Self-Directed Support Scotland (SDSS)
What's Happening!
Protecting Vulnerable Groups Scheme (PVG Scheme) Progress Update Newsletter
Progress update newsletter is available here
Reminder – the consultation on the significant draft secondary legislation required to fully implement the PVG Scheme closes on 2 February 2010.
BBC Children in Need small grants programme launched
BBC Children in Need has announced the launch of a small grants programme based on its experience that significant and valuable work can be achieved with a small annual grant of £10,000 or less for up to three years. For more information about how to apply, visit BBC Children in Need's website.
Localism and the Role of the Third Sector
Policy-makers are increasingly recognising our need for the Third Sector to be better placed in the new localism. This will include influencing the content of Single Outcome Agreements, and being involved in the delivery of SOA objectives. It will also mean being involved with Community Planning. For more information about this SCVO event, click here.
Protecting Vulnerable Groups Scheme 
On 10 November, the Scottish Government announced the fees for checks under the Protecting Vulnerable Groups Scheme and published, in draft, the significant secondary legislation required to implement the Scheme for consultation. Also published for consultation is the draft guidance and a draft Regulatory Impact Assessment. The consultation will run until 2 February 2010.
Information about the fees announcement, consultation and supporting documents are available exclusively on-line at www.scotland.gov.uk/pvglegislation (click on the "Consultation 2009" menu item). Responses can be submitted by email or post, or via an on-line response form.
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Exploring issues facing children and young people living with Long Term Conditions. For more information about this event, visit the Long Term Condition Alliance website.
Independent living:A disabled man and his personal assistants
Stefano Goodman uses a wheelchair and lives independently - with the help of two personal assistants. Such uniquely intimate relationships with strangers take a bit of getting used to. To read the rest of this article, click here.
Hate crime 
Leonard Cheshire Disability included question on disability-related crime after high-profile incidents in which disabled people had been targeted Almost one in 10 disabled people in the UK have been the victim of a hate crime, according to a leading disability charity. For the first time, the 2009 version of an annual survey carried out by Leonard Cheshire Disability asked respondents whether they had faced a crime which they felt was motivated by their disability, with 9% saying they had. "Even without a comparison for previous years, this is a shocking figure," said Eleanor Gore, from Leonard Cheshire, who compiled the review. "It's often hard to know how big a problem disability hate crime is as it tends to be very under-reported, and sometimes police and councils don't recognise it properly." To read the rest of this article, click here.
Councils urged to measure up to personalisation standards
Experts have challenged councils struggling to implement the personalisation agenda to use new national benchmarking standards to accelerate their progress. To read the full Communitycare article, click here.
Your Call 
Your Call, Scotland ’s national freephone telephone counselling service for disabled people, has just been awarded £162,000 in a grant from the Long Term Conditions Alliance Scotland Self Management Fund. Professionally qualified disabled volunteer counsellors staff the service, and they have offered over 800 hours of telephone counselling to 52 disabled people from all over Scotland. The new funding will allow Your Call to expand its opening hours to include some evening work, to recruit more disabled counsellors, and to develop towards long-term sustainability of the service. For more information about Your Call click here.
Alzheimer Scotland Self Directed Support Project 
The Alzheimer Scotland Self-Directed Support Project offers support and assistance to families throughout Ayrshire to find alternatives to entering a care home. Read more about this new project here.
MSPs Join Fight to save AA and DLA
Members of the Scottish Parliament have joined the fight to save attendance allowance and disability living allowance by putting down a motion calling for AA to be protected. Benefits and Work urges readers in
DLA Campaign
A government green paper has revealed plans to stop paying disability benefits and hand the cash over to social services instead. To find out more go to the Benefit and Works website
Support Organisations and Contingency Planning
Some Support Organisations have been asked by the Local Authority to draw up contingency plans in relation to Swine Flu.
Swine Flu
As the Government concedes that the swine flu outbreak cannot be contained, businesses are putting measures in place to ensure that they keep disruption to a minimum in the vent of an outbreak.
To this end, the Government has announced proposals to temporarily double the period of time that staff can self-certify any absences from the current 7 days to 14 days. It is hoped that this will avoid ill employees clogging up GP surgeries while they suffer from flu, and consequently helping to spread the disease. Any temporary measure is likely to last six months.
Source: Law at Work
Independent Living in Scotland (ILiS)
The Independent Living in Scotland website is now up and running,but be aware a new look is planned for the future so keep checking it out. The website is for disabled people and their networks and supporters, but other people such as service professionals can benefit from it too. It has information about Independent Living, what the ILiS project is, and what is changing as a result. There is also information about events and roadshows, links to disabled people and their networks as part of the wider movement, and is a source of practical advice and tools, including guidance and downloadable information.
Click here to go to the new ILiS website.
