential of the new system to improve the way we capture, report and use financial information throughout the council.
Introducing the new Finance System will impact on staff other than our Finance teams. Change to financial codes is an unavoidable and important strand of this project, as is change to the way goods and services are purchased, and invoices processed. A lot however remains to be done before the new system is operational, which is targeted for summer 2025.
It is vital therefore that we keep all stakeholders up to date with progress and the timing of changes to existing practice. More information about the project is now available on the council’s intranet, which will be updated as the project moves forward.
If you have any queries about the project, please contact the project team: financesysproject@eastlothian.gov.uk
Project Sponsor, Sarah Fortune
Work begins at Bleachingfield Centre: room booking details
Work is being carried out to improve soundproofing within the Bleachingfield Centre’s spaces. The centre benefits from a range of meeting rooms and pods which are used by community groups, council services and partner organisations. In order to provide a better experience for users and increase soundproofing when multiple spaces are occupied at the same time, new acoustic ceiling tiles and doors are being installed. A roller shutter door at reception area is also being replaced with a new partition between public and staff-only spaces.
The interview rooms will be unavailable until end of March to accommodate the works and BookingLive has been updated to reflect this change. Colleagues can choose from a range of other spaces within the centre and in other facilities during this period ahead of the new improved areas reopening in Spring.
Fraud prevention and key amnesty for council homes this January
The council is holding a ‘key amnesty’ throughout January when council tenants breaking the law by subletting their council property have the chance to hand their keys back in order to avoid legal action.
The aim is to reclaim council homes that are being illegally sublet so we can ensure they are given to people on our waiting list who are in desperate need of social housing.
As well as the key amnesty, we are increasing efforts to track down people who are carrying out the illegal practice of subletting their council home and have recently recruited a dedicated Corporate Fraud Officer to investigate.
Usually, housing fraud carries serious penalties, including eviction. January’s key amnesty gives people the opportunity to hand back their keys to their Local Housing Office without facing any further action. Housing fraud is a serious issue as it denies people in genuine need of a home. This is part of a national initiative and all councils and agencies have agreed to share data to tackle this problem.
Any council tenant wanting to hand back the keys to their property with no threat of legal action can simply put the keys in an envelope with the address of the property written on it and drop this into the reception area of their local housing office.
We have also appealed for help from all residents of East Lothian to help us identify incidents of housing fraud and have asked them to contact their local Housing Office or email corporatefraud@eastlothian.gov.uk if they have suspicions about anyone in their neighbourhood. For example they may have seen a tenant moving out, or noticed a property where the occupants seem to change regularly. Maybe they have seen someone collecting rent from subtenants. All reports will be treated in the strictest confidence and can be made anonymously.