Cornwall Council Cabinet thanks all involved in Falmouth WW2 bomb incident

At a meeting of Cornwall Council’s Cabinet this week, Cllr Leigh Frost acknowledged and thanked all of those involved in the work to safely dispose of the unexploded Second World War device at Falmouth docks.The Leader said: “I would like to thank residents for their cooperation and patience, as well as staff from the Council and across all partner services who have reacted and supported the operation.”He also provided an update on the recent increase of pupils in Cornwall accessing free school meals, following the implementation of the Council’s new automatic award process. Cllr Frost said: “So far 17,485 children have been awarded free school meals, with 14,000 of those identified through the new automatic award process. This equates to an estimated £6.9 million a year in savings for their families.“If proof were needed that this initiative would deliver on its promise to provide more meals for children who may otherwise have gone hungry at school, there you have it.“Because pupil premium funding is linked to free school meal registration, identifying these additional children is expected to bring an extra £11.9 million into schools each year. Over the full six-year free school meals period, that equates to around £71.3 million in additional pupil premium funding for schools.“That is a huge amount of money that our schools may otherwise have missed out on.”The meeting also saw acknowledgement of the Council’s recent ‘Good’ CQC inspection of adult social care services with its associated action plan.Cllr Hilary Frank, Cabinet member for Children and Families presented the Council’s recent SEND report, as well as gaining agreement for the Council to participate in the regional end-to-end fostering recruitment and retention and reform programme.The programme aims to strengthen the recruitment and retention of foster carers through a collaborative regional approach.Cllr Thalia Marrington presented this year’s Director of Public Health Annual Report “Mental Health and Wellbeing: Why Prevention Matters and What We Can Do.”The report was endorsed by Cabinet and will provide a strong basis for discussion at the Mental Health Summit which has been convened by Council Leader Leigh Frost and due to take place at the end of next month.Finally, Cabinet considered the recent inspection of Cornwall’s Fire and Rescue service by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies and Fire and Rescue Services and approved its associated action plan.Source