Comprehensive Area Assessment

Comprehensive Area Assessments are published today.  These are assessments made by the Audit Commission pulling together reports and information about local authorities in order to make a judgement about their performance.

I am trying to link to the report, but the site is apparently overwhelmed so I can't get to it.  I will provide the links later.

Within the report the CAA uses red and green flags to highlight areas of concern or excellent practice.  Cambridgeshire has been allocated a Green Flag for its work in Waste Partnerships and no red flags.

I am pleased to say that the OFSTED judgement for Children's Services that fed into this report has Cambridgeshire "performing well.", which is our overall judgement too.

Fenland has also been graded as performing well.

UPDATE:  Cambridgeshire here.   Fenland here.

Live Music at the Youth Club

I went to Scaldgate Youth Club last night, where they had a live music night on.

This is something great for our young people - both musicians and audience.  The place was packed with people having a great time.  So good to see.

OFSTED and the Lib Dems

I haven't commented on our Ofsted report of Safeguarding and Looked After Children in the County yet, because I wanted my response to the Lib Dems disgraceful letter to be published first.  This is the letter that the Lib Dems published, the most appropriate quote is:

"The report in fact contains a pretty damning analysis of the service provided by the Conservative county council to the county's most vulnerable children."

It is this language and this sort of behaviour that really winds me up about the Lib Dems.  They are quite right that we were graded overall as adequate.  However, this is adequate based on a raised bar (in response to the criticisms of them after the Baby Peter case), OFSTED themselves have admitted this.  In fact I wish OFSTED would get rid of the phrase "Adequate" it is misleading and invites this sort of manipulation.

My response to the Lib Dems' letter was published (at last) yesterday.  It sets out where I am on this perfectly.   I absolutely welcome challenge - it is a vital part of opposition and helps me to work with officers at the County Council to deliver better services, and I will always strive for the best.  However, inaccurate statements that deliberately paint the services we provide as black are bad for morale and is poor opposition.

My aim as Lead Member for Children, or indeed in anything else I do, is continuous improvement and no complacency.  I want to work with opposition to improve services, but when they make statements like this, they serve the County poorly and make it impossible.   I should stress, out of 34 judgements made by OFSTED, not a single area was judged as Inadequate and 8 within the Looked After Children area were judge as Good.

I have to say, I have a number of issues with Ofsted and the way they currently operate - and I am not the only one.   But, overall, I accept the report for Cambridgeshire as something we can learn and move forward from.

The OFSTED report can be found here.

Running in Hereward's Wake

I had the privilege to be part of a team of runners from Thorney Running Club in the Hereward Relay today.  It is a relay race from Peterborough to Ely, run in four legs.  The total distance is 38 miles.

I took part last year and had a really bad run - doing the same leg as today which is 10.3 miles (actually - I made it 10.9) from the George Campbell Leisure Centre to Welney Parish Hall.

It is quite a tough leg, with loads of running off-road on muddy tracks.  Today it was even more adventurous because of some rather interesting weather.  Half way round the rain started to really chuck it down and that, coupled with some real windy conditions heading into Welney, meant it could have been just as tough as last year, but I actually found myself enjoying the challenge today, and getting a bit of speed up during the on-road stretches (speed when running is, of course, all relative).  Running along the Old Nene, along the dykes and past Coldham Wind Farm and seeing the sights was actually far more fun than I thought it would be.

I am still waiting for my official time and the times for the Thorney teams - but I personally will be much, much faster than last year (by at least 15 minutes), which is a real confidence boost as I start increasing the miles ready for the London Marathon next year.

Hats off to March Athletic Club who organise the event.  I have a lot of time for March Club, they are a good bunch who I occasionally chat to at various events and they do a great job with the Hereward Relay.   Also thanks to my own running club, Thorney (who are of course based in Whittlesey and Thorney!) for letting me take part.

Special congratulations to Eamonn Dorling from Thorney RC who, I understand, was the first ultra runner home (which means he ran the whole 38 miles on his own).  Eamonn is quite an inspiration as a runner,and deserves loads of credit for a fantastic effort today.

Looked After Children Awards

Last night we held our annual Looked After Children Awards at the Maltings in Ely.

It is a special event, that is really important.  It is a way of recognising and giving a bit of a boost to children who both need and deserve recognition and praise.  Parts of the night are actually quite touching, not least at the end where the Children are allowed to nominate adults for awards, some of the citations are real tear-jerkers.

The truth about some of these young people is that, if we can instil them with confidence and self-belief, the recognition that they have coped with more in their short lives than most people deal with in a lifetime would mean that there could be no stopping them.  We have a few examples of this in Cambridgeshire - but ceremonies like this play a really important part.

The night also gives me a chance to catch up with a few people.  Some looked after children that I have had contact with, but also some of our LAC team at the County Council.

Congratulations to everyone in the Just Us group who organised the event.  As ever, they did themselves proud.

School Visits

Last week I spent time at Alderman Jacobs School talking to the Head about the recent outstanding OFSTED inspection as well as visiting and talking about Safeguarding and Special Needs.

Yesterday I was at New Road School to record a short interview about Groomfields, the County Council's grounds maintenance contractor.

Yesterday I went to Neale Wade and had a conversation with the head about their issues and also had the opportunity to talk to some of the school parliament representatives about March and Neale Wade issues.  I always wonder what they think being dumped in front of a politician.  But they were really good and I left with a few ideas to discuss with the locality manager that could help what we do with young people in March.

Today I have been to Sir Harry Smith CC to discuss safeguarding and behavioural issues.

It is interesting that there are some similar themes emerging - the most important of which is probably concerns about future funding.  We are heading towards some very difficult times and there is some uncertainty about how this will impact on schools. Cambridgeshire schools are poorly funded (by the Government!), so any cuts are likely to have a disproportionate impact.

Sorry for smiling

There is an extraordinary letter in the Cambs Times this week which has something of a personal attack on me.    I am not convinced it is responsible journalism to print anonymous letters of that nature, but I’m a big boy and I can take it.  But it does deserve a response.

I seem to be criticised for:

a.   Smiling some time during the Tesco exhibition.  I must remember not to smile in future.  Actually - if that person had been watching properly, they would have also seen me asking a number of challenging questions to Tesco representatives about certain issues - mainly to do with highways.

b.  Going to a festival.  When I take holidays, one of the things I do is go to Rock Festivals, I make no apologies for that, being a big fan of hard rock music is part of who I am.  I have a right to be me.  This is the second time I have been criticised for taking a holiday, so here is an advanced warning - I am going to a rock festival in early December in Wales and another one next June in France.  Actually I plan these things well in advance and pay good money for them.  So being notified at short notice of a public exhibition doesn’t allow me to change those plans.

c.  Voting against the previous Station Road application.  Fair enough.  If some people think that I was wrong, so be it.  But I stand by my decision; I felt there were some serious short-comings about that application.   My understanding of the revised submission for the same site is that there has been some serious work done to try to deal with the problems raised.  Whether they are sufficient to overcome them I cannot comment on - I am not allowed to - but, if this application is approved (note the word if, this is not a statement of either opposition or support) - it will be all the better because of the previous refusal.

Planning is a complex matter.  We are governed by a number of National, Regional and local polices, arguably, the most important in this case is the Government’s Planning Policy Statement 6.  The decisions made at Planning Committee have to be decided based on those policies, but are also informed by local views.  However, if a decision is made that contravenes the policy framework, Fenland can be challenged either through appeal or through the Courts.  For that reason, whatever decisions are made at planning committee, have to have a solid policy foundation.  This is something that it is really difficult to get across, because the process undermines local democracy.  Indeed, Nationally, I have pushed the Conservative Party to change some of this after the General Election (which they have said they will do), but that doesn't change where we stand now and it is the current planning framework that has to inform any decision I make.  


One aspect of this is that I am not permitted to make up my mind until I have listened to the evidence at planning committee.  Any suggestion I have already made up my mind has no basis in fact.