By Pauline Jorgensen
People are living longer – this is of course great news.
However, the sad fact is many of us will need some degree of care at the end of our lives.
None of us can predict the future but if the time comes when your family needs extra support we want services you can rely on that are innovative and high quality.
If a Conservative Council is elected in May, more Council-supported care home beds will be created and we will do more to work with the NHS to increase GP and dental practice services.
With access to good schools and fantastic country parks with family friendly activities like Dinton Pastures and California Country Park Wokingham Borough is understandably a popular area for young families to move to.
With more families moving into the Borough it’s important that any administration gets Children’s Services right.
The previous Conservative administration delivered Bohunt School, the first new school in the Borough for 50 years.
Last year, the Liberal Democrat administration failed to complete the Bohunt School expansion, allowing costs to mount and leaving parents, pupils and staff in a state of limbo. Liberal Democrats only told pupils at the eleventh hour – in July – they would need to find alternative sixth form places for September.
The Lib Dems have also scrapped subsidised bus travel for children from low-income families to get to school, causing hardship to save only £12,000 a year.
The Conservative Group is committed to reinstating this subsidy to help families who need it.
We will also encourage local schools to simplify school uniforms, making them more affordable.
Nationally the Government is rolling out the largest ever expansion of childcare in England’s history.
From September, working parents with children aged from nine months until they start school will benefit from 15 hours of free childcare per week. This will be expanded to 30 hours per week for working parents with children under five from September 2025, saving families an average of £6,900 per year and helping parents (mostly mothers) return to work.
Earlier this year I welcomed the Secretary of State for Education, to Earley and Woodley constituency to meet some apprentices from Virgin O2. Apprenticeships offer the chance to gain valuable skills and are an excellent route into the world of work for many young people.
If the Conservative Group is elected in May, we will work with local businesses to increase apprenticeship places locally.
The Council has been nominated for and won a number of awards for projects undertaken by the previous Conservative administration that have made a real impact on the lives of residents.
One of the nominations was for Project Joy, a pioneering social prescription app that better connects residents in need with the best health and wellbeing service to offer them support.
We were delighted that the Council won in categories for Best Social Housing Initiative for the Adult Social Care Specialist Accommodation Project, and the Innovation in Delivering Sustainability and Social Value award for the Wokingham Town Centre Regeneration.
A healthcare webinar in Cantonese, designed to provide information on how to navigate local healthcare, was also a finalist for best digital initiative.
The webinar assisted people from Hong Kong to access important services and was a vital part in helping people settle into the Borough.
Schools, Children’s Services and Adults’ Social Care are among the most important functions of the Council, and form a large part of the Council’s budget. The previous Conservative administration had a strong record in these areas.
We want these services to be the best for residents. Together these awards demonstrate our success in delivering big ideas that have had significant benefits for our residents.
It also demonstrates the tangible success we had in working with partner organisations to deliver these projects, and we want to build on this success for the future. Under the Liberal Democrats we have not seen the same innovative approach to services.
You deserve the best possible services in the Borough at every stage of life, and under the Conservatives, you’ll get them.
Cllr Pauline Jorgensen is the leader of Wokingham Conservatives
