Minutes:
(a) Visit from Hillview School for Girls, Tonbridge
The Chairman welcomed a group of students from Hillview School for Girls in Tonbridge who were present to observe a full County Council Meeting as part of an Enrichment Programme arranged for them as an end of term activity.
The students are aged 12-15yrs and were the school’s Student Council representing yrs 7-10, Key Stages 3 and 4.
They had a particular interest in seeing the Authority in action, carrying out its civic responsibilities in public.
The Chairman stated that he was grateful to Mr Horne for liaising with the school and making the necessary arrangements for the visit.
(b) Birthday Honours
The Chairman informed the County Council of the following Awards in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list:
Mrs Helen Tait - the Headteacher at Sandgate Primary School in Folkestone, who was awarded the CBE for services to education in Kent.
Mr Alan Bernstein – the former Assistant Head of the Kent Youth Service, who was awarded the MBE for services to young people in Kent.
Mrs Catherine Marshall – the Assistant Headteacher at Wyvern School in Ashford, who was awarded the MBE for services to special needs education.
Resolved unanimously: that this Council records its sincere congratulations to Mrs Helen Tait, Mr Alan Bernstein and Mrs Catherine Marshall for the Honours they have received.
(c) Recognition for the Personnel and Development Team
The Chairman stated that the work of Personnel & Development's Reward Team was recently acknowledged at the national Employee Benefits Awards where the team was successful in gaining the title of 'Best Employee Benefits Strategy in the Public Sector'. Colin Miller, KCC's Reward Manager, also won the 'Compensation and Benefits Professional of the Year' award and the team gained a 'highly commended' in the 'Best Total Reward Strategy' category.
The team made it a hat trick four days later by scooping the 'Best Public Sector HR Strategy' award in the national HR Excellence awards.
The Reward team has worked very effectively and imaginatively to develop a package of benefits for staff that is attractive but at the same time highly cost-effective. These national awards recognise their track record of innovation.
(d) Good Egg Award
The Chairman stated that Kent County Council had been given a Good Egg Award for 2010.
The award had been achieved through using cage free eggs (barn eggs) in 15% of our school catering and exclusively for catering at strategic headquarters and Oakwood House.
Kent schools had also made a commitment towards sourcing cage-free eggs in all the County's schools as part of working towards achieving the 'Food for Life partnership' bronze award.
It was noted that KCC was currently procuring 170,000 cage free eggs per year through this work.
(e) Innovation Award for the Community Warden Service
The Chairman announced that The Kent Community Warden Service had won a national Employers’ Forum award for its innovative work with young people with the aim of reducing age discrimination.
The judges were particularly impressed with the 30 support wardens who were employed following a successful bid from the “Future Jobs” fund. The support wardens were aged between 18 – 24 years, were from deprived areas of Kent and had been unemployed for more than a year. They worked alongside Community Wardens for six months to gain valuable work experience and life skills. As a result of this experience, many had been offered jobs, e.g. Eurotunnel; the Royal Navy; care homes; local authorities and a holiday park.
The Community Warden Service also came runner up in the “Belief” Category at the Employers’ Forum Awards, for their work with families from Eastern Europe, Gurkha families; Romany and traveller communities.
(f) Award for KCC’s Information Services Group (ISG)
The Chairman announced that the ISG service desk had recently completed an accreditation process, managed by the Service Desk Institute (SDI) and had received the highest possible certification (4 Star). It was noted that there were only two other service desks in the country with this level of accreditation and Kent was the only local authority. A 4 Star desk was recognised as being business led, delivering a high quality but efficient service that it linked to the business requirements.
The Chairman was pleased to announce that two key members of staff from ISG, Lisa Beck and Paula Davies were present at today’s meeting and it was their hard work and the work of their team that has led to this award.
The Chief Executive of the Service Desk Institute, Howard Kendall presented the award to Lisa Beck and Paula Davies on behalf of KCC.
Mr Kendall addressed the meeting to offer his congratulations to KCC on winning this award.
(g) Mr Roger Frayne and Mr Willie Richardson – extension of period of absence
The Chairman moved, the Vice Chairman seconded and it was:
Resolved: that in view of the continued absence of Mr Roger Frayne, County Councillor for the Dover Town Division and Mr Willie Richardson, County Councillor for Romney Marsh Division, due to ill health, the Council formally approves their continued absence, in accordance with Section 85(1) of the Local Government Act 1972.