Friday 13 June 2025
Our cabinet member responsible for services that support young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), says that she is disappointed to hear little of substance in the Chancellor’s spending review earlier this week regarding national reform of the SEND system.
Councillor Denise Bickley said that by not prioritising change to the SEND system today, the Government is kicking the can down the road and failing thousands of children and their families.
The government says details of the government’s intended approach to SEND reform and how it will support local authorities will be set out in the schools’ white paper in the autumn.
At the first full council meeting since the elections last month, councillors decided who will be Devon County Council's new leader, deputy leader and cabinet members. We've put together a special edition of our 'Connect Me' newsletter to let you know more about the roles, who's who and what they're doing.
If you missed it in your inbox, you can read it online using the button below.
 Record number of adults at our cycle confidence sessions
Bike Week is being celebrated in Devon this week (9-15 June) with the news that more adults in the county took part in our cycle confidence sessions last year than ever before.
A record 390 adults attended the sessions delivered by Active Devon in 2024/25, and we’re aiming to beat that by reaching more than 500 adults this year.
 Online booking for this summer’s Holiday Activities and Food programme is now open
Parents and carers can now book places on our Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme this summer.
The government-funded scheme provides activities and nutritional meals over the holidays for children aged five to 16 years old who receive benefits-related free school meals.
Food waste collections are in place across most of Devon, and they are easier to use than ever. If you have a waste caddy, remember you can reuse any bag as a liner. And those households with a food waste caddy don’t need to buy special compostable bags, they can just reuse any plastic or paper bag they’ve already got, such as an empty bread bag, salad bag, cereal bag or frozen vegetable bag.
We're hosting a series of online sessions with help and advice for young people preparing for adulthood. Our next session is taking place at 1pm on Tuesday 17 June and will focus on understanding the principles of mental capacity and decision-making, and how these concepts apply to young people transitioning to adulthood, including rights, responsibilities, and our role in the process.
To book your place, or find out more about our other upcoming topics, visit our website using the button below.
We're supporting the Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS) Drowning Prevention Week which starts tomorrow, Saturday 14 June and runs until 21 June 2025. As we are approaching the summer holidays and beach, lake and pool visits are likely to be amongst the plans, please take a moment to watch and share this family-friendly video about the Water Safety Code which aims to give you and your family the knowledge to stay safe in and around water.
There are tens of thousands of unpaid carers in Devon and we’re launching a new online tool which will help them find the information and services that they need more easily. It's called 'Bridgit' and it will help unpaid carers find health support, guidance, services and self-help resources at the click of a button.
We are reviewing the support that we provide to people in Devon with drug and alcohol-related problems to make sure it continues to be fit for purpose. To help us do that, we want to understand how you think we could improve. We would like to hear from anyone living and working in Devon, especially those with lived experience of drug or alcohol misuse, and their families.
Take part in the anonymous survey using the button below, before 25 July.
 Concern at plans to phase out co-responder service
Our cabinet member with responsibility for Rural Affairs, Councillor Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin, says she’s very concerned about South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust’s (SWAST) plans to phase out a role that sees firefighters as ‘first responders’ in some medical emergencies across Devon and Cornwall.
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