Children, Young People and Education

Sarah Teather MP & Baroness Joan Walmsley

Swan on the moat - 2 minutes of relaxation between sessions

Peter Belotti, Simon Hughes MP & Baroness Joan Walmsley

I've just spent an exhausting 24 hours in Nottingham with other Lib Dems who are passionate about education and children.  Discussions ranged from how we protect our vital children's services from cuts, given the local government funding settlement agreed by the Tory Secretary of State, through new and exciting ways to encourage parents to help their children develop their potential, to whatever glimmers of hope people are managing to find in our increasingly fragmented education system.  Ministers, teachers, governors, councillors, education advisers, keen Lib Dem education experts and members of the House of Lords team all came together to talk, argue, develop policy proposals and share good ideas from around the country.  Exhausting, stimulating, frightening, challenging, hopeful and inspiring - what a weekend. 
I've certainly come back with some thoughts on things we might do differently in Stockton and which wouldn't cost a lot of extra money -  just a bit of innovation and lateral thinking.
It was also interesting to hear from around the country of how people are reacting to the coalition government.  Despite the best efforts of the media it seems that many people are like those in this borough that I've talked with - keen to see politicians getting on with the job rather than trying to score political points off each other and though not happy with the cuts most are willing to concede that "something had to be done" and to give the government a chance to get it right.

Feeling Cross!

One or two people in Eaglescliffe have, quite understandably, raised questions over recent months about the expenses and allowances paid to councillors. The questions are usually deceptively simple and the answers are anything but simple. Councillors come in all shapes and sizes from all sorts of backgrounds and with a wide range of personal wealth or lack of it. The system that's in place tries to cover for all the possible eventualities, giving an allowance which recognises that people give up a lot of hours to do the job and that if we're going to have councillors who represent the wide range of people in the Borough not all of them will be able to afford to do the job without some financial recompense. In order to be open and fair about the allowances the information is published annually by the council for all to see - what each councillor has had as an allowance and what expenses have been claimed for things not covered by the allowance. These range from travel to council meetings to attending conferences and trainings some distance away.
Contrast that with Westminster, where it seems that expenses were until very recently considered on a par with the exact location of our nuclear deterrent - something never to be revealed to mere mortals. Now that expenses are routinely being publicised by zealous campigners we find that an allowance originally designed to ensure that MPs for constituencies away from London could do their job properly by having a pied a terre in the capital is being abused to provide a second income for some Parliamentarians. But it's all within the rules they say! Well my view is that the rules need to be changed. Perhaps the government ought to build a hostel and house them all next to the Palace of Westminster. Being serious for a moment, I'm amazed that the broadband connection for the Home Secretary's family home should be claimed on expenses when the same government moves more and more information onto the internet and expects ordinary citizens to pay for their own broadband in order to access it! In this day and age it's quite common to run 2 or more computers from the same router at no extra charge. Are they trying to say that the family living in the house wouldn't have broadband if she weren't the Home Secretary?
This afternoon I chaired the monthly meeting of the Western Area Partnership Board. Under the heading "Area Partnership improvement plan" we discovered that the Central Area Partnership has been chosen to pilot a Youth Area Partnership. Very nice for Central Area young people, but the Western Area has been asking for this for years. We were the first of the area partnerships to appoint young people to the board with full voting rights. We were then copied by the other area boards. We've held meetings jointly with groups of young people, we've changed our meeting time and day to enable a youth club to host the meeting. And then we find that the thing we've been asking for is to be done elsewhere, but don't worry we were told "you'll be kept informed of what we learn from the pilot and if it's a success we'll hope to roll it out to other areas". Now excuse us, but the Western Area is a very different partnership to the Central Area, so who says that what works for one will work for the other? Members of the Board made it very plain tonight that we weren't happy at being treated like this and we want to give young people in our area a voice. Whether anything will change as a result we wait to see.

Young People in Need

One of those humbling days today, when people who have a lot of needs also prove to have a lot to offer the rest of us. I had a meeting as Chair of the Western Area Partnership with a young man who doesn't let severe dyslexia hold him back. He's currently doing a degree but in his spare time is working on a number of projects as a volunteer. The one we were officially meeting to discuss is "Twisted Headlines", a project led by the YMCA to overturn the perceptions that young people are all knife-toting, anti social, badly behaved, loud mouthed etc etc. At present the project can't expand at all because there's a lack of funding, but the young people involved aren't deterred. They're busy collecting good news stories from the local press so that they can eventually use them in the creative ways they have in mind. He was hoping that members of the Partnership Board would join in collecting stories so that they gather a huge library of cuttings. I was able to say that we'd put it on the agenda of the next meeting. It seemed like a very small thing to do.
He also told me about work he's doing with Community Campus on homelessness. Again a very creative project is being planned if only they can get funding to carry it out. From what he told me it would involve some discomfort for those of us wh agreed to take part, but should give us an insight into the causes and consequences of homelessness for young people in the Borough. Because of his enthusiasm to tell me about the various things he's involved in the meeting lasted longer than we'd planned but it was worth every minute. He was pleased too that I could get the Cabinet decision from last week about using the Parkfield Hall site to put a purpose-built unit for homeless young people on, something which was news to him.
So a very productive hour in which we shared information on a number of issues of interest to us both. I hope it's going to be the start of a productive relationship.
Then this afternoon it was the bi-monthly meeting of the MALAP, the partnership which tries to ensure that children being looked after by the local authority get as many life chances as children being looked after by their birth or adoptive parents. The council is known as Corporate parent to these children and it's a role that some councillors and many officers take very seriously. We meet every two months to check on what is happening to "our" children, though we don't know them by name and this is not a meeting about individuals. Today we heard the alarming news that the number of young people in our care being placed outside the Borough has risen significantly in the last few months - lots of issues around the accommodation we can provide and lots of questions to be asked. The next meeting is going to focus completely on this topic with the aim of deciding some actions to take to improve the situation. The lighter moment was provided by the news that one of our children has won through the introductory stage of The X Factor, so who knows - we may have a budding star in our corporate family.

Bits and Pieces

Today was a day for catching up on some of the bits which had been left behind - emails unanswered, phone calls unmade etc. Very often on such days the end result is not very satisfying, but today several things fell into place. A meeting of ward councillors, police and youth workers to discuss ways in which we might help both the residents and the young people who plague them by playing football in the "wrong" place is finally in the calendar. Having two lots of people who work different shift patterns makes it difficult to match their diaries but at last we've succeeded. It remains to be seen of course whether more pressing police business arises at the last minute.
The last empty slot for looking after the Fairtrade stall at the Greener Living Roadshow was filled by a volunteer (better than 10 pressed men!). I managed to gather the necessary information together to be able to make a reasonable response to a strong complaint from a resident about the Just 10 event in Preston Park. Add to that sorting a time for a meeting of the Lib Dem group on the council to discuss an issue on which we need to take a view, some filing and a few personal jobs like the shopping and washing, and a relatively productive day emerges!
I was pleased to be able to spend 5 minutes of the day signing a grant application for the Wilson Institute in Long Newton - not in our ward but within the area covered by the Western Area Partnership Board which I chair. The board has met in the Institute and so I know how good it would be to get funding to upgrade the heating, access and other things. I do hope their application is successful.

Fairtrade Fortnight approaches

Two really good meetings today - the sort that make a difference. (Two not so good ones as well but we'll gloss over them). The Fairtrade group met at lunch time and although we were missing a number of our usual members we had a fruitful run through what we've planned for Fairtrade Fortnight. The Town Centre management team have planned a fun Fairtrade event for Feb 22nd in the High Street. Then on Feb 29th the Fairtrade bus is coming through the borough and on 3rd March we have a banana producer from the Dominican Republic coming to visit. Lots of details to tidy up but it's exciting and positive.
This evening I went to the Youth Assembly and talked with them about Fairtrade. Again, quite a few missing but some genuine enthusiasm to be involved and offers of help at the events coming up. Also some good ideas about other things we might do to spread the message, so again an exciting an positive meeting.
Now I just have to re-read the papers for tomorrow's discussions on the budget!

Lib Dem Children & Young People Conference

Every year at about this time the Lib Dem parliamentary education team gets together with those of us who lead on these issues on councils around England and Wales. Some are executive members, others chair scrutiny committees, others are spokespeople for small groups like ours, but we all have an input into the thinking of the MPs and Lords who try to keep Liberal Democrat ideals alive in Parliament. Friday evening and Saturday were intense and stimulating and well worth the journey to Nottingham through rain and sleet. Interesting talks led to animated debate which went on through dinner late into the night and started up again over breakfast. A really important policy review is coming up and I look forward to it.