Young people are celebrating after North East Lincolnshire Schools achieved some of their best ever GCSE results.

Secondary schools in North East Lincolnshire have enjoyed a fantastic set of result this year. Based on unvalidated data, the provisional pass rate for the all-important five plus GCSE passes at A*-C grade, including exams in English and mathematics, has risen by 7.8 per cent. This takes the pass rate to 53.6 per cent, above last year’s national average. And this year every school has exceeded the 30 per cent ‘floor target’ that is the minimum level expected of a school.

Five schools have made huge leaps of 12 per cent or more in their results. Whitgift and Healing lead the field with improvements of 17 per cent each; Humberston and Lindsey are a point or so behind. The three schools that were on or below the floor target last year have all made significant progress. Whitgift has seen the most dramatic rise followed by Wintringham at 12 per cent and Immingham at eight per cent. Havelock and Hereford have consolidated the improvements in last year’s performance. Schools that are closing and transforming into new institutions are all going out on a high: Lindsey has hit the 50 per cent mark for the first time and Matthew Humberstone and St. Mary’s have improved their results to take them comfortably into the 40 per cent plus range.

Each year, there is a new type of exam or way of assessing performance that achieves prominence. For some time the key indicator was the percentage of 5 plus GCSE passes at A*-C, an indicator in which local schools continue to exceed the national average. Now, as well as the key measure of 5 plus A*-C grades including English and mathematics, there is interest in the percentage of students obtaining 3 or more A* and A grades. Twenty four per cent of students in North East Lincolnshire have achieved this indicator, with both Tollbar and Healing identifying more than 40 per cent of their cohort. Also important in this day and age is the number of young people achieving good grades in science subjects, measured by those getting 2 plus A*-C grades. Here our schools have improved on their 2009 performance by 11 per cent, including five schools with over 70 per cent of students achieving this.

Barbara Hughes, Executive Director of Children and Family Services commented: “These results are a credit to everyone involved. It is a tremendous level of improvement in one year. I would like to congratulate all the young people who have worked so hard to achieve these grades and to thank all of our teachers and staff in schools for their commitment and support.”

It was announced on Wednesday that the pub famous for being the “Woolpack” in Emmerdale will close due to the departure of its tenants.

The pub, which is used in the outsie shots of the Emmerdale soap series, is tied to Enterprise Inns, and it is believed the present tenant, Nichola McGrath, is struggling due to high rents and beer prices.

Mike Benner, chief executive of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), has criticised Government plans to get rid of community owned pubs which were announced earlier this month.

He said:

“No doubt the tight-knit (albeit fictional) community in Emmerdale would jump at the chance to buy this icon of a pub together, but unfortunately the Government have recently scrapped plans to provide over £4 million to provide support for community owned pubs.

“Without financial support, communities simply cannot afford to keep their pubs afloat.”

In March 2010, former pubs minister John Healey announced a 12 point action plan to support community pubs.

As a part of this plan, the previous government promised £3.3 million to support community ownership of pubs, which is administered through the Plunkett Foundation, and a further £1 million for Pub is the Hub.

Mr Healy, who will give the keynote address to Camra’s Labour Party conference reception to be held with the All Parliamentary Beer Group in September, said the news of the Woolpack’s closure would be a blow to residents in the area.

He said:

“We’ve all got a favourite Woolpack, Rovers Return or Queen Vic that helps bond our communities and the closure of this pub will be sad news to local people.

“Camra is doing great work to champion the community importance of well-run pubs and I will carry on helping them and others in the industry reinforce that case with the LibCon Government.”

Local Government minister Grant Shapps said:

“We should take no lectures from former Labour ministers who presided over the closure of 3,500 pubs when they were in government.

“Labour hiked taxes on pubs and did nothing to stop unfair loss-leading by supermarkets.

“The only people they helped were the yobs who benefited from the 24-hour licensing laws which fuelled a surge in alcohol-fuelled violence in our high streets.

“Labour must apologises for the harm they did to community pubs across the country.

“The new Coalition Government has scrapped Labour’s unfair cider tax, will give local residents a community right-to-buy to save local pubs, will stop unfair selling by supermarkets and is cutting red tape on live music in pubs.

“Pub landlords don’t want state handouts. They want a level playing field and less government regulation getting in the way.”

A deal to sell the Teeside Corus steel plant, which was mothballed earlier this year threatening more than 1,000 jobs, has been struck.

Corus and Thai steel company SSI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for SSI to buy the Teesside Cast Products plant from Corus.

Liberal Democrat MP for Redcar Ian Swales said:

“This is absolutely terrific news and something I have been tirelessly working towards since being elected in May.

“I am thrilled this deal has been done and that we will be bringing steel making back to Redcar. This will get Teesside’s heart beating again.

“This deal is the culmination of thousands of hours of hard work by Corus and SSI, with great support from both the trade unions and politicians.  Vince Cable and his team have done all they could to help facilitate this deal coming to fruition and I am grateful for their support.

“When I visited SSI in Thailand this May, I was impressed with their operation and people and saw the clear need that they had for the TCP output. Since then my regular contacts with SSI, Corus and Tata made me quietly confident that this day would come. However, such deals are complex and it was always going to take some time to agree the many issues involved.

“This is fantastic news for the area and will bring back the much needed jobs. When added to recent announcements and other potential projects, it looks as though Teesside has at last turned the corner from a very long period of industrial decline.”

“Over the last 13 years we’ve become the country with the highest rate of obesity in the whole of Europe,” says Paul Burstow.

Commenting on the 10-fold rise in the number of obesity-related surgeries carried out on the NHS in less than a decade, Liberal Democrat health minister Paul Burstow said:

“These are procedures that can transform lives, save lives and save money for the taxpayer.

“The 10-fold increase in less than a decade shows the last Government failed to get a grip on public health issues.

“Obesity is a serious issue in this country. Over the last 13 years we’ve become the country with the highest rate of obesity in the whole of Europe.

“We are committed to a real drive to consistently deliver public health messages about changes in lifestyles that people can make, both in diet and exercise, that can significantly reduce the need for these procedures.”

Earlier this month the Liberal Democrat MP for Torbay Adrian Sanders joined a broad coalition of citizens groups, campaigners, MPs and celebrities who have called on the government to end legal loan sharking.

Currently lenders can charge any price for credit which means some loan and credit companies charge £82 for every £100 lent. Annual interest rate charges of over 2500% are also now common (despite the Bank of England base rate being just 0.5%).

Borrowing at these rates repeatedly tips customers into inescapable cycles of debt and poverty. According to the OFT £16,000 of excess profit is made every hour in this sector.

Co-ordinated by the Compass pressure group, this new campaign coalition have called on the government to ban excessive prices for credit and provide alternative sources of credit through CDFIs, credit unions and a post bank.

The government has pledged to clampdown on interest rates for credit and store cards and the campaign believes it should do the same for the high cost credit market.

Thousands of people across Britain are expected to sign an online petition on a brand new interactive website at www.endlegalloansharks.org.uk/. The campaign will be targeting millions of people across Britain through using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Adrian Sanders said:

“It is ridiculous that those on the lowest incomes often have to pay astronomically more to borrow even small amounts of money. We really need to see a cap on interest rates and a robust system of credit unions and a post bank to provide an ethical financial system for the nation’s most vulnerable.”

Continue reading Adrian Sanders backs campaign to clampdown on the extortionate cost of credit

Here’s some good news for the Liberal Democrats – In a local by election in Sheffield yesterday our vote didn’t collapse, voters didn’t punish us for Forgemasters, in fact we went from 21.8% to 21.3%.This was not what local Labour party had been expecting at all.

We also won a council seat from the Conservatives in Dacormum in Herts and another gain from Conservative at Victoria, Burgess Hill .

Read more at http://bit.ly/cpGMIQ

Children’s charity, Bernardo’s says in a new report that privileged children are monopolising top state places and poorer families are losing out in a complex and unfair system
 
The report warns that “clusters of privilege” are gathering round the best state schools, Barnardo’s, Britain’s biggest children’s charity, and poorer families are losing out to better-off neighbours who move house or attend church to get a better education.

According to Bernardo’s, research indicates the top secondary schools in England take on average just 5% of pupils entitled to free school meals as a result of unfair admissions procedures that can result in skewed intakes that do not reflect the neighbourhood of the school.

Bernardo’s recommend that schools should be encouraged to admit pupils in “bands” based on their academic ability in order to increase the social mix, and they warn that Government plans to expand the number of academies and create parent-led “free schools”, which will control their own admissions, runs the risk of risk widening the gap.

Martin Narey, Barnardo’s chief executive, said:

“Secondary school admissions fail to ensure a level playing field for all children.  Instead we are seeing impenetrable clusters of privilege forming around the most popular schools.

“Allowing such practice to persist – and almost certainly expand as increasing numbers of schools take control of their own admissions will only sustain the achievement gap in education and undermine the prospects of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children.”

Mr Narey said school admissions haved become a “complex game, that many parents in poorer households are not aware is going on around them.

“Even when conscious of a race for the best schools, some less confident and able parents are often overcome by a fatalism and are resigned to the fact that their son or daughter will be left with whatever school other parents don’t want.”

Bernardo’s says that although the school admissions code is meant to stop schools favouring better-off children, many parents from less well-educated backgrounds are still being deterred.

Parents who lack confidence in their own writing skills find it hard to deal with complex forms, and voluntary-aided schools, which usually have a religious link, have forms that require detailed replies about religion.

Anne Pinney, Barnardo’s assistant director of policy and research, said:

“There are parents who find the system so daunting they just don’t engage with it.”

Bernardo’s warn that failure to get into the best schools changes the balance of children’s lives for the worse.

M/s Pinney said:

“Children born into disadvantage do worse in school, they do worse at GCSE, they are more likely to leave early and more likely to be trapped in unemployment … we want to put the spotlight on the role that unfair admissions plays in sustaining the achievement gap in education.”

Bernardo’s have  suggested that Ofsted inspections could be extended to look at whether schools have a mixed intake, and they also also suggest that schools should be required to report annually on the profile of their pupil intake to parents and governors.

The Liberal Democrats have  shared Barnardo’s concern that disadvantaged children lose out in school admissions, and have put forward plans for the pupil premium, which will reward schools that accept poorer children, is an attempt to tackle this.

A Department for Education spokesman said:

“The attainment gap in English schools is too wide and far too many students from disadvantaged backgrounds are in weaker schools. That is why we are implementing a comprehensive programme to make opportunity more equal. We are introducing a pupil premium, reforming the admissions system to make it simpler and fairer, and getting the best teachers in the most disadvantaged areas by increasing investment in Teach First.”

This coming Sunday, 29th August (10am – 4pm) is the ‘Picnic in the Park’ – the event will be held in People’s Park.

People’s Park was gifted by First Baron Edward Heneage, Liberal MP for Grimsby in 1881 and was officially opened in 1883. The Park is rightly placed in the English Register for Parks of special historical interest.

People’s Park holds the Green Park Award, thus recognising the natural beauty of this glorious ‘jewel in the crown’ in the heart of our local community.

The newly formed ‘Friend of the Park’ invite you to join this 127 anniversary, ‘Picnic in the Park’ celebrating the great outdoors, recreation and relaxation allowing time together to forge a real sense of community.

It is hoped that this event will be a taste of future of this magnificent open space: a park give to the people for the people.

Do come along and enjoy this great day out, which is being organised with the support of local Liberal Democrat Park Ward Councillors.

The programme of events includes:

• Barton Brass Band
• Donkey Rides
• Punch and Judy
• The Knights of Skirbeck: Medieval Re-enactment
• Meet the Giant Tortoise!
• St John Ambulance
• ‘Voyage’ Bird and Animal Centre
• R.N.L.I.
• Humberside Fire and Rescue
• Home Made Produce

North East Lincolnshire Care Trust Plus is inviting people who use adult mental health services in the community to get involved in a new research project.   

The project, called Leading to Quality, will examine whether the leadership and culture of NHS staff teams affects quality of care.  

The research project could bring benefits to people not only in North East Lincolnshire but across the whole of Yorkshire and the Humber as it involves NHS and social care staff, service users and carers across the whole region. 

This research project will only be successful if it can gather the honest views and opinions of people who use mental health services and their carers. By getting involved in the project, service users and carers will be given an opportunity to describe their experiences and to help shape better mental healthcare. 

Chris Payne, service manager for community mental health teams, said:

“We want to speak to people in our community who are aged between 18 and 65 and receive NHS mental health care. We are also interested in speaking to carers. We want to hear people’s opinions and perceptions of the care received. Their views would be gathered either through a short interview or by completing a questionnaire. 

“No member of the team involved in an individual’s healthcare provision would be present when they are asked to talk about their experiences of care. All the answers to the questionnaires are completed anonymously and it will be impossible to identify individual responses. Interviews would be carried out by trained health professionals.” 

Anybody wishing to get involved or find out more can contact the Trust’s PALS team on (01472) 625222. 

The Leading to Quality project is being led by the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and was commissioned by Yorkshire and Humber Strategic Health Authority. North East Lincolnshire Care Trust Plus is actively involved in the project and is looking to speak to local people who use mental health services about their experiences.  

The research is being carried out by a team from the School of Management at the University of Bradford. They will try to find out if there is a link between the quality of care provided and the leadership and culture of the teams who provide the care.   

It is hoped that the project will develop methods to help teams work effectively and so provide consistent and high quality care for local people. The research will also help develop methods of good team working that could apply to the whole NHS, so it could improve services across the whole country. 

Full information about the project can be found at www.southwestyorkshire.nhs.uk/LTQ 

New research and statistics published today show that domestic violence is one the most important reasons for families becoming homeless, but protection measures such as safe rooms are very effective in helping these families to safely stay in their homes.

Under what are known as ‘Sanctuary Schemes’, victims of domestic violence have special security measures installed to keep their family safe in their own home if the aggressor tries to return.

This could mean making a safe room in the house which is secured using a reinforced door which opens outwards so an intruder will not be able to kick it in.

In other cases, councils and the police could fit video entry systems and alarms which automatically alert the nearest police station ensuring a rapid response.  These security measures along with with other essential support from specialised domestic violence service providers have played a vital part in keeping households safe.

The research by the University of York shows that Sanctuary Schemes, supported by other agencies, such as the police and local councils, have been successful in assisting families to remain safe in their own homes, which often means families avoid the upheaval of having to leave their home and support networks with the accompanying risk of becoming homeless.

Other statistics released today show that in 2009 there were over 5,000 cases where people prevented from becoming homeless home thanks to the protection of a sanctuary scheme, and as a result, new guidance has also been issued to help councils, police and other partners make sure that the Sanctuary Schemes they run best meet the needs of domestic violence victims.

The new research has been welcomed by prominent domestic violence organisations Women’s Aid and AVA (Against Violence and Abuse).

Chief Executive for Women’s Aid, Nicola Harwin CBE, said:

“Women’s Aid warmly welcomes the findings and recommendations of the research, as we know that Sanctuary Schemes can provide practical protection for survivors of domestic violence who wish to remain in their own homes.

“However, this needs to be offered together with other options including alternatives such as refuge accommodation and risk assessments need to take place in every case to decide if a Sanctuary Scheme is appropriate and safe.

“With two women being killed every week in England and Wales by their partner or ex-partner, it is vital that the safety of the abused woman and any children must remain the absolute priority at all times.”

Director of Against Violence and Abuse, Davina James-Hanman said:

“AVA very much welcomes this research which provides us much needed national data on sanctuary schemes.

“More importantly, we hope the findings will demonstrate to those local authorities that are not currently offering this service that they are missing a trick since the evidence proves that they could provide increased accommodation choices for domestic violence victims whilst also saving money.”

The homelessness prevention statistics published today also show that over the past year councils have successfully stopped over 140,000 households and individuals from becoming homeless.

Many of these have been helped to find alternative accommodation, often a privately rented home. In other cases, families were able to stay in their current home thanks to help from their council with rent or mortgage arrears or family mediators.