Engage Update - 07 September

Programme for Government 2026 to 2031

The Programme for Government (PfG) outlines what ministers want to achieve before the next Scottish Parliament election in 2031. 

This five year PfG will be supported by an update each spring aligned to the Scottish Budget. 

This programme, set out by the First Minister, focusses on:

• eradicating child poverty
• growing the economy
• tackling the climate emergency
• delivering a stronger NHS and public services

Read more about the Programme for Government 2026 to 2031:

Programme for Government: 2026 to 2031
news release
First Minister's statement

Newsletters 

Trading Standards Scotland Bulletin 27 August

Community Spaces Network News: August

Social Security Scotland - Stakeholder Newsletter - August 2026

Engage Renfrewshire and Renfrewshire HSCP are hosting another Tobacco and Vaping event on Wednesday 7 October, 10am–1pm, with lunch provided at Engage Renfrewshire.
 
The event will provide an opportunity for organisations who are supporting communities affected by tobacco and vaping to share and learn about what we can do to prevent or reduce these harms in our communities. It will also be an opportunity to hear updates on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill and the changes we may see from as early as October 2026, as well as consider what these changes could mean for our work.
 
To register your interest, please email kwilkinson@engagerenfrewshire.com or call 07927 534 968.

OSCR Update

On the 5 August 2026, the Equality and Human Rights Commission's (EHRC) updated Equality Act 2010: Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations, 2026 comes into force. The Code explains how the Equality Act 2010 applies in practice.

The key updates to the Code reflect the Supreme Court's ruling in April 2025, that the term 'sex' in the Equality Act means 'biological sex'.

Charity trustees must consider what steps, if any, their charity needs to take to ensure compliance with the Equality Act and the updated EHRC Code. Depending on the charity's purposes and activities, trustees may need to seek professional legal advice.

OSCR particularly encourages charities with any of the following features to carefully consider the updated EHRC Code:

• restricts the benefit it provides to people who share a protected characteristic under the Equality Act (e.g. restricts the benefit by sex to men or women)
• provides services, sells goods or offers facilities (even if the charity does not charge for them)
• carries out public functions (i.e. delivers public services on behalf of a public body)
• is an association with more than 25 members

HSCP Update

I’m pleased to share my latest Vlog with you below. 

In this week’s Vlog, I talk about: 

• The recent Scottish Government’s Programme for Government Announcement.
• My latest visit to HSCP teams, this time with the Strategic Planning and Health Improvement team.
• This week’s Renfrewshire Leadership Network session at Tweedie Hall.
• My regular acknowledgement of feedback on our services.  

If you have any feedback on this video or ideas for future topics, I’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch or email: HSCPcommunications@renfrewshire.gov.uk 

I hope you enjoy this week’s update…


 

RenCAN Annual Network Gathering

Friday 2nd October, 9:30am - 2pm

The Wynd Centre, Paisley

Another year on, we’re looking forward to celebrating the brilliant work happening across our network, enjoying some lovely food and connecting with others. The programme of the day will be finalised over the coming months, and we will keep you updated on that.

Formal invites and full details will follow closer to the time, but for now, please pop the date in your calendar!

Full details can be found here 

Charity Digital

A free course that the team at Charity Digital has recently launched to help Scottish charities become digitally inclusive .

This has been funded by the Scottish Government's 'Connecting Scotland' Digital Inclusion Fund and Okta For Good .

Our free online course, "Achieving Digital Inclusion", provides guidance on improving access to services and devices while also helping your organisation enhance digital accessibility, develop digital skills, and build digital confidence.

The module takes approximately 2 hours to complete. Upon completion participants receive a certificate and access to our digital inclusion toolkit for continued support.

You can enrol for free by clicking here and enter the code digital Inclusion

To go further, you can then enrol for free to the more comprehensive Charity Digital Strategy Accelerator for Scotland which will help you develop a digital strategy for your organisation.

You can click here and enter the code CDSA for Scotland.

Charity Digital also provides a range of free or low-cost products and services (training, events, payment services, antivirus) for charities which may be of relevance to yourselves and others. You can find out more here