Monday 17th May It’s the day that more of the country is coming out of lockdown. It’s a great start to the week visiting the independent coffee shops in Moulsham Street, including the newest café, “Cake and Company”, near Oaklands as well as The Lemon Tree and Loubee’s Tearoom. The shop managers and staff are all in great spirits. Fuelled on with coffee and cake I head off to Westminster for a busy afternoon of meetings in the Department for Education.
As evening comes the news breaks that 8 families in Chelmsford have tested positive for the latest variant of concern of Covid. It is a bit of a downer to hear this just as we are coming out of lockdown, but it is not a huge number of cases. Everyone locally is being encouraged to do a lateral flow test so that we can try to get on top of this outbreak. I have been doing two of these tests each week, I don’t enjoy it much – but its quick and an easy way to make sure that I am not spreading the virus.
Tuesday 18th May Back to back meetings including a helpful briefing on everything we know so far about the “Indian” variant and a useful catch up with local authority bosses in Hampshire, I’m interested to understand more about their experience of supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Wednesday 19th May A complicated morning chairing the “Family Justice Board”. This brings together judges, social workers and representatives of all those involved in the Family Courts. A sad consequence of lockdown is the increase in divorce cases. This coupled with the closure of courts in the first phase of Covid means that the courts have long backlogs. Judges have been working hard to catch up, sitting longer hours in virtual court rooms, but there is still much to do. They have been prioritising adoption cases as no one wants the children waiting for a new loving home to be delayed longer than possible. There is a youth panel and the representatives of young people have many thoughtful recommendations on how to support children better when they are affected by the court process. I sit in the gallery of the House of Commons for Prime Ministers Questions, it is not at all back to normal as only one seat in four is occupied, but none the less it is great to see more MPs being able to attend in person.
Thursday 20th May Back at home for a day of virtual meetings, I join foster carers and experts in online safety for the launch of a new “Digital Passport”. Children and Young People get great benefits from being able to communicate easily on social media, but we know that the online world can also be an unsafe environment. Many young people speak about the increases in online bullying, abuse and harassment. Talking with a child or teenager about their online life can be hard for any parent, but is often especially so for foster parents, especially if they do not yet know the child they are caring for well. The Digital Passport has been developed to help foster carers and their foster children to have these conversations. Its good to hear positive feedback from so many of them about how this has improved the situation.
Friday 21st May As ever in recent months my Chelmsford day starts with the MP meeting with the Vaccine Minister. The roll-out continues at an awesome pace, and there is huge energy going into accelerating it in every way possible. More people in their thirties are due to be invited to have their vaccine soon and those aged over 50 are being called back earlier for their second dose. We hear about improvements that are being made to the booking system to make it even easier for people to get their vaccine.
A new project is coming to Chelmsford in September. The Knife Angel sculpture will arrive in the City accompanied by outreach events and workshops to help raise awareness of knife crime. I meet with the organiser who is passionate to support vulnerable young people from being drawn into gangs and danger. I also meet a fascinating new company that is launching shortly with an aim to help long term renters to buy their own home. This is an issue for many people in Chelmsford.
MPs from across the East of England meet with the ambulance service. A new Chief Executive is joining shortly, and we hear about plans to improve the service. Our ambulance crews have been on the frontline in the pandemic. They have been supported by others, such as the fire service, who helped provide drivers so that our paramedics could cover the increased cases.
As well as restaurants, bars and cafes reopening, some spectators have been allowed back into sports grounds this week and I was hoping to pop down to the County Cricket Ground to watch Essex play. But the rain has set in. I join the Committee meeting for Essex Cricket online instead. We pass the financial accounts for the year. Until there is a wider review of social distancing the number of people allowed into the ground is still very limited.
It is getting late in the evening when I join one of Chelmsford’s most experienced bar and club managers for a tour of the “night-time” economy. Thank you to all the bouncers, staff and managers for showing me around. It is great to see people enjoying and evening out and I am impressed that so many of our clubs and bars have worked so hard to be covid secure and welcoming. There is super atmosphere under the new retractable roof at The Courtyard in Baddow Road, the barman at Be at One tells me about his special training at “cocktail school” in London and a new manager at Slug and Lettuce explains that they will continue with the “welcome” service introduced during the pandemic even after Covid worries abate.
I am impressed by the thought that has gone into keeping people safe, especially women. Our award winning “pubwatch” scheme makes it easy for bouncers and staff to alert other clubs of any issues. The SoS night bus is in the High Street with paramedics on hand in case anyone has an accident and there is a new “drink aware” crew visiting the clubs to anyone in trouble. Some of the bars are going to be open into the early hours of the morning, but after a busy week I’m back home and tucked up in bed well before midnight!
