College welcomes Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills

HUGH Baird College and University Centre was delighted to welcome Gillian Keegan, Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills to its Healthcare Campus on Wednesday, 16 June 2021. The College's Healthcare Campus is home to its Health and Social Care courses and the Life Rooms, Bootle, a resource for the local community.

The Minister had the chance to meet teaching staff, and students from across the College enrolled on Health and Social Care courses, from the 14 TO 16 College, right up to learners currently working in the NHS and attending the College on a part; time basis.

The aim of the visit was for the Minister to further her understanding of how the College can contribute to improving the skills of our young people, particularly as the country works towards recovery from the Covid19 Pandemic.

The College was especially excited to be able to show the Minister their future investment plans. Rachael Hennigan, Principal and Chief Executive, said:- "We were pleased to welcome the Minister to the College and demonstrate to her how we support our fantastic learners to excel and gain the skills they need to be a success in industry. I was particularly pleased to be able to share with the Minister our plans for new facilities to help us deliver the innovative T-level programmes we have commencing from this September."

This new qualification gives young people the chance to develop high level technical skills and gain work experience through a 45 day placement, while combining the academic theory and study of traditional A-Levels. Hugh Baird College are the only College in the Liverpool City Region to be offering T-levels from this September.

Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills Gillian Keegan said:- "It was fantastic to visit Hugh Baird College's Healthcare Campus and meet some of their brilliant health and social care apprentices and students. Through close links with the local NHS, the college are training not just the frontline talent of today, but also for the future. I was really inspired to see how students of all ages were being supported to develop new careers, or to upskill in their current jobs specialising a wide range of areas from mental health to dementia and paediatrics though to adult care. It was also great to see how the college is using its Life Rooms to engage and provide wellbeing support for the local community."

The College is looking forward to improving its estate over the coming years, prides itself on enabling all its students to achieve, no matter what their starting point, and is keen to work closely with the Minister and the Department for Education. For more information on courses at Hugh Baird College please visit:- HughBaird.AC.UK or call:- 01513534444.
 

5,000 North West Schoolchildren march for safer roads as 42 children from the Region are killed or injured on roads every week

5,000 kids from across the North West will take to the streets around their School, on Wednesday, 16 June 2021, to raise awareness of the 42 children who are killed or injured on the Region's roads every week. The children, aged between 4 and 11, are among more than 50,000 across the UK who are taking part in Brake's Kids Walk with Shaun the Sheep. The national project, run by road safety charity Brake in partnership with insurance company esure, sees Shaun and his flock help youngsters learn key road safety messages and call on their grown ups to make roads safer, so more children can enjoy the health and planet saving benefits of walking, scooting or cycling to School.

To coincide with the launch of the walk, Brake has highlighted the true extent of child casualties on the Region's roads. Latest Department for Transport (DfT) figures for 2019 show that, with 2,164 children losing their lives or being injured on the roads in the North West every year, the Region is the 3rd highest in the UK for child road casualties, (after the South East with 2,593 and London with 2,270).

Scott Williams, head of programme delivery at Brake, said:- "It's every child's right to be able to walk in their community without fear of traffic and pollution. Throughout the Pandemic, families have taken to the streets on foot and by bike and we hope these activities will continue as restrictions lift and ordinary road traffic returns. It is vital that children are able to walk safely in the places where they live. Although numbers of children killed or injured in the North West shows positive signs of decline, every road death or injury is one too many and causes devastation for families, Schools and communities. This year we hope to inspire as many children, Schools and families as possible to call for safe and healthy journeys for children through our Brake's Kids Walk event."

The Local Authority with the highest child road casualty figures in the North West is Lancashire (excluding Blackburn and Blackpool), where 384 children were killed or injured in that year. Nonetheless, this represents a 24% drop from the figure in 2015 (504). By contrast, the Local Authority of Stockport reported 38 child deaths or injuries on their roads in 2019. Trafford, Knowsley and Halton also all registered under 45 child road casualties each year, taken as an average from 2015 to 2019.

Across the Region, in the main the numbers of children being killed or seriously injured shows a slow but steady decline. Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester have both managed to reduce their casualty figures by 40% and 37% respectively across the past 5 years, reporting 128 across the 2 Local Authorities in 2019 compared to 206 in 2015. However, shocking figures from Salford buck this trend, with child road casualties increasing from 37 to 71 across the 5 year period, a rise of 92%. The figures in many other Local Authorities remain largely static. The major conurbations of Liverpool (176 casualties in 2019) and Manchester (118 casualties in 2019, a decrease of 34% on the previous year) come 2nd and 4th after Lancashire, with Cumbria the 3rd worst Authority in the Region for child road casualties (average of 165).

Schools and Nurseries from the Region are joining the nationwide campaign, calling for five key measures to enable children to make safe and healthy journeys: footpaths, cycle paths, safe places to cross, slow traffic and clean traffic. Short, supervised walks are taking place on the 16 June 2021 at or around Schools and Nurseries. Children will walk in a crocodile formation and hold hands to highlight the importance of being able to walk without fear or threat from traffic.

Schools can also run special road safety themed assemblies, lessons and fun activities, using free resources from Brake and featuring Shaun the Sheep and his friends. Resources are available to any parent, carer or teacher to download for free at:- Brake.Org.UK/KidsWalk. The event can also be used to fundraise for Brake, which supports families who have lost loved ones in road crashes.

Brake's Kids Walk 2021 is sponsored by esure. David McMillan, CEO at esure Group added:- "We are thrilled to have partnered with Brake to sponsor this year's event as we believe in the importance of road safety for children everywhere. We want to be a force for good and make a real difference by focusing on better and safer driving. Brake's Kids Walk is an important opportunity to raise awareness about road safety messages."

It is also worth adding that Aardman Animations have also kindly lent their imagery of 'Shaun the Sheep' and friends to support this campaign.