Issue - meetings

Bracknell Forest Staff Awards

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Bettison OBE reported that the Council relied on its staff more than ever and their hard work had been recognised at a recent award ceremony. Members of staff were nominated for showing particular effort which reflected the ethos of the Council e.g. open minded or respectful. The awards also recognised the collective efforts made by teams. He encouraged Members to thank these teams and individuals when working with them.

Coronavirus update

Councillor Dr Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Learning

updated the meeting on the support being provided to schools within the borough and that there had been no school closures. A Steering Group was being formed to co-ordinate the Council’s response and schools would have a single point of contact. Regular communications between public health, Public Health England and schools’ teams had been established to disseminate updates. Advice was also available on the front page of the Council’s website.

Family Safeguarding Birthday

Councillor Dr Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Learning was proud to report that the achievements of the Bracknell Forest family safeguarding team had been recognised by the Minister for Children and Families, and the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families, for its success in supporting local families using the family safeguarding model. The project had celebrated two years supporting vulnerable children and families. The Council had seen a 25 % reduction in child protection cases, meaning more children were able to remain safely at home with a reduced level of intervention from the Council. It had also resulted in a 33 % reduction in social workers ‘caseloads’. The project was a finalist at the upcoming IESE Transformation Awards in the category of Transformation in Health and Social Care.

Promoting Local Democracy

The Mayor was pleased to report that one of the pleasures of the civic role was to work with the borough’s young people to promote how local democracy works and the role of Mayor. The Members present joined her in thanking Councillor Temperton for her support at recent events to deal with their questions and curiosity.

The Mayor also thanked Councillor Turrell for his participation in supporting a sixth form student to attend the Council Chamber to again understand how democracy works at a local level.

Travel initiatives

Councillor Turrell had been pleased to hear a number of sustainable travel announcements from government. He reported that the Council used additional funding for subsidised services to protect the bus routes at times when patronage was currently relatively low. He added that officers were looking into the detail of welcome announcements on support for walking and cycling.