We have transformed our service from the bottom up and as a result, last year we were rated by Ofsted as Outstanding in all areas. 10 years ago, our children’s services were not performing how we wanted them to.
We knew this from our data, from the turnover of social workers and, most importantly, from families telling us this. Now, ten years on, we have the very highest rating across the board as a children’s service, for our social work, for our Youth Justice work, and for our special educational needs & disabilities work.
The excellent service provided across children’s social care makes an immense difference for children and families in the city and is the best possible example of how early intervention and responsiveness by our council improves lives.
Our children’s service and our model of practice deliberately ensures that case loads are manageable, giving practitioners the time and resources to provide the highest quality support. As a result we are in the unusual position of not needing to use agency social workers which in turn helps us balance the books so we can continue to deliver.
As the Minister acknowledged, the practice model we have developed has all the hallmarks of the wider reforms that the Labour Government seeks to bring about through its Families First programme and so now we’ll keep building on our effective way of working.
Also last Monday our Cabinet Member for Transport and the Public Realm, Cllr Trevor Muten, appeared on Good Morning Britain welcoming the announcement that Government will plough £1.6 billion into road maintenance and repairs this year. This couldn’t be more timely and welcome.
I know that years of chronic Tory underfunding of our roads, combined with the recent winter weather, have tested our roads and our residents! We will be embracing the government’s approach – ensuring funding is aligned with early intervention and real delivery for residents and taxpayers.
We plan to bring our Highways Maintenance Programme and updated Highways Maintenance Policy to Cabinet next month. Brighton and Hove needs this extra funding to start fixing the shocking legacy of the last Tory government on potholes. With more, we will do more.
Our Royal Pavilion has had a big week. Hosting His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO, the new Royal Patron of Brighton & Hove Museums for his first visit as well as hosting representatives from the UK’s biospheres and a world-renowned & Michelin-starred chef Mauro Colagreco, UNESCO global goodwill ambassador for biodiversity.
The Royal Pavilion is the only UK royal palace owned by a local authority and is now in the care of a charitable trust. Its unique design is testament to our city’s internationalism and as the only city within an urban biosphere in the country, it was a fitting honour to host the Biosphere delegation here.
The biosphere movement is at the forefront of the UK’s work to address climate change, nature recovery and biodiversity and it was inspiring to be able to tell colleagues about our progress – from our plans to decarbonise Brighton and Hove to Sussex Energy; the regional initiative we are leading to deliver energy independence and sustainability across the region by 2040.
Last Saturday we launched our by-election campaign to elect Samantha Parrott to Westbourne and Poet’s Corner on 1st May. Samantha has lived in West Hove for over 20 years and raised her family there. She works to support people during the hardest parts of their lives and she is passionate about our community.
We launched Samantha’s campaign outside the new outdoor sports hub on Hove Beach Park which is now furnished with new public toilets – the latest of very many public loos we have refurbished and reopened since we took office in May 2023. Just one of the hundreds of improvements we’ve delivered since we took control from the chaos of the Greens.
The Green Party squandered residents hard-earned money, took our council to the financial brink, oversaw decay and stagnation across the city and showed they were clueless at governing. They weren’t even ‘Green’ failing to get a grip on recycling and failing to decarbonise at speed.
We will be out on the doorsteps for the next month listening to residents and standing proudly on our record of improvements from road safety to the food waste collections which are due to start later this year. After 14 years of managed decline under the Conservatives we know that people are impatient for improvements and better public services. We are working to fix the foundations and to deliver as many quick wins as we can in the meantime.
Bella Sankey is the Labour Leader of Brighton and Hove City Council
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