A day in the life of… a Health Specialist Team Member

I attended the RCN School Nurses Conference in London today. School nurses are critical in the delivery of the Healthy Child programme. This in turn is vital to our aim to increase resilience and hopefulness in children. Wendy Nicholson from the Dept of Health emphasised the important leadership function that they have with young carers. Young people want their nurses to be nurses. The development of a public health pathway for young people in the Youth Justice System was presented as an important development. The relationship between poverty and risk of exploitation was described by young carers themselves and also their need for non-judgemental support. There is an intention to develop an e-learning programme .

I presented on CSE looking at our learning for health. Their was tremendous interest and from the audience and an acknowledged lack of experience about the subject, and discussion about how to engage with this, especially in independent schools. We had good nursing media interest.

My little treat was to chair a my nursing colleague Jason’s presentation on sports injuries from an emergency department. His entertaining coverage of the subject had all of us better informed on young people with injuries and what to do as first aiders. All the wasted tubigrip I’ve used over the years!

A week in the life of ….. The Network Coordinator

Monday

The day started with a quick tot up of attendees for the two forums being held this week, the police forum and the practitioners forum, both of which have received a lot of interest to the point that they are full with 60 or so professionals due to attend each one.

Before our monthly team meeting I had time to send out an email to our 1,200 Silver network with details of an up and coming specialist seminar, which has a few spaces remaining on it

The team meeting this month looked a little different as we were able to have both of our new specialist team members attend, it feels great to have a team of 7 sitting together all sharing one aim, to tackle child sexual exploitation.

The meeting was also an opportunity for us to have our group photograph taken for our website and publicity materials, it took a little longer than anticipated as it also involved lighting checks, camera timers, shuffling over to fit us all in and frozen smiles, hopefully the results will not be too cringey (I always think that I look like my mother in photos, as in the person in the photo –Me- seems to look a lot older than I actually think I am)

While we had the cameras out we kicked off our “Hands campaign” we each wrote a pledge or statement about our fight to eradicate child sexual exploitation on our hands and had them photographed, we intend to get as many people as we can (you, dear reader included) to do the same and send us your photo which we will put together to make one DVD or banner of our campaign.

            

The team meeting wasn’t all about creativity we also use it for an opportunity to discuss issues around funding bid monitoring and evaluation, policy and procedures for the office and future working and forums, seminars and conferences, including making plans for our network conference which we are hoping to host early December. The task of getting through the agenda was made so much easier by an almost constant supply of homemade chocolate brownies (Sheila), home made chocolate and raspberry bread (Mike) and a great selection of fresh fruit.

We met with the Synotech team in the afternoon for a discussion around the next stage of our interactive discussion tool for use with young people and the e-learning programme aimed at front line practitioners. Both of these tools will be accessible from the website and seeing them develop from an idea into a working, interesting and smooth tool is quite exciting.

I finished the day by sending out reminders of venue, parking and lunches to all those due to attend Wednesdays Forum.

Tuesday

A day out of the office today, interest in the police forum resulted in over 60 officers from over 15 forces across the UK putting their names down to attend meant that we hired a venue for the day, our own rooms holding up to 50.

The forum had a full agenda including an update on the ACPO action plan, an update from the OCC, an opportunity for our new specialist team member Mike Hand to explain the National Referral Mechanism and the use of Sec 58 and a really interesting presentation delivered by Nigel Archer Criminal Justice Sector Development Coordinator-Autism West Midlands -“People with autism in offences of sexual exploitation – an insight”. Nigel is delivering a specialist seminar early in June at NWG HQ.

At the end of the day I went back to the office and got as much prepared for tomorrows practitioners forum as I could – we have 42 people attending and I like to get all the crockery and paper work ready as early as I can, it is really important to me that when people have travelled and arrive there is tea, coffee and biscuits ready for them, even if they are early, so before I go home there are 50 cups, saucers, spoons and all the tea, coffee, sugar pots, water glasses and carafes to set up (saves a rush in the morning)

Wednesday

So pleased I got a lot of preparation done last night, as this morning we need to move 40 chairs from our offices down the corridor to a bigger room, its quite a job and involves dragging stacks of (heavy) chairs, propping doors open (with knees, feet or elbows) trapping fingers, stubbing toes and getting quite warm! As the rest of the NWG team arrive its all hands on deck and the job is finished in time for people arriving.

I love the forums, as it’s an opportunity to put faces to the names of the members I have not yet met and a catch up with those I know.

The forum today was particularly interesting as we had two guest speakers, Eyes Open came to Introduce of new framework for the early assessment and prevention of Child Sexual Exploitation in secondary schools as piloted in Stockport Metropolitan Council and the music video form My Dangerous Loverboy, Basis presented their latest DVD “Sick Party” and Bina gave a national update.

Once everyone was safely on their journeys home we began the reverse process of dragging chairs back to the office, washing and drying the pots and collecting the paperwork and evaluations up (a quick glance through these tells me feed back from the day was extremely positive ). One of the great things about the NWG team is that we all pull together, everyone helped with everything, so even CEO Sheila Taylor dragged the chairs, washed and dried pots and emptied the bins, it meant we could all get home at a decent time.

Once I am settled at home I have a look through the emails of the last couple of days, being at forums two days on the run means that emails do not get my immediate attention so I have a look through and answer those that I am able to and start a list for tomorrow.

Thursday

Phew, a day in the office having a catch up. As I get into work just after 8am most mornings the first thing I do is make a coffee and a bowl of porridge, then read through the news, Twitter and Facebook while I eat.

Today will be a busy social media day as there is to be a screening of a documentary tonight on Channel 4: “The Hunt for Britain’s Sex Gangs” which Sheila and Mike are interviewed in. I want to Tweet and Facebook as much as possible to ensure everyone knows it is going to be on.

The day is filled with replying to emails, activating Gold Network accounts, issuing invoices and catching up with other paperwork.

 Friday

I get into work today at 8.10 am to find that Sheila has been in since 6.20 am! She is a superwoman, no, she is THE super woman.

Today the NWG trustees are holding their meeting at the office, so lunch is ordered and refreshments are set out ready for their arrival, lunch gives us an opportunity to have a catch up with the trustees which can never be a bad thing.

Last nights documentary has done its job in that it has got the issue of CSE out there again, we have had plenty of Tweets and mentions, new followers and lots of positive feedback. I spend some time posting news items onto the website and adding resources to our online library.

Friday is ‘Tidy Friday’, this is something I bought to the NWG, I like to start Monday morning in a tidy, clean office with paperwork and desks in order  (tidy desk, tidy mind or something like that) so we all tidy, check food items in the fridge, empty bins, vacuum and clear away anything that has ‘moved home’ during the busy, often hectic week. I should point out that we do not have a cleaner so these jobs have to be done and it is not something that I have some kind of obsession about. The job is not too big today as Sheila started todays Tidy Friday at 6.20am!

Once the trustees start their meeting the office drops into a peaceful hush with the only sound the tapping of the keyboards.

I pack my bag and make sure I have got some bits and bobs that I may need over the weekend, I do like to be able to do a bit of work over the weekend if the opportunity arises, it is a bank holiday weekend and the weather is promising to be good so I may not do much but I do like to have my laptop ready if there is a major news story.

Just before I leave the office I leave Sheila a note wishing her a safe journey and a fabulous holiday (she is off to Ecuador tomorrow for 4 weeks ) The office will be very quiet without her.

As I walk away from my desk I whisper a little “bye’ to my boys Sean Bean and Jason Statham who look over me as I work- “see you Monday boys”

 Cheryl

A month in the life of a specialist Team Member

So this month began with a very productive practical working day to progress the Say Something if you See Something campaign (SSSS).  Having gorged on a mountain of Easter eggs over the bank holiday weekend, I was buzzing on sugar and raring to go.  With the assistance of the Sheffield Safeguarding children’s board and the forum chair from the Children’s Society, we were able to develop a very comprehensive draft campaign pack, which will assist the leisure industry in protecting their businesses and more importantly protecting young people from harm.

The following week saw me travel to Rochdale to assist as an independent critical friend in their serious case review process.  A very productive day despite driving round and round in circles, lost in Rochdale town centre, I arrived feeling a little disorientated thanks to my incompetent sat nav!

The week ended on a high with my supervision session with ‘the boss’.  I was whisked away to a lovely countryside quaint coffee shop in the beautiful hills of Derbyshire, and to my relief was informed that my contract was to be extended, so I’m here to stay for a little while longer, yay!  A lot of work to be done though in the next 2 years, but I am looking forward to the challenge and eager to get cracking, as they say!

The following week began with a day and a half of interviewing for 2 new specialist team members, we were privileged to meet with so many highly qualified and dedicated professionals.  We are excited to announce the appointment of 2 new members, details of which will be officially published.

Interviews were followed mid week by a very productive team meeting, with the inclusion of a new member of the team which is very exciting!  The addition of cakes, fruit, biscuits and juice of course added to the productiveness of the meeting, thanks boss!

My week ended with a much deserved day of annual leave which was spent in our beautiful capital of London, where I reverted back to my youth and watched The Lion king at the west end, amazing, amazing, amazing!

So, with one week to go before the end of the month, we focused again on the Say something if you see something campaign. Our forum allowed for practitioners working in this field to come together and preview the campaign package and gave practitioners the opportunity to consult on and contribute to the resources, a very exciting day with the knowledge that we are almost at the stage of launching, brace yourselves people, it’s going to be good!

The following day began at the crack of dawn with a loooong drive to Slough to attend and present at their LSCB CSE and Trafficking conference. I was privileged to be able to deliver the keynote speech and even more privileged to be in the company of so many other great professionals including local projects and a survivor of CSE.  The morning of presentations was followed by a yummy networking lunch and market stalls. I was encouraged to see so many professionals interested in the work of the NWG and to see so many signing up to our newsletter.  The day was a huge success, despite clumsily forgetting my display banner, I should be blonde!

This week will end with another long but surely productive trip to Portsmouth to visit their strategic sub group CSE workshop.  I’m hoping my sat nav will be reliable this time and I will be looking forward to a well-earned takeaway on Friday night!

Next week will see me introducing the boys and young men’s forum and also see me training the team at Missing People, but more details on these events next month…

Till then…

A week in the Life of an Office Manager

Monday

Today is the beginning of a very exciting week for me. The usually office-bound Office Manger is out and about, well out at least.

This afternoon I am London bound for training on Comic Relief evaluation methods in preparation for the start of work on a Comic Relief funded e-training which will become a resource on the NWG network website.

So, this morning I need to crack on. I’m greeted at the door by a long line of visitors coming to attend a ‘Say Something if you See Something’ working meeting to finalise leaflets, posters etc. for this important campaign.

Today is the official first day of the newest member of the Team – Mike Hand has joined the Specialist Team as our enforcement expert. Welcome to the NWG Mike, I’ve sorted your rail fare and hotel out for tonight, and when I’m back on Wednesday I’ll sort the rest of your week!

We’ve had more membership applications in so I need to do some invoicing. Membership is increasing rapidly which is fantastic for the rest of the Network as it means we can draw on, learn and disseminate more information to you all.

When this done I need to sort out some development training for myself. As the only one in the office without a background in safeguarding children I’m sometimes lost in conversations so I’ve booked onto a Just Whistle training course in Birmingham next month which I’m now really looking forward to.

Multi-tasking seems to be the order of the day and as I’m ordering office chairs for our new members of staff, I have to, bizarrely, play fire fighter and extinguish a huge fire in the building. Well, a very small one in the cigarette bin outside that can see from my window. Good deed done for the day, I head off to collect my children from school before catching my train.

Miles ordinarily – 0

Miles today – 131

Tuesday

After signing off last night, I saw an advert for this years Race for Life in aid of Cancer Research UK on the television. As a friend of mine has recently been touched by this horrible thing, I’ve entered myself in a 10k at the end of June. You need to know that I’m no runner, perhaps I had a blow to the head, but whatever reason I’ve set myself the challenge of raising £100 for this incredibly worthy cause. I’ll keep you posted on how my training is coming on.

Todays training is extremely valuable. We are discussing ways in which we can monitor the effectiveness of the e-training (see yesterday). I can already see the benefits of what I’m learning to the wider organisation. I’m hoping to meet separately which each member of Staff when I get back to put some things into effect.

Fantastic day, well worth the trip to London. Thank you Comic Relief.

Miles ordinarily – 0

Miles today – 131

Wednesday

Back to the office today and back to usual duties. My first job was to feed back from the workshop and set some time aside in the diary to complete the start up paperwork and set the outcomes/outputs and indicators.

Today we have published details of the next Specialist Seminar – ‘People with Autism in Offences of Sexual Exploitation’ on 4^th June. Within an hour of this going out I am already receiving bookings and enquiries. If demand is anything like previous specialist seminars, the event will be full.

As with most days, we have received an invitation to speak at a Conference in June. Sheila will be Keynote Speaker at the ‘Protecting Girls, Preventing Harm’ conference in Cardiff.

Miles ordinarily – 0

Miles today – 0

Thursday

Today is all about travel and accommodation arrangements for Staff. Lesley and Cheryl are continuing their Road Trip and are off to the Brighton area next week to visit Catch 22 in Eastbourne, Barnardos Miss-u –turn Project in Southampton, and also visiting Barnardos Families and Communities Against Sexual Exploitation. (385.8 miles)

Bina is off to Portsmouth on Friday to attend an LSCB CSE Sub Committee (388.8 miles).

Sheila and Mike are off to Belfast amongst other places next month (716 miles)

We are also trying to source a venue for our conference in November. This is a joint venture with Safe and Sound Derby. We are planning this event to maximize learning and networking opportunities, with keynote speakers and numerous workshops. Keep an eye out for further details.

After all of this we set up the Conference Room for Monday’s Boys and Young Men Forum. We need to work on the layout of the room as numbers are increasing.

Miles ordinarily – 0

Miles today – 0

Virtual miles – 1490.6

Friday

I’m off today; planting potatoes, onions and painting the decking.

See you next week.

A week in the life of the Youth Participation Officer

I thought that I should use all time on trains this week to do something creative, so I am going to attempt to write ‘a week in the life of me’ blog! I came back to work on Monday after 2 weeks holiday. It’s always a bit of a mind adjustment switching back into work gear after time off but it also felt good to be back in the mix. Monday morning was taken up checking and replying to the inevitable mountain of emails that had built up during my time off, lots of good pieces of youth participation work coming up in the next few months! I work 18.5 hours so it’s been a bit of a juggle to fit everything in this week.

After popping into the NWG office quickly on Tuesday morning to organise some practicalities for the week, I was on my first train trip of the week to London for the first of 3 focus groups to develop a new resource with Photovoice. The Having Our Say 2 (HOS2) project is a partnership of Photovoice and the NWG Network, over the past year they have been working directly with young people at risk of sexual exploitation supporting them to explore their experiences using photography as a tool for discussion, exploration and representation.  Five photography courses have taken place across the UK, with young people creating a range of images and digital stories, which will be used to create a resource pack that can be used in the support of young people in specialised as well as mainstream support services throughout the UK.  It was exciting to start thinking about the activities that could go alongside the images that the young people have created. Throughout the development process young people will be consulted as to how the resource should look, how it could be used and what should be in it. We are hoping to be ready to pilot this resource in the summer of 2013.

After picking up our nifty Nissan Micra hire car, Cheryl and I embarked on Wednesday’s adventure to the South Yorkshire CSE conference in Bradford organised by MESMAC’s Blast project. We were presenting a workshop on the work of the NWG Network and Youth Participation, alongside a host of other great workshop provider. It was great to see some faces known and some new. It was also great to be some of the first people to see the new boys and young men resource that Blast have developed. All in all it was a brilliant day out in the north!

Thursday saw me on my 3^rd day travelling in a row, this time I was heading back to London for the Be Healthy celebration event! The AYPH Be Healthy project has been working with 10 young people from across England over the past 2 years to train them as health advocates – researching & identifying barriers young people affected by sexual exploitation may face when accessing health services. The advocates have created a booklet that shares their views, knowledge and experiences as well as making a DVD with animated stories by themselves about health and wellbeing. Having visited the groups a couple of times in the past few months during their creative phase it was really exciting to see the young people’s work being acknowledged, rewarded and celebrated!

I have travelled 788 miles in total this week, that must mean its time for the weekend!

A week with our CEO (aka “packing a month worth of work into a week”)

Day One.

Friday

Preparation for the Home Affairs Select Committee Inquiry -Localised Child Grooming, taking place at The House of Commons  on Tuesday next week and which I have been asked to attend as a witness

Had the opportunity to catch up with old friends and long time work colleagues at the Specialist  Seminar at NWG Headquarters

Everyone is doing such good work, and everyone is very overworked and stretched now the issue  of CSE is being highlight , a good time for a catch up and seeing what’s new.

Completed job descriptions for new posts to be offered in April 2013

Made last changes to the Health Report, or what I hope will be last changes to it.

Monday

Annual leave, massive clean up at home, spent time with our pygmy goats and went horse riding.

Day Two.

Tuesday

Train down to London, spent the time finalising some of the DoE agreement, juggled some appointments in my diary, travelling from St Pancras to Sanctuary Buildings  I met my first major incident on a London escalator.  My coat snagged in the escalator as I travelled upwards, my coat stayed in the same place dragging me backwards, I fell over my overnight bag on the step behind me and was caught in a pair of strong arms belonging to a gentleman standing further down the escalator.

Who ever you were thank you for rescuing me from something that could have been far worse than it was.

Met with the Department of Education team to finalise our grant agreement details, our outputs and outcomes for 2013/14,  key performance indicators are definitely not my forte , time for a coffee and quick catchup on our prep notes for the Inquiry.The Inquiry will take evidence on

• Race in relation to grooming
• Co-ordination between agencies
• Role of the Criminal Justice System
• Reporting of  sexual offences
• Assumptions about victim

Once at The Inquiry, we  listened Alyus Kilmarni and Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra (Assistant Secretary General)British Council for Muslims give evidence and heard how they believed we should tackle some of the issues.

Then came our turn, we shared a platform with our longer term colleague with a wealth of experience  in CSE form Checkpoint the Children’s Society project in Torbay.

Some of the questioning:

Keith Vas MP asked:Is there an increase in child sexual expliotation (CSE) or have we reached a plateau?

ST: no previous measurement – therefor it is difficult to draw a conclusion, more professionals can now recognise symptoms of CSE ,I personally believes it is on the  increase due to access via social media.

Keith Vas MP asked:Has the change in minister impacted on the issue of CSE ?Have the recent cuts affected the response to CSE?

S Taylor: Edward Timson MP  has a larger portfolio of responsibility to manage  that may have an impact although it must be said that the meetings are still going ahead. There are concerns that the reduction of public money for those with a duty of care having the resources they need to fully tackle CSE

Keith Vas MP asked: is there cofusion surrounding the issue of consent?

Sheila T: There is a need to look at fear and retribution that exploiters put victims under: Do we ask the right questions? Consent may be understanding the consequences of saying no! similar to Stockholm Syndrome.

There is the conflict of Gillick/Fraser competancy – a child cannot consent to their own abuse

I then had opportunity to get the bits in that I thought were important:

• There is a full list of agencies we should d be engaging with ie ambulance, paramedic. CSE coordinators are needed in EACH LSCB
• Sexual health don’t talk to A&E, who don’t talk to CAHMS. Health agencies need to be more joined up on
• We need to look at good theraputic intervention for children.
• The experience of young people  going through court is ‘horrific’. Some young people say it is worse going through court than through exploitation.
• CPS, judges, barristers all need to be trained in child sexual exploitation

Our time ended , it had gone so fast.

Then visited the Park Plaza for a well-earned cup of tea and slice of excellent cake! Sadly I lost a blueberry off my cake and Cheryl wanted to run with the three-second rule and put it back n my cake!

Whoa was my reply!

Next- moving on to catch the train from Paddington to go to Plymouth, over night stay the Holiday Inn.

It’s now 20.58 on the train and I’m just about to reach Plymouth, spent the journey catching up on today’s emails and have requests for in put into a serious case review, assistance on a police operation that has no victims identified as yet, information on a successful virtual team we’d like to highlight as effective practice, update on our children in need funding for the youth participation work, worked on revised grant agreement outcomes and outputs, read the papers for the CSEGG OCC panel mtg for Thursday.

Then took time out to email my daughter who is currently out  in Ecuador and loving it.

The train was very busy,  it was like a swam of  locus have been through the carriages, ate everything then left an almost empty train and no food!

I will have to wait until I get to the hotel to get my tea this evening and keep my fingers crossed they do food this late.

Picked a sandwich up from a spar shop, made it to room by 9.40 pm .

Miles travelled  383 by car, foot, train, tube, escalator and taxi.

Day three

Wednesday,

After arriving absolutely exhausted last night, rose quite early and took my new running shoes out for a spin!  They’re oK which is good!

I did breakfast this morning, which is a rare event for me,  then arrived at the City Collage for the Safeguarding Child Protection Conference in Plymouth at 9 am.  Where I received a very warm welcome from Natasha, Simon Tony and Bob. about 200 delegates with some very good questions following the presentation.  Questions covered peer on peer sexual exploitation, safe accommodation and therapeutic treatment of survivors, researching the offenders to understand the drivers.

Caught up with Martine from the Checkpoint project who gave evidence along side me yesterday at the Inquiry, we’d both found it a stressful event and felt the pressure to get in the things we both needed to say.  I like Checkpoint, I have met their team and spent some time with them, they do some fabulous work.

Afterwards during coffee had a lot of professionals with individual queries, covering speaking to students in universities, health issues, safe accommodation follow-up query, peer on peer follow-up on query with more details.

I left  to try to get home early only to find I hadn’t checked my ticket closely enough and I was on a specific train and had to wait 90 mins in the station for my train, had more station sandwiches ( delightful).

Spent the train journey home, catching up on emails, a report that requires finishing.  started work on a risk assessment for safeguarding boards which is proving interesting work and hopefully will result in a very useful tool.

I’m in the quiet carriage, but the person I am sat next to have a very loud voice and is driving me insane!

Travelled by foot, train, taxi and car. 269 miles today

Trying to do phone calls by text message due to dodgy signal, difficult!

Almost made it home but got stopped just short of Derby because a car had hit the bridge and the bridge had to be safety assessed before we could go under it.  Got home at 7.20 pm.

Arranged the travel for London the next day now that I have had confirmation on certain meeting times.

Worked on a report that needs to go today and finally laid work to rest at 8.20pm, time for a bath and a small whiskey!

Day four

Thursday

Another early start from home at 6.40 to get to Derby train station again, this time to London.  7.25 train

We took part in the roundtable discussions with Crown Prosecution Service this morning, a number of voluntary sector organisations dealing with a wide range of sexual violence against children came together to discuss how they might see the way prosecutions and the decision-making process behind the decision to proceed against those and those that have no further action,can be improved.

An open process that engages with professional before the public consultation document is written. A wonderful opportunity to influence decision makers to benefit those most effected.

From there I walked across London to the Office of the Children’s Commission to a panel meeting.  Leaving at 4 pm I made may way home again.

On the train I managed to catch up on a few phone calls that I had missed, I had another 8 calls from unknown or private numbers which always worry me as I cannot get back to those people.

After connecting my dongle I managed to download my days emails and answered most of them.  Even managed a little time to catch up on my back log of emails too.

Do you have a back log? I’m always looking for tips to manage loads of emails coming in each day. I almost always open them, answer the important ones and promise myself I’ll get to those others tomorrow, but of course tomorrow takes ages to come!

Returned home at 7.20.  Just have to make sure the team are paid this evening.

Travelled 286 miles by foot, car, tube and train today.

As I am in spring cleaning mode, I put the next lot of curtains in to wash and ironed the ones I did overnight last night! Then sat down.

Day five

Friday

Today saw me in the office after struggling through mountains of snow to get there.  I had to cancel my first appointment of the day at 8 am, introducing someone who is an excellent trainer to a training organisation where we felt the two would complement one anther very well. Now all I have to do is find space in my diary to slot them in again sometime soon.

I spent a while catching up on things that had come to our attention with Cheryl, then tackled some of the email requests I had received over the  week.

I finalised all the details of our health report-A report on a grass roots survey of Health Professional with regard to their experiences in dealing with Child Sexual Exploitation is being launched today by the NWG Network and sent an embargoed cope to ministerial teams for health, education and crime reduction along with our press release.

Finalised how we are sending the report out on Monday morning, the siting of it on our website. All the twiggly bits you need to do last minute to get things right.

I spoke with an officer who was looking for some similarities on his case to others and within the day I had made email introductions to one and ask another if I could pass their details along too.

I paid a range of invoices that had come in, given an update on the number of organisations that had paid their membership so Cheryl could activate their accounts.

A safeguarding nurse range to ask for some support on developing their strategy and we offered to go along to their meeting to explore ways we can assist.

We finalised the last details of our Department of Education bid, then there seemed to be nothing desperately important and had a ‘tidy Friday’ session of clearing up the office before departing for home at 2 pm as the snow situation was worsening.

Once home I took several calls and emails, including hounding Paul for a photograph for the report.

Next week:-

Monday all day in the office with no appointments.

Tuesday travel to Shropshire for a days training the new missing guidance then travel to Torquay, Devon

Wednesday assist facilitating a development day with Torbay Safeguarding Board.  When we have finished travel back to Derbyshire

Thursday appoint with a charity about governance and development.

Friday is Good Friday and a long weekend, where I intend to do no work!

I know this job would be so much harder without the team I have around me, the ability to laugh and keep each other going is what team work is all about and I feel grateful all my team are each brilliant in their individual ways. Thank you guys!

Total Miles = 938

Sheila Taylor – CEO NWG Network

The Health report can be downloaded at http://www.nwgnetwork.org

The Inquiry can be viewed at: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=12883