Chief Executive Monica Patterson

As we approach the closing weeks of 2024, it has been another incredibly busy time across East Lothian Council with lots of activity coming up.

Official openings

We are looking forward to next week’s official opening of the Wallyford Learning Campus, which will be attended by Jenny Gilruth, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills. Since opening its doors in 2023, Wallyford Learning Campus has brought together the new Rosehill High School with further education partnerships, library, community centre and health and social care services. It is a fantastic example of the council’s values – Enabling, Leading and Caring – being put into practice, ensuring that the benefits of development are felt widely in a growing local community.

We were delighted to see the project recognised at the recent Learning Places Scotland Awards in Glasgow where East Lothian were finalists in three categories - inspiring learning spaces and project of the year for the Wallyford Learning Campus while the council was a finalist in the client of the year category. In a very strong field, it was a terrific to learn that we were ‘highly commended’ for project of the year. A huge number of colleagues, from different services, played key roles in bringing this project to fruition, working closely and effectively with partners.

I recently attended the official opening of the Sycamore Sexual Assault Response Coordination Service (SARCS) for adults in NHS Lothian, alongside two Bairns’ Hoose children’s houses offering safe, child-friendly spaces for children and young people following trauma. These became operational in April this year and were developed in partnership with NHS Lothian, Police Scotland, City of Edinburgh Council, Midlothian Council and City of Edinburgh Council. They provide a coordinated response to people who have experienced trauma, offering them access to the care they need in a comfortable and welcoming setting. The launch of this progressive and positive new service is something which East Lothian Council is pleased to have the opportunity to be a part of. I would like to thank everyone involved in bringing forward this project.

16 Days of Activism

Next week marks the start of the annual 16 Days of Activism campaign, which seeks to raise awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue and highlight the importance of taking action to prevent it is underway. White Ribbon Day coincides with the start of 16 days of activism, providing men with the opportunity to make a commitment to ending violence against women and girls.

East Lothian and Midlothian’s Public Protection Committee is leading on 16 days of Activism locally working with its partners East Lothian Council, Midlothian Council, East and Midlothian Health and Social Care Partnerships, Police Scotland, Women’s Aid East and Midlothian, Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, VCEL and Queen Margaret University. The committee have resources on their website and have a full calendar of local and national events.

Transformation and budget development

As you might be aware, Cabinet approved our new five-year Transformation Strategy earlier this year. We have had a number of successes in recent years in adapting and changing services to become increasingly efficient, effective, transparent and accountable. A good example of this is our approach to increased digitisation of services, which helps us operate increasingly efficiently whilst delivering fantastic services. Our new Transformation Strategy and ‘Shaping Our Future’ initiative is key to this going forward and, in the new year, we will be engaging with Audit Scotland on our approach in relation to their Best Value thematic review of transformation. This is a good opportunity to ensure that we maintain a sharp focus on improvement, to deliver the best possible outcomes for local residents.

Our budget-setting meeting for 2025/26 and beyond is due to be held in February which means this is always an important time of the year in supporting elected members with the development of budget proposals. The cross-party budget group continues to meet. This is a good opportunity for officers and elected members from different parties to work together in giving consideration to proposals which enable us to set a balanced budget whilst addressing the significant financial challenges we face as a council and focus on our priorities as set out in the Council Plan.

 I look forward to providing a further update before Christmas. In the meantime, I hope you have a good weekend and enjoy the build up to the festive season.