10,000 Thank yous

Last week we wrote about our area's part in the early 1940s and World War Two. In 1948 the National Assistance Act marked the beginning of social care by setting out the responsibilities of local authorities; in truth, though, the origins of welfare support go back further to the mutual and friendly societies of the nineteenth century and, prior to that, to the Elizabethan Poor Law.

Donna has been an informal carer for many years, and as her cared for has declined - he has been bedridden for a couple of years - I have increasingly become her 'muscle'. We are pleased to tell you, therefore, that the Proud to Care Team are running an online recruitment campaign across West Sussex in July and August. It is focused on Summer Resilience, helping the Care sector to build up the workforce to cover holidays and staff shortages over the summer months. As well as this they are promoting the use of bank/temp staff to providers to help Care services build a resilient workforce.

These promotions are aimed at people who want to make a real difference in their community and have availability over the summer. The aim of this campaign is to help people looking for work to find local opportunities in their community and promote jobs in Care. It is a completely free service being offered by West Sussex County Council to support potential candidates and Care providers.

Whilst on the subject of West Sussex, you may have heard they are going to fund two local temporary cycleways. The A286 Chichester Ring-Road will have space segregated in one lane of the dual carriageway to form a cycle lane and widening the existing cycleway on the gyratory. The speed limit will be lowered to 20mph. Meanwhile the A259 between Chichester and Bognor will have localised widening of the existing off-carriageway cycle track.

A couple more things we need to pass on are: -

• Until July 13, you may notice more of a police presence on the roads because they are trying to educate drivers about the risks of driving under the influence of drink or drugs, and of not wearing a seatbelt;
• The Sussex Health and Care Partnership have set up the Sussex Bereavement Helpline;
• WestSussex have published their plans to manage a local outbreak.

As we enter a phase of greater reopening, this link will take you tothe latest advice and service updates from CDC.

Yesterday, I had the Corporate Governance and Audit Committee and managed to get some victories for common sense: -

• A recommendation CDC prioritise identifying and developing new income generation ideas to avoid relying just on savings to balance the budget over the next few years;
• An investigation into the feasibility of holding private meetings remotely and public meetings on fewer different days to increase future letting potential;
• Moving the meetings of this Committee to the afternoon to make it easier for working Members to take part.

By now, you are probably wondering how any of this relates to 10,000 'Thank you's. The visitor sessions on our website have just passed that number; that's in the space of the 15 months since we went public on April 5, 2019. We are grateful to you all for every visit you make and will continue to try and keep you abreast of what is going on: 4000 visits have been made in the last 3 months since we began to focus hard on doing just this, so please get in touch if you have any ideas on what else you would like us to share with you.

As always, stay safe

Tim