When good news really is news

Three Bridges is a special school at Blackwater, near Truro, which caters for autistic children aged 11-19. It has just been declared "outstanding" in all areas, following an Ofsted inspection. This is unusual for any school, never mind a special school. Three Bridges, run by the charity Spectrum, opened only five years ago. Well dones all round.

Back to the future

The thorny issue of Cornwall Council office accomodation will return to haunt us next month as officials struggle to reduce the floor-space per work-station and increase the number of staff per work-station.

At the moment there are 5,539 work-stations, with 0.9 staff per desk, occupying 12.6 sqare metres each.

The "vision" is to reduce this to 3,451 work-stations (I'm always amazed by the precision of these targets!) by 2015, with 1.4 staff per desk, occupying 10 square metres each.

Apparently central government's Department for Children, Schools & Families has already shown the way by squeezing its staff into just 7 square metres each.

Scrutiny next week, then Cabinet on 14th April. It won't be easy.

Former Lib Dem council leader says "vote MK"

Tim Jones, former Liberal Democrat leader of Restormel Borough Council, has written to local newspapers urging voters to support Mebyon Kernow's Dick Cole in the St Austell & Newquay constituency at the forthcoming general election. There can be no escaping the fact that this is a blow to the Lib Dem candidate, Stephen Gilbert - and excellent news for the Conservatives' Caroline Righton.

The odds shorten...

Cornwall Council leader Alec Robertson surprised a few of his colleagues at the full council meeting today by not revealing the identity of the new Cabinet member, needed to replace Sally Bain. I can think of only one reason for this - that the new Cabinet member was not present. This narrows the field to just two: councillors Denise Mutton and Joan Symons. My money's on Joan.

The new Cabinet portfolio will be called "Customer First" and will embrace most of the services which went into Cultural Services, such as libraries, leisure centres and museums.

Alec promised an announcement in the next few days.

A question of balance

Tomorrow's full council meeting should learn who is being promoted to the Cabinet, to fill the vacancy caused by Sally Bain's resignation. Given that Neil Burden has already been reshuffled into her children's services portfolio, there is now much chatter about the need to maintain gender as well as political balance - which narrows the field to one of nine Conservative women councillors currently on the backbenches.

A star is born

In 1964 the incoming Labour government set up a Select Committee to study the idea of allowing some broadcasting of Parliamentary proceedings. A three-day experiment followed in the House of Lords in 1968 but went no further.

The idea was raised again in 1972 but it was not until 1983 that the Lords finally agreed the cameras should be allowed in, with Lord Stockton (Harold MacMillan) stealing the show with the first broadcast in 1985. The House of Commons followed four years later.

So good luck to Cornwall councillor Andrew Wallis, who presents his first motion to a full council meeting tomorrow. Andrew is urging colleagues to trial the webcasting and broadcasting of council business.

At the moment, cameras and microphones are banned - Cornwall Council still lags well behind many other local authorities in the 21st century, despite last year's election of a younger, media-savvy cohort of councillors.

I hope it doesn't take 25 years for Andrew's proposals to become a reality.

Shine a light to scatter the darkness

Full marks to Cornwall councillor Chris Ridgers, who chairs the children's services scrutiny committee, and who shocked a few of his colleagues yesterday by daring to mention - in public - two Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) which have yet to be published formally.

The cases concern the deaths of two teenagers in Cornwall, in separate incidents, and the extent to which the various agencies involved might learn lessons for the future. One of the cases is already very well known, having made national newspaper headlines back in July.

Chris spoke about how he had been briefed on the SCRs without in any way breaching any confidentialities. Cornwall's children's services department is used to getting a bad press but actually has many more "good news" stories to boast, if only the culture of secrecy could be broken down.

It could be months, if not years, before these SCRs finally see the light of day. It's not unusual for them to stumble out more than a year after any public inquest. You might expect a journalist to call for openness and transparency - but I really do think a more pragmatic approach to scrutiny would not only help the troubled children's services department to improve, it would also go a very long way to restoring public confidence.