North Yorkshire Police ‘still needs to improve’ on child safeguarding, say inspectors

Inspectors have said North Yorkshire Police “still needs to improve” following a highly critical report into how it safeguards children.

An inspection report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, published today, found the force had made some improvements since its previous report in March.

However, inspectors added progress still needed to be made to “provide consistently better outcomes for children”.

Today’s report comes after the watchdog published a highly critical inspection of the force where it found child protection investigations were poor and that the force did not prioritise safeguarding and child protection highly enough.

In a follow-up visit in December, which is the subject of today’s report, inspectors praised North Yorkshire Police for making progress in areas such as identifying children’s vulnerability and making good safeguarding referrals.

However, they added that supervision of investigations were not always effective and there were “excessive delays” in obtaining digital forensic evidence for officers.

The report, which was published today, said:

“North Yorkshire Police still needs to improve some areas of its work to provide consistently better outcomes for children. There has been some progress, particularly in the way the force has trained its workforce to identify children’s vulnerability and make good safeguarding referrals.

“Staff in the force control room have also made improvements so they are better at identifying risk and providing the right level of response to help vulnerable children.

“Despite progress against some of our recommendations, the force has yet to make all the progress necessary to complete its action plan.

“The force is developing performance monitoring and its governance systems, so it is clear leaders fully understand what still needs to be done.”

‘Police have let the public down’

In response to the report, Zoe Metcalfe, North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, said:

“North Yorkshire Police have had a year to progress their action plan following the first HMICFRS report on child protection. My team and I were regularly assured that all concerns would be tackled head on and improvements made at a significant pace but instead, 12 months later, the force is not in the position I expected them to be in. Not enough has been done and there is simply no excuse – North Yorkshire Police have let the public and the most vulnerable in our society down.

“As commissioner and a mother of two children, one of whom is vulnerable and has complex needs I share the frustration, deep disappointment and upset many people will be feeling. I know that it is my responsibility to increase the accountability of and pressure on the chief constable, to demand answers and not accept anything other than immediate and significant improvement.

“Whilst a debrief provided by the inspectorate in preparation for this report revealed North Yorkshire Police still had areas to progress, this progress has been much slower than anticipated – as a result, I am making arrangements for an additional layer of scrutiny – I expect evidence in relation to any assurances I am given.”

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Weekly food waste collections in Harrogate district to be delayed over costs

An introduction of a weekly food waste collection scheme across North Yorkshire looks set to be delayed amid concern over costs.

North Yorkshire Council is set to lobby government over a planned food waste collection scheme after it estimated the scheme will cost a further £6.4 million a year.

The changes, which have been proposed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, would see councils across the UK provide a free food waste collection service by 2025.

The council already has an existing residual waste contract with AWRP SPV Ltd, which runs until 2043, and has therefore been granted an extension to bring in the changes beyond the government’s 2025 target.

However, senior councillors have raised questions over how the scheme would be paid for.

Cllr Greg White, executive councillor for environment at the council, said:

“We have pledged to try and be carbon net zero by 2030 and to do our bit to help the whole county reach the ambitious goal of being carbon negative by 2040.

“The change to a weekly food collection would give us a unique opportunity to accelerate this process.

“We want to introduce these changes long before 2043, but at the moment there is too much uncertainty around how the new collections will be paid for. At a time when the council is facing a deficit of £30 million alone in its first year, we cannot commit to that level of spending without guarantees from the Government that our costs will be covered.

“Should we get that commitment, then we will look to bring the weekly food waste collections in earlier and start engaging with residents about the changes.”

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The change to weekly collections could cost the council up to an extra £6.4 million annually.

Cllr Carl Les, leader of the authority, has written to Theresa Coffey, Secretary of State for the Environment, to clarify how the project would be funded.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive will consider a recommendation to implement a separately collected food waste service from February 2043, despite the delay meaning the carbon equivalent of an extra 18 million kilometres of diesel car emissions every year.

The council said collecting food waste separately would reduce its carbon dioxide equivalent output by between 2,800 tonnes to 3,300 tonnes each year compared to the current arrangements where food waste is recovered from residual waste at Allerton Waste Recovery Park.

Authority officials have also pledged that the council will reduce its carbon footprint to net zero by 2030.

Police appeal after dog kills lamb in Harrogate district field

A lamb has died and two ewes were attacked following a sheep worrying incident in a field on the edge of the Harrogate district.

North Yorkshire Police said the incident happened in Rainton, five miles from Ripon, on Wednesday (April 26) at around 11.20am.

A large German Shepherd was seen in a field attacking sheep. The dog was chased away but not before two ewes and a lamb had been attacked. The lamb died from its injuries.

Officers today appealed to the public for more information about the incident.

A police statement added:

“Officers are requesting the public’s assistance to help establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident. In particular, they are appealing for information from anyone that might have been in the area at the time and witnessed the incident, or can assist in identifying the owner of the dog.

“Anyone who has information that could assist is asked to email david.mackay@northyorkshire.police.uk or call North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2, and ask to speak to David Mackay.

“If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Please quote the North Yorkshire Police reference number 12230074349.”

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Business Breakfast: Harrogate consultants donate to local mental health charity

It’s time to join the Stray Ferret Business Club. Our next networking event is after-work drinks at Manahatta, on May 25th at 5:30.

Don’t miss out on this chance to network with businesses from across the Harrogate district. Get your tickets by clicking or tapping here.

A Harrogate building consultants has made a donation to a local mental health charity.

DSSR Building Consultants, which is based at Windsor House, made the £600 donation to Mind in Harrogate.

Representative from the consultancy firm presented the cheque to the charity this past week.

A spokesperson for DSSR Building Consultants said:

“DSSR Building Consultants are dedicated to promoting, improving and supporting the mental health of our staff.  In conjunction with this commitment to our colleagues, we are delighted to be able to help and support our local charities and community.

“Even though 1 in 4 people have mental health problems, most of us don’t get the help we need. Mind in Harrogate District offers a number of support services to anyone struggling with their mental health.”

Plant nursery launches step challenge

A Harrogate district plant nursery has launched a 15 million steps challenge in aid of charity.

Johnsons of Whixley launched the campaign as part of Move More Month in April to raise vital funds for horticultural mental health charity, Perennial.

Staff at Johnsons of Whixley taking part in the April step challenge.

Staff at Johnsons of Whixley taking part in the April step challenge.

Perennial supports people in the horticultural industry, including those who work at Johnsons, with health and wellbeing advice, housing and financial support and debt advice.

Speaking of the challenge, Eleanor Richardson, marketing and office manager and qualified mental health first aider at Johnsons of Whixley, said: 

“At Johnsons, we believe that taking care of our employees’ mental health is just as important as their physical health, so that’s why this challenge is such an important one for us.

“Not only will we be supporting Perennial, which has helped a number of our team members in the past, but we will be getting together as a team and building bonds across departments, getting some exercise and supporting one another towards a shared goal.”

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‘Few teething issues’ with North Yorkshire Council launch, say political leaders

Few teething issues have emerged during first month of the new North Yorkshire Council, the leaders of its political groups have agreed.

Councillors said residents facing confusion over who to contact and delays of about 30 minutes when trying to phone the council’s call centre had been the most major cause of concern since the county council and seven district authorities fused operations on April 1.

Ahead of North Yorkshire Council’s launch its chief executive Richard Flinton warned while the authority’s basic infrastructure had been created ahead “snagging issues” were expected when the new council launched due to the scale of the merger and “eight different ways of working”.

When asked whether he was pleased with how the transfer had gone so far, the Conserative-run council’s leader, Cllr Carl Les said: 

“Yes. It has gone surprisingly well, but with the amount of effort put in by Richard Flinton and his team I shouldn’t be surprised.”

He added: 

“We always said if you are going to chose a time to do local government reorganisation you wouldn’t necessarily be coming out of a pandemic with a war going on in Ukraine and various other things happening.

“You wouldn’t chose to launch on April 1, when council tax bills are going out for a new authority and people renew their garden waste collection waste collections with the new authority, but still have phone numbers for the old authorities.”

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Speaking ahead of a meeting behind closed doors with Mr Flinton and the other political group leaders to discuss the council’s first month, Cllr Les said the unitary’s contact centre had become deluged, resulting in lengthy answering delays and potentially some residents hanging up.

He said: 

“The contact centres have been busy and have not been as to strength as we thought they might be. We are taking steps to increase recruitment and increase training.”

The leaders of the council’s other political groups agreed no other major issues had emerged during the authority’s first month.

North Yorkshire Council civic centre Knapping Mount

North Yorkshire Council civic centre at Knapping Mount.

Labour group leader Cllr Steve Shaw Wright said while the unitary authority appeared to be “generally working”, its call centre had been “an absolute abomination”.

He added: 

“Selby Town Council just can’t do anything because people have been forever ringing them up because North Yorkshire’s call centre doesn’t work.”

Green group leader Cllr Kevin Foster said: 

“This has been a massive undertaking and on the whole things have gone very well. There’s still lots of work to do, but if you’d asked me if I’d have accepted this when the changeover went in I would have grabbed it with both hands.”

Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Bryn Griffiths said residents struggling to find phone numbers to contact the unitary, which was “trying to force people to use the internet a lot”, and delays in answering, had represented “a mixed start” for the unitary.

He added: 

“With a big organisation of about 10,000 employees there are bound to be a few hiccups.”

Independent group leader Cllr Stuart Parsons added: 

“Things could have gone better, but it also could have gone a lot worse.”

He said the centralised call centre had not appeared to work as well as “phoning the old numbers for district council call centres”.

Cllr Parsons said: 

“It’s been mainly hiccups, nothing major appears to have gone wrong, which is very comforting. It’s just a question of trying to iron out the hiccups and ensuring services improve considerably.”

MPs Watch: Sewage concerns and illegal migration

Every month the Stray Ferret tries to find out what our local MPs have been up to in their constituencies and in the House of Commons.

In April, North Yorkshire Council was launched after the abolition of North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council and the remaining districts. Meanwhile, concern was raised again over sewage being discharged into rivers.

The month also saw Prime Minister Rishi Sunak overcome a Conservative Party rebellion to pass the government’s Illegal Migration Bill.

We asked Ripon MP Julian Smith and Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams if they would like to highlight anything in particular, but we did not receive a response.

Here is what we know after analysing their online presence.

Andrew Jones, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP.

Andrew Jones, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP.

In Harrogate and Knaresborough, here is what we found on Mr Jones:

When we contacted Mr Jones for comment, his office sent a list of his engagements for April.

Among those included attending a Kids Aloud performance at the Royal Hall, chairing all party parliamentary meetings, attending a session in Parliament with cancer charity, Sarcoma UK, and visiting local performing arts early years academy, Performatots, to learn more about their work and congratulate them on their Ofsted performance.

He also met with the Charity Retailers Association in the House of Commons and attended Anzac Day at Stonefall Cemetery to commemorate and remember the lives lost of Australia and New Zealand citizens during the world wars.

Mr Jones’ office pointed out that his engagements and activities could also be found on his Community News website and his Facebook and Instagram feeds.

Julian Smith, MP for Ripon and Skipton.

Julian Smith, MP for Ripon and Skipton.

In Ripon, here is what we found on Mr Smith:

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Nigel Adams, MP for Selby and Ainsty which includes rural Harrogate.

Nigel Adams, MP for Selby and Ainsty which includes rural Harrogate.

In rural south Harrogate, he is what we found on Mr Adams:

Bank holiday strike at Harrogate hospital: What you need to know

Nurses will take part in a third round of industrial action at Harrogate District Hospital this bank holiday weekend.

It’s taking place because members of the Royal College of Nursing union rejected the government’s latest pay offer of a below-inflation 5% rise plus a lump sum of at least £1,655.

The union says any pay rise should be above inflation, which is currently at around 10%.

The strike begins at 8pm tonight and ends at 11.59pm tomorrow.

Nurses argue low pay is leading to an exodus of NHS nurses who are either moving to work overseas or leaving the profession altogether and they say the situation is compromising patient safety.

Throughout winter and spring the government has maintained that the union’s wage demands are unaffordable and talks to avert the strikes have failed.

Greater impact on hospital services

Unlike the two previous RCN strikes at the hospital on Lancaster Park Road this year, the strike will involve nurses working in emergency departments, intensive care, cancer and other wards.

Health secretary Steve Barclay said the move would have a “deeply concerning” impact on patients.

However, the union has committed to providing care for the most urgent clinical situations as part of a legal obligation not to endanger life.

The strike will be shorter than previously planned

Mr Barclay called the strikes unlawful and the government successfully managed to shorten the strike in the High Court yesterday.

This was because the union had six months to take industrial action following a ballot of its members last year and the second day of the strike fell outside of the mandate.

The RCN’s general secretary Pat Cullen said after the ruling: 

“The government have won their legal battle today. But what this has led to is they have lost nursing and they’ve lost the public.

“They’ve taken the most trusted profession through the courts, by the least trusted people.”

Mr Barclay said: “I firmly support the right to take industrial action within the law – but the government could not stand by and let plainly unlawful strike action go ahead.

“Both the NHS and my team tried to resolve this without resorting to legal action.”

Emergency services will continue

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust (HDFT), which runs the hospital, says it has plans in place to “keep disruption to a minimum” on Sunday and Monday despite having fewer healthcare professionals available during the strike.

A HDFT spokesperson pledged that emergency services will continue to operate as normal.

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However, some appointments will be cancelled and rearranged. April’s four-day junior doctors’ strike by members of the British Medical Association led to almost 500 appointments not taking place.

A HDFT spokesperson said:

“During strike action, urgent and emergency treatment will be our priority. We will be working with our nursing staff to deliver safe services, while facilitating and respecting the right of those staff who wish to take legal industrial action.

“Patients should continue to attend appointments as planned unless contacted to reschedule. We will be re-arranging any postponed appointments as a priority. We appreciate this situation is frustrating for patients affected and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

“Nobody should put off seeking urgent or emergency care during the strikes, and key services will continue to operate.”

More strikes are likely

The government’s decision to take the RCN to court in order to shorten the strike has not gone down well with the union.

Nurses will vote in a fresh ballot in May — if successful it could potentially lead to six more months of industrial action by nurses unless a pay deal is agreed.

The RCN’s Pat Cullen said yesterday:

“Nursing staff will be angered but not crushed by today’s interim order. It may even make them more determined to vote in next month’s ballot for a further six months of action. Nobody wants strikes until Christmas – we should be in the negotiating room, not the courtroom.”

Masterchef semi-finalist to write for the Stray Ferret celebrating district’s food

The Stray Ferret is delighted to introduce Yemi Adelekan who many will recognise from her success on BBC TV’s Masterchef last year. Every Saturday Yemi will be writing about her love of the district’s food  – please get in touch with her if you want her to review a restaurant, visit your farm, taste the produce you sell or even share a recipe.  

My name is Yemi Adelekan, welcome to my food stories.

From food and restaurant reviews, highlights from county food events, recipe creation to dining experiences, farm to table and nose to tail cooking, allotment to combatting food waste, foraging, visits to market stalls and independent shops to showcasing diversity of flavours and ingredients, nothing is off the menu.

We live in a beautiful district with amazing food scenes; I want to showcase, celebrate and champion our community, people, food and what we have to offer through my food stories.

So here’s a little about me.

I am married and a proud mother of two wonderful young men. I grew up in Nigeria, moved to Nevis Island, West Indies for a few years before relocating to the UK where I forged a career in Banking and now Telecommunications.

I moved from West to South Cumbria, made a pit stop in Manchester, spent ten years in Lancashire and finally settled in Harrogate for the past decade.

All of these places and holiday destinations have influenced my food from Cumberland ring sausages, Lancashire hotpot to Yorkshire pudding. I came to Harrogate with the red rose of Lancashire and was gifted the white rose of Yorkshire; both plants have their pride of places on my front yard.

I have had a long-standing love affair with food, a passion for cooking and baking that led me to the Masterchef UK kitchen in 2022. From not daring to dream about being on the show, I ended up as a semi-finalist making it to the top 6 showcasing a fusion of my Nigerian flavours with other global food influences.

I was gutted to narrowly miss out on finals week but really grateful for the opportunity.  I didn’t know I could wee every five minutes until I went on the show and found nerves that were previously undiscovered.

My first food memories include me using tin cans and sticks for my ‘pretend’ kitchen, tasting my mum’s food as she put a little taster on my palm to being trusted to go buy an ingredient. I was never far from the kitchen and learnt by watching others like a hawk.

My mum didn’t allow me to be hands-on in her kitchen because she took pride in doing her own cooking but thankfully my dad believed that mistakes help to make us better people. He lived away to avoid a long commute and allowed me to cook whenever I visited him giving me feedback and what I definitely now know to be undeserved compliments.

Here’s what you can expect from me; personal, witty, open and honest food writing without any pretentiousness.

My goal is to make it just what you need to kickstart your weekend with a smile, bring your community to you, get you out with a little luck and encourage you to attempt new recipes.

I am a local who doesn’t get around enough so I need you to tell me what and where you want me to check out, what’s going on in your part of the county, also comment and share recipes you want me to try out.

If you have a wow experience that you would like to shout about from the roof top, then drop me a line so I can go sample and write about the experience.

Welcome to my food stories. I will see you next Saturday.

To read more about Yemi visit her website here.

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Parish council submits plan to save Harrogate village school from closure

A parish council has called on North Yorkshire Council to use recent government guidance to save a primary school in a Harrogate district village.

Skelton cum Newby Parish Council has submitted an action plan, developed by a group including several headteachers, to restore classes at Skelton Newby Hall Primary School, between Boroughbridge and Ripon, in response to the authority’s consultation on the closure of the school.

While the parish council is just the latest of numerous group to attempt to halt the closure of a rural primary school in the county, is understood to be the first to argue there is a lack of primary school capacity in the surrounding area.

The council has rejected numerous accusations in recent years over “distant decision-making”, particularly in regard to the closure of small, rural schools, which its leadership underlined last month was completely contrary to its ambitions.

Nevertheless, in a report to North Yorkshire Council’s executive last month, officers said the school’s governing body had “been active in their collective efforts to raise numbers at the school through many initiatives over recent years”, but pupil numbers had fallen to one.

The report stated although Skelton had been designated a service village in the Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-35, there was no new housing planned in the Skelton Newby Hall’s catchment area.

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Officers said across the local area a potential 188 additional pupils were expected to join across the five nearby schools until 2027/28 and there was potential to provide additional capacity at Boroughbridge Community Primary School.

Although the parish council said it had been left in the dark until proposals to close the school were under way, officers said the move had been “unanimously” instigated locally, by the school’s governors, and was supported by the falling roll and the need to provide quality and breadth of education.

The officers’ report stated the council also believes there is sufficient capacity in the area to meet both the current and future primary school capacity requirements.

However, in its response to the closure consultation, the parish council has highlighted statutory guidance issued by the Department of Education in January that all decision-makers were expected “to adopt a presumption against the closure of rural schools”.

The DfE spokesman added: 

“This does not mean that a rural school will never close, but that the case for closure should be strong and clearly in the best interests of educational provision in the area.”

In its response to the consultation, the parish council said the community does not believe that the proposal to close the school had met the DfE threshold for closure, claiming there is not sufficient pupil capacity in the area and as a standalone school it could be strong and viable.

The parish council document states: 

“We have identified there is already a shortage of capacity in the area with more demand to be met from the new housing developments which are still being built, as well as further developments with planning.”

The parish council said while the authority had pointed towards capacity at Boroughbridge Community Primary School the “reality is quite different” with that school being close to its 230 capacity.

It added: 

“We are confident that with the committed support from the local community and the new North Yorkshire Council, this school, with its ambition and leadership restored, can once again provide a valuable contribution to the education provision in the area.

“We can only achieve this by working in partnership with North Yorkshire Council. The new unitary council has a clear stated aim: ‘Local at its heart … We will work closely with town and parish councils … to ensure that local priorities drive locally led decision-making and local action.’”

Anna Eltringham announced as new Bishop of Ripon

The Reverend Canon Anna Eltringham has been named as the new Bishop of Ripon this morning.

Downing Street announced at 10am the King had approved the nomination of Rev Canon Eltringham, who is currently team rector for Oxted, in the diocese of Southwark.

Rt Revd Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds introduced the new bishop immediately after the announcement to a gathering at St Peter’s Church in Harrogate.

The Bishop of Ripon is one of five episcopal area bishops in the Church of England Diocese of Leeds and has responsibility for a large area, including the Yorkshire Dales and the towns of Ripon, Harrogate, Settle, Skipton, Wetherby and Richmond.

Bishop of Ripon

The new bishop in Harrogate today

Revd Canon Eltringham’s consecration will take place on June 22 in York Minster. However, she will not fully take up the post until September.

She will succeed Helen-Ann Hartley, who left Ripon to become Bishop of Newcastle this year.

Before entering ministry, Revd Canon Eltringham worked in strategic marketing, including a role in Croydon Council.

Whilst increasingly involved in church, community and justice work, she discerned God’s call to ordained ministry, following in the footsteps of her father and previous generations in her family.

Revd Canon Eltringham grew up in the west country and studied business and anthropology at the University of Durham.

She plays the saxophone and is married to Nigel, with whom she has two daughters. They enjoy family trips out in her VW T25 campervan and visiting museums, galleries, arts events and the seaside.  She also likes creative writing, walks in the country and trying to up-cycle furniture.

She said:

“I have felt drawn back to the north of England for a number of years and have a strong sense of God’s call to this particular role.

“God has laid a number of things on my heart in recent times, including a passion for climate-care and justice; care for the wellbeing of clergy and all God’s people; a vision for a church that serves as much beyond as within its buildings; and children and young people at the heart of it all.”

‘Important rural area’

The Rt Revd Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds said of the appointment:

“I am delighted to welcome Revd Canon Anna Eltringham as the next Bishop of Ripon and to this important rural area that includes the world famous Yorkshire Dales.

“Our parishes and communities, big and small, will greet her with great warmth as her commitment to parish ministry and the environment will be evident from the word go.

“Anna’s pastoral care for clergy and lay leaders is evident from her previous work in the Diocese of Southwark and the wider church. She will greatly support our diocesan mission to encourage Christian confidence across the Ripon episcopal area and beyond.”

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Revd Canon Eltringham was ordained Deacon in the Diocese of Southwark in 2008 and served her title at Holy Innocents in South Norwood.

She then joined the Oxted team ministry (four churches in Surrey) where since 2019 she has been team rector.

Since 2017 she has also been the Dean of Women’s Ministry, advocating for, and developing the ministry of lay and ordained women in the diocese and advising senior staff on such matters. Anna has also served as an honorary chaplain to the monarch since 2020.

The Most Revd Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York said:

“Revd Canon Anna’s enthusiasm and love for parish ministry and her ability to connect, having been an advocate for clergy well-being and serving as Dean of Women’s Ministry, will be a great blessing to the parishes and Diocese of Leeds.”