Richard Kemp 0701

Following the terrible events in Ipswich recently, the County Council is continuing to support street workers with extended outreach services. Services have had many new contacts with women who have come into the service with immediate needs issues - namely benefit problems, requiring food vouchers and to seek advice on debt issues and drug addiction. Town Pastors have been patrolling in the town centre and also around Portman Road/Handford Road/London Road area to provide support and reassurance to any sex workers who may have been out on the streets.

An excellent level of support and reassurance for the women and general members of the public continues to be given by the police in Ipswich and I’m sure you will all agree that the police deserve much praise for their supportive, professional and effective handling of the entire situation.

Post offices in rural communities provide an important social, community and economic function and Suffolk County Council fully appreciates the importance of this service. The uncertainty of the future of the post office network is causing concern in all communities.

Following proposals by my group at the County Council a ‘Policy Development Panel’ (a panel of councillors from all parties) is being formed to look at what can be done to protect post offices in Suffolk.

How to encourage diversification into new markets to improve the viability of the business through advice and grant schemes;
Whether Post offices could be better used by both national and local government as a centre for information or for making other payments such as Council Tax;
Undertaking research to examine the interdependency between post office services and other community services in Suffolk and identify ways of using these to increase post office usage;
The value of lobbying the Treasury to put pressure on the banks to allow the Post office to join the LINK network.

The panel will work together with other stakeholders to examine all the options and hopefully make a positive contribution to protect the services that the post office provides for everyone.

The County Council has formally signed up to the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change.

The declaration is a voluntary pledge to address the issues of climate change. It represents a high-level, broad statement of commitment by the county council to tackling the causes and effects of a changing climate on Suffolk. To date it has been signed by over 130 authorities, including Waveney, Mid Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk and was recently relaunched to mark the fifth anniversary of the original meeting.

The idea was original proposed by my group in a motion to the full council meeting back in July and I am very pleased the council has signed up – it represents an important step in leading the fight against climate change.

Families who care for disabled children and young people now have information at their fingertips. The “No Limits” database is a free voluntary register of children and young people, aged 0 - 19, with additional needs in Suffolk.

No Limits is a great way for families to keep up-to-date with what’s happening in Suffolk and the UK for children and young people with additional needs. Everyone who registers with the database receives a newsletter, ‘Unlimited’, four times a year, which is packed full of information about services, opportunities, events, support and much more.

If parents and carers register their children with the database, it helps to give a better picture of where children and young people with additional needs live in Suffolk, which helps organisations to plan their services.

Children and young people aged 0 -19 years old whose disability seriously affects their daily lives can be registered. Joining No Limits is easy and the information is held confidentially – simply complete an enrolment form. For more information please call the No Limits Co-ordinator, on 01473 341878. Email: info@nolimits.org.uk

Suffolk County Council appoints new Director of Resource Management

Graham Dixon has been appointed as Suffolk County Council’s new Director of Resource Management.

Graham joins the council from the RAF where he has enjoyed a highly successful career initially as a fast jet pilot but latterly as a senior manager and leader. His responsibilities will include: managing strategic finance, property, procurement, transformation, and scrutiny and monitoring. He will also manage the council’s link with Customer Service Direct, the joint venture company with BT and Mid Suffolk District Council which provides public access, ICT, finance and human resources support for the council.

Graham has wide experience of transformation within defence, where he has been leading change in order to improve efficiency and maximise value for money.