Friday 1 March 2024
Eligible families in Devon can now book a wide range of activities for their children to take part in over the upcoming Easter holidays as part of the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme.
Funded by the Government’s Department for Education and administered locally by Devon County Council, the scheme offers free physical activities and healthy, nutritional hot meals during school holidays to children of low-income families.
We’ve teamed up with over 80 different activity providers across Devon to offer more than 6,000 places to children aged five to 16 years old, who receive benefit-related free school meals.
As usual, there is a wide range of activities to choose from, cooking and crafts, sports and coaching, outdoor and forest play, music, dance and more. All clubs will be operating for a minimum of four hours for four days and will include a hot meal.
Details of activities can be found on our interactive map. If your child is eligible to access the programme, simply search for a provider in your area, have a look at their listing to see what they’re offering, then when you’re ready, book a place with them directly.
LGBTQ+ Adoption and Fostering Week 2024 returns on Monday 4 March to Sunday 10 March 2024.
While we want to celebrate our adopters and foster carers every week of the year, next week we are giving particular attention to celebrating members of the LGBTQ+ community who are thinking about fostering or adoption.
We need more adopters and foster carers from all backgrounds, regardless of their sexuality, gender, relationship status, race, ethnicity or religion. Think about giving a loving home to a child through adopting with Adopt South West or fostering with Devon County Council’s Fostering Devon.
Throughout the week Adopt South West and Fostering Devon will be sharing information on their websites and social media channels, including stories and personal clips from members of the LGBTQ+ community who have adopted or fostered about their journeys to parenting and caring. On the Adopt South West website, we’ve answered some questions from LGBTQ+ people about adoption.
To find out more, read the full story on the news page of our website.
 10,000 trees being planted with help of new tree funding
More than 10,000 trees are being planted this winter through the first season of our newly awarded Local Authority Treescapes Fund. The community planting scheme is being rolled out across Devon this winter with the help of local not-for-profit social enterprise ParkLife South West.
This initiative is being carried out alongside the planting of 2,250 trees this season by landowners and communities who successfully applied to the Free Tree scheme. It’s the third and final year that we have received support for the scheme through the Emergency Tree Fund granted by The Woodland Trust.
Since we first piloted our Free Tree Scheme in 2019, and combining all of our tree planting initiatives, we have planted just over 48,200 trees in total as part of our ongoing efforts to meet our carbon net zero targets by 2030.
To register interest in volunteering to help with the tree planting coordinated by ParkLife, email parklifesw@gmail.com or visit their Eventbrite webpage.
Coming next on the Autism and Us schedule - communication support for pre or non-verbal children on Tuesday 5 March from 10am to midday.
This workshop will consider:
- language and communication
- what is meant by a Total Communication approach
- practical strategies to support pre and non-verbal children and young people to communicate through a focus on means, reasons and opportunity
Please note that this workshop is not appropriate for supporting children who are experiencing situational mutism.
If you are interested in this or want to know more about the Autism and Us workshops, please visit our website.
Don't forget to follow our Devon Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Local Offer Facebook page and sign up for the Devon Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) monthly newsletter.
 Which walking and cycling routes do you think should be the priority?
We’re asking residents to give their views on two plans that set out our ambitions to improve walking and cycling facilities in the Clyst Valley and parts of Mid Devon over the next 10 to 20 years.
The plans have been developed to show which routes we think should be prioritised when funding becomes available, for instance from the Government or from housing developers.
One plan focuses on Cullompton and Tiverton and has been developed in partnership with Mid Devon District Council. The second plan includes a 50km route covering the Clyst Valley and has been developed in partnership with East Devon District Council.
To hear more about the proposals, please attend one of our online events next week or the in-person consultation events later this month. Find details in the full story on the news page of our website.
There's been a big increase in the number of families being allocated their first choice of Devon secondary school places for September.
This year, 7,465 allocations were made for a place at a Devon mainstream secondary school. 92.5 per cent of families have been offered their first preference. That compares with 90.4 per cent last year. In all, 97.8 per cent of families will get one of their three preferences with 4.7 per cent allocated their second preference and 0.6 per cent their third. That compares with 96.8 per cent last year.
The data includes children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) who have been allocated places in the mainstream sector, however, the data doesn’t include any children placed in specialist/independent settings who have an EHCP.
Read more in the full story on the news page of our website.
Construction of a new two-way cycle path on Rifford Road in Exeter is due to start on Monday 11 March. The 700-metre traffic-free cycle route alongside the existing pavement on the eastern edge of Rifford Road will form part of the wider North-South route in the city, known as the E12. The scheme also includes providing raised pedestrian and cycle priority crossing, upgrading the street lighting and moving parking bays.
To minimise disruption, construction will be undertaken in eight phases, working on sections of around 100 metres at a time. It's scheduled to take 52 weeks to complete as we're ensuring that this busy road, which is a key bus route and used regularly by emergency services travelling to and from the hospital, is kept open for the duration of the scheme, with temporary traffic lights in place.
This phased approach will also reduce the impact on residential parking. On-street parking will remain available on the sections of the road in which work is not being carried out, and local businesses will remain open.
For more information and further details of the work programme, please visit our website.
A reminder that from today, Friday 1 March 2024, the opening hours of our Customer Service Centre will be changing permanently to Monday to Friday 8:30am to 5pm (closed on weekends and bank holidays).
We have a new and improved bus service 149 between Totnes, Marldon, Torbay Hospital and The Willows.
This more frequent and simplified route gives improved direct links to Torbay Hospital and is timed to connect with service 92 to/from Dartmouth
Find out more on the Travel Devon website.
Do your children love reading?
The Secret Book Quest is an exciting new reading challenge for children aged five years old and over. Read a total of 50 books to collect all the stickers, decipher the code, and win a special prize.
To sign up for free, simply visit your local library and speak to a member of staff who will give you your very own Secret Book Quest journal, the first sticker in your collection and a bookmark to record the secret codes for the new digital interactive website.
Visit the Libraries Unlimited website to find out more.
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