news

Mums in the Neonatal unit in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh are to benefit from a dedicated Perinatal Mental Health Support Service which will match mothers with highly trained perinatal befrienders. Aberlour Children’s Charity has secured funding which is enabling them to pilot an expansion of their successful Perinatal Mental Health Befriending Service with an … Continued

Today is the beginning of The Fostering Network’s annual fostering awareness campaign, Foster Care Fortnight.  This year’s theme is #FosteringCommunities. It is all about celebrating the strength and resilience of our fostering communities and all they do to ensure children are cared for and supported to thrive.  At Aberlour Children’s Charity, we care deeply about … Continued

In 2016, Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, made a speech at the SNP’s annual conference, stating that Scotland should ‘come together and love its children’, whilst launching a ‘root and branch review of the care system.’ From the early stages of this Independent Care Review, there were strong, clear and passionate messages from the hundreds … Continued

In just a few weeks voting will get underway in local elections. Aberlour children’s charity is calling on all parties and candidates standing for election to address the issue of school meal debt for struggling families and to prevent school hunger for children not eligible for free school meals. In a country as rich as … Continued

Today we should discover the latest figures on child poverty in Scotland. While, the impact of the pandemic on data collection means we are unlikely to see an official figure for the year up to 2021, we know the situation isn’t good. As members of the End Child Poverty coalition, we have witnessed the hardship … Continued

The publication of the Scottish Government’s Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-26 is an opportunity to reflect on what progress has been made to reduce child poverty since the last delivery plan was launched in 2018. In that time child poverty has continued to rise. It is clear that action taken over the last four … Continued

Aberlour is sorry to announce that our Urgent Assistance Fund is temporarily closed to applications. We have successfully distributed all £1.34m of donated funds. Our cash grants have helped 3195 struggling families, directly supporting 11,000 people across Scotland. Unfortunately, we have now exhausted all our existing resources. This means we are currently processing more applications … Continued

Aberlour is proud to be working with the Scottish Government to establish two new dedicated Mother and Child Residential Recovery Houses. More than £5.5 million will be spent over this parliamentary term by the Scottish Government to develop the houses which Aberlour will run. The houses will be designed to enable children of women with … Continued

The Learning Service at Aberlour provides support around learning, development and education for young people who are living in our children’s houses. We advocate for and support young people in mainstream education, as well as offering personalised educations plans to build confidence, self-esteem, and readiness to learn.   When the pandemic hit, we knew it … Continued

Aberlour Children’s Charity has joined the call of more than 100 organisations across the UK writing to the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, urging him to use his Spring Statement to scrap the unjust benefit cap. Read the letter below. 16 March 2022 Dear Chancellor, As part of a coalition of organisations from across the UK, we … Continued

Aberlour will be featured in a 30 second TV advert to be aired from Wednesday 16th March until Sunday 3rd April. The aim of the advert is to boost recruitment for the many posts being created as a result of the strong growth in Aberlour services. It will also build awareness and enhance Aberlour’s growing … Continued

Since April 2021 the Aberlour Urgent Assistance Fund has supported over 2,600 families, over 5,380 children and has given out over £1million in cash grants. Below are some key statistics about how the Urgent Assistance Fund has been helping families across Scotland since April last year. The Urgent Assistance Fund helps struggling families to buy … Continued

A Joint Statement of Sabir Zazai Chief Executive of Scottish Refugee Council and SallyAnn Kelly Chief Executive of Aberlour “The World has watched in shock and horror as recent events have unfolded resulting in the war in Ukraine. War is always shocking and disturbing and invariably leads to immense human suffering. This war on European … Continued

A new evaluation has found that the Scottish Guardianship Service offers a lifeline for asylum-seeking children who arrive alone, with no family. Since its launch in 2010, the service has supported over 750 extremely vulnerable young people, from 44 nationalities, speaking 46 different languages. The average age of children referred to the service is 15. … Continued

Today (Wednesday 23rd February 2022) the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee will be looking into what progress has been made to reduce the so-called poverty-related attainment gap. Poverty is the single greatest issue faced by families Aberlour works with. Children spend only around 15% of their time in school. What most often … Continued

Children in Moray who are struggling with disadvantage, who feel excluded from their communities, and whose wellbeing is suffering are to receive more help thanks to a cash boost from the William Grant Foundation, totalling £70,000 over two years. Aberlour Children’s Charity runs the Youthpoint, from their base in Elgin in Moray where staff have … Continued

We welcome and share the Scottish Government’s ambition to end poverty and the need for foodbanks. At Aberlour, we see that food insecurity is one of the most common symptoms of child poverty and we support families across Scotland every day who struggle to provide food for their children. This week we responded to Scottish … Continued

Aldi Scotland has launched its ‘Not Socks Again?!’ campaign for the second year running, following its widespread success in 2021, which saw more than 2000 pairs of socks donated to good causes. The initiative encourages customers to donate any unwanted or extra unused socks they may have received as Christmas gifts to charities supporting people … Continued