Bradford cares

A new campaign – commissioned by the Safer and Stronger Communities Partnership and led by local charities – has launched to raise awareness and support for local organisations that help those who are rough sleeping and begging across the Bradford District.

Known as #BradfordCares, the initiative makes it straightforward and convenient to give money, items and time to local charities through a new website – www.streetsupport.net/Bradford

The website acts as an online hub where people can find information about all the services available in Bradford, adverts for volunteers and items needed, as well as locally relevant articles that inform people of issues surrounding homelessness in Bradford.

For anyone wishing to find out more and discuss issues surrounding homelessness in Bradford, an information stall promoting the campaign and engaging people with what local organisations are doing to help will be at Bradford Interchange (7.30am – 10.30am) and Bradford Broadway (3pm – 6pm) on Thursday 21 December.

Visit streetsupport.net/bradford to find out how you can help people who rough sleep and beg.

Follow the campaign on social media with #BradfordCares

Feedback your ideas to help improve the initiative for future campaigns; www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/ZRBWWXL

 

District looks to develop its Early Help arrangements for families

Bradford Council plans to work with agencies across the District to extend ways in which it can provide Early Help for families who are in the greatest need of support.

Early Help is a way of giving families the support they need as quickly as possible when problems emerge. It means services working together to find solutions to small problems before they become big ones.

By taking this approach, the Council and its partners are able to:
• Provide the right help for those who need it most.
• Help families to help themselves where this is possible.
• Make sure limited resources are used in the best way possible.

The Early Help approach has already been developed for some services. The new proposals would look to extend this for a wider range of services for families and children and young people. This would include maternal health, parenting support, and early education take-up and ensuring young people have positive things to do. It would also look to tackle problem areas such as parental mental ill health, domestic violence and substance misuse

The proposals would look to bring different services closer together to improve information sharing and reduce duplication. This would provide clearer access to families most in need and would help them get more effective support. It would do this by:
• Improving how we deliver help so we can stop families getting stuck and help them make clear progress towards improved lives.
• Improving family support by making it clear what help is available.
• Making it easier for families to find services so they only have to tell their story once.
• Building on the Council’s Families First approach so we have one family, one plan and one key worker so we help families to receive the right support at the right time.
• Finding more ways to help families and communities help themselves.

The new model will look to deliver services more locally across a number of ‘clusters’. This is an approach that is already in place for some services such as children’s centres.

The Council plans to engage with families, partner organisations and staff over the summer about the best ways to deliver services before a more formal consultation on proposals takes place in the autumn.

Coun Val Slater, portfolio holder for health and wellbeing, said: “There are many families across our district who need help and support. Demand for this help is growing at a time when funding is reducing. This means we will need to do things differently in the future if we are to deliver the services that our communities need.

“These proposals will look at how all the agencies who deliver services can work together to provide better targeted help at the earliest opportunity when problems first emerge in a person’s life. This can offer better outcomes for children and families and can also help us avoid expensive care at a later stage. We want to talk to families and providers about the best ways we can deliver services.”

Community Award for Shirley Manor

Pupils at Shirley Manor Primary Academy were rewarded for their Community Project following the support they provided to people in a local care home suffering with Dementia. 

They won the Young Active Citizen Award in the Telegraph & Argus’ Community Stars Award at the end of last term. 

The school’s Year 4 pupils (now in Year 5) had been taking part in the Archbishop of York scheme which required them to do a Community Project.  This coincided with a visit to the school from Dementia Friends who taught the children about the effects of the condition and how to help sufferers. 

Following the visit one of the pupils, Jake Lee, discussed this with his mum who works in a Dementia Care Home.  Mrs Lee asked school if they would assist Rastrick Care Home with its Doll Therapy Scheme for Dementia sufferers – a non-pharmacological intervention aimed at reducing behavioural and psychological disorders in patients who are institutionalised.  

The children originally chose to collect dolls and donations of money in order to buy some dolls for the home’s Doll Therapy scheme.   

The School’s Learning Mentor nominated the class for the award which was presented to them by the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Coun Geoff Reid and Lady Mayoress, Chris Reid. 

Follow us on Twitter:  @Sh1rleyManor

Working together to improve education

Headteachers, businesses and community leaders from across the district met at a special breakfast conference this week to look at practical ways of working to together to raise education attainment.

The conference focused on Bradford’s Education Covenant, which looks at how everyone in our community can work together to help drive up education standards across the District.

The covenant sets out what the Council needs to do to raise education achievement, and where the community can help. The covenant’s education ‘ask’ wants schools, pupils, parents, governors and businesses to see how they can help in supporting children and young people’s education.

The conference looked at practical steps that businesses, schools and the community can take to make a difference, whether it’s providing work placements or helping with volunteering.

Coun Imran Khan, Portfolio Holder for education, employment and skills, said: “We’ve made good progress on many areas of our education covenant and the Government has recently recognised Bradford as a place of educational opportunity. We need to live up to this expectation and this conference is about bringing together sectors of our community to look at practical steps we can all take to help raise education standards. We have a young and vibrant district with huge potential and whole of Bradford needs to come together to realise that potential and play a part in the districts education success.”

Michael Jameson, Strategic Director of Children’s Services, said: “Learning starts at birth and continues for life, both inside and outside the classroom. The covenant is a way in which we can make sure we have a joined up approach to the whole range of education our children receive.  It takes a community to raise a child and everyone has a role to play.”

Byron Primary School gets good judgement from Ofsted

Byron Primary School is celebrating the recognition that pupils are getting a good education according to its latest Ofsted inspection, as is the case with other schools in the locality.

The Bradford Council school in the BD3 area of Bradford, (primarily Barkerend and Bradford Moor) was judged to be good in all areas, which is a leap from its previous judgement of Requires Improvement when it was last inspected in 2014.

In a glowing report, the inspectors, spoke of the “strong leadership” and ambitious Governors who know the school’s strengths and priorities for improvement and provide good levels of support and challenge.

“Pupils’ outcomes are improving strongly and have risen significantly since the last inspection.”

The complimentary report says: “Parents are positive about the school.  They say how well adults care for their children and that they are safe at all times.”

“The curriculum is well planned to meet pupils’ needs, especially those at an early stage of learning English.”

Headteacher, Richard O’Sullivan, said:  “We are delighted with Ofsted’s findings and it is clear they see the school as we do.

“This is another example of the good leadership and effectiveness of primary schools within the BD3 area, with several other schools in our locality also being judged to be Good.  This is testimony to the improvements being made in our area.”

Coun Imran Khan, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Education, Employment and Skills, said: “This positive outcome is excellent news for all those at Byron Primary and all those who have worked so hard to bring about this achievement”

“It is pleasing to know that thousands of our young people have access to a Good education in our district.”

Schools in the BD3 LAP (Local Achievement Partnership)
Byron Primary, Lapage Primary, St Mary’s and St Peter’s Catholic Primary, Killinghall Primary, Dixons Marchbank Academy, Feversham Primary Academy, Westminster Primary, Barkerend Academy, Peel Park Primary and Westminster Primary Academy.

Friendly St Matthew’s

Pupils and staff at St Matthew’s Catholic Primary School in Allerton have been recognised for their commitment to supporting the speech, language and communications development of every child.

The school has been awarded the “Friendly School Status”, by the ELKLAN Group a specialist in speech and language.

In order to gain the accreditation, four staff gained formal qualifications in supporting speech, language and communication needs.  The training was then disseminated to all teachers and teaching assistants at St Matthew’s, enabling them to support pupils both in the classroom and the playground.

For further information on the work of Communication Friendly Schools contact St Matthew’s via email admin.office@stmatthews.ngfl.ac.uk