Minutes:
The Chairman was pleased to announce that two members of staff from County Durham Youth Offending Service had received a prestigious national award for their innovative work.
Practice improvement officer Sarah Caden and speech and language therapist Susan Stewart had been given a Butler Trust Award for 2015/16. The award was for their “outstanding dedication, skill and creativity” in transforming the service’s approach to young people’s communication needs. They were both presented with their accolade by the Trust’s patron, HRH The Princess Royal on 10 March.
Sarah and Susan’s achievement was all the more outstanding given that the award was just one of ten Butler Trust awards handed out to staff working in prisons, probation and youth justice services across the UK this year, following over 300 nominations.
Lord McNally, Chairman of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, attended the award ceremony and praised the work of the Durham duo and remarked on the tremendous work they had done in improving the service’s approach to young people’s speech, language and communication needs.
The Chairman invited Sarah and Susan to receive the award and asked the Council to place on record its congratulations to Sarah and Susan on receiving the award and for their hard work, professionalism and dedication to the County Durham Youth Offending Service
Resolved:
That the Council place on record its congratulations on the receipt of the award.
The Chairman extended a warm welcome to children from Timothy Hackworth Primary School, Prince Bishops Community Primary School and St. Wilfred’s RCVA Primary School who were at County Hall. They have been engaged in the Bowes Museum’s ‘Start’ arts programme which had seen the Museum work with 330 children aged 7-11 from six County Durham primary schools. All the schools were in close proximity to the Museum and had little or no engagement with the Museum in the past. The children had worked with the Museum's education team and a professional artist, both in the Museum and back in school in special interactive workshops, sketching, designing, printing, stitching and using collage to create their unique designs. They then created a collective quilt made up of designs created by each child involved in the project which had been on display in the Durham Room over the last couple of days.