This week is National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) and we have been celebrating our wonderful apprentices and recognising the benefits of apprenticeships through our range of events. We’re also shining a light on some of our apprentices at the council.

Georgina Smith joined us as a Customer Service Advisor and has an important role as the first line for Redbridge resident queries as well as working with our other council services to find solutions for our residents’ concerns. Nothing is ever too much trouble for Georgina and her enthusiasm is appreciated by her whole team.

Rabiun Opi joined us as a Business Administrator and has worked within the Work Redbridge team to support the residents of Redbridge. The learning Rabiun has undertaken has helped her to provide advice and enable access to many individuals needing support and options with training and employment opportunities.

Johnson Gbagbo, Caroline Oliver, Lesley Perry, and Anne Adesida have achieved a Senior Leader Apprenticeship. Their achievement was even more remarkable as they had to contend with the lockdown period during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this challenge they all succeeded with their studies to achieve full certification.

Join our final session, Apprenticeships at Redbridge – Our Story and Opportunities, today, Thursday 9 February from 12 to 1pm to find out what opportunities we offer and how to recruit an apprentice in your team.

Visit our apprenticeship intranet page to find out more.

We have some great news to share! The Digital Team have been shortlisted for the 2023 Smarter Working Live Awards in the Building Collaborative Communities category.

This is for the great work they did last year with Let’s Make Tech Inclusive Week and are continuing to do with digital inclusion.

The team want to develop digital skills across the borough and council, supporting residents and staff by improving skills and education opportunities. This is where Let’s Make Tech Inclusive week came in, where we had a week of interactive events, talks and training. The week showed how digital tech empowers, enables, and supports us all and gave staff the opportunity to network and make connections.

Winners will be announced in March – keep your fingers crossed for them!

The cost-of-living crisis has many people considering their costs, which transport can often be a large part of. Travel isn’t something you can avoid and buy later when you’ve saved up – we all need to get around. But if you’re proactive, there are a lot of things you can do to save money.

This week the cost of living support for staff intranet page has a range of tips and tricks to help keep transport costs down.

There are many different ways to do this. If you drive, for example, there is advice on finding the cheapest fuel, using hidden MOT centres, and how changing your driving habits to save on fuel can help you save up to 30% on fuel costs. Since public transport is often cheaper than driving, we’ve pinpointed a range of support schemes to potentially further reduce the cost.

Advice on taking up the habit of walking and cycling more is also available. Changing to these methods of transport for some shorter journeys can even help you save money and improve your health at the same time!

Private fostering is when someone who is not a close relative cares for another person’s child under the age of 16 (18 if disabled) for 28 days or more. 

A close relative is considered to be an aunt, uncle, grandparent, step parent or sibling. Friends of the family and other family members such as cousins or great aunts are not classed as close relatives for the purposes of Private Fostering, neither are families hosting overseas students who are being educated in the UK. 

Residents and staff who live in the borough need to legally notify us of any private fostering arrangements to ensure the child is safe.

Please contact Redbridge Children’s Services on 020 8708 3885 or by emailing CPAT referrals.

For more information, please visit our Redbridge website.