Category: Uncategorized

Community Food and Health Scotland (CFHS) is a national organisation that supports local communities to tackle inequalities in food and health. CFHS is keen to support organisations in the homeless sector to strengthen their capacity/ability to deliver food and health promoting activity by helping to increase the number of accredited REHIS Elementary Food and Health course tutors in the homeless sector. If you work with homeless people or people at risk of homelessness and would like to find out more about this initiative, please check out the information sheet attached and send for an application form from Community Food and Health Scotland.
The REHIS Elementary Food and Health course was first launched in January 2006. It was developed in conjunction with NHS Health Scotland, the then Scottish Executive, the Food Standards Agency Scotland, CFHS (known at that time as the Scottish Community Diet Project), and the healthyliving award.

The Summer 2008 edition of Environmental Health Scotland, the REHIS Journal, can be accessed on the members area.
Members will receive their copies of the Journal in the next 7 to 10 days.

The conference held in Edinburgh earlier this month proved to be a great success. Highlights included
• a stirring Presidential Address by Robert Howe followed by a range of excellent presentations made by eminent speakers
• a small but select exhibition by partner organisations
• a very enjoyable conference dinner with representatives of our many partner organisations attending as guests
•the presence throughout conference of representatives of partner organisations, Members of the Scottish Parliament, local authority councillors, Scottish Government officials, Honorary Vice-Presidents (Ann Marie Part, Stewart Maxwell MSP, Robin Harper MSP and Alan Johnson) and Young Samanyika of the EHOA Malawi and, of course, many members of the Institute.
Planning for 2009 conference is already underway!

The photo shows Young Samanyika (EHOA Malawi), Ann Marie Part (Honorary Vice-President) and Niamh McGrath (EHOA Ireland) with Tom Bell the REHIS Chief Executive outside the Scottish Parliament on the last day of conference.

The Spring 2008 edition of Environmental Health Scotland, the REHIS Journal, can be accessed on the members area.
Members will receive their copies of the Journal in the next 7 to 10 days.

Young Samanyika, a Malawian Environmental Health Officer and Interim Secretary of the Malawian Environmental Health Officers Association arrived in Scotland this week for a two week technical visit sponsored by REHIS and in association with the University of Strathclyde and South Lanarkshire Council. Young is based in Blantyre to the south of Malawi and his main areas of interest are food hygiene, waste management and occupational health. During his stay Young will visit the Environmental Health Department of the University of Strathclyde where he will meet the academic staff and tour the teaching and research facilities. Young will also spend a number of days with the Environmental Health Officers of South Lanarkshire Council where he will be hosted by Robert Howe, Head of Environmental Health and Strategic Services. Robert is also the President of REHIS.
Blantyre, the home of David Livingstone the world famous African explorer and missionary, lies within South Lanarkshire Council. During his stay Young will also visit the REHIS office in Edinburgh, attend the REHIS Professional Examinations, will be a guest at the REHIS Annual Conference and will visit the Scottish Parliament. The President, members of the Council and members of the staff of REHIS welcome Young to Scotland and hope that he will have an enjoyable and interesting visit to Scotland.

During the last twelve months 112 people in South Ayrshire successfully completed the Elementary Food and Health Course.To mark their success the Council organised an award ceremony which took place on the 30th April 2008 in the County Buildings,Ayr.Eleven courses were provided in South Ayrshire as part of a project delivered by Environmental Health staff and funded by the Food Standards Agency Scotland.
South Ayrshire Council Provost Winifred Sloan presented awards to participants who attended the awards ceremony. Provost Sloan said: “The project trained key workers, individuals and volunteers who work directly with specific groups. The knowledge and understanding that course participants gained will help them to support their clients and encourage those they are working with to eat healthily” Robert Howe,REHIS President and Graham Walker,Director of Training were guests at the ceremony.

HRH The Princess Royal presented George Lippiatt, Catering Manager, HM Prison Shotts, South Lanarkshire, with The Butler Trust Certificate Award at Buckingham Palace on Monday,3 March. The award is in recognition of his promotion and training of culinary excellence in his students.

The REHIS Annual Conference is the principal Environmental Health and Public Health event to take place in Scotland. It provides a time to reflect on current and future approaches to protecting and improving the health of the Scottish people,to renew friendships and make new ones. The Conference is being held in Edinburgh at the Menzies Belford Hotel this year from 17th to 18th April.
For more information and a booking form see the attached document.

A successful REHIS Trainers Seminar took place in Dundee College on the 12th March.The event was aimed at REHIS Food and Health Trainers and proved to be a popular event with 45 delegates attending.The seminar provided an up-date on many developments in the areas of food,nutrition and health.Delegates included representatives from commercial training companies, local authorities, colleges/universities, schools, the NHS and HM Prison Service.Speakers incuded representatives from the Food Standards Agency Scotland,Baxter’s of Speyside,the Scottish Government,the World Cancer Research Fund,Community Health Scotland,the healthyliving award, Learning and Development,Glasgow City Council and NHS Tayside.A copy of the programme is attached for information on the speakers and copies of several of the presentations are available on the Training Briefing page.

There are still a few places available at the REHIS Annual Conference.The conference is the principal Environmental Health and Public Health event to take place in Scotland.The programme this year is built round the theme of Environmental Health and Sustainable Communities. It is being held in Edinburgh at the Menzies Belford Hotel this year from 17th to 18th April.For more information contact the REHIS office on 0131 225 6999.
For a booking form see the attached document.

The Agency is reminding would-be applicants that the closing date for applying for its postgraduate research training scholarships (advertised last autumn) is 29 February 2008.
http://www.food.gov.uk/news/
newsarchive/
2008/feb/deadline

The REHIS Annual Conference is the principal Environmental Health and Public Health event to take place in Scotland. It provides a time to reflect on current and future approaches to protecting and improving the health of the Scottish people and to renew friendships and make new ones. The Conference is being held in Edinburgh this year and I look
forward to welcoming you.
Robert Howe, President