North East Lincolnshire Council’s children’s services team came top in the Making a Difference in Yorkshire and Humber Awards 2008 in the category of People Management, for the improvements it has made to service delivery and another five projects from North East Lincolnshire Council were short listed for awards, organised by Local Government Yorkshire and Humber (LGYH).  

The awards celebrate councils, police and fire authorities throughout Yorkshire and

A new management approach was developed to ensure that the needs of children and families were met when demands on the service were increasing. 

Joanne Hewson, interim deputy director for communities and partnerships for children services, said:

“We needed to ensure that whilst delivering a universal service to all families, our most vulnerable families received the extra level of service required to enable us to make a difference to their lives. “This had previously been inconsistent and we wanted to make dramatic changes to this.“In order to achieve this it was essential that everyone worked together to deliver this demanding agenda.” 

The portfolio holder for children’s services, said:

“This is an excellent achievement and recognises the continued efforts and commitment that has gone into ensuring that our children’s centres provide support and assistance to families in our area. 

“It is testimony to the work of the all organisations involved from health, social care and education establishments and everyone should be very proud of their achievements.” 

Councillor Arthur Barker, chair of LGYH, said:

“The Making a Difference Awards are a great way for the region to come together and celebrate the achievements of the past year. Yorkshire and Humber are recognised nationally for a lot of their good work and I welcome opportunities, such as this one provided by Local Government Yorkshire and Humber, where we can show how effective our local authorities are.”   

In November 2008, the young people of North East Lincolnshire elected their first-ever Young Mayor - choosing Amy Blackett (13) for the appointment.

Amy takes up her post on Monday, November 17, when she will be inaugurated by the Mayor of North East Lincolnshire, Councillor Colin Eastwell.

Amy’s appointment is the first of its kind in the borough, and will last for a trial period of six weeks. This will give her a valuable opportunity to represent young people at a variety of events and appointments during her term.

During her election campaign, Amy said: “This is an ideal opportunity to show that not all people are the same and that young people of this town are nice people and can be trusted. It would also be an ideal opportunity to show the young people that you can do good things for other people and yourself, along with showing that I am still just a normal ‘kid on the block’.”

Full details of Amy’s engagements diary will be posted here when confirmed.

Nearly one in three electric blankets inspected by North East Lincolnshire Council’s trading standards team recently were defective and could put lives at risk.

That’s the worrying verdict from the council’s trading standards manager Andy Foster, following testing of 205 blankets owned by residents in North East Lincolnshire in a two-day operation.   There was a 31 per cent failure rate - with the majority of those that failed (68 per cent) due to having no protection from overheating.

The figures show a large increase on last year’s results when 91 blankets were tested and 23 per cent failed.

Mr Foster said: “As the nights draw in and people start to use their electric blankets once again, it is extremely worrying to see such a large number of these items failing to come up to scratch. “Every year, fatal fires are started because of a defective electric blanket, but trading standards are on hand to help, not only with advice, but with a collections service which will see our officers picking up any blankets from people’s homes.   The extra service of having blankets collected has already been taken up by 22 North East Lincolnshire residents. 

Mr Foster added: “The high failure rate reinforces our call for people to get their blankets tested on an annual basis. There are also a number of simple checks that people can perform themselves.

• Checking the length of the cord to ensure there are no breaks in the insulation - increasing the electrocution risk.
• Ensuring the plug has correctly sleeved pins
• Ensure you’re electric blanket has overheat protection If your electric blanket has the old kitemark symbol it will not have overheat protection and hugely increases the fire risk All modern blankets will carry the BEAB MARK

 Cllr Steve Beasant, portfolio holder for communities and neighbourhoods, said “The health and safety of residents is a priority for the council and I am pleased we were able to offer this service again  

“Faulty electric blankets can pose a real danger and sadly, statistics show that older people are often at most risk. I believe this council initiative will reduce the number of accidents related to faulty or old electric blankets

If you have any queries about your electric blanket and have missed this year’s testing ring trading standards on 01472 324770 and ask to speak with Jessica Body

The Liberal Democrats are calling upon Alistair Darling to clear up the uncertainty about hundreds of millions of pounds that councils have invested in Iceland’s banks.

Chancellor Alistair Darling has protected Britons’ personal savings in banks which are now in default, but at least 20 councils in England and Wales are known to have deposits in Landsbanki amounting to tens of millions of pounds. 

Councils are asking the government for the same protection that has been promised to personal savers.

The Icelandic Prime Minister said that his government is working to repair relations with Britain amid the crisis - The BBC has claimed that Kent County Council alone has £50m in Iceland based banks.    

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England and Wales, says it has identified more than 20 councils which are believed to have deposits in Landbanksi or Heritable, which was run by Landbanksi. 

The LGA says it does not expect “significant financial problems” in the short term as town halls put money into a wide range of institutions and vital frontline services should not be affected. 

John Andrew, BBC local government correspondent, said that there is growing anger among councils, who say they followed Treasury advice by investing surplus money in a way that would deliver the highest return for taxpayers.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Julia Goldsworthy said that there is an urgent need for clarification and urged the government to make clear how local authority funds will be protected.

This morning, following the heavy overnight rain I walked down Yarborough Road, which is a part of the Yarborough Ward. 

Despite the numerous requests to clear the drains that I have made over the last twelve months, I noticed that there were still two drains that are not working properly. 

This is a considerable improvement over the state of affairs that existed 12 months ago thanks to the work of the neighbourhood services team.  Hopefully the last two drains will be cleared or repaired in the next few days.

While walking down the street I was also struck by the amount of surface water on the footpath which was caused by boken or uneven paving stones and other defects.  I have also made a request for work to be done on these before someone falls and hurts themself.

If you notice anything in the street that needs repairing, such as street lights not working, trees that need trimming, broken paving stones, blocked drains or anything else please report it, or it is very unlikely to be repaired. 

You can report a fault by ringing 313131 and asking to make a customer request, or by emailing customerrequests@nelincs.gov.uk If you are not satisfied with the response please let me know and I will try and help, but please bear in mind that the problem could be the responsibility of someone other than the Council, and that if this is the case the Council may not be able to do the work.

The best way to contact me is by e mail at les.bonner@nelincs.gov.uk or by telephone on 01472 310855

According to the Local Government Association, the recent economic slowdown has meant that local councils will have to find more that a billion pounds of savings over the next three years to preserve essential local services and to keep increases in council tax to a minimum.

The Local Government Association (LGA) represents over 400 local councils in England and Wales.  It is warning that the current harsh economic conditions and increasing inflation is forcing councils to find new ways of making money go further and ways to maintain normal services.

Pressure on council budgets is coming from many directions including: (more…)

A tory plan to freeze council tax will deprive schools, OAP homes, poor families, and much-needed local  services of £3 billion, it emerged last night.

David Cameron’s shadow chancellor George Osborne claimed the freeze would save the average family £210, but there would also be a cost as Councils in England would be forced to cut services to keep their spending increases below 2.5% a year when inflation is at almost five per cent.

Any town hall which reached the arbitrary 2.5% target would then get extra cash from a Conservative government to prevent council tax increases.

The cost of the “cash for cuts” deal has been estimated at £3billion - £1.5billion from local authorities and the same amount from central government over two years.

They said they would pay for part of it by slashing government advertising budgets which pay for drink-drive and anti-knife campaigns, but Mr Osborne admitted to the Mirror it would be up to local councils to decide how they made the”savings”. He also refused to clarify what services would be cut or how many jobs would go. Mr Osborne merely said: “I think there is plenty of opportunity in local government to find savings.”

Some of the most vulnerable people in our communities would be hit hardest by the cuts, and thousands of local authority jobs would be lost to pay for the Conservatives’ pledge to restrict local government charges for two years.

George Osborne’s council tax pledge could only be introduced if local councils made big cuts in public services, but he has failed to set out where any savings would come from.  It is also clear that any cuts made would also hit the low paid and most vulnerable members of our society who would bear the brunt of any cuts in local services that are made as a result of these proposals

Residents of  North East Lincolnshire who have not yet confirmed their electoral roll details are being reminded this week to do so.

Reminder letters are now being sent out - so if you have yet to confirm your details, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

For the first time in the borough, residents can confirm their details on the electoral register via text messaging, a service which complements existing phone and internet confirmation services.

It takes just minutes to verify your details - and the use of automated confirmation services saves the council money.

If your electoral roll details remain unchanged, there are three ways to confirm them:

• Mobile phone text message (SMS) – sending a text made up of your two security codes;
• Dialling the freephone number and keying in your two security codes;
• Via the internet, which allows residents to visit a secure website and confirm their details online.

Don’t forget that you must use the form for your household with its own unique security codes printed on. Full instructions are given on the form, and the service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, throughout the canvass period.

The freephone telephone service is also available in five other languages in North East Lincolnshire.

Residents wishing to register changes to the details for their household must complete the form and return it to the council offices as detailed on the form.

The Electoral Registration Office can be contacted at the Municipal Offices, Grimsby on 01472 324160/324118 or e-mail elections@nelincs.gov.uk

HOUSEHOLDS in North East Lincolnshire will receive a new advice guide through their letter boxes over the next few days.The council-produced mini A to Z contains over 100 contact details for key organisations, including the emergency services, advice helplines, transport, sport and leisure.Sarah Mainprize, the council’s head of communications and marketing, said: “If you need to contact the council about your council tax or want to find out about a friend or relative in hospital, the contact numbers are at your fingertips in this new handy-sized guide.

GOVERNMENT inspectors have recognised improvements made in the North East Lincolnshire Youth Offending Service within the past two years.

The youth offending service was previously reviewed in a Level Three HMI Inspection in December 2006, when inspectors found adequate work being done in one area, but inadequate work being done in four other areas of the service. The resulting report included 35 recommendations for improvement, which formed the basis of the service’s aims to raise standards.

Now, following a re-inspection in May this year, HMI has acknowledged key progress in response to the recommendations. Inspectors carried out a detailed analysis of the improved arrangements made by the management team, Youth Offending Service partners and the practice of the operational staff.

HMI stated: “Inspection findings were fully accepted by senior managers and this set a positive tone for the work that has followed. The determination of managers, staff and key partners to transform the service was evident and a foundation for an effective service has now been laid.

“An explicit focus on the children’s agenda has promoted the needs of children and young people within the local authority and partner agencies, although the contribution of the YOS to the reduction of anti-social behaviour had still to be fully developed. We saw progress against most recommendations and recognition by managers and staff that some of the changes were not yet established with more to do on outstanding issues. Most importantly, we saw evidence of improved outcomes in some areas of service and positive trends in many areas of performance. The efforts and achievements made by all involved had been significant but the improvement agenda remains.”

Councillor Steve Beasant, a member of the Youth Crime Board and portfolio holder for Communities and Neighbourhoods, said: “When I was interviewed, I had just taken up my post in Cabinet, however the inspectors were very keen to learn what we were doing to prevent youth crime within North East Lincolnshire. I was able to demonstrate that we had some outstanding preventative measures such as the ‘Fair Play Football League’, and other programmes such as ‘Get Hooked on Fishing’.