The Stop Loan Sharks Project, which is supported by City of York Council, is cracking down on illegal doorstep lending this Christmas. Through enforcement action, education and raising awareness the scheme aims to put an end to this crime and encourage the public to celebrate the season without turning to an illegal money lender.

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Tang Hall area has been selected as a Big Local Area to have £1 million over ten years being allocated by the Big Lottery Fund.
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Energise – the leisure centre on Cornlands Road – would like to set up an ‘Energise Customer Forum’ which will allow Energise customers to have an input into the daily operations of Energise.

The idea is to discuss key areas of the building and sessions that will allow Energise to continually improve its service and facilities.

If you are interested in getting involved please email energise@york.gov.uk to register your interest.

York Police have published a statement saying, “We are pleased to announce the launch of a Police Community Support Officer recruitment campaign.

Salary: £18,721 – £20,734 plus shift and weekend working allowance

As one of our PCSOs you will make a real difference to your local community and contribute to making North Yorkshire a safer place for everyone.

As a member of the Safer Neighbourhood Policing Team, you will work closely with local residents and businesses, being visible, engaging and proactive in tackling those issues that matter to our communities.

You will be self motivated, committed to delivering excellent customer service and a team player who can work effectively in teams within North Yorkshire Police as well as with partners and community groups.

We are seeking people who are first class communicators, proven problem solvers with high levels of personal resilience and a desire to make a difference in local communities. Successful candidates will receive ongoing training and support.

We are looking for community focused people to join us at North Yorkshire Police and would welcome applications from all members of the community. Posts are available in forcewide locations, however we are in particular seeking recruits for Scarborough and the East Coast.

To apply, complete the PCSO online application form. http://tinyurl.com/PCSO-application The closing date is 4pm on Monday 31 December 2012.

Join in with the web chat on Wednesday 12 December 2012 from 6pm to 7pm to find out more information about the role of a PCSO, the recruitment and training process.

http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/pcso

Applefields School is the local authority’s special school for secondary aged pupils with a wide range of special educational needs. The school supports 140 pupils aged 11–19 years from York and the surrounding areas of North Yorkshire and the East Riding.

In developing the range of local authority provision for children with special educational needs in York, Applefields School sought to establish a Satellite class for students with learning difficulties based in Burnholme secondary school.

The aim of the Satellite provision was to provide opportunities for students with learning difficulties (on the roll of Applefields School) to be based full time in a mainstream secondary school in order to have access to individually planned inclusion opportunities with the support of staff from the special school. The students have use of a base classroom in the mainstream school where they access their core curriculum.

The Council proposes that the Applefields satellite provision will transfer to Manor school when Burnholme closes.

More details: http://tinyurl.com/Applefields

The York Councils anti fraud investigators have completed 164 investigations so far in the current financial year. 48% have resulted in a “successful outcome” (for example benefit stopped or amended, sanctions, prosecutions, properties recovered, housing allocations blocked, management action taken).

Activity to date includes the following:

• Benefit Fraud – 14 people have been prosecuted for benefit fraud offences and a further 10 have received formal sanctions (cautions and administrative penalties). Benefits have been corrected in a further 50 cases.

• Housing Fraud – working in conjunction with housing officers, 15 properties have been recovered in 2012/13. In addition, 2 properties were prevented from being let where the prospective tenants had provided fraudulent information in their housing applications. There are 30 current investigations in this area. City of York Council successfully prosecuted a tenant for subletting this summer. This was only the third such prosecution of this type in thecountry.

• Internal Fraud – the team has received 9 referrals for internal frauds to date. 5 are currently under investigation.

• Social Care Fraud – fraud awareness has been delivered to frontline staff and processes setup for the referral of cases where abuse of the system is suspected. There are currently 7 ongoing investigations in this area.

• Blue Badge Fraud – fraud awareness is currently being undertaken with relevant staff. In October the council prosecuted a member of the public for offences under the Road Traffic Act.

• Council Tax Fraud – there are three ongoing investigations into criminal offences relating to the evasion of council tax.

More details here: http://tinyurl.com/York-Fraud

Three York men were arrested in the early hours of this morning (Sunday 9 December 2012) following three burglaries at commercial premises across the York area overnight.
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The York Council is likely to agree changes to home care and other charging arrangements at a meeting on Wednesday.

They form part of a plan to persuade more elderly and disabled residents to accept “direct payments” to cover their care needs. These payments involve clients receiving an agreed cash amount based on an assessment of their requirements. In turn they are able to decide whether to purchase help from the Council or the private sector. The scheme has the advantage of giving clients customer choice on their care arrangements.

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Take up of the scheme has been relatively low (20%) so far with the complexities and the uncertainties, of the payment process, being partly to blame.

Now a new simplified system is set to be introduced.

As part of the change those getting the assistance of a second carer may have to contribute more for the service.

More details are available at http://tinyurl.com/York-direct-payments

There is some concern that those most affected by the scheme have failed to respond to consultation – or perhaps fully understand what so being proposed.

As of Monday 22/10, the Council had 1540 customers in receipt of a chargeable service. Under the proposals:

• 984 customers will not see a change in their current contribution (428 of these are nil charge)

• 496 customers will see a reduction – the average reduction is £10.07 per week

• 60 customers will see an increase – the average being £107 per week (primarily self funding double up customers)

The Council’s current performance on the care of elderly and disabled residents will be under the spotlight at a meeting on Wednesday.

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Although the care services in York cost less than in comparable authorities, some 14 areas for improvement have been identified.

The Council receives relatively low levels of response to reports like these. Probably not surprising as the published report pointedly fails to include a table of the performance outturns (although it is mentioned in the table of contents).

This is just another confirmation of the secrecy culture that has gripped the York Council over the last year or so.

Such information as has been provided can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/York-Social-Care-2012

City of York Council and the York Human Rights City project are hosting the city’s very first Human Rights Festival from 10-15 December.

The festival will include a variety of events to promote the exchange of ideas, as well as a debate on human rights issues and governance at various levels.

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