I wanted to start this week’s message by focusing on a Corporate Parenting event that took place on Monday.
I spoke at the event, alongside our Chief Executive, which I hope will see us working closely together with local businesses and other organisations to support children in care across the borough as they grow up. I was particularly pleased to hear from employers across Solihull about the work they’re doing in this area.
I really do believe that this needs to be a team effort, rather than just something for the Council to sort. For me, the event is the start of a journey that we will travel on together to improve the life chances of children and young people. Whether it’s support for interviews or just a simple phone call to check in on how someone is doing, we all need to take responsibility and work in partnership. We need to treat those children in Council care as if they were our own.
The event was held at the NEC. I know many of us usually associate it with major events like concerts and exhibitions, but I also found it to be an excellent venue to host the conference too.
Regular readers of this message will know I’m a strong supporter of local businesses.
I was pleased to meet with quite a few at an event the Council hosted alongside the West Midlands Combined Authority at Cranmore Park on Tuesday. The event highlighted funding opportunities and support that is available for budding entrepreneurs and smaller companies.
I’m keen that the Council works with them to help Solihull grow. A growing Solihull economy is good news for us all, and I’m committed to doing all I can to help businesses and communities succeed.
A great example of this was the recent opening of an office at Birmingham Business Park by the automotive company Holman. The office opening, which was attended by Cllr Karen Grinsell, the Deputy Leader, is the latest arrival to UK Central Solihull, which continues to be a fantastic location for businesses to set up shop. I’m looking forward to working with Holman and other businesses based in Solihull as we continue to improve and grow the business footprint in the area.
Last week, I highlighted an Inclusive Communities Fund, and this week wanted to highlight a similar fund for voluntary and community organisations.
Groups can apply for grants up to £20,000 for 1 year to help them through the challenging economic times we continue to find ourselves in. Applications are open until December 10th, with full details on how to apply available on the Severn Trent website. I’m really keen that Solihull organisations get their fair share of these fundings. Whether you’re involved yourself, or know people who are connected to organisations that might be eligible, I’d encourage you to look at both of the funding opportunities.
Although inflation is now consistently falling, I was pleased to see some measures announced by the Government earlier this week that should hopefully help people’s money go that little bit further. The minimum wage increase will help the lowest paid, with the 2p cut in national insurance seen in people’s pay packets from early next year.
I’m not particularly active on social media, but those who are will see plenty of posts over the next couple of weeks promoting the global 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign.
The campaign aims to raise awareness of a number of issues, including domestic violence, honour-based abuse, as well as the importance of mental health and support services available across the borough. I’d encourage you to keep an eye out for more information on the council’s social media channels between now and December 10.
As a committed environmentalist, I was delighted to do some planting yesterday to support National Tree Week.
This year is the 75th anniversary of National Tree Week, which will run from Saturday until Sunday December 3rd. The plan is to plant more than 400 trees across the borough, more than we ever have before. It’ll be a real step forwards in our wider planting aims, to have a quarter of a million trees in the ground by the end of the decade. I’m expecting to be very much on target with that plan, with 100,000 trees planted by the end of this planting year. My thanks, as ever, go to the tree planters and volunteers who look after the fantastic range of parks and green spaces we have across Solihull.
I’m sure many will have seen the Ofsted report on Children’s services which was published earlier this week.
You can read my full comment on the report here. I won’t repeat those words here, but wanted to take a moment to recognise the difficult job social workers do in protecting children and supporting parents. The inspectors highlighted that social workers are developing better relationships with parents and children, and I know those improvements are thanks to their passion, dedication and enthusiasm for their jobs. I’d like to thank social workers and all staff in children’s services, for their continued hard work and support in our shared aims to give children, young people and families the quality of service they deserve. Of course, many of our social workers and colleagues also work in Adult Social Care too, supporting those that need support in a variety of ways. Social work is a wonderful job, and as a Council we’re committed to supporting our social workers in all they do.
Finally, I was pleased to enjoy an excellent flat white while talking to the owner of Brew23 about our plans for the town centre.
We talked about the Mell Square revamp that was announced a few weeks ago, and about the impact this may have on local businesses. I said in person what I said in this message a few weeks ago. There will of course be some impact, but our aim is to minimise this as much as we can. There’s lots going on in terms of our Mell Square plans that I can’t talk about yet, but suffice to say I’m really excited about the plans, as we work to create a town centre that is not just fit for the future, but is the “go to” retail and leisure centre in the West Midlands.
Thanks, and have a good weekend,
Councillor Ian Courts