To receive such announcements as may be made by the Mayor.
Minutes:
The Mayor:-
1. Referred to the recent sad death of Councillor John Hammond and stated that it had been her privilege to attend his funeral on 23 November; many other Members had attended and had expressed how much they admired him.
She also reported that, sadly, the Council had recently been notified of the death of Honorary Alderman Andrew Thwaite, a former Congleton Borough and Cheshire East Councillor until 2015.
Members stood for a minutes silence in tribute and in recognition of their service to the Borough over many years.
Cllrs Rachel Bailey, Sam Corcoran, Arthur Moran and Derek Hough spoke in tribute to Cllr Hammond and Honorary Alderman Thwaite on behalf of their groups.
2. Reported that, since the last meeting of Council, she and the Deputy Mayor had attended over 60 events and that details had been circulated around the Chamber.
3. Reported that, as was customary for the Mayor during November, she had attended a number of Remembrance events and had felt very honoured to be the Mayor of Cheshire East during the centenary of the ending of the First Word War. She understood that all of the Remembrance Services held across Cheshire East on 11th November had been very well attended. She had noted that later in the meeting there was a Notice of Motion thanking those staff and Members who have been involved with the Cheshire East Reflects Programme over the last four years.
4. Welcomed Mark Taylor, Interim Executive Director of Corporate Services, to the meeting.
5. Thanked those Members who had attended her Christmas Ball and had helped make it such a success and reported that the money raised for her charities would be more than £2,000. She also thanked Crewe Hall and all those staff who had worked so hard on the night to ensure that everyone enjoyed themselves.
6. Reported that, in October she had attended a very hard hitting knife crime awareness event, where the effects of such crime were brought home in a very graphic and effective way. She stated that this was an issue that affected all communities and one where everyone had a role to play. She commended the work that Cheshire Constabulary were doing to combat this problem across Cheshire.
7. Stated that, in Cheshire East, it was believed that corporate parenting was one of the most important responsibilities held by elected Members, partner agencies and individual staff working with children and young people in the care of the local authority. Being a good corporate parent meant working together to advocate and champion the needs of cared for children and care leavers in everything that was done, having high aspirations for their future, keeping them safe, happy and healthy and supporting them into adulthood. It also meant celebrating their successes and supporting them when things didn’t go so well. Put in other words, doing what any good parent would do for their own child.
8. She reported that she was delighted that a number of care leavers were in attendance at the Council meeting and that it had been a pleasure, to meet them, along with the Group Leaders, just before the Council meeting had started. She considered that this was an issue that went beyond party politics where she knew that all Members spoke as one.
The Mayor reported that in the next agenda item, Council would be considering a formal item on Corporate Parenting, but before then she invited the Chair of the Corporate Parenting Committee, together with representatives from the four Groups, to each read out the five pledges contained in the Corporate Parenting Strategy.
Councillors Jos Saunders (Chairman of the Corporate Parenting Committee), Rachel Bailey, Sam Corcoran, Arthur Moran and Rod Fletcher read out the five pledges:
1 “We will be good corporate parents.”
2 “We will improve education, employment and training outcomes.”
3 “We will work to achieve permanence and keep children safe.”
4 “We will improve health and wellbeing outcomes.”
5 “We will prepare young people for adulthood.”
The Mayor announced that Council would now consider item 6 of the agenda - Pledges to Cared for Children and Care Leavers.