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Sefton Council providing half-term meal vouchers to support local families faced with rising costs

11 February 2022
Martin Driver
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Categories: Front Page, Latest News, Uncategorized

Image of children eating school dinnerOver this week’s school half-term break, Sefton Council will once again be providing eligible local families with holiday meal vouchers.

In-store and online

Now worth £25 per week for each child, the vouchers can be used to buy food in-store and online at local supermarkets. They also include £10 to support people’s expenditure on fuel and energy in the face of rocketing prices.

The vouchers, which the Council is providing through its Household Support Grant funding allocation from the Department of Work and Pensions, cannot be used to purchase alcohol, tobacco, lottery tickets, phone top ups or stamps.

Sefton Council provided similar voucher schemes over last year’s school holiday periods and will be doing so again during the Easter holidays in April.

Step in

Cllr Trish Hardy, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Housing said: “I am pleased that the Council is once again able to step in and support families through this week’s half term holiday at a time when many are facing rising prices in the shops, a huge jump in fuel costs and, in many cases, still coping with the Government’s £20 a week cut in Universal Credit payments.

“Since the start of the COIVID-19 pandemic the Council has seen a steep rise in the numbers of children eligible for free school meals.

“Sefton Families that don’t receive free school meals at the moment but think they might qualify should visit www.sefton.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals.”

Find out more here.

Free bucket of balls for under 16s in half-term offer at Bootle Golf Course Driving Range

10 February 2022
Martin Driver
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Categories: Front Page, Green Sefton, Latest News, Young People

Golf balls spilling out of a basket.Under-16s will have the chance to try out the new driving range at Bootle Golf Course, for free during next week’s half-term holiday.

Between 9am and and 3pm from Sunday 13th to Sunday 20th February, under-16s accompanied by a paying adult will qualify for a free bucket of balls to hit.

Swing

Sefton Council opened the new, ÂŁ240,000, floodlit driving range at Bootle Golf Course on Monday 31st January. Players can use its 10-bays to practise their swing between 8am and 9pm Sunday to Friday and from 8am to 7pm on Saturdays.

Prices are just ÂŁ6 for 100 balls or ÂŁ4 for 50 and people can just turn up to the course shop, pay and play.

Great-value

Cllr Ian Moncur, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member Health and Wellbeing said: “One of the reasons we developed the new driving range was to give people new to golf, a chance to try it out so I’m delighted we can provide this great-value offer to under-16s, just weeks after its opening.”

Sefton Council’s built the new Bootle Golf Course after carrying out a consultation with golfers and local residents. People who responded supported the provision of better practise facilities at the Council-run course.

Positive feedback

Cllr Moncur added: “The new driving range will mean golfers in Sefton will be able to practise all year round and well into the evenings during the darker winter months when short days can make fitting a round in a bit difficult.

“I am pleased to see that despite the bad weather since we opened, we have had a steady stream of players at the driving range and some positive feedback.”

Bootle Driving Range has a dedicated coaching bay and the Council’s Green Sefton team will be advertising for a course professional to provide training.

Prices

Adult prices to play a round at Bootle Golf Course start at just £13. Information about Sefton Council’s Bootle and Southport Links courses, including prices, can be found at www.sefton.gov.uk/golf.

People can also contact the Bootle Golf course office on 0151 928 1371 to book tee times.

Last month, Sefton Council welcomed the news that the Cazoo Classic will be held at Hillside, on Sefton’s glorious Golf Coast, in July.

Sefton Council supporting Children’s Mental Health Week 2022.

8 February 2022
Martin Driver
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Categories: Front Page, Health, Latest News, Young People

Spread the Word ad for Children's Mental Health WeekSefton Council is joining the Borough’s CCGs and the CAMHS partnership in Sefton to support Children’s Mental Health Week 2022.

Taking place from Monday 7th to Sunday 13th February, this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week has a theme of ‘Growing Together’. Children and adults across the Borough are being asked to consider how they have grown, and how they can help others to grow.

In the UK, social workers have warned that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of children with mental health problems has risen steeply. Official figures show a 25% increase as the effects of successive lockdowns and school closures take hold.

As many as one in six children and young people have a diagnosable mental health problem, and many more struggle with challenges from bullying to bereavement. Growing Together is about developing emotionally and using challenges and setbacks as starting point to adapt and trying new things.

Moving beyond our comfort zone into a new realm of possibility and potential but this emotional growth process is often a gradual one that sometimes leaves us feeling a bit ‘stuck’. That’s where the local support services can help.

The Council and its partners will be using the week to signpost links to the Borough’s mental health and emotional support services using the #SeftonGrowingTogether hashtag.

Find out about Sefton CAMHS.

Sefton successful in ÂŁ3m Department for Education bid to improve outcomes for children and families

7 February 2022
Martin Driver
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Categories: Essential Sefton, Front Page, Latest News, Sefton Council

Sefton Council has successfully secured £3m of new funding to improve the support it offers to children, young people and families across the Borough. The Council is working in partnership with Leeds City Council to deliver the ‘Leeds Family Valued’ model, part of the Government’s Strengthening Families, Protecting Children programme.

The partnership will launch in Spring 2022 and will last for an initial two years. The aims of the programme are to improve outcomes for children and families, improve practice across children’s services, improve the effectiveness of the local authorities’ children’s social work and safely reduce the need for statutory social work intervention, particularly reducing the need for children to be looked after.

Specifically, the Family Valued model aims to bring about wide-ranging improvements across Children’s Social Care across several areas including culture change, leadership and practice. The ambition is to embed restorative practice further across the children’s workforce; beyond Sefton’s children’s services and into partner agencies across the Borough, with the recognition that practitioners play a key role in preventative approaches and culture change.

This funding is in addition to a £10m investment announced by Sefton Council in 2021 to deliver key improvements across Children’s Social Care which is already helping to deliver increased capacity across several teams, reduce caseloads and bolster recruitment and retention efforts.

Welcoming the successful funding bid, Cllr. Mhairi Doyle, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care said:

“I am delighted that Sefton Council has been awarded this evaluated programme and I would like to thank all of those involved in putting together a strong bid to The Department for Education.

“We want all children, young people and families across Sefton to be heard, happy, healthy and achieving, and the Family Valued programme will enable us to deliver key improvements across Children’s Social Care that will ultimately allow us to achieve these aims.

“Working closely with the team at Leeds City Council will ensure colleagues across Sefton have access to a range of training, development work on various aspects of practice and leadership & management development opportunities.

“I look forward to this partnership bringing professionals across the Borough even closer together for the benefit of all of our children, young people and families.”

Sefton Councillors meet the future for National Apprenticeship Week

4 February 2022
John McCabe
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Categories: Front Page, Latest News, Uncategorized

Apprentices employed by Sefton Council, took the opportunity to share their experiences at a recent virtual ‘Meet and Greet’ with local councillors ahead of National Apprenticeship Week.Councillors meet apprentices in Microsoft Teams video call

With apprenticeships spanning health and social care, energy and environment, HGV driving and more besides, the Councillors, including Council Leader Ian Maher, joined by Chief Executive Dwayne Johnson, took the opportunity to listen to the stories of staff who took part and to celebrate not only their achievements, but also Sefton Council’s strong record of developing apprentices and retaining them at the local authority.    

National Apprenticeship Week takes place 7-13 February. Organisations throughout the UK will celebrate apprenticeships and apprentices, by sharing their successes and busting common myths.

Sefton Council will mark the week with a series of drop-in sessions for its staff to hear about apprenticeships available to them, as well as a series of case studies to be shared with residents in the hope of inspiring more people to take this route to further their career prospects.

In attendance at the ‘Meet and Greet’ with councillors, was Macy Loasby, who recently secured a full-time position in the local authority’s security service, having gained a Level 2 qualification in Business Administration. Macy said:

“Taking up my apprenticeship has been an amazing experience for me and has given me a clear pathway to a career I want to pursue. I’m now studying for my Level 3 apprenticeship while working for the Council and am excited for what the future holds. It’s been hard work up to now, but totally rewarding and something I would encourage anyone to do.”

Councillor Paulette Lappin, Cabinet Member for Regulatory, Compliance and Corporate Services, said: 

“Speaking to apprentices throughout the year I’m always inspired hearing where they’ve come from and what they’re achieving, even more so in the last two years when working conditions, and the way we work, has been so greatly altered. They deserve great credit for their ability to adapt in such trying circumstances, as well as for their skill, passion and hard work.

“What some people I speak to don’t realise, is how challenging an apprenticeship is, and in many cases how academic – it’s very far from an easy route into the career of your choice, but it is an enjoyable and effective one.

“Whether you’re starting out on your career, or want to change your career path, then give apprenticeships serious consideration, as the chances are there will be one to suit you and the direction you want to take.”

To find out more about apprenticeships in Sefton, visit the Sefton Apprenticeships webpage or email Sefton Council’s Apprenticeship team.

To find out more about National Apprenticeship Week and how you can support it, visit the National Apprenticeship Week website.

 

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