Trowbridge can start phase two tree planting after grant
Part of the national Government-led Nature for Climate fund, Trees for Climate is a woodland creation programme which is taking place across England's Community Forests.Planting has happened in parks, allotments and green spaces like Biss Meadows, Paxcroft Brook Open Space and the Sensory Garden as well as fruit trees for The Mead School and Castle Mead School.The council added it had wanted to plant more trees in urban areas, but could not get permission from landowners for all the places suggested by residents.
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The Herald Scotland
13 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
'Scotland needs better availability of land ownership data'
This comes as the Scottish Government is actively developing an Ecosystem Restoration Code (ERC) as a new mechanism to encourage private investment in nature restoration and biodiversity projects. Under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004, all public bodies in Scotland are required to further the conservation of biodiversity when carrying out their responsibilities. READ MORE: However, the new report from UHI concludes that there is no universal standard to measure biodiversity. As a result, measuring success or failure of biodiversity initiatives is 'extremely challenging'. The report, which focused on biodiversity assessments on community-owned land, suggests that 'community landowners cannot know if or how they are achieving their biodiversity objectives despite the biggest community buyouts have a higher-than-average proportion of sites of ecological importance such as peatlands and Sites of Special Scientific Interest'. The report also found that community ownership is inherently geared towards biodiversity, with 12 of the 18 largest community landowners directly constituted to 'conserving, protecting or enhancing the environment or natural heritage, and with environmental sustainability central to community aspirations'. As well as standardising the way in which biodiversity is measured, the report recommends local people – with their often-detailed understanding of the area – should become more involved in designing and carrying out biological monitoring. The report highlights the need for better methods to measure levels of biodiversity (Image: Community Land Scotland) It also calls for specific measurable targets for landowners around biodiversity objectives. The UHI report also found that making assessments of land use and management across Scotland is unnecessarily challenging due to the lack of land data and lack of transparency. To have robust climate and biodiversity projects there needs to be readily available data on land boundaries, ownership and land use so that successes, failures and differences can be assessed in our fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. Dr Josh Doble, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Community Land Scotland, welcomed the research from UHI. He said: 'It clearly demonstrates the issues inherent in Scottish landownership data and how to accurately measure biodiversity. It provides important pause for thought as the Scottish Government consults on how to leverage in private finance to biodiversity recovery. 'For our members there are important findings regarding the number of key ecological sites they are custodians of, as well as where ecological recovery needs to take place. We wholeheartedly agree with UHI that community-led biological monitoring should have a far more prominent place in biodiversity assessments as well as the need for much stronger data to assist all landowners in understanding what biodiversity actions need to happen on their land.' Dr Mike Daniels, a researcher at UHI's Centre for Mountain Studies, added: 'It is surprising, given the high priority of biodiversity in public policy, how difficult it is to get data on biodiversity outcomes for specific areas of land. Scotland needs better availability of land ownership data and greater transparency on how it is managed.'
South Wales Guardian
a day ago
- South Wales Guardian
Work needed to make schools inclusive for pupils with special needs
Tom Rees, chairman of the Department for Education's (DfE) expert advisory group on inclusion, said support and resources for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) is inconsistent. The adviser has called for children's needs – rather than 'labels' – to be put at the centre of the Send system. His comments come as the Government has set out its intention to improve inclusivity in mainstream education settings for children with Send. In March, Mr Rees, chief executive of Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT), launched a call for evidence about effective inclusion in mainstream settings. The initiative, called Inclusion In Practice, aimed to identify and share practical, scalable solutions for inclusion in mainstream schools and colleges. The review, published on Thursday, highlighted 'promising' inclusive practice in mainstream settings across England, but it also showed 'inconsistency' in training, support, guidance and resources across schools and colleges. Mr Rees said: 'This report gives us hope and encouragement, in highlighting pockets of effective and evidence-informed practice being implemented in our schools which we can learn from and build on. 'But this project has also reminded us how much inconsistency exists within the Send system in terms of frameworks, training, advice and resources. 'We should be ambitious for much better support for teachers and schools in the future. 'This means clearer use of evidence, sharper accountability, smarter systems, and putting children's needs – not labels – at the centre. 'Schools are ready for reform and ready to act. There's strong appetite to improve – and many schools are already changing how they work. 'System reform must accompany that and support and build on this momentum.' He added: 'There's a lot of work that needs to be done so that mainstream schools become more inclusive for pupils with special needs, but in our work we've seen many examples that show it can be done and which are a model of excellent practice. 'Parents need to know and have confidence that their child's needs can be met within a mainstream school. 'But making mainstream schools more inclusive doesn't just help those with special needs – it improves the quality of education for all children.' DfE data last week showed that the number of education, health and care plans (EHCPs) – which set out the support a young person requires for their Send needs – has increased. In total, there were 638,745 EHCPs in place in January, up 10.8% on the same point last year. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: 'Our ambitious reforms will make sure children with Send have better outcomes through our Plan for Change – with better support in mainstream schools and special school places always there for those who need them. 'Despite the system desperately struggling to cope, there are pockets of outstanding practice already in place in schools that show our vision for reform is possible. 'Thanks to Tom Rees, Ambition Institute and the Confederation of School Trusts for this work, this valuable insight will help more schools begin to create the foundations of this reformed system and we'll be setting out more details about how this will be achieved in the autumn.'
Rhyl Journal
a day ago
- Rhyl Journal
Work needed to make schools inclusive for pupils with special needs
Tom Rees, chairman of the Department for Education's (DfE) expert advisory group on inclusion, said support and resources for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) is inconsistent. The adviser has called for children's needs – rather than 'labels' – to be put at the centre of the Send system. His comments come as the Government has set out its intention to improve inclusivity in mainstream education settings for children with Send. In March, Mr Rees, chief executive of Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT), launched a call for evidence about effective inclusion in mainstream settings. The initiative, called Inclusion In Practice, aimed to identify and share practical, scalable solutions for inclusion in mainstream schools and colleges. The review, published on Thursday, highlighted 'promising' inclusive practice in mainstream settings across England, but it also showed 'inconsistency' in training, support, guidance and resources across schools and colleges. Mr Rees said: 'This report gives us hope and encouragement, in highlighting pockets of effective and evidence-informed practice being implemented in our schools which we can learn from and build on. 'But this project has also reminded us how much inconsistency exists within the Send system in terms of frameworks, training, advice and resources. 'We should be ambitious for much better support for teachers and schools in the future. 'This means clearer use of evidence, sharper accountability, smarter systems, and putting children's needs – not labels – at the centre. 'Schools are ready for reform and ready to act. There's strong appetite to improve – and many schools are already changing how they work. 'System reform must accompany that and support and build on this momentum.' He added: 'There's a lot of work that needs to be done so that mainstream schools become more inclusive for pupils with special needs, but in our work we've seen many examples that show it can be done and which are a model of excellent practice. 'Parents need to know and have confidence that their child's needs can be met within a mainstream school. 'But making mainstream schools more inclusive doesn't just help those with special needs – it improves the quality of education for all children.' DfE data last week showed that the number of education, health and care plans (EHCPs) – which set out the support a young person requires for their Send needs – has increased. In total, there were 638,745 EHCPs in place in January, up 10.8% on the same point last year. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: 'Our ambitious reforms will make sure children with Send have better outcomes through our Plan for Change – with better support in mainstream schools and special school places always there for those who need them. 'Despite the system desperately struggling to cope, there are pockets of outstanding practice already in place in schools that show our vision for reform is possible. 'Thanks to Tom Rees, Ambition Institute and the Confederation of School Trusts for this work, this valuable insight will help more schools begin to create the foundations of this reformed system and we'll be setting out more details about how this will be achieved in the autumn.'
