In case you missed it - April's Team Brief

By now you should have received the April Team Brief from your manager. If you have not, please speak to your manager.

To ensure that no-one misses out on the information in Team Brief, you can view the Team Brief for your service area from the link below.

+ VIEW THE PEOPLE TEAM BRIEF FOR APRIL

If you have any questions about the content of Team Brief that have not been answered, or would like to provide feedback please do so via the link below:

+ QUESTIONS AND FEEDBACK

The next People Team Brief will be circulated to Senior Managers to cascade on 7 May.

New national social work role for Matthew

Enhanced Practitioner Matthew Devlin is taking up an exciting role with new social work regulator Social Work England. We asked him to tell us more:

"The 21^st May will mark my 10^th year with Cumbria County Council and my 10^th year qualified as a social worker. However at the end of June I will be leaving Cumbria County Council and commencing a new role for Social Work England. My role with be the North West Engagement Lead, which will be focused on implementing the social work professional standards across all key stakeholders, including local authorities and education providers. These posts are the first of their kind in a UK regulator and show the commitment that Social Work England is making to engaging, supporting and collaborating with all stakeholders. I’m really looking forward to this new challenge and the opportunities it will give me to establish links and networks across the North West.

"I’m very grateful for the opportunities that Cumbria County Council has given me over the last 10yrs. I came in as a newly qualified social worker and thanks to extremely supportive colleagues and managers, I have been given the encouragement and opportunities to develop. Change can often feel uncomfortable but over the years, I have embraced change. The move away from Cumbria County Council feels like a significant but exciting next step.

"My role will see me returning to Cumbria County Council, albeit in a new capacity. I look forward to linking back in with colleagues and supporting the continuation of excellent social work practice in Cumbria."

+ MORE INFO MATTHEW.DEVLIN@CUMBRIA.GOV.UK

A Cumbria Care home made the news last week when BBC Look North visited Langrigg House residential care home in Carlisle to film a visit from pupils from the nearby primary school.

Every Wednesday pupils from Newlaithes Primary School visit the home to do fun activities with the elderly residents. The activities often include arts and crafts; last week the residents were helping pupils to create Easter animals using felt, crayons and glue.

In the programme, which was aired on BBC One, Home Manager Jayne Sullivan shared her views on the positives that the activities have on Langrigg residents;

"I can see a difference in the way people interact with each other. Their memory has improved, and their communication skills has improved greatly since the children have come across because it encourages them to talk."

+ MORE INFORMATION JAYNE.SULLIVAN@CUMBRIA.GOV.UK

Latest Active Lives figures published

The latest results of Active Lives is out and it's a mixed picture again for Cumbria. Whilst figures are on par with the rest of England, there remains to be real inequalities in the levels of physical activity within the districts.

Highlights compared to the previous 12 months results show significant changes in the ‘inactive’ levels:

• Barrow-in-Furness inactive levels have increased by 3.6% to 31.6%, which is 6.5% above the national figure
• Copeland inactive levels have remained similar to 12 months ago at 27.6%, which is 2.3% above the national figure
• Eden inactive levels has been reduced by 2.2% to 21.2%, and is now better than the national figure
• South Lakeland again has the lowest inactive levels at 20.9%, which is similar to the level recorded 12 months ago, and better than the national figure
• Carlisle inactive levels have increased by 6.9% to 28.4% - 3.3% above the national figure
• Allerdale inactive levels increased slightly by 1.9% to 23% - 2.1% better than the national figure

+ MORE INFORMATION JOANNA.COLEMAN@CUMBRIA.GOV.UK

Finishing touches to new care homes

The new care homes at Carlisle (Burnrigg Court) and Copeland (The Gables) are now fully fitted with state of the art technology to support the delivery of person centred care. Members of the council’s Corporate Management Team met project leads at Burnrigg Court on 10th April (see photo on left) to have a tour of the newly furnished home. People Director, John Macilwraith enjoyed his look around; “It’s great to see the finishing touches being made to this £6m project. We have created homes that meet the needs our residents and will also be lovely place to live and work.”

There have also been many staff visits to both homes, we caught up with Sharon Sloan and Angela Scott, among other members of the Langrigg House team (see photo to right), who are looking forward to the move:

Angela Scott said: “The new home has got lovely communal areas, beautiful lounges and state-of-the-art equipment, a hairdressers and an in-house shop for the residents.”

Sharron Sloan said: “It’s good to see that our council has invested so much money into elderly care. I’m looking forward to being part of a team that will improve the lives and wellbeing of our service users.”

Following the CQC inspection its hoped that residents will start moving into Burnrigg Court on 7th May and The Gables in mid to late May.

Healthy Movers - Early Years Evaluation

Last Autumn Active Cumbria teamed up with the Youth Sports Trust to deliver Healthy Movers Training to selected Primary Schools across the County. This was part of the wider ‘Diminishing Disadvantage’ project which was funded by the Department of Education. In total Active Cumbria supported 37 schools, trained 55 teachers, enabled 751 reception aged children to become more physically active by taking part in regular Healthy Movers sessions.

The project has been an overwhelming success with 93% of teachers reporting that their motivation and inspiration to improve children’s physical activity and play had increased. What’s more 80% of those schools are now working regularly with parents to promote the importance of Physical Activity. This is a really significant outcome as we know that it is vital that children have the opportunities to be active both in and out of schools and that parents are provided with the knowledge and confidence to do this.

Watch the video evaluation.

+ MORE INFORMATION JOANNA.COLEMAN@CUMBRIA.GOV.UK

Director of Public Health Colin Cox gives his take on an eventful five years at the council.

Last week marked my fifth year as Director of Public Health at Cumbria County Council and there’s been a huge amount of change in that time.

I’m on my second Chief Exec, third Cabinet member, and fourth Corporate/Executive Director, and am one of only five members of the Extended Leadership Team who were in ELT when I arrived…

In that time we’ve seen the public health grant cut by over £3 million, and have delivered £8 million of savings to the Council while (largely) protecting front-line services and investing in the HAWC team which is delivering huge benefits to their clients and is showcasing the way in which the whole Council needs to change to be fit for the future.

We’ve seen the NHS system split in two and have built public health into entirely new health care systems. We’ve been integrated and then dis-integrated (though keeping really strong links!) with Community Services, and have really put health and wellbeing at the heart of area working and community development.

We’ve taken responsibility for and transformed the Healthy Child Programme and are continuing to take this further in terms of integration with Early Help services. We’ve got a joint public health strategy formally endorsed by all the Districts, really embedding the commitment to partnership working on the determinants of health.

We’ve got the gold Better Health at Work Award. We’ve seen smoking rates fall, activity levels rise. We’ve survived floods, snow and several (pretend, thank goodness) nuclear leaks from Sellafield, have significantly upped the health protection game in care homes, and have responded incredibly well to the challenges we’ve had around drug related deaths.

So a huge thank you to all of my colleagues in Public Health and the wider council for your support over the last five years - it's been a real team effort.

Colin

Colin Cox, Director of Public Health visits Cumbria Outdoors at Hawes End

Colin Cox

I really enjoyed my visit, it’s a fantastic setting even in the overcast weather that we had, with a great team. When I got there it was all hands to assembling beds and generally preparing for the arrival of 50+ excited children coming for a week of sailing, canoeing, ghyll scrambling, orienteering and other activities.

When the party arrived – having been ferried across the lake in the style of arriving at Hogwarts – what kicked in was clear a well organised and practiced system, which worked really smoothly while being really relaxed and welcoming. After managing to herd all children with their bags to bedrooms and back downstairs for a briefing and lunch it was time to get everyone kitted up for their various activities – again with a very efficient and well-practiced process – and off out, mainly onto the water – I was only sorry that I had to leave without getting in some sailing myself…

It was fantastic to meet the team and see them in action. They’re clearly a very dedicated team who deliver fantastic services, and we really have to make full use of them – obviously, from my point of view, to help improve health and wellbeing, but also to maximise their potential to generate even more income for the Council than they already do. We’re lucky to have them.

I’d just like to say a big thank you to Gavin, Woody and the rest of the team for the invite and for their hospitality, and for the opportunity to see a bit of the Council I didn’t really know much about.

Gavin Smallbone - Head of Operations, Cumbria Outdoors, Hawse End Centre

After meeting the staff and a tour of the building Colin was put to task. We had a Primary School coming to the centre for a week long residential and the site needed to be cleaned and organised for their arrival.

We collected their bags from Keswick. Meanwhile the group of youngsters made their way to the centre by boat across Derwentwater, escorted by their teachers.

Once we had reunited the eager adventures with their luggage, they made their way to the centre for the induction. After lunch, Colin helped us to provide the group with the equipment that they would need for the week – waterproofs, wellingtons and walking boots. Once kitted up they headed out into the mountains for the activities.

The whole team really enjoyed Colin's visit, we were impressed to see him mucking in and helping with our group of little explorers. It's also great to see other departments showing an interest in what we do here. 

Book your AD Workshadowing

Take the opportunity to invite an AD to visit you to see the work that you and your team do.

If you're keen to get involved but your AD's name isn't mentioned below or the times listed don't work for you, please get in touch and we'll look for an alternative.

See below dates, times and locations that are available:
• Dan Barton; 14th May - 09:00-12:00 - West
• Lynn Berryman; 30th April - Morning - Countywide & 17th May - Afternoon - West & 13th June - 09:30-12:30 - South & 8th July - 11:00-16:00 - South
• Colin Cox; 30th April - 13:00-16:30 - South & 11th June - 09:30-13:00 - South
• Jo Atkinson; 7th June - 12:30-16:00 - South & 25th June - 13:00-17:00 - North

Remember, we will ask you for your reflections on the visit to include in People News (and don't forget to take some pics!)

+ TELL US WHICH AD YOU WOULD LIKE TO INVITE