Here is tonight's COVID-19 update from Cardiff Council, covering: the first ever remote meeting of Cardiff Council's Cabinet; children leaving primary school prepare for secondary school with virtual transition visits; specialist youth club provision aimed at deaf and hard of hearing young people; and a plea from Ken in our Street Cleansing Team, "we're all in this together, please keep our parks clean".
Cardiff Council Cabinet meeting held online
The first ever remote meeting of Cardiff Council's Cabinet took place today, when the June meeting was held over video conference.
During today's meeting, the Leader of the Council, Cabinet Members, and Leaders of the opposition groups discussed the following reports:
- Restart, Recover, Renew: Next Steps for Cardiff During the Covid19 Crisis
- Cardiff Council's Response to the Covid-19 Crisis from a Financial Management Perspective
- Response to the Impact of Covid19 on Cardiff Council's Housing Delivery Programme
- City Recovery Strategy
The meeting was also webcast, and a recording of that, along with links to the Cabinet reports, can be viewed here:
https://cardiff.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=151&MId=4176&Ver=4
The following press releases were also published in the run up to today's meeting:
Cardiff's plans to exit lockdown as one of UK's ‘safest' cities revealed
Click here to view:
https://www.cardiffnewsroom.co.uk/releases/c25/24027.html
Cardiff Council's £29m COVID-lockdown bill explained
Click here to view:
https://www.cardiffnewsroom.co.uk/releases/c25/24030.html
To see the listings of all forthcoming meetings, including Scrutiny meetings, Cabinet meetings and meetings of Full Council, visitwww.cardiff.gov.uk/meetings
Virtual Transition Project for schools is underway
A Virtual Transition Project which helps children who are leaving primary school prepare for starting secondary school in September, is underway in Cardiff.
Developed by The Cardiff Commitment, in partnership with the Council's E-Learning Team, the scheme provides Year 6 pupils with the opportunity to learn about their new secondary school, which they will be transitioning to after the summer break.
It enables them to access a secure web page and Google classroom which hosts a variety of activities established by the secondary school to encourage pupils and staff to communicate and get to know one another better.
It also allows new pupils to find out more about the school, including information about staff, maps of the school, uniform, expectations as well as allowing them to post any questions they may have.
Cabinet Member for Education, Employment and Skills, Cllr Sarah Merry said: "The transition period from primary school to secondary school is really important for children and gives them the chance to familiarise themselves with their new school as well as building relationships, gaining confidence and feeling safe.
"With schools currently closed, children are missing out on the usual transition sessions and may be worried or anxious about their new school. This scheme helps to relieve those feelings, giving pupils an opportunity to develop skills which lead to improved outcomes in secondary school."
The Virtual Transition Project was piloted in Eastern High School, Fitzalan High School and Cathays High School. A further five schools have now engaged with the project including: Cantonian High School, St Illtyd's High School, Corpus Christi R.C High School, Mary Immaculate High School and Cardiff West Community High School.
Area Leader Transition for Health and Wellbeing at Cathays High School; Cari Merriott said, "It is fantastic that Cathays High School and our feeder Primaries are part of this Project, to ensure a smooth transition for Year 6 in these difficult times.
"It enables us to carry on with our partnership working which we have done through Year 6. We want our new starters to feel happy and excited to join high school and this project certainly supports them."
Cardiff Deaf Cool Youth Club
Cardiff Youth Service Inclusion has a specialist youth club provision aimed at deaf and hard of hearing young people called, Cardiff Deaf Cool Youth Club. It's a place where deaf young people can go and not worry about communication as they share the same barriers and frustrations as each other.
Any communication barriers can be overcome with the help of a BSL/English Interpreter which is always available either to voice over or to communicate via British Sign Language. The provision is managed by Shakilah Malik and Stuart Parkinson is the Youth Worker running the club. Stuart is also deaf himself and communicates via British Sign Language and spoken English, with a bilingual approach.
The Coronavirus pandemic has been particularly difficult for deaf and hard of hearing young people. As a result of the restrictions they've lost their 'safety net to meet and relax' until things get back to normal.
The club have been communicating via Zoom to sign to each other and be able to share their feelings by drawing pictures, sharing pictures of the food they've been cooking and discussing what they are doing to help each other get through the day.
One fantastic resource has been signposting qualified Deaf Counsellor Trudi Collier, who has been posting deaf user friendly 'Mindfulness' sessions via Facebook which Stuart has been sharing on the Cardiff Deaf Centre Facebook page (link below).
All of this is underpins the health and wellbeing strategy. They have also signposted deaf4deaf specialist counselling services if it is needed.
If you would like to get in touch or involved please contact:
Twitterand @DeafHubWales
Facebookand @cardiffdeafcentre
"We're all in this together, please keep our parks clean" - a plea from Ken, Street Cleansing Team
Last week, Ken, one of our colleagues from the cleansing team,went viralasking people to take their litter home.
We caught up with him to find out why it bugs him so much...
Ken says, "Most people are fine(with their rubbish),but there has been a huge increase in litter since the beginning of lockdown. There are obviously so many people off work so it's not a normal day for anyone anymore.
"With more people heading to the parks for daily exercise or social distanced meet-ups, we are cleaning litter from the parks every day, whereas before we could do them once a week.
"We're finding BBQs, still alight, burning out the bins, which is so dangerous and it's costly to replace the bins.
"BBQs in public spaces aren't advised by the Government, but our advice pre-lockdown was that they should be left on the concrete, near to bins for collection. They shouldn't be left on the grass or placed inside bins as this is a fire hazard.
"There are lots of bottles, cans and picnics that are littered around the parks. We carefully check there's no broken glass, no broken play or gym equipment as some people are still using these. Please follow government guidelines and don't use this equipment at all."
"There are so many dirty nappies being dumped. We have a hygiene service that residents can sign up for. You then get your nappies collected weekly. One week in yellow bags, and another week in general waste. Please, take them home."
Ken continues, "A big thank you to Cardiff Rivers Group and Keep Wales Tidy, without them we couldn't cope. Most of my team mates are working alone due to social distancing rules and we couldn't cope without the help of these volunteers.
"I love my job, I love to look back at the clean park and think "Wow, I did that, it's clean". I'm proud to help keep Cardiff tidy. I'm just asking for people to be considerate and help us. The more people can do to help us, the better.
"We're all in this together."
Thank you so much to Ken, all the cleansing team and our volunteers working so hard to keep our public spaces litter free.
Please remember to take your litter home with you or dispose of it correctly. You could face a fine of £100 for littering. Find out morehere.