Tuesday January 24, 2012

I am pleased to tell you that earlier today we recommended a package of measures to ensure we can maintain the freeze on council tax for the second year running while continuing to deliver value for money services.

This is a much extended blog from me today but I wanted to give you all the details about this morning when our cabinet agreed to prioritise supporting the most vulnerable people in our community as well as committing to working smarter by delivering efficiency savings and improving services.

We are on course to save nearly £330 million by March 2013 through our transformation programme and other savings.

Our plans, which still need to be agreed by our full council next month, have been developed to help prepare for anticipated levels of future funding. Despite savings planned for these coming years, there is still a predicted budget shortfall of £4million in 2013/14 and £34million in 2014/15.

Benefits to Essex as part of the package agreed by our cabinet today include:

• New partnership with Ringway Jacobs Limited to create the largest integrated highways partnerships in the UK. Over the next 10 years this will deliver significant savings while ensuring available funding is used more effectively
• Increased fees paid to foster carers to enable more Essex children to be placed with carers within the county
• Assurances no libraries will be closed
• Contracts with suppliers of adult social care to be reviewed to ensure we are paying a fair price for care services that are competitive and delivering best value to residents
• People currently assisted by our reablement services will be supported to improve their quality of life, therefore decreasing the chance of needing care support in the future
• An improved customer service centre to be set up enabling residents to communicate with us and get information more quickly and easily. 

This package also included a number of budget decisions and savings including:

• Increasing charges for collecting trade waste
• Reducing the free monitoring service for new users of our Telecare service from 12 to six weeks to bring this in line with other similar services
• Reducing specialist services including community information points and Answers Direct
• Reducing subsidies on some bus routes across the county
• Greater prioritisation of highways works across Essex
• Commissioning specific services to support health and wellbeing of adults rather than current provision of grants to organisations
• Reducing our capital budget – covering buildings, schools and highways maintenance - from £134m in 2012/13 to £69.3 million by 2016/17.

We also agreed a new EssexWorks corporate plan which will help underpin our policies and budget strategy over the next five years to ensure we continue to improve your quality of life.

We and the public sector in general have to face up to balancing an ever growing need for our services with an ever decreasing amount of funding to provide them.

None of the recommendations we are putting forward has been taken lightly. They are to help us remain on a solid footing now and in the face of increased financial pressures in the coming years while still ensuring we provide quality services.

We fully realise any decisions we take will have an impact on people’s lives but we believe this package will help keep this to a minimum. This is why we are recommending freezing our share of the council tax again.

It is important we continue to maintain Essex as a vibrant and attractive place to live, work and visit. The package of measures and the corporate vision we have agreed will ensure that we provide the focused value for money services to enable us to achieve this.

Peter

Wednesday January 11, 2012

I am delighted to take a guest spot this week to announce we have successfully secured a government grant to help our vulnerable residents deal with cold weather this winter.

The scheme, running until the end of this March, aims to reduce death and illness due to poor heating. It will provide advice and information on how to keep warm, provide benefit entitlement checks to reduce fuel poverty and by making energy efficiency measures where possible.

The bid for £139,250 was made following the success of the Tendring Reach Out project funded by this council and NHS North East Essex. This involved Tendring citizens’ advice bureau (CAB) knocking on doors to deliver advice in the community.

Now nine other bureaux across Essex will work with us to offer information and advice, visiting homes to contact those most at risk over the next few weeks.

This is a great initiative which really helps those in our community who need support using the simple idea of taking advice to the door. My thanks go to all citizens’ advice bureaux for their support.

Fuel poverty can result in cold and damp homes, a reduced quality of life and poor health. This can lead to higher winter death rates among older people and those suffering from heart disease or breathing problems.

In Essex fuel poverty is a particular issue in rural areas and consequently the project will focus on the north of Uttlesford and Braintree districts, Tendring coastal areas and the east of Rochford and Maldon.

Ann

Saturday December 31, 2011

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break and that you enjoy yourselves tonight as we ring in the New Year.

Once again, we have had a challenging year and these tough times are set to continue into 2012.

Nationally, we face a historically unprecedented period of continued public spending reductions lasting at least seven years. And with nearly three-quarters of our funding coming from central government we are sure to feel the squeeze in Essex.

But it is not all doom and gloom as we enter a new year. On a positive note, our transformation programme had already saved you £146million by April 2011 and is on track to deliver £336million in savings by the end of 2012/13.

I am also very proud we have managed to achieve these savings while largely protecting your frontline services. Our core services are also continuing to improve, with our adult social care rated as excellent, Essex school results continuing to improve and, through partnership working, recycling rates have reached more than 50%.

Our resolute focus on delivering value for money and putting the customer first will not waver in 2012 and our determination to improve the way we work will continue.

Throughout the next few months, we will continue to keep you informed as we look for new and different ways of doing things, strengthen our partnerships and also investigate how we can use the capacity and expertise of our private, voluntary and community sectors in order the save money and continue to provide your front line services.

I wish you all a very happy, safe and prosperous New Year.

Peter 

Friday December 23, 2011

By this time, I am sure most of you will be putting the finishing touches to your preparations for a lovely Christmas break.

I am looking forward to spending some time with my family and hope you all have plenty of opportunities to catch up with your loved ones. And, rest assured, our team of gritters will be on standby throughout the festive period to make sure any bad weather does not interfere too much with your plans.

But among all the celebrations, please spare a thought for those who are on their own this Christmas. I would urge all of you to look out for any vulnerable people in your community to ensure they stay warm and safe.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas.

Peter

Wednesday December 07, 2011

The latest edition of our EssexWorks e-magazine - essex.gov.uk/ew – is now out, packed full of the latest news and features to help you enjoy the county over the festive season.

Not only can you and your families take your pick from a wonderful range of Christmas events and activities, we also have all the latest advice and information about Christmas services and timetables, including safer winter driving suggestions.

Elsewhere, we highlight the many opportunities across the county where you can make a difference to someone’s life by volunteering in your local community. And, of course, we bring you up to date on what’s been happening here at Essex County Council.

The magazine is free and available to all online and those of you who sign up will have up-to-the-minute news and features delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now and you could be the winner of a fabulous Essex Skid Pan driving session for two, a course of advanced driving lessons or an historic hotel mini-break.

To make sure you don’t miss out, subscribe to your quarterly magazine and regular newsletter updates by clicking here.

I look forward to welcoming you to our growing list of subscribers.

Best wishes

Peter 

Tuesday December 06, 2011

I am delighted to report this morning we have made a major step forward in finalising our new vision for Essex.

Today our cabinet approved The EssexWorks Commitment 2012-17, recommending our full council adopt it as our new corporate vision next week.

This new vision will set out our priorities based on how we think the county will change over the coming years and how it will respond to these challenges and opportunities.

The cornerstone of this vision is: “Essex means business. We want to be a vibrant place where every individual and community has the opportunity to grow and reach their potential and play a part in our county’s success.”

And we have identified five key priorities to achieve this:

• enable each individual to achieve their ambitions by supporting world-class education and skills in Essex
• secure the infrastructure and environment to enable businesses to grow
• improve public health and wellbeing
• protect and safeguard vulnerable people
• give people a greater say and role in building safer and stronger communities. 

Essex is a vibrant and successful county and we want to build on that potential. Although this is a time of considerable economic uncertainty, at the heart of this vision is our commitment to the economic success of our county - Essex can grow only through the efforts of the businessmen and women whose hard work underpins our prosperity.

Your entrepreneurialism is all the more important given the severe strain on public finances and other challenges facing us in Essex, such as our ageing population and the challenges posed by our multi-faceted county, where rich and poor, young and old, live side by side.

We expect to see money available across local government reduce by more than a quarter to 2014-15 so must recognise that while publicly funded services will continue to play a key role, the social, economic and cultural success of our towns and villages will depend more than ever on the contributions of individuals, families, businesses and local communities.

I look forward to working with you all as our vision becomes a reality.

Best wishes

Peter

Thursday November 10, 2011

In September I shared with you our encouraging news that we were well on our way in our improvement journey to secure the level of service that vulnerable Essex children deserve.

And today, I have more positive news as Ofsted has formally recognised our efforts and progress as out annual children’s services rating has improved adequate.

This follows a successful inspection of the safeguarding service in September which noted how significant improvements had been made to safeguard children.

Ofsted noted how the majority of services, settings and institutions inspected were good or better. Most provision supports children and young people well in staying safe and the large majority helps them to enjoy their learning.

Particular strengths identified include:

• Early years and childcare continues to improve and the large majority is at least good. The very large majority of regulated childcare provision is now good or outstanding.
• For under fives, the large majority of provision in nurseries and primary schools continues to be good and some is outstanding.
• Most secondary schools, including academies, are good or better.
• Specialist provision is usually good or better.
• A higher proportion of looked after children attain Level 4 in both English and maths tests at the age of 11 than found elsewhere and by 16 years old those attaining five A* to C grades in GCSE including English and maths matches children in similar areas.
• The proportion of 16-year-olds from low-income families and minority ethnic groups attaining five A* to C grades in GCSE examinations including English and maths is higher than their peers in similar authorities.

This is another milestone reached on our road to providing excellent services for children, young people and their families. However, the hard work does not stop here. We still have some way to go on our improvement journey and will be looking to build on success so far in the coming months.

We have evaluated the feedback from Ofsted and already put in place measures to improve the areas highlighted as needing more consideration.

I know my colleague, Cllr Stephen Castle, Essex County Council’s Cabinet Member for Education, is delighted our teaching staff have worked so hard to drive up standards and our priorities going forward will be to ensure our schools can support every child to reach their potential and equip them with the right skills to gain future employment.

Cllr Sarah Candy

Wednesday October 05, 2011

Under our EssexWorks programme, we have been developing a new vision for Essex for 2012-2017 and now want to consult you to hear your views about these proposals.

Our new EssexWorks corporate vision will set out our priorities based on how we think the county will change over the coming years and how we will respond to these challenges and opportunities.

When we first launched our EssexWorks vision in 2008, we set out an ambitious programme to ensure Essex offers the best quality of life in Britain.  I am delighted we are now coming to a successful conclusion of this plan, with virtually all the pledges made having been met.

But we cannot achieve our renewed vision in isolation and your feedback during this consultation will help shape our proposals into a final vision, which will form our focus from April 2012.

Initial but extensive research and consultation has already taken place to understand the views of more than 800 partners, residents, local councillors and staff.

I would urge you to find out more by visiting here.  The consultation period will end on 20 November 2011, with the final vision expected to be released early in 2012.

I look forward to hearing your views.

Peter

Thursday September 15, 2011

Today I want to urge you all to sign up for your first online edition of the EssexWorks e-magazine.

Since our last printed edition in the summer, we have been reviewing the future of the printed magazine. With our budgets still under pressure, it is vitally important we balance the need to keep costs as low as possible with the need to keep you informed about how we are spending your money.

Essex County Council is currently making more than £300 million of savings by 2012/2013 – the largest savings target in local government history.  We are also looking more widely at changing the way we are working, including drastically reducing the number of publications we print, bringing both financial and environmental benefits.

Therefore, we have decided to stop printing the magazine and instead move online - www.essex.gov.uk/ew - emailing this exiting new e-magazine to as many of you as possible. The new quarterly e-zine, which will save you more than £400,000 a year, will be supported by monthly newsletters and provide you with a much better service. It will be free and available to all online.

Those of you who sign up will have up-to-the-minute news and features delivered straight to your inbox, including updates on council services, features on how your money is being spent, news about and from Essex communities and details of what’s on in the county.

And if you haven’t got access to a computer, you can view it online in our libraries or ask a friend or relative to print a copy for you – it is designed to be easily printable – either individual pages or in its entirety.

The new format also ensures our stories are more up-to-date. And, as you will see, it is still packed with a wealth of stories highlighting all that’s good about Essex, as well as some of the sterling work taking place both within the council and our communities.

To make sure you don’t miss out, subscribe to your quarterly magazine and regular newsletter updates by clicking here. If you know anyone you think would like to receive it, please let them know.

I look forward to welcoming you as subscribers and updating you about what we are doing.

Best wishes

Peter

Thursday September 08, 2011

I am pleased to take the guest spot this week to share with you the very encouraging news that we are well on our way in our improvement journey to secure a safe, satisfactory service for vulnerable Essex children.

Essex children's services have been working to an improvement plan, due for completion at the end of this month, which has addressed recommendations from both Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, which regulates care provided by the NHS, local authorities, private companies and voluntary organisations.

Following a peer review of children's services and a successful unannounced inspection in July, we feel confident we have completed phase one of our improvement journey.

Consequently, we now believe there is a strong basis for the current government intervention - in place since December 2009 - to end and we welcome the next Ofsted inspection.

The feedback from the peer review was extremely positive and we are pleased our hard work to improve children's services has been recognised. This improvement will continue as we move into phase two - a medium to long-term plan to strengthen all aspects of the children's services system and aim for an overall "good" rating.

Strengths highlighted by the review and the unannounced inspection included:

• All cases now have an allocated social worker
• Improvements in the quality of social work practice
• Reduced time taken to carry out initial assessments - 70% completed within seven days
• Increased investment in staff training provided in core skills and recruitment of permanent staff - we have recruited 250 qualified social workers in 18 months
• Clear and shared leadership around improving safeguarding and strong relationships with partners.

Our next steps will include continuing to strengthen services, particularly those which allow children to be supported living at home or within family based placements, and to continue to build a skilled, confident workforce. 

I look forward to updating you on these improvements soon.

Sarah

Wednesday August 17, 2011

I am pleased to share some marvellous news with you – our economy has been given a major boost today after the government gave the green light for an enterprise zone to be created in Harlow.

We are delighted Enterprise West Essex @ Harlow site is to become one of the 11 new zones across the country. The 126-acre site will support hi-tech and medical technology companies which could create up to 5,000 new jobs.

Companies setting up in this area will benefit from a simplified planning process, superfast broadband access and, in some cases, relief from business-rates – yielding possible savings of £275,000 over five years.

The Harlow bid was one of two submitted to the government by the South East Local Enterprise Partnership, a strategic body focusing on cross-border economic growth in the region.

The government’s backing is fantastic news and the thousands of jobs this will create, both directly and indirectly, will be a major boost not just Harlow and Essex economies, but the country as a whole.

Essex is a vital cog in the country’s economic motor, and this kind of initiative will ensure we are in a position to continue to help drive the country forward.

Peter

Thursday July 07, 2011

On Tuesday I joined leaders of Suffolk and Norfolk county councils at Harwich International Port to formalise our commitment to the East Anglian Energy Coast - making certain we are best placed to benefit from the development of the world’s 2^nd largest offshore wind farm.

The wind farm will be located less than 200 miles from our shores and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by each of us to highlight a new cooperation to deliver a joint skills and employability package for the energy sector and related industries.

This will help ensure local residents secure a proportion of the emerging opportunities – the industry estimates 48,000 jobs could be created over the next five to 10 years. 

We have now made a commitment to:

·        Increase apprenticeships for young people and adults in the energy sector and across the spectrum of engineering and construction related industries that support it

·        Train unemployed adults to enable them to gain the skills required and get them into work

·        Provide training opportunities locally for businesses to improve skills of their current  workforce

·        Ensure young people are well placed to pursue careers in the energy sector by providing better information, advice and careers guidance as well as encouraging the uptake of science, technology, engineering and mathematics-based subjects

·        Support establishment of facilities which provide access to training where the industry needs it.

The East of England sits at the centre of the UK’s energy industry and Essex has a lot to offer in terms of a combination of a well-established manufacturing economy and technology base as well as a mature port and logistics industry.

Our commitment will mean all three counties can maximise opportunities from the ongoing production and distribution of gas and one of the world’s largest planned offshore wind zones.

Peter

Picture (left to right): Cllr Mark Bee, leader of Suffolk County Council, Cllr Peter Martin, leader of Essex County Council and Cllr Derrick Murphy, leader of Norfolk County Council at Harwich International Port yesterday

Wednesday June 15, 2011

Wednesday May 25, 2011

On Sunday we will come to the end of a successful Fostering Fortnight. There is a shortage of foster carers nationally and Essex is no exception. We need to recruit another 100-120 foster carers to care for local children and particularly need carers who can care for siblings, older children and children with disabilities.

During Fostering Fortnight the fostering service has been extremely busy encouraging members of the public to think about fostering. Information events have been held at County Hall, in supermarkets and shopping centres and banners and leaflets have been put up in Essex libraries. 

Our best advocates for fostering are the men and women across Essex who are already doing such a fantastic job of caring for our looked after children. During Fostering Fortnight we have had interviews with foster carers on local radio stations and many newspaper articles. We thank all of our foster carers for their willingness to share their personal experiences.

Last week we signalled our commitment to foster carers by signing up to the Foster Carers’ Charter. The charter ends to put an end to the myths and red tape which have undermined foster care in the past. We will be working very hard to ensure that foster carers get the full support and recognition they need.

If you think you can make a difference to a child’s life I would urge you to find out more about fostering.

Sarah 

Wednesday May 11, 2011

I am pleased to tell you all that, following an unannounced Ofsted inspection, inspectors have reported significant improvements in Essex children’s services.

The inspectors identified many strengths in the service delivery and commended the positive changes made. They also found there were no priority actions for us to address and that our service has raised its standards, leading to improvements in its quality.

Inspectors spent two days within the department in March looking at the quality and effectiveness of contact, referral and assessment arrangements. Their findings will inform the annual review of the performance of our children’s services, for which a rating will be awarded later this year.

As a former cabinet member for schools, children and families, the safety and welfare of children is very important to me and I am delighted this inspection has reinforced the hard work undertaken – and continuing to be done – to provide the best possible service for our Essex children. 

The full report can be found at http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Inspection-reports

Peter

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