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Glasgow City Council

July 2023

5 July - From Peacekeeping to Planning - spotlight on Liam

Liam Herbert in Army uniform standing in the snow in a forest on training exercise

Armed Forces Day takes place every year on the last Saturday in June to acknowledge the dedication and efforts of those who serve in the Armed Forces.

Did you know that this includes some of your colleagues who serve in a Reserve capacity in their spare time?

Meet Liam Herbert, Head of Planning and Strategy, HSCP and a Major in the Reserves.

Liam explains his Army career path and his transition to the Reserve service following his move to the council in 2022: "I joined the Army as a full-time Officer in 2013 after completing the leadership course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. This is where they taught me how to lead and manage soldiers and become a soldier myself. Following this I joined the Black Watch, third Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) and was fortunate enough to deploy almost straight away, spending 6 months as a UN Peacekeeper.

"My career then took me through a series of other jobs commanding more specialist soldiers, working in various Headquarters. Most notable was probably my time in Afghanistan in 2021 when I was part of a large team that planned the evacuation of British personnel and Afghan civilians during the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. I then finished up my time in the regular Army (after nearly a decade) working as a Strategic Policy Lead in the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall, which was fascinating."

Liam explains how he left the regular Army service in 2022 and returned to Glasgow full time with his young family - securing his current role with the council: "I knew I wasn't quite ready to hang up my Army boots when I took up my role within HSCP, so I joined 6 SCOTS - the local Reserve Infantry Battalion and part of the Regiment I had served in as a regular.

"Since joining I was selected to take command of Charlie Company, a force of 100 soldiers, based out of Maryhill and Motherwell. Alongside my council day job, I now spend my Tuesday evenings and roughly one weekend a month training my soldiers and ensuring they are ready to deploy should the need arise."

Reserves - host of opportunities

The Reserves offers a host of opportunities for those with a sense of adventure. The annual commitment is 27 days training, generally split between evening and weekend training and a two-week annual exercise. This will be spent completing a variety of military training. Liam explains: "In the last month my Company spent a sunny Saturday firing pistols and working on our marksmanship. We have completed various team physical training sessions, delivered lessons on new equipment such as drones and later this summer we are deploying 30 soldiers to Croatia to take part in a multi-national exercise. I also currently have soldiers deployed on Operation INTERFLEX, the UK's training operation for Ukrainian soldiers."

Image of Soldiers on joint exercise in Germany with American Black Hawk helicopters  

photo credit: Iain MacLennan

In addition to this, the Army takes sport and adventurous training very seriously. This year Reserves will undertake mountain biking, rock climbing, mountaineering and skiing trips - all paid for by the Army with the Reservists being paid the pro-rate rate of their regular counterparts for the time they spend training.

Liam concludes: "The support I receive from the council to be a Reservist is excellent. Both the council and NHS are Armed Forces Covenant employers, so Reservists are afforded two weeks additional paid leave to complete their annual exercise. Having a supportive employer has certainly eased my transition from regular service. Though, you don't need to have served before and most of my soldiers have only ever served in a Reserve capacity.

"All service people are trained to be soldiers before specialising in a role, in my case Infantry. Officers are expected to be leaders from the outset and have a greater involvement in planning and then supervision of military tasks. I've found my time as an Officer to have been critical in preparing me for my current planning role in the HSCP. I think Armed Forces Day is hugely beneficial for morale to see gestures of appreciation by the community. Service is synonymous with sacrifice and whilst we have Remembrance Sunday, for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, it is appreciated when the ongoing sacrifices of serving personnel are acknowledged."

To find out more about joining the Army Reserves visit https://jobs.army.mod.uk/army-reserve/

 

5 July - Get Ready Glasgow: the countdown is on - have you met Mike?

UCI Mike

The countdown to the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships is well and truly on.

Have you met Mike? The unlikely star of the latest advert for the event.

Watch here to see Mike explain some of the cycling disciplines that will make up the 13 World Championships coming to Glasgow and Scotland from 3 to 13 August. There's even a kind of football...but they're on bikes.

Strap in, get set, and experience the #PowerOfTheMike

Tickets

Visit cyclingworldchamps.com to secure your tickets today.

23 Million Mile Challenge

And don't forget, there is still time to sign up to the 23 Million Mile Challenge, so grab your bike and start logging those miles.

Get Ready and Plan Ahead

Modes of Active travel, such as walking, wheeling and cycling are a safe and sustainable way to get around the city during the Championships. You can find more out about Active Travel in Glasgow on Smarter Travel - Home (smartertravelgla.co.uk) and cycling in Glasgow

Visit Get Ready Glasgow for information on traffic and travel during event time.

 

5 July - Helping young people to flourish: Rowan's story

Image of Rowan Bennett

We have a number of Youth Employment Initiatives which provide young people and young adults with the opportunity to get workplace experience and gain industry recognised qualifications.  Rowan Bennett joined the council's Supported Employment Service (SES) - which helps young adults with a learning disability and/or autism into the workplace.

Rowan said: "About two and a half years ago, I joined SES and as part of this I started working with a Job Coach on the Improving Transitions to Modern Apprenticeships Programme - which provides work experience for up to 26 weeks. At first, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but after deciding I would like to get more admin experience I completed a course to update my skills. My Job Coach then asked if I would be interested in a work experience placement in the Catering and Facilities Management (CFM) section of Financial Services."

"Before I started my placement in October 2022 I met with Karen McCourt, CFM Area Manager, who was very reassuring about the support I would be given.  I started working three days a week and from October 2022 I increased my hours.  In March of this year a Modern Apprenticeship became available in CFM, and I successfully secured a place on the full-time apprenticeship programme."

"I really enjoy working in a busy office environment and have developed a lot of new skills. I love working in an area that supports over 3,000 employees and my duties are very varied. I also now feel more confident talking to people - this wasn't the case before I started my work placement."

"This journey has totally changed my life. I'm now earning my own money and will be able to support one of my future goals - to live on my own." 

Kath Samson, Business Advisor, Chief Executive's Department said: "We have developed a successful partnership with the Supported Employment Services, providing young people placements.  It's great to see our Service areas participating in these initiatives and seeing how the young person thrives within the working environment."

Karen McCourt said: "It has been a joy to watch Rowan grow from a shy quiet girl to an out-going valued member of the team - Rowan has a very bright future ahead of her."

Janice Quinn, Job coach with Supported Employment Service, GCHSCP said:"The partnerships we have developed with CFM in Financial Services, the Strategic HR team and Rowan's work coach at the job centre have been essential to making these placements happen.  The transformation I've seen in Rowan is unbelievable and her Mum said she is a different person. The feeling of coming in to meet Rowan and seeing her sitting working away at her desk is brilliant.  For some young people the journey to their first job takes a little longer but they all deserve to be supported on this journey."

Work, Earn and Learn 

If you live within the Glasgow City Council boundary, and you have a young adult in your family who is unsure about what career path they want to pursue, an MA could be the right choice for them. Visit Home - Glasgow Guarantee to find out more about the MA opportunities right across Glasgow - including those within the council.

 

5 July - Staggering stats!

Animated image of laptop with envelope on screen that has fishing hook through it

Did you know that Phishing is one of the most common and dangerous forms of cybercrime in the UK? All it takes is a well-crafted email, social media post or phone message, and someone who is too distracted or unaware to spot its true nature.

Phishing emails target our online activity to try and find our information (log on details, passwords, account numbers) that can then be used to steal money from us on line. They usually target individuals pretending to come from HMRC, or DVLA or banks or phone companies. They use triggers like potential refunds, or the risks of a service being cut off, to try and persuade you to check or correct their information by clicking on a link and entering all your personal details.

Did you know that:

  • The UK is the biggest target for phishing attacks in Europe, according to Proofpoint. It found that 96% of organisations in the UK were targeted by phishing last year. Spain was the second worst affected (94%), while France and Italy were among the least affected, at 85% and 79%, respectively.
  • A UK government study found that half of adults said they had received a phishing message in the previous month.
  • Amazon Prime Day is the most active period for phishing attacks, according to an AtlasVPN study. It found that in the 90 days leading up to last year's sale, 1,633 fake sites targeting the event were detected.
  • According to Verizon, 82% of data breaches involve a human element, such as phishing and the use of stolen credentials.
  • Verizon's report also found that the most common target in phishing attacks are victims' login credentials, which are compromised in 63% of successful attacks. Cyber criminals also target internal data (32%) and personal data (24%).

You can read all 51 Must know Phishing statistics for 2023

So how can you protect yourself, our data and our systems?

While spear phishing emails often target finance officers everyone is at risk from phishing and ransomware attacks. We should all take care when opening emails and report anything we are not sure of - as prevention is better than cure!

Remember to CHECK, STOP and REPORT IT

Read our Glasgow Intranet - Top tips to help prevent a potential cyber attack

For example:

CHECK - Be aware of the titles of email attachments which are incentives to get you to open them. Check the sender, the time of the email and for unusual grammar.

STOP - Stop and check any urgent or unusual, email payment requests until you speak directly to the sender. Don't open any links or attachments.

REPORT IT - Report any suspicious emails to Integrity (on Outlook)  

More information

 

5 July - From coffee to compost - take part!

Grounds for recycling

From 25 July-13 August, you can cycle over to a #GroundsForRecycling venue, grab a cup of coffee, and know those coffee grounds are being turned into something better for the planet.

In collaboration with the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, the campaign will see over 50 of Glasgow's most loved hospitality venues divert 100% of their used coffee grounds from landfill. Instead, the grounds will be collected by e-cargo bike provider Urb-it and taken to the Glasgow Botanic Gardens, where they'll be turned into compost to capture carbon, rehabilitate soil and support biodiversity.

Glasgow Life venues involved in the project and will be having their coffee grounds collected during the campaign include, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Kelvingrove Museum, Kelvin Hall Leisure Centre, Scotstoun Leisure Centre and The Tearoom at the Botanics.

If you're a keen cyclist, coffee drinker, or sustainable change maker, you can find out more at groundsforrecycling.co.uk

 

5 July - Make the most our membership - sign up for key local government information

The council is a member of the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) - a not for profit information service providing practical, up-to-the-minute intelligence to their members on policy issues important to local government in Scotland.

They work with an international network of councils, associates, academics and other sector practitioners to help address policy challenges and influence public debate around topics such as improving healthcare, reforming the criminal justice system and environmental and economic change. Supporting councils across the world for over 40 years.

So how can you join and benefit?

LGiU content is available to all staff at member councils and can be accessed through email or from the website by signing up.

Becoming a member will provide you with direct information to become better informed, engaged and connected through:

Get involved and showcase your projects

LGiU also regularly promote member councils' projects and people through short case study articles like this one from Argyll and Bute.  Sign up and join today to share your projects with other LGiU members.

Tips for website access

From the main navigation bar you can:

  • click Topics to find published briefings, publications and research, sorted by topic, to help you in your role
  • from the Resources drop down click:
    • Briefings to access the entire briefings catalogue. Use the side bar to filter by country, topic or date
    • Newsletters & Daily News to access the last months archive of Daily News to see what's been happening in the sector,
    • Global Local to explore previous editions of our popular Global Local Bulletin
    • Publications to find curated content such as Executive Panel writeups, COP27 resources, research centre outputs for example
  • Click Comment> Articles to read our in-house and guest articles from local government practitioners in Scotland and across the world

You can also manage your preferences to make sure what lands in your inbox is tailored to your needs.

For more information visit https://lgiu.org/ or email info@lgiu.org

5 July - Burrell Collection scoops top prize at prestigious Scottish Design Awards

Burrell Collection

The Burrell Collection is celebrating its great success in the prestigious Scottish Design Awards, announced last week.

The museum not only won the coveted Judges' Grand Prix Award, it also won Gold Awards in four categories: Design for Good; Architecture: Public Building; Moving Imagery Design; and Experiential, Incorporating Audiovisual, Graphic and Object-based Displays.

Dr Samuel Gallacher, Keeper of the Burrell Collection and Museum Manager, said: "We are absolutely delighted by The Burrell Collection's wonderful success at the Scottish Design Awards. Competition for these renowned awards is always fierce so winning not just one, but five - including the coveted Judges' Grand Prix Award - is a huge achievement for the museum and an acknowledgement of its world-class quality. Since its inception some forty years ago, The Burrell Collection has always stood out for its radical design, unique aesthetic, and modernity. These awards demonstrate how the refurbishment project has sustained this distinctive legacy. It is also a fabulous testament to the dedication to excellence, tireless commitment and great enthusiasm of our whole team, as well as to the superb contribution made by all the project partners who worked with us on the museum's redevelopment."

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