Key Items of Interest This Month

Barry Stone - County Councillor for the Loddon Division

Parish Council Report – August 2017

Key items of interest this month

“Maintained momentum” leads to further improvements in Children’s Services

Services for children in Norfolk are continuing to improve, with inspectors highlighting “maintained momentum” and a “real sense of urgency” in transforming services.

Ofsted visited the council at the beginning of June for its third quarterly check-up on the council’s progress in improving services for children and young people. Inspectors found continued improvement in leadership, staffing, support for care leavers and the council’s response to child sexual exploitation. The progress means that the County Council will no longer face monitoring from Ofsted and their next visit will be a full inspection of Children’s Services. Among the strengths outlined by inspectors were:

·  The leadership team’s maintained momentum and sense of urgency in driving change;

·  The systematic use of audits and performance management information to drive improvement;

·  Visible and active middle and senior managers;

·  More children and young people able to enjoy the security and emotional stability that permanence provides;

·  Reducing reliance on agency staff;

·  Good morale;

·  Improving quality of assessments and more purposeful plans for children and young people, leading to more focused and purposeful social work;

·  Action to ensure that thresholds for access to social care are understood and consistently applied;

·  Examples of robust and effective response to child sexual exploitation;

·  More care leavers in employment, education or training.

Ofsted’s latest visit focused on the King’s Lynn area and looked at leadership and management; support for looked-after children and care leavers and help and protection for children.

Continued areas for development were:

·  The level of critical challenge from child protection and Independent Reviewing Officers;

·  The exploration of culture and identity and helping children to understand their lives and care histories;

·  Formal care planning starts too late in pathway planning for care leavers, the consideration of culture and identity in children’s care history and the consistency of critical challenge from independent reviewing officers and child protection officers.

·  The proportion of children receiving advocacy is improving but is still too low.

·  Child protection plans are not consistently specific or measurable.

The majority of local authorities are judged as “requires improvement” with 33 currently inadequate.

New Digital Committee gets the go-ahead

NCC has taken a major step towards achieving its ambition for a fully digitally-connected Norfolk with councillors giving the go-ahead for the creation of a new Digital Innovation and Efficiency Committee.

The committee will lead the council’s work to build a solid digital infrastructure for the county that will serve the area’s growing technology industry as well as local businesses and residents. The committee’s responsibilities will include:

·  Better Broadband for Norfolk and its ambition to deliver access to superfast broadband for at least 95% of residents by 2020

·  NCC’s use of technology to deliver better 24/7 on-line personalised services

·  Championing Norfolk’s ambition to accelerate digital and mobile connectivity and lobby Government and the telecoms industry to maximise new opportunities such as 5G wireless technology.

New director of children’s services

Sara Tough has been recruited as NCC’s new executive director of children’s services. Currently director of children’s services at Dorset County Council, Sara is due to take over from interim director Matt Dunkley at the end of October.

Permanent Chief Fire Officer Appointed

David Ashworth has been announced this week as the new permanent Chief Fire Officer for NCC’s Fire and Rescue Service. David, who has been acting CFO for the past nine months, was selected following a competitive recruitment process.

End of academic year sees further improvement in Ofsted outcomes

Norfolk’s schools are celebrating the end of another successful year, as Ofsted outcomes across the county continue to improve. Norfolk has now either reached or exceeded the national average for the proportion of good and outstanding schools in both primary and secondary schools for the very first time. June data shows that 90% of Norfolk’s primary schools and 84% of secondary schools are now good or outstanding, primaries nationally and 79% of secondary’s. The stats mark a significant improvement over the last five years - with a 39-percentage point improvement for secondary schools and a 35-percentage point improvement for primary schools. Ofsted’s annual report, published earlier this academic year, cited Norfolk as the 5th most improved authority nationally for inspection outcomes in secondary schools.

Donations of furniture needed for refugee families arriving in Norfolk

NCC is refreshing its bid for donations of furniture and other household items, to furnish the homes of refugees settling in Norfolk. In July 2016 members of NCC voted overwhelmingly to accept 50 vulnerable Syrian refugees into the County through the Government’s Syrian Vulnerable Person’s Resettlement Scheme. The first five Syrian families arrived in Norwich in February this year and over the coming months the final seven families will begin their new life in Norfolk.

Thanks to the generosity of the public so far, we already have a large quantity of donated items, but there are still some items we need to help welcome these families to their new homes including toys and books as well as larger furniture items which we are able to collect from the Norwich area. Items needed for collection are:

Yes please:

·  Bed frames and bedside cabinets

·  Bookshelves

·  Childcare items and toys

·  Dining tables

·  Small appliances (such as toasters and microwaves)

·  Sofas and armchairs (these must have a fire safety label)

·  Televisions, DVD players and set top boxes

·  Wardrobes, chests of drawers and dressing tables

·  Amazon, Argos, Curry's or B&Q gift vouchers

No thanks:

·  Bedding and towels

·  Clothing

·  Crockery and cutlery

·  Cups and glasses

·  Food

·  Mattresses (unless new)

If you have any unwanted items that you wish to donate, please tell us on the Government’s Digital Register: www.gov.uk/help-refugees.

Pioneering libraries project tackling isolation praised in national report

Norfolk’s pioneering library project to tackle community isolation has been recognised in a national report released today by Arts Council England. The county council’s Library and Information Service has been praised for its Libraries Loneliness project. The report, ‘Stand by Me’, looked at the contribution public libraries make to the wellbeing of older people and picked out five great national examples of schemes making a real difference.

The library project forms part of the council’s wider In Good Company campaign, which aims to change people’s behaviour by promoting positive ways that people can connect with their neighbours and the local community. With a population of almost 900,000 residents, one in five people aged over 65 in Norfolk are believed to suffer from loneliness. Since the libraries started their part of the project last November, they have almost doubled the number of activities for older people, from 57 to 113.

Pop along to your local library for details of the events in your area, or visit www.norfolk.gov.uk/yourlocallibrary.

As always if you have any queries or requets for help please contact me via email and I will respond straight away. Also, kindly remember that I have £6,000 in my kitty for small highways projects, please help me spend it!