A rainy day in Norwich

On Friday evening I got lots of texts and twitter comment’s after my fleeting appearance on the national BBC Six O’clock news saying I looked glum at the results at the Norwich City Count.

The VT was a bit unfair as just out of shot was a one of our candidates who had collapsed as we were leaving in the early hours of Friday morning and was been attended by Emergency Services paramedic we called, I was turning around and not glum but concerned for his health and there was the camera!

The loss of Great Yarmouth was a big disappointment particularly when you see how hard Steve and the Conservative Team have worked to improve the town, we can only hope that the Great Yarmouth Labour party are less useless than the Norwich Labour party who ‘help’ run Norwich City Council so badly.

As we campaigned I was genuinely shocked at the state of Norwich City Council’s housing stock, when I think of the level of investment that Registered Social Housing providers are putting into the standards of their stock for their tenants, the Labour group on Norwich City Council should be hounded from office, not voted for.

In Norwich North I got the real sense that our voters were not minded to come out to vote as a sort of policy of non-co-operation but that the Labour party vote was well motivated, there is nothing new about this phenomenon but I know how frustrating it is for candidates who are determined to try to change the Council, to not be able to get a foothold or in the case of Great Yarmouth continue their excellent work.In Ipswich we won the county seat which was a silver lining on an otherwise cloudy day.

Mervin King said before the last election the party that wins the next election will not win the one after that, given the scale of what they have to do and the economic climate they have to do it in. This weekend we saw France and Greece be wowed by the ‘crisis what crisis’ brigade and it will certainly be interesting to look back at the crash of 2007 and the recession that followed and see who was right.

Who says there is not real differences in the Political parties, on the one hand you have the kitchen table economics of the Conservatives whereby when money is short you must however painful ‘tighten your belt’ and the Labour Party’s spend, spend, spend your way to a better tomorrow! Time will tell, but somehow the first just seems right to me.

I shall continue to campaign to get this important message across, and the important fact that however tight the money I shall continue to demand that the councils I represent my community on delivering good services with less money and keeping the Council tax to a 0% increase, again and again.

NHS Learning set day

Yesterday I attended the 3^rd plenary day of the NHS Learning set as we design products, that’s briefing papers to you and me on emerging best practice and what each group thinks about the Health and Well Being Boards.

The first session was with my Learning set B2 – Collaborative Leadership to discuss the day and who would be doing what, I agreed to man the stand for a stint, where I talked to cohorts members about the products we are developing around top tips for people from the former PCT s, for Doctors about Councillors and for Councillors about Doctors; sounds simply but a lot so hard work went into the design of what to say and what not to say from each side of the fence.

The opening plenary session was opened by Cllr. Gareth Bernard to give t that LGA link, I know Gareth from my early days as a Councillor when we were both on the Leadership Centre Next Generation Year 1 programme together. He was joined by John Wilderspin National Director of HWB Boards Implementation who I had a long chat with a couple of weeks previous at the Kinds Fund event looking at a self-assessment tool for HWB Boards. Next up was David Behan, Director General of Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships – Department of Health, what a title. I have met with David a couple of times when a group of us meet with him and Paul Burstow MP to lobby about the vital nature of the Dilnot proposals. It can be quite a small world somestimes!

David spoke about the learning that was emerging and one of the things that truly stuck in my mind was his comment that it would be easy for the HWB Boards to slip into a comfortable scrutiny place rather than the place where true reform and change is driven; It struck me  how very true this is and I have spoken of the need for Healthwatch and upper tier authority Health Scrutiny function to fulfil those roles and for the HWB Board to ban anything that looks remotely like it from their agenda’s!

The rest of the day was a string of workshop sessions about the learning across the county and it struck me that on each subject area there was a genuine desire to succeed and a common thread to effect real change. Not to just become another committee of the upper tier authority, this is the real challenge before us to actually redesign the most sensitive eco system in this country!, no small order at all.

Baby Boomer’s Retirement

Last Thursday I travelled to the RSA in London for a roundtable session on Dementia, Care Services, Communities and the Big Society.

The event was opened by Alex Fox and Dr Craig Berry presenting a summary of a couple of very interesting reports they have written which you can get from having look at http://2020psh.org if you are interested in some of the thinking about public services you will not find a better spot to go and have a read than the 2020 Public Services Hub at the RSA.

Liz Kendall MP, the shadow Care minster spoke of the political agenda and how our aging population is just not a priority for any political party and she pondered why that is given that there are more and more, older people and they vote! I shared her opinion and we discussed how that might change as the baby boomers enter retirement!

The event was chaired by the always thoughtful Ben Lucas and Matthew Taylor the RSA Chief Executive was in attendance, he kindly ‘remembered’ Suffolk when I spoke and asked how it was all going!

For my part I pondered the nature of the cuts we all faced in public finance and the degree to which we do or do not have a ‘north eye’ on the end game of less money and an aging population and perhaps we were not being radical enough in our approaches, I mentioned the Feb cabinet paper I presented on Aging Well and the ACS Strategy and the first baby steps we are taking in Felixstowe to look at the community capacity and the way we provide support differently.  

At the end of the event the principle players being Ben Lucas, Liz Kendall MP, Alex Fox and Craig Berry made a short video discussion, please see http://2020psh.org/?p=956

All in all an interesting few hours spent discussing the wonderful world of national and local government and the services we need to be focused on.

Suffolk planning for future care needs

It’s been a busy couple of days, on Tuesday I announced the preferred bidder to take over the 16 Suffolk County Council Care Homes in the SCC cabinet meeting and have done quite a lot of media interviews since.

The key as we navigate the incredibly complex procurement process has always been to make sure that we discuss our thoughts with Residents, their families and carers and staff first and everyone else second, yet at the same time there is a legal framework that has to be worked through.

As was to be expected following the announcement the press were keen to know the answer not to the question where will the preferred bidder be investing and building new homes but where might be closing.  A reasonable question but one that simply can’t be answered yet, but I did make the point somewhat repeatedly that when that is fully worked through the very first to know will be residents, their families and carers and staff.

Throughout this process uppermost in my mind has been the fact that whilst they might be SCC’s Residential Care Homes, to those who live there it is their home and I have at times been dismayed at the lack of sensitivity to that, in some of the comments others have made. No one is more aware of the cocners of residents and their families and carers than myself and our officer team, that is entriely naturally and right and proper but in the visits I undertook to each and every home to discuss our thoughts, we explained why we need to change the way we provide and over the next few months I shall be keeping a promise I made to go back and to explain, in person, what we are doing.

Personally I thing this is great news, the Preferred Bidder – Care UK is an extremely well respected provider and the level of investment I will be able to confirm in the coming months is a good leap along the path we as a county need to take to make sure over the coming years we are providing the sort of facilities we would all want for our loved ones and ourselves.

Since we started this process, over the past couple of years I have heard a lot of words spoken by those opposed to SCC us no longer being a provider, much of it lacking rigour and I think some of that nonsense has been extremely worrying for residents and families.

This change will bring about delivery of new homes and an increase in the capacity particularly the higher needs end of residential care; something that we most definitely will need here inSuffolk. We simply do not have the capital needed to do this as a Council ourselves.

Above all else it seems to me that the role of the Council must always be to make sure we plan for our ageing population, deliver services as cost efficiently as we can so that we can help the maximum number of people and how we can be there to make sure standards are upheld, maintained and improved.

As the council stops being a direct provider it will be able to focus its attention on making sure that if you or I need help and support as we all grow older the County Council is there to protect us now and in the future. Along side the coming announcements we will be talking about the councils future role to help shape the quality we would all want for our loved one, ourselves included!

Annual Lakenheath Parish Meeting

Maybe it’s just me but annual meetings seem to come around faster and faster these days must be something about age but I prefer not to go there. Last night 20 people ‘packed’ into Lakenheath Village Hall, 20 people most of whom I know on first name terms and are the people most engaged in village life from Parish Councillors to concerned residents.

The great challenge it seems to me is how can we drive up the attendance and make the meeting more relevant to people in the village so they attend. A community meeting is about people coming together to discuss the issues they collectively have to deal with and I wonder if we could make the next meeting different perhaps with stands around the ends of the hall from the various community groups explaining what they do and how people can join, perhaps if we provide a cup of tea and a few sandwiches so people can genuinely make a night of it. Anyway I shall be talking with the Chairman of the meeting to see what we can do to make it more interactive and better attended.

For those people who did attend in my few minutes I talked about the challenges ahead , the way in which Suffolk County Council was facing them and what I thought were the key issues the village faced from the need to use the bus service that I had fought so hard to make happen; to the great news that I have secured funding to bring back the Matthews Projec team for a long running programme from next month throught the summer to engage with those young people in the village who do not get involved in other activities. I then spoke about the challenges facing FOLK the Friends of Lakenheath Library to get the usage of the Library up and more people engaged in what a great community resource it is, on the about me page I have added a link to the FOLK blog site for anyone interested in following there progress or who would like to get involved in this great project; to asking people to give me feed back on how the Street lighting switch off programme was working for them. I did really touch on my role as one of our two District Councillors on Forest Heath District Council because I knew that Cllr. James Waters the Council Leader and officers would be attending who did precisely that.

The issues around Lakenheath Hall dominated the discussion with them as people’s concerns that this once lovely Hall and grounds continued to be an eye sore were expressed. I will be speaking with the officer who did attend today to make sure that we better communicate the progress that is being made and I will be closely monitoring the discussion with the developers as they hopefully work to put right past mistakes.

All in all a very useful meeting but my thoughts are focused on how to make it more relevant to the community so we truly pack the hall for a really interactive night next year.

Health and Well Being Boards Tool Kit

One of the most interesting thinks I am involved in at the moment is the thinking behind the Health and Well Being Boards.

I am a part of the NHS National Learning Set work and sit in the Collaborative  Leadership work stream and we regularly come together to work on what in the NHS are called products which in the Local Government world are simply called papers and tools.

Whilst there is a great deal of controversy about the various aspects of the Health reforms; the one element that has not has a word of criticism is the Boards as I think everyone agrees they are going to be extremely important in the way in which the health and social care system improves.

As we roll out the work that will take us the better part of a year’s worth of meetings, virtual meetings and a number of workshop days I will post these on my blog for anyone interesting to go and have a read.

Yesterday I was invited to The King’s Fund, to take place in a slightly different day as the LGA and NHS do a body of co-creational round ‘Designing a Development tool for Health and Well Being Boards’.

The day was opened by John Wilderspin who effectively leads for the Department of Health on this important subject and during the course of the day we heard from a wide range of professional setting up Boards and from great thinkers such as Richard Humphries from The Kings Fund who speaks with great wisdom on how we move things forward. For my part I was one of only two Councillors there and it was a privilege to feed in some of the thinking on the Local Government side of things from a Councillor prospective.

At times this whole agenda seems a bit like the Hadron Collider in the two worlds are most definitely colliding and the learning about the other is quite fascinating. Essential I think it’s fair to say we all think that something amazing might just come of it but are not absolutely sure what yet.

 

There is no doubt that in social care we need to need to do things differently and that’s why I presented a new vision and strategy to the Cabinet in Suffolk in February and a big part of this is how we work better with Health colleagues and design a system for the journey the journey all of us will go on at some point in our lives as we need help for our Doctors, Consultants, Community Nurses and social care providers.

To be in at the very start of the journey is quite something and I hope my tiny contribution to the learning and shaping is of some benefit.

Annual Conservative Councillor Association Conference in Leeds

Last Friday I packed my bag and left early to catch the train to attend the annual Conservative Councillors Association (CCA) conference at the Queens Hotel, Leeds which conveniently has an entrance right in the station concourse, so it’s a long way but very easy to get to by train!

Cllr. Robert Gordon, Leader of Hertfordshire, opened the one day conference in his role as Chairman of the CCA and was later re-elected along with most of the existing Baord members.

The only change was that Paul Bettison, the Leader of Bracknell Forest was elected back onto the board which was good to see.

The session before lunch started with an opening address by Bob Neill MP and then a Q&A session with him and Greg Clark MP.

After lunch we had the whole local government team of Eric Pickles MP, Bob Neill MP, Greg Clarke MP, Grant Shapps MP and Baroness Hanham; and we got a clear sense of their frustration with Local authorities who have put up their element of the council tax and they did not spare the Police authorities in this criticism, indeed there was much comment about the forth coming Police and Crime Commissioner and how they might be better at getting the police to understand the need to live within their means, than evidently is the case this year.

Mr. Pickles said he was pleased that over 90% of authorities including Police and Fire authorities have delivered a 0%; he went on to say how the more disappointing those such as Surrey were and if they truly thought that was the best way to serve their residents they should have the bottle to put their increases to referendum.

We then went into the breakout sessions and there were lots of interesting sessions discussing everything from Mutuals to the use of twitter:

Learning for the 21st Century – Councils role in Adult Skills and Lifelong Learning.

The localism Act: Innovations, Entrepreneurship and Local Services

Strategic Asset Management – Key to Service Transformation?

Enabling and Encouraging Communities.

I attended the Using Yourcllr.com and Twitter session to learn more about blogging and my use of twitter.

Then I attended the ‘Be a Councillor’ campaign update session which is something I am very passionate about and lead for the Conservatives in Norfolk and Suffolk on.

In the evening Matthew Hancock our West Suffolk MP was the guest speaker at the dinner and spoke of the issues the national government face and the important role Councillor’s play in delivering the very difficult job and message of shrinking the state. He also spoke about the Unions and that Council Tax payers would be shocked to learn that we have salaried staff who we allow to spend time partly or fully undertaking trade union activities and that we should not wait for the Department of Local Government and Communities (DLGC) but to tackle the issue now ourselves.

Afterwards Matthew and I agreed to have an early breakfast and chat about Constituency matters before he left for home, so I arrived at 7am and who was sitting with Matthew, Eric Pickles and whilst we did not get a chance to talk about West Suffolk we did have very interesting hour discussing councils and conservative values, and of course I did not miss the chance to gently lobby the head man on a few thoughts of my own.

More plenary sessions followed and ended with Mr.Pickles giving the closing address talking about the truly amazing chances that are coming with the introduction of the different elements of the Localism Bill not least the removal of pre-determination.

He then spoke of ‘Pilgrims’ and this is what Matthew Hancock was speaking about those salaried employees we allow to spend part or all of their time on Union activities.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this practice but from my perspective I want to hear what Council Tax payers I represent think to the practice before I make up my mind, after all its their money.

All in all it was an excellent quick conference, back on the train and home, did not get to see much of Leeds which is a shame because it’s a great city, that I have visited quite a few times and really enjoyed.

Suffolk County Council – 0% Council tax rise for the 2nd Year running

Last Thursday at Suffolk County Council we voted for no increase in the County element of the Suffolk council tax for the second year running.

I am delighted with this and passionately argued that this was right and proper in the 3 hour debate.

A few weeks ago we heard that the liberals were going to present an alternative budget but at the start of the debate we had the extraordinary scene of their Budget spokesman saying he had got it wrong on the Radio and in fact meant to say they would only be presenting an amendment to our Budget proposals, simply staggering, because he was actually pushed on it by the Radio presenter and he confirmed an ‘alternative budget’ not an amendment. This very disappointingly amounted to less than a side of A4! – But to be fair that was more than the Labour group who tabled nothing at all and who in my opinion, when they speak start to sound detacted from the world about them, as if the financial troubles we are all facing together have no relavence to Suffolk.

Both of these parties are going to go to the polls in 15 months’ time; hopefully between now and then they might take it a bit more seriously and actually put some effort in.

I am one of those who simply does not agree with increasing the Council Tax unless you absolutely have to.

As a cabinet member in Suffolk I am very aware of the pressure that 0% brings, I have had sleepless nights thinking about services and the effect on staff as many lose their jobs but I am convinced organisations must look to themselves before simply increasing Council Tax. The sort of reckless behaviour of the last liberal/labour adminstration in Suffolk where in one year they put up the council tax by 11.9% and the following year 18.5% must not ever be allowed to happen again. On thursday the opposition looked very uncomfortable at the mention of this but if they can do it once and think it acceptable behaviour then they can do it again.

The key priority of a council must be to provide services and protect the vulnerable and more than that to provide quality services to support people. But time and time again I come back to a fundamental fact the vast majority of people do not look to council services, the vast majority of those on fixed pensions do not look to the councils for services to help them in their old age and increasing the council tax would hurt them.

We are Conservatives and I do not ‘buy’ the argument by officers that Council Tax has to rise. Yes we all agree that no increases is ultimately not sustainable as inflation will of course have to be dealt with, yes we all agree that different councils have different pressures and yes we all agree that the needs in some council areas are very different; but whilst the Government is able to help, whilst we can still find further cost efficiencies we should not hurt the people who elected us to protect them from the liberals and labour!

Conservative Eastern Regional Conference with Andrew Lansley as the Key note speaker

On Saturday I drove with a couple of fellow party activists to Soham Village College for the biannual Eastern Regional Conservative Conference.

The day was wide ranging from the opening session on Police and Crime Commissioners to the closing key note from the man in the spotlight Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health.

At lunchtime I had a catch with the other 3 Eastern Regional Chairman and over the school Lunch in the school Canteen we chatted about the increasing numbers and excellent calibre of people coming forward to be considered to be the Conservative candidate for the Police and Crime Commissioners.

The conference was closed by Andrew Lansley and he was greeted by a supportive round of applause when he stood to speak, and by the time he sat down we saw the conviction he has for the changes he is championing, during the Q&A session we saw the great depth of knowledge he has, I asked a question about the Dilnot proposals and his understanding of the work to date was very impressing and indeed encouraging.

As Portfolio Holder for adult and Community Services at Suffolk County Council I sit on the Health and Well Being Board for Suffolk. I chair the network of Lead members for Adult Social Services and the key work of that group is considering the emerging reforms. I also work closely with senior Management teams of Suffolk and the Great Yarmouth and Waveney PCTs as well as the Chief Executives and Chairmen of the Acute Trusts that’s the Ipswich and West Suffolk Hospitals to you and me. I am also actively building relationships with the leaders of Suffolk’s emerging Clinical Commissioning Groups. Nationally I am member of the NHS Learning sets looking at the Well Being Boards and the emerging Health and Social Care Bill. Also as a Council we have made extensive representations to the various consultations that have been produced during the bills progress. As such I consider that I am reasonable well informed and able to comment on the proposals and I have to say I absolutely think that what is proposed is a set of reforms that gently tip the balance of power and focus to where it need to be; the objections seem to me to be about vested interests looking out for their members, T

The recent Commons select Committee for Health have under the great chairmanship of Stephen Dorrell MP have produced a very challenging report on the state of Health and Social care and its integration or lack of it.

The Health and Social Care bill is but a step on a journey to a more responsive, better integrated service to serve all of us and I fully support it. If the proposals are anything they are an opportunity to do better and help create a more integrated service and I for one am very supportive and think we need to see just how far they progress us.

As usual a thought provoking Conference that was a great mix of high level thinking, practical on the ground solutions, how to improve the party structure and really good debate about how to improve the services we provide our communities.

Cllr. Russell Harsant

Very sad funeral on Tuesday morning for my colleague on Suffolk County Council, Russell, who passed away after a short illness.

As is always the way at funerals you learn aspects of a person’s life you simply were not aware of, not least that Russell was 78 year old he always appeared much younger particularly in his outlook on life. Ben Gummer MP spoke with great eloquence about his friend and his words got me thinking about the first time I met Russell and his wife Liz long before I became a Councillor as I campaigned in Ipswich.

Russell was a committed campaigner and Councillor and I always recall his relaxed nature when out campaigning, he always had a sparkle in his eyes and enjoyed the banter out campaigning as much as I do. His commitment to Ipswich was unreserved and the turn out from across the political spectrum was very noticeable and was perhaps a mark of respect for a man whose committment to his town transcended politics.

When I became Portfolio Holder he would often come to talk to me about a resident whom he had concerns for and he was truly dedicated in the way he worked for those whom he represented.

Liz and Russell had politics in their blood and those he represented will miss his dedication.

But I am sure he is already getting involved in heaven taking up with the administration concerns of those on the clouds in his area.

‘Be a Councillor’

Long day last Wednesday, with an early start to get to the NHS Health and Well Being Board Learning set Conference in the splendid surroundings of the BMA in Taverstock Square, London where we spend the day with the other learning sets discussing our work so far in this year-long project to share best practice as each Authority area sets up, forms and make their respective boards take shape.

Then it was on the Terrace of the House of Commons for the Launch of the ‘Be a Councillor’ 2012 campaign; a splendid setting for a really worthwhile campaign. Chatted to lots of people missed the 9:15 train and so did not get home until pushing midnight.

Last year I was the Conservative lead in East Anglia for the campaign and whilst it was not a great success I certainly did feedback the elements I thought needed to be changed to get the programme going. So this year I was asked if I wanted to arrange a county pilot and I jumped at the chance to see if we could make it more relevant, and actually find new people to stand, so far I have secured £20,000 of funding from the LGA and Improvement East – the Suffolk campaign starts next week.

You know if you saw an Advert: Be a Councillor? You would think the ad would carry the wording ‘If you are not white, male and over 60 please do not apply’, now of course that ridiculous but if you looked round the average Council Chamber you would think it, so the challenge is to find more women , more BME candidates, and younger people to stand for Councils. This is not about trying to recruit people to stand as conservatives, that is not the point; the point is that we need to have an effective campaign that encourages different people from different backgrounds to come forward irrespective of their political persuasions; all our Councils will be stronger if they are more representative of the poeple they serve, its a simply as that.

I look forward to blogging and tweeting what we are doing over the coming weeks.

Next Generation Alumni and Council tax rises

On Saturday I attended the Next Generation Leadership Centre Alumni event where those who have worked with Christina Dykes on a yearlong journey to better understand the role of Councillors as political leaders come back together to discuss the topics of the day and feed into national Politicians, on Saturday we were joined by Bob Neill MP and we had our usual lively debate.

There is a wonderful programme of training offered on every connectible subject for Councillors from the LGA but for all its strengths it is all entirely a-political in fact every session starts a bit like an AA meeting with the two basic rules ‘Chatham House’ and ‘we must not be political’ stated, chanted and agreed.

The great strength of the Leadership Centre for Local Government is precisely that it is different it’s training is entirely political delivered in three stream one Conservative and two other’s; one something to do with how best to sit on the fence and the other focussing on spending all the money in the good time and saying nothing to do with us gov’n now that it’s all gone wrong.

On Saturday amongst the many subjects we explored we discussed the almost unbelievable news that some Conservative controlled Councils are putting up their Council tax and not taking up the rebate offered by the Government. To my mind this is quite simply staggering; in these difficult times government has offered to help and we should take it up.

We all know that we cannot continue to offer 0% forever as each year this is in fact a cut after inflation; this year Suffolk’s 0% is more like a 3% cut.

In my own Council, officer talk about the business of the council and that 0% is unsustainable but we are not businesses we are Councils and our role as Councillors and politicians is to be demanding in the way we hold the Councils to account. As politicians we are here to represent our communities and my community tell me load and clear the best thing I can do to help them in these difficult time as they try to balance their household budgets is to keep Council tax down, this is also the number one fear of my older residents who struggle to live on their pension as it is.

I utterly reject the notion of putting up the Council tax this year and am extremely proud that Suffolk Conservatives are so demanding of the organisation that it is making savings; the majority of which are in the back office rather than hurt people in these difficult times by putting up Council tax.

There are many aspect of being a Councillor that have nothing o do with politics but I say there are just as many that are political and that defining what it means to be a Conservative, Liberal Democrat or Labour Councillor is just as important as learning community leadership, in fact I would say it was an integral part of community Leadership.

There are great rumblings as to what the future holds for the Leadership Centre, I for one hope it can flourish and deliver more training courses some long, some short, all focused on being political.

To Brussels and back!

A couple of weeks ago it was agreed at a meeting of the East of England Local Government Group Lead member for Health and Adult Social Services Network, where we come together to discuss all things Public Health, Health Services and Social Care that we would become a founding member of a new organisation called the European Regional and Local Health Authorities or EUREGHA for short.

And so on Thursday after a full day’s work, I travel to Brussels; I managed to get to the hotel at 7:30pm just in time to check  and off to a meeting with Paul Laffin to finish drafting my two speeches for the following day, then off for a Belgium steak frites in his local; thankfully his office the East of England European office was only a few yards from the hotel.

On Friday morning we met up and walked to the founding General Assembly in the splendid surroundings of the Congress of the Regions.

I think that love or loath the European Union and putting aside the seismic battle that is taking place to save the Euro whatever the currency there is a lot of funding worth chasing down as we work to find ever better ways to help and support our ageing population.

The previous membership of the forerunner to this organisation was a key factor in Suffolk leading being successful late last year with a successful funding bid to the European union with our ACS team now leading a work programme across Europe on Active Ageing and we, little old Suffolk won 375,000 euro worth of funding to lead it and pay for it, a great achievement and in part I am in Brussels to cement this and build on it for the whole of the Eastern region’s Health and Social Care sector.

The aims of the new organisation are very much along the lines the Network  to share our different approaches so we can help each other not waste time and money ‘reinventing the wheel’, or worse doing things by trial and error. We have influence and power and with power comes responsibility; to make sure that we are making the right moves and we do that by making sure that we learn from the best and indeed from what has not worked elsewhere.

Importantly the East of England membership is free, a price I like, in fact better than free because it was proposed that our East of England office would provide the new organisation with office space; one desk in lieu of the 5,000 euros membership fee and one desk to be rented to the new organisation actually allowing us to reduce the running costs office, brilliant.

The opening sessions were very much along the lines of what I was wanting to hear, speaker after speaker talked about an ageing society and the need to better integration of Health and Social Care services; I wanted to hear this as my agreed task was to push for the organisation to focus on this very issue. We also receive updates on findings so far on the important on-going work streams around eHeath, Cancer treatment and Benchmarking that are going on across Europe.

After the morning sessions we walked to the European Parliament and had lunch to discuss the progress of the organisation, it was here that I made my ‘intervention’ strange term but that is what a proposal is called in Europe, asking that we add Social and Health care integration as the next work stream to look at; this seemed to be broadly speaking agreed as the next stream, half the task for the day completed and a nice lunch and ice breaking session to bott!

After lunch we walked to the European Regional offices of Lower Austria the second set of speeches and the formal signing of the charter document. That done I rushed back to my hotel which was opposite their office, collected my bags and onto the metro to get back to the Eurostar station Gard du Midi just in time to catch the 5:56 to London as I was attending a dinner in London on the Friday evening ahead of a mini conference the next day for the Next Generation of the Leadership Centre Alumni.

All in all a fascinating day’s work; meeting and working with my opposite numbers from across Europe and hopefully the start of us in the Eastern Region being better and better at unlocking European funding, the big push for the new organisation will be for the 2014-2020 funding round where across Europe there is 446 million euros being made available for suitable projects now that is funding we need to be extremely focused on and membership of  EUREGHA is a corner stone of our Suffolk and East of England approach.

Not only is there funding out but there is also real learning to be had from other regions of europe.

Tomorrow I am meeting my opposite number in Lower Austria and I really want us to learn from their integrated Care model across health and social care. Sweden are also at the meeting and their Dementia services are something every one is keen to understand better.

Whatever you think of Europe we are all facing an ageing population and the one thing I know is its really daft to use a trial and error method of doing thing’s.

It’s always far better and cheaper to get out there, engage and find the best ways to be something, learning from the best.

Anyway enough of that back to the mountain of papers to be read before my meeting this evening.

Lobbying Mr. Pickles

Last night I attended a reception at No. 10 Downing street and as promised to the East of England Network for Adult Social Care at our last meeting, if I got the chance to speak with Eric Pickles I would lobby his about the Dilnot proposals.

I did get that chance and in those few brief moments I talked about the costs, he said ‘its very expensive lad’ I said indeed but if we shift monies around the total health system in each county we can pay for, he ‘ehy but can you’ I said yet we can and that’s what the Health and Well Being Board can achieve, he pause, looked me in the eyes and then moved on!

A11 Update – The Brandon question

Had a really excellent meeting on the duelling of the A11 yesterday at Endeavour House. The meeting was chaired by Cllr. Guy McGregor Portfolio Holder for Transport from Suffolk County Council and Matthew Hancock MP for West Suffolk.

Over the years I have attended many meetings on the duelling of the A11 some even before I was a Councillor as the West Suffolk Association Deputy Chairman usually with Richard Spring MP for West Suffolk, now Lord Risby of Haverhill, as he did battled to see its duelling.

The meeting was packed with Representatives from Brandon and the local community with every layer of Council well represented both by Officers and Councillors both in Suffolk and Norfolk. We heard a presentation from the highways Agency that was both encouraging and discouraging. They opened with the Bury Free Press front page article exposing plans that traffic might be diverted through Brandon as the A11 closed during construction, they also read the email they sent to the BFP and to be very fair to them the article was less that supportive and a very sensational illogical conclusion to what they were actually saying.

In very flat engineering references they talked about the road staying open as traffic is managed from old to new carriageway and they there may be moments the road might have to close for safety reasons but they would do everything they could to make this the dead of night and as little as possible.

As this point I stressed the need for the Highways Agency to work with Cllr. McGregor and his team who are well used to dealing with the local press and know how to discuss matters with them and get them to understand what is being said. I also said they should, from now on in, make sure that all of us local Councils, Councillors and Community groups are sent something as simple as an email to keep them informed

We can but hope they listen, nobody is expecting Highway engineers to be experts at public engagement but working with our communities is our ‘bread and butter’ and they must use our networks as a apart of the construction if they wished to keep people informed and take our communities on this good news journey, yes there will be some disruption

Matthew Hancock, the new MP for West Suffolk gave reassurances to the meeting about the plans to get on with it and all in all people left the meeting in a far better mood than that in which they entered.

I think our communities have been very patience waiting for this major error to be corrected, MP’s both old and new have battled hard to keep this in the political arena not the long grass.; campaigners whilst they have seen the road constantly diminished with shortened entry slip roads and no proper solution for the Barton Mills roundabout. And in my own Patch the communities of Lakenheath, Eriswell and Icklingham restrained in their disappointment that the B1112 will not have access up onto the new road merely an underpass.; Tuddenham, rightly, remain very worry about the way in which their road crosses to get to Barton Mills and I have and will keep up the pressure to see a speed camera to protect this dangerous crossing.

I look forward to the official opening with Matthew Hancock MP and Lord Risby of Haverhill cutting the Ribbon. We will then  go straight to Barton Mills Village Hall and I’ll host the first meeting of the A11 action group to start the campaign for improvements and a proper flyover at Barton Mills, such is life!

New Planning

One of the more interesting aspects of the Localism Bill that is making its way on to the statute books is the new Planning regime and the changing role of Councillors in the decision making process; more that administrators of tight directive nation policy it will be for Councillors to have opinions and make real decisions based on their debate The days of Councillor just going along with those who shout loudest in a Community usually the NIMBIES, are gone.

Councillors, me included, have long argued that we should have the power to decide what is built where but with power comes responsibility, a responsibility to show real leadership of their communities, often when communities themselves are not immediately in agreement real leadership to delivery economic grow through planning commercial build and real leadership to delivery new homes both private and socially rented to those who need homes in our community but just can’t afford the full market price.

Beyond commercial and residential development since I have been the Suffolk County Council Portfolio Holders for Adult and Community Services my focus has been on how we are addressing and are going to address the housing needs of our aging population.

This week I spent couple of days at Warwick University looking at the implications of the New Planning Regime and using the time away from the day jobs, really thinking about the how the changes will effect Suffolk FlexiCare, our system wide approach to working with the District and Borough Councils looking at the projected growth and housing demands of older people not at a strategic countywide basis but in each town and village.

Getting this message across to the experienced Councillors and Planning Officers in each planning authority is a challenge but with the introduction of the neighbourhood plans that challenge is even greater. To help individual communities as they draw up their plans to understand what planning for an aging society really means from buildings for life standards, to allowing land allocations for ExtraCare and Residential Care Home developments.

The quality of life for all residents is affected by good planning and the future needs of an aging population must be in everyone minds that will have influence of the future of housing and development in our communities.

A meeting far away

Last Wednesday I travelled into Essex, for a meeting of the East of England Local Government Group Lead member for Health and Adult social services Network, where we come together to discuss all things Public Health, Health Services and Social Care.

The network is where member from across Eastern Region or as I like to call it East Anglia, gather to discuss all things Public Health, Health Services and Social Care so that we learn from each other and try not to “re-invent the wheel”.

I have the singular honour to be its Chairman and reach meeting is hosted by one of the group this quarter’s turn was Essex and so the splendid surroundings of Essex County Council we heard from officers working on the Health Watch agenda both from the Department of Health perspective and the work that Essex CC are doing in establishing theirs.

It’s a great group and I think by sharing our different approaches we can and help each other not waste time and money ‘reinventing the wheel’, or worse doing things by trial and error. We have influence and power and with power comes responsibility; to make sure that we are making the right moves and we do that by making sure that we learn from the best and indeed from what has not worked elsewhere.

I suspect we all think that the changes and the development of the Health and Well Being Boards are a really good development, so good in fact that I suspect most people something that most of us thought it existed already!

Paul Laffin from the East of England European Office presented a paper on why we as a network should become a founding member of a new organisation in Europe called the European Regional and Local Health Authorities or EUREGHA for short.

We all agreed that  we can and should learn from Europe where we know the Lower Austrian Region has been integrating services for years and other places are exemplars as to how go about things such as the Swedish work on dementia Care services, the whole of Europe has the same issues we face with an ageing population and we should be learning from each other.

The first question that sprang to mind is that we are Lead Members and Portfolio holders predominantly for Social Care and often Public Health but that other than the influence in the Health and Well Being Boards we are not ‘Health’. If was discussed that in fact Health at the moment is not organised with Democratic representation and that our network was the closest thing we have to a Regional Democratic health Structure, my mind cast back to my thoughts on Health Commissioners but I digress.

The second question was how much, I was very much aware that our previous membership of the forerunner to this organisation was a key factor in Suffolk leading a successful bid late last year and getting 375,000 euros of funding for our active ageing research and work programme. Our membership would be free, a price I like, in fact better than free because it was proposed that our East of England office would provide the new organisation with office space 1 desk in lieu of the 5,000 euros membership fee and one desk to be rented to the new organisation actually allowing us to reduce the running costs of the East of England office in Brussels.

The it was resolved that we should as a group representing our region become a member of a new organisation and that I am Chairman should attend the opening General Assembly and be a co-signature to its founding.

It seems to me that Europe is a bit like marmite but whether you love or loath it; there is vast amounts of funding available for projects to make improvement in all areas of local government’s delivery of services and we should hunt that down,  just as the rest do; Brussels here I come!

Police and Crime Commissioner what about a Health and Care Commissioner

This week the Prime Minister David Cameron said that he wants health and social services to work better, work differently and work together for the benefit of all but especially the care and support provided to older people. I could not agree more. It now looks like their will be a formal duty to co-operate, which is essentially the requirement of the Health and Well Being Board.

This government has done more in 18 months to shift the decision-making on Health than the previous government did in 13 years. The creation of the Health and Well Being Board is so fundamental, so significant, yet few outside the system realise the beneficial impact it will have on the stated aims of our Prime Minister and the aspirations of many of us, patients, families,and  staff, including myself in my role, who have to grapple with the system on a day-to-day basis. A system that the Prime Minister rightly says must do better.

Yet it also seems to me this is but a step and should only be a step towards a Health and Care Commissioner. The Police service is an incredibly important part of our lives but in terms of public interest, spend and number of people employed the Police service is but a minnow compared to the health service in all its many forms, it is true to say the police service is one organsiation whereas health is and will remain a collection of providers and services but all the more reason, I say.

As with the Police and Crime Commissioner an accountable person who has the mandate to hold Health’s Hospitals, GP’s and a range of services providers and the social care system to account in each area and to be held to account on this issue that after the economy is of the greatest concern to all of us our National Health Service.

I have the political responsibility for the care services in Suffolk, and as such am accountable for them. It is a significant responsibility but social care is only a part of a person’s journey and at times it feels a bit like playing tennis with one hand tied behind your back very, very restricting. Whilst the Health and Well Being Board is the place we can begin to join services together; ultimately elected Commissioners would have the mandate to drive and deliver the vision David Cameron set out last week.

The police service in Suffolk employs 2,400 people, the health and care services across Suffolk employs tens of thousands of staff. The police service has a net annual spend of £114.6 million; the health and care services spend runs into the billions, it is so vast in fact, that one of the first jobs of the Health and Well Being Board is to try to put down in one place exactly how much and how many people are employed across all the services. Adult Social Services alone spends more supporting older and vulnerable adults than double the entire police budget.

As was reported in various commentaries the most thorny outcome of a better service was sumed up by the NHS confederation’s deputy policy director, Jo Webber, said: “Integrating care will improve services, particularly for people who are frail and those with long term conditions. But it will also involve making some really difficult decisions as hospital activity is reduced and moved into the community.” Who better than an elected Commissioner to explain to communities why this traditional ‘red line in the sand’ for most residents and indeed Politicans is in fact a good outcoem not some thing to take to the streets over.

If it is right to have true democratic elected leadership in the policing service it is right in the health service, it’s a simply as that.

A Friend’s Funeral

Yesterday I along with friends, went to the funeral of a mate.

Some of us had done business with him, some of us were childhood friends and others had been out with him over the years to many a party but all of us had been to Le Mans with him on our annual boys trip to the great 24hr race.

He was our age and his partner spoke of her love for him and how she felt robbed she would not be sharing her old age with him and how he would not see his Children live their lives. It certainly was a very sad and emotional funeral and burial, with not a dry eye anywhere; at the wake they served a glass of champagne for a toast to him and boy was that fitting, for he loved his champagne!

The occasion reminded us all just how fragile life is, for all the day-to-day stuff and the crap, at the end of it all not much of that matters, actually its about family, friends and the effect you have on those around you that does matters, now of course we all know that to be true but lets face it we tend to forget in the rush, the deadlines, the emails and pace of life, but we should not.

The New Year!

So the Turkey has been eaten, the New Year’s Eve party recovered from and the resolutions, well lets just say some have already been broken.

So to the year ahead,  a new look for the blog and more frequent shorter blogs is one resolution I shall be sticking to!

We are in the process of putting the budget ‘to bed’ and there will be some interesting debates to watch as this progresses through the cabinet and Full Council stage at Endeavour House, lets just hope the Liberals do a bit more work on an alternative that their very poor efforts last year.

In April we take the final decision on who is the prefered bidder for Suffolk County Council Care Homes project and due to the commercial nature of the bidding process I can’t say much a this stage except that I think we have all been really pleased with the quality of the bidders, once announced I am really  looking froward to going back to the 16 Care Homes Suffolk has and talking and explaining how we are delivering on our promises I made when I was last there.

Then there is just the same matter of working with an ever tighter budget and continuing to deliver quality services, an exciting time ahead.

I hope you will enjoy reading my blog, please do post comments; and I hope it is a happy and successful year ahead for you, your business and your family.

Fuel Poverty

I thought the debate in the House of Commons this week on Fuel pricing was a fascinating one and Chloe Smith MP summed it up perfectly at the end, there is the time for debate and listening and there is a time to adjust the Tax base but I would say the Government does need to heed the messaging as I know this is one of the gravest threats to a country or even semi rural way of life and when people talk they are worried, very worried about how they are going to pay for fuel. Daily and I do mean daily businesses are going out of business because people will no longer travel.

This is a difficult balance between raising tax as this country as we all know is financially in a mess and the government must act carefully and with a broad sense of direction to regain our fiscal sanity. 13 years of a fiscally irresponsible Labour Government who made no effort at all to put something aside for a rainy day, has been a complete disaster and as we are seeing being played out ‘in front of our very eyes’, economically globally and in Europe unfortunately it not so much a rainy day as almost permanent climate change; when the head of the IMF starts to talk about ‘the lost decade’ you know we all going to hell in a hand cart.

To me one of the key issues is the cost of petrol and diesel in relationship to where you live; fuel poverty is significantly higher in rural communities such as mine where to enjoy the activities that are a bus stop away in the towns and cities you have to spend significantly more money. I would like to see this increasing divide addressed and it seems to me that can be done by residential address Post Code car tax breaks, a relatively easy thing to calculate and advise people of.

However along with the rising price of petrol and diesel I think there is an even bigger issue fuel poverty is also about being able to heat our homes this winter.

In my home village there is no gas, accordingly many, many people use kerosene to heat their homes, and the price of this is now fearful. I am a trustee of a small family charity started by my Grandfather some 50 years ago given a bag of coal to the old folk of the village, the charity has property it lets and uses the rental income to, over the years, provide a number of fun activities from outings to the seaside to support of luncheon clubs etc. Today it principle activity to essentially back to a bag of coal at Christmas; over the winter a number of older people will run out of oil and we help them pay for a supply, then we work with them to suggest they take out a payment play with an oil company to spread the cost. I am also aware in my home village in 2011 in order to be able to pay for that next supply of fuel or the electricity bill, older people are making food or fuel decisions that that is simply wrong.

I would say the 5% VAT heating oil is wrong and night time (what most of us still call Economy 7) electricity should be stopped, a warm home in the winter an essential, if nothing else the cost to the system of dealing with people who get cold related illnesses far outweighs the 5% tax base, for all the warm schemes, for all the insulation, heating your home is not a choice nor luxury is a basic human requirement and should no be taxed.

The future of adult social care and support: a roundtable discussion

As a part of the Department of Health’s ‘Caring for our future’ engagement exercise yesterday I attended a conference to discuss the up and coming Social Care white paper with such leading lights as Lord Norman Warner who was a co-author of the Dilnot Proposals, David Behan CBE the Department of Health’s Director General of Social Care. and Paul Burstow MP the Care Minster amongst others.

Lord Warner opened and spoke of the need for structural reform to the NHS and Social Care.

When you think that in Suffolk the Health System spends more that £4.5Billion it puts into context the figures he quoted such as 75% of NHS spend is for those with long term medical needs and that over £50% of the total spend is in the Actue Hospital Sector.

Interestingly he spoke of the Kidderminster effect where an independent won a Parliamentary election seat about saving a hospital that should have shut as a part of structural change and how there is much that MPs and the public alike will need convincing off.

He went on to say that without fundamental reform you won’t get the financial services industry to come up with the insurance and financial planning products; nor integration of the Social Care and CHC care assessment and you won’t get true portability.

He concluded that “There isn’t really another structural show (Dilnot) in town”

In answer to a question about how to drive integration of Adult and Social Care Assessment he said that in his opinion you have to define what integration means in legislation to make Health Services engage.

Next up was Frances Patterson QC who spoke about the recommendations of the Law Commission Report and right on the middle was perhaps the most significant element of al before the Social Care bill, if it results in a new care assessment process and the bar is set too ‘low’ then the costs will frankly bust local government in a one swoop!

The David Behan shared some of the latest thinking about the Social Care white papers and In answer to a question about Health and Well Being Boards David Behan said people keep asking can we do it and we have said all along that you don’t need permission.

However it strikes me that in my experience we accept we don’t need permission but Health do they need it is writing in triplicate to do anything.

Next came round table discussions and David Behan sat in on my tables and I was able to expand on the Suffolk Flexicare approach to helping shape the Care and housing markets, As Caroline Tapster the Chief Executive of Hertfordshire was sitting next to me throughout the morning I did have to acknowledge that I somewhat shameless stole their initial work on replacing Sheltered Housing with Extra Care Housing and expanded on it to drive forward Suffolk Flexicare.

Then came a session with the Care Minster Paul Burstow MP and a number of searching questions were put to him including one from me about the need to have it legislated to allow monies to shift around the system if savings are made and that if this meant that Acute Hospitals wards closed as a result the Heath and Well Being Boards have a Leadership Role to play in explaining to Residents why this was a great step forward as a more intelligent spend of the systems monies rather than cuts. David Sprasons my fellow regional Chairman of the Lead Member Group form the Midlands made the point that if we could shift 1% of the money by making improvements to long term care needs, getting older people out of the acute Hospitals wards and into Residential Care with medical supervision, a far better place to rest and recover and find new ways to better support people and prevent them presenting to the Acute’s in the first place we could pay for all of Andrew Dilnot’s Proposals without any need for additional monies to come into the system.

In answer to both of these Paul Burstow welcomed the thoughts and said this was in part about creating the framework to allow these things to happen and he hoped the Social Care White Paper would address these points and it was in part about MP’s and the General Public understanding what we are about.

After the sandwich lunch we then had a meeting of the Chairmen of the Regional Networks to discuss the morning and action points we could take away to discuss with our respective MPS to lobby for the Changes the system needs, the changes older people need, the changes we all need.

Now just leaving to go back to London for the very first meeting of the National Learning sets ministerial launch event for Health and Well Being Board early implementers, as I am Suffolk’s lead on this, but more of that later.

Remembrance Weekend

On Friday at the 11^th hour of the 11^th day I was at Duxford Air Museum for a political Lunch and took the opportunity to have a good look around and observed the 2 minute silence standing between a Spitfire and a modern euro fighters quite a fitting place to be really.

On Saturday morning I attended a small quiet ceremony in West Row and laid a wreath to honour the fallen from that small rural community.

Yesterday was a very busy Sunday, first at the War Memorial in Beck Row at which I again laid a wreath on behalf of Suffolk County Council, then a quick drive to the Church for a ceremony at the War Graves, at the back of the church, before a Church Service.

The War Graves is the final resting place of 51 American Aircrew, 14 Canadian, 5 Australians and 4 from New Zealand all of whom fought their Second World War from Mildenhall and Lakenheath Air Bases and who paid the ultimate sacrifice, in the Roll of Honour special mention is made of a young man who was killed after 22 successful missions and found to be only 17 years old.

In the afternoon I was again honoured to lay a wreath in my home village, the sheer numbers of people who make the effort makes me really proud to come from Lakenheath; as over 120 of us young and old from the primary school pupils to old soldiers who fought for this country in many conflicts since the Second World War march from one end of the village to the War memorial with the splendid Lakenheath Silver Band at our head as we watch many hundreds of people turn out to pay their respects.

It really is quite an honour to lay a wreath at the foot of the memorial where so many names from my extended family and the village are recorded having defended our way of life with their own. Once the wreaths are laid we march to the village church for a Service of Remembrance with standing room only, instead of the organ playing, the hymns are accompanied by the Silver Band it’s quite a noisy but fitting sound.

At the end of the day after we have march on to the British Legion for a cup of tea, I walked home thinking of all the services I have attended in the Village Church over the years from family baptisms including my own, to weddings and indeed funerals and these Remembrance Services over the years and the sense of community that exists in the village that sees so many people take part in these important acts of Remembrance to those who gave their lives for all of us.

John Klaschka 1940 – 2011

On Thursday I attended the funeral of Cllr. Dr. John Klaschka. The little Parish Church of Kesgrave was packed with Family, Friends, Neighbours and his political colleagues on Suffolk Coastal District Council and Suffolk County Council, councilors and officers alike.

The opening reading was given by John’s fellow District Councillor Sally Ogden and was that lovely poem by Max Ehrmann ‘The Desiderata’ which is as relevent today as it was when he wrote in the 1920′s.  Both the Leader of Suffolk County Council Mark Bee and local MP Dan Poulter shared some of their memories of John and then his son Robert and stepson David spoke of their loving memories of their lives with him. As they spoke I pondered the many aspect of his life that I knew nothing about and how interesting it would have been to get an insight to some of the things he has done both as work and in his leisure time.

Today people set out their lives, their triumphs and occasional disasters on Facebook where in few minutes you can see just about everything someone has ever done. Yet with John it was always about what he wanted to do next, not what he had done or achieved which was considerable; I recall the week before he died we had a conversation at the group meeting about the work of Audit in the months ahead and some of the difficult subjects it was currently looking at.

His passion and belief in the usefulness of Audit to help the organisation move forward will remain in my mind as will his kindness to me as a new Councillor when I joined his Audit Committee and the time he generously gave to provide me with a better understanding of its role and of the organisation. I now sit on the Audit committee of Forest Heath District Council for the very reasons and values he instilled in me.

John had talked about his wife’s June’s illness and the difficulties they were both facing together; his ability to reflect on the tough times ahead was a true testament to his character. At the gathering after the funeral June spoke of her battle and how she would sadly be joining John soon, it struck me that by then Heaven will, if not already, have an Audit committee and John would be on it!

He took the role and responsibility of Councillor very seriously, yet could, for all that, laugh at the occasional political absurdity of it all.

The people of Suffolk have lost a true servant and somehow SCC will not quite be the same without him.

School days have changed!

Yesterday I was at the official Opening Event of the new build at Lakenheath Community Primary School and was shown around by two very well drilled pupils who had a route and knew what they were to point out.

I asked them about the star system the school uses and about the various names of the classes and what they thought of all the changes, they were rightly proud of the great improvements. One of the things that really impressed me was the computer interactive white boards as my mind drifted back to my own school days with Mr. Jones, a maths teacher of the ‘old school’ his black gown grey from was wiping of chalk off the blackboard he used this instead of a blackboard rubber for that was for the throwing at pupils who were not paying attention, soft felt one side block of wood the other!; and I am not joking, his theory was that if he throw it and it hit you it proved his point that you were not paying attention, for if you were, you would have ducked! If it hit you it really hurt, and it did on a number of occasions! oh how times have changed!

The new school buidlings were officially opened by Graham Cook in recognition of him being possibly the oldest living person to have gone to the school. As I walked around I was delighted to see the promises the county and I made three years ago come to life in the great new facilities, not only new classrooms, new toilets and an IT suite but also how the building works have brought together the different extensions to the school over the years, to create a far better flow and layout.

Over a cup of tea I chatted with the Head teacher Emma and we discussed the future for the school and the great changes that the Government was proposing to the school structures.

We discussed the changing role of Head teachers, Governors and the county as the Education Authority and how we all need to work together to give the kids in the village the best possible start to their education.

Across the world Education is the key to the success of the nation state, it is no different here and we all need to value teachers, schools and the role of education in our future prosperity.

From Greek Farce to Greek Tragedy now we are watching the Italian Job!

Currently in the morning on BBC there is a Children’s History educational video screening covering the post First World War and pre Second World War period in Germany and their economic ups and downs and the rise of German National Socialism and its horrific leadership. History is always great, as we know the end game and we can analysis how our predecessors arrived at a particular point or disaster.

It struck me that as we watch the news unfold as to the problems with the Euro are we watching a economic meltdown, there are momentous events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and how that brought about good which are clear to see and understand.

What is happening now is a series of events, of course in the modern world these are being played out in a matter of weeks and months whereas the economic meltdown in 20 and 30’s took 10 years to transpire and for a darker atmosphere to emerge.

I also wonder if in this country many of us watch all this in the false believe that it’s over there and does not effect us, an attitude I think was prevalent in the 1930’s and one that certainly is as untrue now as it was then. As uncomfortable as it is for many of us, the problems Europe face as much ours as theirs and whilst nowadays, hopefully we are talking economics, that is a lesson from our history we should learn.

Europe needs great Leadership at this time on both sides of the English Channel.

Library Decision

Really interesting Suffolk Cabinet meeting yesterday, lots of people asking questions and sharing their opinions about the Library proposals. It seems to me the acid test will be in a few years time as to the library usage. I have watched other county services simply address the savings needed by opening less which to my mind is hardly the way to make the libraries more relevant to peoples lives.

The great challenge now is not so much the savings that must be made, as I personally think the proposals will achieve those, but the degree to which the energy displayed in the debate on the Library service future continues and local residents make Libraries more relevant in community life and that will be self evident by the number of users registered and borrowings.

It seems to me the library service is outstanding, money has historically been lavished on it, my local library is outstanding, bright, modern, very well equipped and with a great member of staff. Yet it has 420 registered users, 1000 people signed the petition which ran for weeks and weeks in the local Co-op and the local newsagents, 80 people turned up at the public meeting called weeks in advance and extremely well advertised and I now have 6 people on the working party looking at how we get more involved, which is great; but the challenge ahead is to get far more of the 5,000 people who live in my home village engaged, using the library to borrow a book, log onto the internet or simply read the papers, that will be the true measure of all the debate.

The Matthew Project Voicebox Project – Lakenheath Skate Park

I have recently asked for a report from the team who ran the sessions at Lakenheath Playing Field for the teenagers who gather there and asked them to come up with a proposal to re-run the programme in the Spring with funding from my Locality Fund.

This is their report, and its an insight ito young people today and their attitudes towards drink and drugs – I would welcome comments as a to what you think about its contents and the proposal.

The Matthew Project Voicebox Project – Lakenheath Skate Park

February – March, 2012 Proposal                                   

Background

Grants from the Transforming Suffolk and Suffolk Foundation’s Safer Suffolk Funds allowed The Matthew Project Youth Team to run a 16 week Voicebox caravan project at Lakenheath skate park on Friday nights from 6-8pm.

The project aimed to  work with young people aged 13 years plus, the local community and partner agencies to help address issues identified in the local community, including  antisocial behaviour, underage drinking and drinking/drug use. We worked in close partnership with the local Safer Neighbourhood Team, local residents, other agencies and the District and Parish Councils, as has been the case in previous projects where our mobile youth caravan has successfully been used for many years to engage with young people in local communities bringing positive change. Two Matthew Project staff and a volunteer delivered structured and informal educational sessions and activities with a focus on personal and social development.

The main aim of the work was to help address the issues being experienced in the local area by; 

• Providing drug and alcohol support to individuals
• Helping young people reduce alcohol consumption/problematic drug use and associated anti-social behaviour
• Enabling young people to make more informed and safer choices by providing information and education about the risks of drugs and alcohol
• Engaging young people in positive activities and experiences
• Providing links to education/employment and volunteering opportunities for individuals to encourage them to fulfil their potential
• Enable young people requiring specialist support to access services
• Develop relationships between young people, the police and the local community

Summer 2011 Lakenheath Voicebox Project

Total number of sessions – 16                    Total number of young people – 55

Summary

The workers cultivated an environment of respect for adults, resources and people in the local community by setting ground rules which also acted as a challenge to anti-social behaviour such as swearing and littering. Two young people we encountered were known in the community for anti-social behaviour and we had the opportunity to talk to them about why this was the case. It was understood that their behaviour was a result of boredom and a reaction from difficult situations they had experienced in life. We delivered brief interventions for them and other young people accessing the project and provided information and advice regarding their specific issues and needs.

The sessions contained activities and discussion on a wide range of issues but tended to focus on alcohol and cigarettes as they seemed to be the substances that many of the young people were using and knew most about. We were able to give harm minimisation advice around alcohol and drug use. One particular young person disclosed that they used alcohol every day and we spoke about the risks and advised regarding getting structured support. We outlined the effects of both alcohol and nicotine on the body and mind.

Staff Evaluation

The Voicebox began as a safe place for young people to go to talk and receive information and advice about drugs and alcohol. We believe this was achieved at Lakenheath skatepark as most of the young people were over the age of 13 so cannot attend the local youth group for under 13’s in the Pavilion. Voicebox was especially popular in bad weather as there is no other shelter that the young people can use. The young people greatly appreciated the fact that we could offer them hot drinks and biscuits for free. We quickly developed relationships with the young people who use the skatepark and other local young people, and rapport and trust was developed over the weeks we were there.  Young people disclosed issues they were experiencing and we provided support and information to meet their needs. Young people were given relevant and factual advice and information about drugs and alcohol and experienced positive activities.  Young people were sad to see us go and we believe would welcome us back and engage again if the project were to recommence at a later date.

Young Peoples’ Feedback

Young people said the following about the project:

[workers were] friendly and helpful, nice and taught us stuff, we can talk to them about anything. I can talk to young people’s worker but not my parents.

[I like that they] come every week, keep us entertained

[I liked] sitting down and talking and meeting new people.

When asked to evaluate the quality of the project overall, 95% of the young people asked said it was excellent.

Community and Professionals’ Feedback

The Voicebox provided an opportunity for professionals to meet with the young people to build relationships and consult with them to hear their opinions and concerns. For example, a PC and PCSO visited one session and talked about the legal side of alcohol use as an underage drinker.   County and Parish Councillors came to speak to the workers and engage with young people, and well as staff from the District Council and a local church youth leader.  One local resident, said I wish there were more people and things like you……it was good to see the police and young people talking together.

Outcomes

• With the information we provided, we enabled the young people to “make better choices” about drugs and alcohol as 95% of the young people asked felt they were more informed to do so.
• When asked what they would do if they needed further advice and information about drugs and alcohol, the majority of young people said they would call The Matthew Project number.
• 79% of the young people asked felt they now knew more about the risks of using drugs and alcohol and unsafe sex.
• Individual young people felt they had achieved/learnt the following as a result of the project: drugs can ruin your life, I don’t think I’m gonna spliff up any time soon (referring to the use of cannabis)

2012 Proposal

After a discussion with Councillor Colin Noble it is felt that an additional 6 week Voicebox project in 2012 would be beneficial to the community and local young people.  It is proposed that the 6 week programme would start in the February half-term holiday to engage with the maximum number of young people and then finish in March.  The aim would be to reconnect with those young people previously accessing the project and to engage with new young people, providing interventions and a safe place to discuss local needs and issues relating to young people.

Monitoring and Evaluation

All elements of the project will be recorded and evaluated in the form of contacts and feedback.  We will be asking for feedback from professionals, young people and the local community

Project Aims

We aim to make a difference to the lives of young people and the community as a whole.   We hope that as a result of our project young people will feel more confident, able to communicate with other members of the community, have a better relationship with law enforcement professionals, be engaging in positive diversionary activities, have higher self-esteem, have higher aspirations and have gained more knowledge around risk-taking behaviour and have reduced their drug or alcohol use.

Let me know what you think?

Better Buses

Since I became a Councillor the single biggest issues in my home village has been people concerned about the bus service, I have worked hard in the background to improve the transport links and so I was really pleased when Coach Services announced they were increasing the frequency of their regular bus service 200/201 between Brandon to Mildenhall Bus Station and in the opposite direction to Brandon, they use low floor buses throughout the route to assist those with disabilities.

This now means for most of the day from 6am then 8am in the morning to 6pm at night Lakenheath has an hourly bus services to the Bus Station in Mildenhall during except Sundays.

This is a real service improvement, particularly when considered with the backdrop of cuts we have had to make with public transport earlier this year in some areas of the county.

In addition, for those who are unable to use regular buses due to more severe disabilities etc, Brecks Bus also operates, Wheels within Wheels, details of which can be found at:

http://www.suffolkonboard.com/community_transport/download_community_transport_leaflets

This service is driven by voluntary drivers and is available to use subject to their availability. It is not a registered public transport service so, irrespective of their circumstances, passengers must pay the operator 33p per mile, but together with the improved hourly service these provide Lakenheath a public Transport service.

The key now is to use it, commercial services exist where people use them, so its up to us now to kept the service, it is goes its because we don’t use it.

Postcard from Manchester

What a difference a year makes as I travelled on the train to Manchester, since Birmingham last year I have seen Jeremy Pembroke retire, lost the County Leadership election, watched as Andrea Hill left Suffolk, been elected onto Forest Heath District Council and voted in as Norfolk and Suffolk Area Chairman for the Conservative Party, not sure which is worst!

Manchester is a long way from Lakenheath but surprisingly easy to get to as a train convenient leaves Ely and 4 hours later you arrive in at Manchester’s Oxford Road Station. As always took the time to plan my days ahead to balance the main sessions with all the fringes I wanted to attend and increasingly the number of short meetings, with political old friends and the number of charities and lobbyists who want to meet and chat. At one stage I was even invited to speak at a Fringe but got bumped as they found an MP instead, oh well such is the lot of a Councillor!

Then off the train and a really short walk to the hotel right opposite, a very grand but very oldVictorian Palace. Stayed in a spectacular room all bottle green glazed bricks and 20 foot high ceiling with a roll top bath in its own little room which looked great until I tried to shower in it and managed to flood the floor each day, it wasn’t so much about putting the towels back to improve my eco credentials it was more a case of mopping the floor to save the people below from a dripping ceiling.

The conference past in its usually mix of chat, food and the occasional late night discussing important matters that I could not remember the next day, which was obviously due to the lateness of the hour!

The key thing I wanted to get from the conference was how the Dilnot proposals were being received and so I made it my plan to attend as many fringes on all things health and social care as was at all possible.

The message came over loud and clear, the issue was as is always the case, everyone saw the merits of the proposals but how were we to pay for them. This of course the right issue to discuss as everything has to be paid for in the end and I spoke where I could about the need for the health system to be proactive when dealing with older people and the money is there in the system but we must, must be smarter as to how we spend it.

As I travelled back I worked on how I and my fellow Lead Members for Adult Social Services could have an impact and what we could do to help see the Dilnot proposals implemented.