25 November, 2004

On Monday I joined Class 4 at Cookley Sebright First School for their lesson in the visiting Life Education Centres’ caravan. This is a specially equipped caravan carpeted from floor to ceiling to accommodate up to thirty children with their teachers. An enthusiastic, involving teacher took them through a specially designed lesson appropriate for their year group. With the help of a dummy named Tammy and a friendly giraffe called Harold the lesson looked at the structure and workings of our bodies touching on the risks from smoking, drugs and alcohol. The children were fascinated from start to finish and a trip in the caravan to outer space was incredibly realistic where we met aliens studying human life. Life Education Centres is a charity which makes a small charge to the schools it visits. This is subsidised to cover the salaries of first class teachers and running costs. 

I visited Morgan Advanced Ceramics in Stourport to learn about their exciting programme of investment for innovation and to meet some of their highly motivated, skilled staff. A serious problem facing them and other industries that use gas as fuel is the steep price rise which appears to the management to be more severe here than in other parts of Europe. As with so many high tech industries, they know that the only way they can compete in the world market is by producing high quality, innovative products that cannot be made more cheaply in other countries.

I was pleased to learn from the Chief Executive of the Mental Health Partnership Trust that the outline specification for the local development of services for older adults has been approved by the County Health Scrutiny Panel. This means that the redevelopment of the Lucy Baldwin Hospital can proceed as soon as the remaining services have moved to their temporary homes at the Lea Castle Centre. 

In case anyone interested has not seen it, a vacancy has been advertised for a Non-Executive Director on the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust Board. Information packs and application forms are available from 0870 240 3802 quoting reference WM4863. The closing date for the return of applications is 9 December 2004. 

The State Opening of Parliament occurred yesterday. The advantage of being an MP is that one does not have to dress up! I do not object to the pageantry which is part of our heritage although some describe it as Ruritanian. MPs are herded into the back of the House of Lords Chamber but being tall I could glimpse the Queen and the glittering jewels in the Royal Crown through a narrow carved arch in the sumptuous panelling. The Queens Speech debate occupies the next few days and MPs have to ask the Government how they are going to translate the aims in the Speech into effective action.

RT