Latest news with #BabyBox
Daily Record
7 days ago
- Health
- Daily Record
Over 61,000 families in NHS Lothian area have received baby boxes since scheme launch
They contain items such as clothing, books, and a digital thermometer New figures have revealed that over 60,000 baby boxes have been delivered to families across the NHS Lothian area since the launch of the scheme. Almond Valley MSP Angela Constance welcomed the stats that show that 61,390 families in the health board area have taken up the offer since 2017 of the boxes filled with essential items needed for newborns. The Baby Box is offered to every newborn in Scotland and contains a range of items such as clothing, books, and a digital thermometer – all aimed at giving children the best possible start in life. The box can also be used as a safe sleeping place, if necessary. The boxes and items contained within also promote equal opportunity by ensuring every baby, no matter their background, receives the same strong beginning. Across Scotland, over 346,000 Baby Boxes have now been delivered to parents since the programme began. The scheme continues to receive high levels of satisfaction in feedback from parents, with many reporting that it helps them feel supported and better prepared for the arrival of their baby. Angela Constance MSP said: 'It's heartening to see that over 61,000 families across Lothian have benefitted from the Baby Box – it's a clear sign of the Scottish Government's commitment to supporting new parents and giving every child the best possible start. 'The Baby Box is just one of a number of important initiatives – alongside 1,140 hours of free early learning and childcare, and the Scottish Child Payment – that are helping to reduce inequalities and support families through those early and important years. 'In Almond Valley and across Scotland, this scheme is making a real, positive difference. I'm proud that Scotland is leading the way when it comes to supporting families.'
Daily Record
21-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Record
Wishaw MSP welcomes new Baby Box figures for North Lanarkshire
Almost 40,000 Baby Boxes have been delivered across NHS Lanarkshire since the scheme was introduced in 2017. Motherwell and Wishaw MSP Clare Adamson has welcomed new figures that show 39,619 Baby Boxes have been delivered across NHS Lanarkshire since the scheme was introduced in 2017. In Scotland, every newborn is entitled to a box containing essential items intended to make sure that every child has the best possible start in life. In total, 346,959 boxes have now been distributed to parents across Scotland since the project's inception. Ms Adamson said: 'It's remarkable that nearly 40,000 Baby Boxes have been delivered to families across NHS Lanarkshire since the SNP government launched the initiative in 2017. 'The Baby Box is just one element of the SNP's broader commitment to supporting families from the very beginning. This includes providing 1,140 hours of free early learning and childcare for all three and four-year-olds, as well as eligible two-year-olds, and giving families greater financial security through the abolition of the two-child benefit cap and the introduction of the Scottish Child Payment. Thanks to SNP policies like these, Scotland stands out as the best place in the UK to start and raise a family.
New Statesman
04-07-2025
- Business
- New Statesman
The welfare crisis no one is talking about
Photo byConversations about welfare spending in Scottish politics are – contra Westminster – rarely about how it might be reduced. No, up here we are always looking for new ways to shovel more money out the door. If you belong to a vulnerable group, you should be reassured that someone somewhere is working on a plan to lob some taxpayer cash your way. This might speak well of the Caledonian heart, but it doesn't say much for the brain. As the frankly terrifying projections around future spending and demand pile up, one is left wondering whether the nation's policymakers are ignorant, irresponsible or just plain daft. Whatever upset Rachel Reeves this week – bad personal news, rows with colleagues, a weakening PM, the hole blown in her fiscal plans – it was possible to feel a tightening of the throat at the likely consequences for Scotland's future. The welfare story north of the border has for years been one of steady expansion, even as economic growth has remained insipid and public services have become an ever-greater burden on the finances. Universal benefits wherever you look, top-ups to 'stingy' Westminster handouts, the Child Payment, the Baby Box, and on it goes. If something twitches in Scotland, the state is waiting to write it a cheque. This week, as all hell was breaking loose in the UK Government, Holyrood's public audit committee was warning that the welfare bill in Scotland is set to increase from £6.8 billion in 2025/26 to £9.4 billion in 2030/31. With considerable understatement, the committee said that this presents 'a risk to the Scottish Government's financial position'. This is hardly the first alarm of its kind to be rung: by now we should be deafened by the clanging. Both the Scottish Fiscal Commission and Audit Scotland have repeatedly produced reports stating that the trajectory of the SNP's spending plans is unsustainable. Its own civil service has said the same. But the governing party has barely wavered. There is an intention to cut the public sector workforce by 0.5 per cent every year, to trim back the cost of quangos, and to reduce the state's property footprint, all of which will barely touch the sides of the problem. It was only last year that Shona Robison, the Scottish Finance Secretary, announced emergency spending controls due to her government's commitment to inflation-busting public sector pay deals and other expensive outlays. Any extra spending would only be allowed if it was 'truly essential or unavoidable'. The strictures included a ban on ministers expensing biscuits for meetings. Look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves? That's not how government works, and certainly not in the current straitened climate. The scale of the rethink required is too large, too complete. Yet there is no chance this SNP administration – or, arguably, one of any stripe – is going to grasp that particular thistle. And so, on we go, up and up, more and more. The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) which has caused so much trouble at Westminster is administered as the Adult Disability Payment (ADP) in Scotland. Around 10 per cent of the adult population currently claims it – 475,000 people. That figure is soaring (as it has been in the south), rising by 50 per cent in three years. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe It is obvious that PIP and ADP need fixed, that a fair number of recipients could be in work of some kind, which would be good for them and good for the economy. Unfortunately, Rachel Reeves's decision to use a chainsaw rather than a smart, busy scalpel has surely killed, for the foreseeable future, the argument around reform. The SNP will breathe a sigh of relief: never mind the horrible data. If they're not doing it, why should we? And yet the scary numbers keep coming. The Nats already spend a billion pounds more on welfare than the block grant received from London. That figure will be £2bn by the end of the 2020s. Scotland's population is aging fast, and over the coming decades will face the twin problem of a rising number of pensioners and a shrinking workforce able to pay for them. The NHS is going to eat up ever more of the devolved government's budget – it's projected to take up half of the total by 2075. Social care, wholly unaddressed, threatens to be ruinously expensive. Holyrood taxes are as high as they can reasonably go – and will anyway have to be reworked if Reeves bumps them up at a UK level in her Budget. Economic growth continues to be elusive, and this soft-left SNP crew are hardly chasing it. How, then, will the books be balanced? Where will the extra funds required for Scotland's heroic commitments to welfare and the NHS come from? Do we need to crash the national economy before we are willing to get real about this stuff? The prospect of a serious conversation about welfare reform north of the border – serious reform of anything, really – about hard choices and winners and losers, was perhaps always unlikely. But after this week, even that vanishingly small possibility has been swept away like tears in the rain – or, indeed, on the frontbench. [See also: The bond market has rescued Rachel Reeves from Keir Starmer] Related
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Left with Love: Inside the Baby Box Movement
ABILENE, Texas () – A year ago, Abilene introduced a safe option for new parents to surrender their newborns who are less than 60 days old. KTAB's special, 'Left with Love: Inside the Baby Box Movement,' uncovers the emotional stories behind baby boxes—haven drop-offs that save newborn lives and give families hope. WATCH TONIGHT: Left with Love, Inside the Baby Box Movement The Safe Haven Baby Box in Abilene is located at Fire Station #7. This facility allows new parents to anonymously surrender a newborn baby less than 60 days old. When a baby is placed inside the container, a silent alarm sounds until the door is securely shut. After the baby is inside the box, firefighters will come to the retrieval area in the truck bay to collect it. The baby is then examined and sent to Child Protective Services. How does Abilene's baby box work? A look inside Fire Station #7 Monica Kelsey, Founder of Safe Haven Baby Box, shared insight on how her passion helped her get started with helping babies and new parents who need to surrender their babies. Abilene Fire Chief Cande Flores explained how the station handles the situation once the babies are put in and how they safely handle it. In San Angelo, Melanie Wood and Chief of the San Angelo Fire Department, Johnny Fisher, hope to contribute to its legacy by introducing a Safe Haven Baby Box, a cause that speaks from the heart. 'The most recent was probably about seven or eight years ago…the baby was dropped off by the mother. Fire stations and hospitals are safe haven through the Moses Law, a safe places to surrender your babies,' Fisher recalled. The concept of a Safe Haven Baby Box is still in the planning stages, but there is a specific location and goal in mind. Fisher mentioned that they aim to install the baby box at San Angelo's Central Fire Station once the necessary funds have been raised. The Baby Moses Law, or Safe Haven, allows parents or guardians to surrender their infants safely and anonymously. In 2023, this law was revised to enhance the process by permitting the use of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, which provide a secure, temperature-controlled environment for the surrendering of infants. This ensures both the safety of the child and the privacy of the parent. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
How does Abilene's baby box work? A look inside Fire Station #7
ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) — One year ago, a new resource was brought to Abilene. It provides a safe option for new parents to surrender a newborn baby less than 60 days old, completely anonymously. Abilene becomes 1st in Texas to host anonymous program for parents to surrender infants: Safe Haven Baby Box At Fire Station #7, the Safe Haven Baby Box is located behind a brick wall to help with the anonymous factor when surrendering a baby. Abilene Fire Department Chief Cande Flores said all the person has to do is walk up, open the door, and place their baby inside. 'They put a baby inside the actual container. It has a beam that will break, and it will trip, kind of a silent alarm, until the door shuts. When the door shuts, it cannot be reopened,' Flores said. 'It's kind of an elaborate process, but it's also a simple process.' Once a baby is placed inside the box, firemen will come to the retrieval area right inside the truck bay to get the baby on the other side. Flores said that from there, the baby will be checked out and sent to Child Protective Services. Abilene community rallies for second Baby Box, after bringing the first to Texas 'The main thing is making sure the baby's healthy and that they are safe. The ambulance crew will check them out on scene, and then the baby will be transported to the hospital,' Flores said. More than two decades have passed since U.S. fire stations began accepting surrendered infants — a protocol that started while retired fireman Pete Berretta was still on the job. 'I don't think anybody really thought about it until someone else came up with it, because there had been just a few that I remember, babies abandoned here in Abilene,' Beretta said. Berretta said the new Baby Box will be especially useful during emergency calls when no one is at the station. 'I was at a very busy house, so sometimes we made a lot of runs at night, and the majority of the abandonment is done in the evening. Well, if we're out on a run and that baby's just sitting on the porch, it's not good,' Beretta said. Local pro-life nonprofit raises $20k to install safe haven box in Abilene for anonymous infant surrender Now, Abilene has a safer option. The Baby Box offers a secure way to surrender an infant anonymously. So far, it hasn't been used, and fire officials say no babies have been surrendered at an Abilene Fire Station. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB -
