Thistle Foundation

We recently welcomed Veterans Tribe Scotland to our Centre of Wellbeing for a craft workshop that brought Veterans and their families together for an afternoon of creativity, conversation, and community. 🎨 Tribe does amazing work, hosting events that connect the Veteran community through creativity and wellbeing. As Thistle was founded 80 years ago with a mission to support veterans living in their own homes, we're proud to carry this legacy through to today in collaboration with other organisations. While Thistle has since expanded more widely to support people with long-term health conditions and disabilities, we remain committed to supporting the Veteran community, especially alongside others like Tribe who are working towards the same goal. 😊

A huge thank you to SEStran (South East of Scotland Transport Partnership) for supporting Thistle Outdoors and arranging this brilliant video about our adaptive bike sessions at Saughton Park. These sessions make cycling accessible for everyone, and we’re so lucky to have such dedicated volunteers, colleagues, and funders who make it all possible! 🚴 Transport Scotland #ActiveTravel

Congratulations to this fantastic group of students for reaching the final of their school’s YPI competition with their presentation on Thistle! 👏 Their creativity, enthusiasm, and hard work really shone through – they even created a handmade Thistle plaque! Some members of the group have their own experience with long-term health conditions, making their decision to represent Thistle even more personal. Reaching the final is a huge achievement, and we’re thrilled they chose to share what we do. 💜

For Neurodiversity Celebration Week, we're sharing Kieran’s story 💜 Kieran first came to Thistle in 2016 through the Big Plan, a course supporting young people to make decisions about their future after leaving school. One of Kieran’s dreams was to help others, and he’s done just that ever since! From delivering speeches to facilitating Big Plan sessions and appearing in videos, Kieran has made a huge impact. This video celebrates Kieran’s journey and highlights how people can contribute to communities, education, and employment when they’re supported to achieve the goals that matter to them. #NeurodiversityCelebrationWeek

This Disabled Access Day, Emma, who we support and who also works at Thistle, reminds us that small, intentional changes in accessibility can have a profound impact. Accessibility isn’t just a requirement - it’s essential for true inclusion. “Every change from big to small matters immensely.” As individuals, teams, and organisations, we must use our voices to challenge the barriers that still exist. Only in doing this can we create an inclusive environment👏 #DisabledAccessDay

Happy International Women’s Day! 💜 Today, we celebrate the incredible women we work alongside, our supporters, volunteers, and colleagues. Your contributions are what make our community thrive. At Thistle, we believe in creating an inclusive space where women’s voices are heard and valued equally. Today, we’re amplifying the voices of women who’ve come to Thistle, sharing their stories and experiences. To every woman in our community: thank you for everything you do! 🔗 Explore the stories of some amazing women who have come to Thistle below: 👉 Anna’s story: https://lnkd.in/gKuWemEA 👉 Adele’s story: https://lnkd.in/gZ8WHVf4 👉 Dawn’s story: https://lnkd.in/gXqEEfnT

🌙 Ramadan Mubarak to all who are observing. For many Muslims, Ramadan is a time of reflection, community, and spiritual connection. It’s also a time of giving, with many people supporting others through acts of kindness and charity. Swipe to learn more about Ramadan and how you can be mindful and supportive of those fasting. Wishing everyone a peaceful and meaningful Ramadan. 💜

On Wednesday we welcomed Scottish Labour Leader Anas Sarwar to our Centre of Wellbeing. During the visit Mr Sarwar met with people we support, family members and colleagues hearing first-hand about the challenges facing the social care sector and the positive impact that good support can have on people’s lives. People talked about what it means to have the right support in place and the detrimental impact on wellbeing and rights when that support is inconsistent or in the worst case, not available. We were pleased to hear from Mr Sarwar that he agrees social care workers should be paid more for the skilled role they have, and for his recognition that eNICs increases will add additional funding pressures on our, already stretched, sector.   We hope we provided a thought-provoking visit full of context and rationale that supports the argument for greater investment in social care, because a well-funded and valued social care sector is an investment in supporting people, and communities to thrive, not just survive. This week the House of Lords voted through amendments to exempt social care providers from eNICs increases, now we need our MPs in the Commons to make the right decision and support these amendments.

Yesterday the House of Lords voted on amendments to the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill that would exempt non-profit organisations like Thistle from ENICs increases. The arguments made within this debate left us in no doubt that those members of the House of Lords, who tabled and supported the amendments, clearly understand the risk involved in taking more money out of a sector that is already on its knees. We echo all of the points outlined by Rachel Cackett in her statement below and call on the UK and Scottish governments to show that they value our sector, the people we support and those that work in it, by recognising the crisis that will be created should this eNICs policy go ahead.

Our Academy is a great example of embedding person-centred practice at the heart of how colleagues are working with people, from the moment they join us. It models best practice and it's what every new support worker deserves and should expect when they join our sector. Yet, it's programmes like this that are being put at risk by the UK Government's failure to take accountability for its decision to increase eNICs for non-profit social care providers. Rt Hon Rachel Reeves, you are taking value out of the sector and from the very organisations that are engaged to provide statutory services. Relief from this decision must be provided, before it's too late. Rachel Cackett Sam Smith Ian Williams Mary Glasgow Danielle Hayward Martin Dorchester Thistle Foundation CCPS - COALITION OF CARE AND SUPPORT PROVIDERS IN SCOTLAND