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With more multi-million pound savings to make again this year, ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ is inviting communities to get involved earlier than usual in the budget-setting process by using a budget simulator to set high level priorities.  Our work to balance next year’s budget has already started, and from Monday 19th June the budget simulator will be available on the council’s website to help with that.  To hear more about it, listen in to Pippa’s conversation with Head of Financial Services, Anne Blue, and Communications Manager, Jane Jarvie.

From film props to the National Basketball Awards, not to mention developing their own innovative materials, hear about a local enterprise’s 40 years of success in creating a sustainable future in rural ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ and how they’ve made it onto the global stage, as Pippa chats with directors Lewis Anderson, Craig Cameron and Graham Ramsay.

Our Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) is about to publish its third annual review of ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ and Bute’s Child Poverty Action Plan, first published in 2019.  Listen here to Pippa in conversation with Mandy Sheridan, Service Improvement Officer for Children and Families, and Fiona Davies, Chief Officer of the HSCP who is also Chair of the Child Poverty Action Group, about work to alleviate child poverty in ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ and Bute.

For information and help on coping with poverty and the cost of living, please see the Council’s Worried about money? webpage.

Now that the clocks have changed, the nights are closing in and the temperatures are dropping, we’re reminded that our roads crews and gritter drivers are on stand-by to keep us safe on the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ and Bute road network this winter. Listen again to Pippa in conversation with Callum Robertson, Assistant Network and Standards Manager, in this podcast first published in Autumn 2021, and you can find lots of helpful information about being prepared for winter on the Council’s Winter Weather Ready webpage.

Once again Pippa has the pleasure of chatting with the Council’s Learning Awards recipients, following the 2022 virtual awards ceremony held on Friday 11th November. This year we hear from award recipients Gary Clark, Chris-Elaine Davie, Alistair Maule and Linda Thompson, along with Human Resources and Organisational Development Manager, Carolyn Cairns.

You can see a who have achieved a professional, academic or vocational qualification this year, supported by the council.

Over a quiet beer in a Melbourne pub in 2003, at a time when the moustache was far from being a fashion trend, two Aussie mates dreamt up the idea of and found 30 guys willing to take up the challenge. Now with over five million supporters worldwide, the movement encourages conversations about men’s health issues, which include prostate cancer, testicular cancer and men’s suicide, and also raises money to support innovative men’s health projects across more than 20 countries. Join Pippa this November in conversation with Evan Beswick (Head of Primary Care at ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership), Craig McNally (¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ and Bute Alcohol and Drug Partnership Coordinator) and Dave Bertin who, although now retired from a long career in health services, continues to undertake work for the Scottish Health Council.

Recently Pippa had the pleasure of visiting the Lochside day support centre in Lochgilphead and recorded this podcast with Senior Support Worker, Shirley Nicolson, and some of the people there enjoying the regular Wednesday coffee morning.

Friday 17th March is Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day 2023 and some of our colleagues from Education Services are taking part in a 24-hour dance-a-thon to raise money for the charity, which supports causes aimed at tackling poverty and bringing about positive and lasting changes for poor and disadvantaged people worldwide.  Ahead of the event, Pippa caught up with two of this year’s participants, Maggie Jeffrey and Susan Tyre, who have previously undertaken this and similar fund-raising challenges.

From community food projects throughout the pandemic, to events catering and local produce contracts, to school meals delivered by drone and much more, hear all about the Council’s award-winning Catering Service in Pippa’s conversation here with Christine Boyle, Commercial Services Business Development Manager.

In this week’s podcast, Pippa chats with Alison Munro and Lisa Myburgh from the Council’s Educational Psychology Service about the work being undertaken on the ANA (Addressing Non Attendance) project, and how factors contributing to pupils missing school are being identified and tackled in ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ and Bute.