March has been a remarkably busy month and I am looking forward to a rest over Easter and to eating my chocolate egg, of course!
Towards the end of February, I travelled to Warwickshire to attend the Conservatives Councillors Association conference, with colleagues from Leicestershire. This is a wonderful opportunity to network with other councillors to hear about what they are doing on their local councils. It is also a great way to ask questions of our Secretaries of State and Ministers.
The Saturday evening dinner was excellent, finishing with a great speech by Penny Mordaunt, MP for Portsmouth North and Leader of the House.
On 27th February I was over at Derby City Council to join colleagues from across the East Midlands for a quarterly update on Counter Terrorism (CT) and the Prevent Duty. Due to the events happening across the world currently, and as the Lead for CT at Leicestershire County Council (LCC), it is vital I keep up-to-date in this important area concerning public safety.
On Friday 1st March, I was invited to attend the Leicester Riders basketball game against the Cheshire Phoenix at the Mattioli Arena Leicester as Lead Member for Children and Families at LCC. The Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Mike Kapur very kindly provided 50 tickets for Children in Care and their carers from across Leicester and Leicestershire to enjoy the game. All the children and their families had a fantastic time, and I not only enjoyed the match but also saw our children having such an exciting time, and the Leicester Riders won!
On International Women’s Day 2024, I was delighted to be asked to feature on the Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland’s Health and Wellbeing Partnership celebrations, also appearing on their X feed.
On St Patrick’s Day, 17th March, I was one of the panel guests on the BBC Politics East Midlands TV show. I was rather nervous during the recording, but I was pleased to be part of the program to speak on behalf of Leicestershire residents.
The topics covered were Local Government Funding, Women in Business, Childcare, Mayoral Elections for Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire – quite an agenda!
You can watch the show by visiting our webpage: https://www.bradgateconservatives.org.uk/news/anstey-mentioned-bbc-tv-politics-east-midlands
The link is only available until the 16th April 2024.
Leicestershire County Council are pleased to receive £238 million of additional funding for local transport from the central government. We are currently waiting for the full guidance to be released before we can look at how this funding can be spent to achieve the most for our residents.
Leicestershire Family Hubs
On Monday 18th March, I attended our second Family Hub Conference. The conference was attended by many of our partners involved in our Family Hubs model and the day focused on our work with families and how we can move this to the next level now most of our Family Hubs are now open.
As the Lead Member for Children and Families at LCC, I opened a further two Hubs on 19th March in Castle Donington and 20th March in Thurmaston. This takes our total in Leicestershire to 24, with two left to open over the next couple of weeks. We also have satellite hubs in many of our libraries.
The website has been launched but is undergoing soft testing before we can fully roll it out.
Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland Road Safety Partnership (LLRRSP)
I thought it would be useful to provide some information to residents about the LLRRSP. The overall objective of the LLRRSP is to reduce the number of people killed and injured on the highway network within the Partnership area through collaborative working.
The LLRRSP brings together Leicestershire County Council; Leicester City Council; Rutland County Council; Leicestershire Police; National Highways; Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service; Public Health; and East Midlands Ambulance. There is a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the main LLRRSP partners, which runs from April 2023 to March 2028.
The LLRRSP seeks to achieve its objective through the provision of camera enforcement and evidenced based programmes of road safety education, training, and publicity, including:
- The Safety Camera Scheme, which is directly managed by Leicestershire Police. The police run and manage the static and mobile cameras. A key focus for the Camera Operations Group has been the establishment of new hard standing areas for mobile enforcement, plus the expansion of existing routes.
- The police offer Driver Education Workshops (DEW) courses to drivers within a prescribed threshold, which the County Council runs. Between 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2023, 26,436 drivers attended a National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme course.
- The Data Group produces casualty information to highlight trends and issues, informing the work of the Communications and Publicity Group.
A full programme of communication and training initiatives is developed and approved annually by the LLRRSP Board. There has been an ongoing focus on the use of social media and social media-based advertising which matches the national approach from the ‘THINK!’ campaign (https://www.think.gov.uk/).
Pre Driver Days
The Leicestershire County Council Safe and Sustainable Travel Team offers year 11/12 students, who are 16/17 and have not yet started to drive, the opportunity to take part in a Pre-Driver Day aimed at young people who are interested in learning to drive.
The course offers a variety of workshops highlighting key issues faced by young and inexperienced drivers. The course will include an introduction to driving, issues relating to speed, and impairment, and a practical off-road driving session at Mallory Park accompanied by a qualified driving instructor in a dual-controlled car.
The following dates are currently available for Pre-Driver courses in 2024:
- 2nd April
- 30th May
- 5th August
- 6th August
- 21st October
For further information and to book a course, please click here: https://www.tjunction.org.uk/pre-driver-days/
Free Early Education Entitlement (FEEE) Funding
From April 2024, the government will be expanding the current ‘Working Parent Entitlement’ childcare offer in three phases:
- From April 2024 - working parents of 2-year-olds will be able to access 15 FEEE hours (570 hours per year)
- From September 2024 - working parents of children aged 9 months old will be able to access 15 FEEE hours (570 hours per year)
- From September 2025 - working parents of children aged 9 months old will be able to access 30 FEEE hours (1,140 hours per year).
Parents and carers are entitled to use their 570 or 1,140 hours over 38 weeks of the year (term time) or some providers will allow you to ‘stretch’ the hours over more weeks, using fewer hours claimed per week.
What are the eligibility criteria?
You, and any partner, must expect to earn (on average) at least £167 per week (equal to 16 hours at the National Minimum or Living Wage).
If you, or your partner, are on maternity, paternity, or adoption leave, or you’re unable to work because you are disabled or have caring responsibilities, you could still be eligible.
You can’t get either 15 or 30 hours childcare if you, or your partner, each individually expect to earn £100,000 adjusted net income or more.
How can parents check if they are eligible?
You can check your eligibility and get further information on the scheme here: www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/
If you have any questions or are having difficulties in applying, please call the HMRC on 0300 123 4097.
'Care Experienced' as a Protected Characteristic
Leicestershire County Council are working with Leicestershire Cares, a charity that supports young people.
Their aim is for an inclusive and safe Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland where nobody is left behind, and where all children and young people are supported to reach their full potential.
I met with Peer researchers on the 'Joining Up Joining In' project at Leicestershire Cares to discuss how being care experienced impacts on adult lives.
After a considerable amount of work at the council meeting on 21st February 2024, I was delighted to put forward a Motion to Leicestershire County Council to recognise 'Care Experienced' as a protected characteristic. All the council members approved the motion put forward.
I am now encouraging and supporting all the local borough and district councils within Leicestershire to also approve this Motion. This should ensure that people who have been in care experience the same opportunities in life as everyone else.
