Halcyon Care

This afternoon I attended the official opening of the Halcyon Centre in Thornaby. This former infant school building has been transformed into a day care centre for adults over the age of 55 who have been assessed as needing such a facility. It's a relatively small scale operation, only 22 clients allowed on any one day, which covers Eaglescliffe, Yarm, Ingleby Barwick and Thornaby with the surrounding villages. Unlike some centres years ago this one is a hive of activity with arts & crafts on offer at times as well as all kinds of other activities. A 2 course meal is served every day and clients can even have a shower there if that's an appropriate thing for them.
The official opening was carried out by the Mayor and Mayoress of Thornaby, Cllr & Mrs Green, who were obviously proud to have this facility on their patch. Young families came to visit as well as older people and the children of some of the clients. There were raffles, tombolas, cake stall and more - all raising funds to further the extra work done there. The garden looked splendid thanks to the work done by, among others, some of the prisoners from Kirklevington Grange prison. The photos aren't brilliant because I forgot to pick up my camera so these were taken on a phone - not the best camera around!
A short bus journey back into Stockton took me to a complete contrast - Children & Young People committee as a substitute for Alan who's off taking tea with the Queen today. Most of the meeting was taken up with a scrutiny review of Child placements but right at the end were the progress reports on two scrutinies which I'd chaired when on that committee - Teenage Pregnancy and Bullying. I was really bitterly disappointed by the latter one. I feel as though hardly any progress has been made and we've let down another 2 years of children going through our schools. The best that the committee could do was to agree to bring an officer to a future meeting to find out what's going on - toothless or what? Meanwhile no doubt the good schools and youth clubs will protect our young people and the bad ones will go on allowing them to be abused.
The meeting went on so long that I caught the last of the frequent buses home, arriving at the stop a minute before the bus. Interesting to note that the 3 passengers on the bus were two councillors and a council officer!