This evening at 18.30 the Full Council of Southend-on-Sea Borough Council will be holding a special meeting, to debate the arrangements for a new waste collection contract.
The Full Council is the ultimate decision-making body of the Council. Items are discussed first in other committees, and then at Full Council via the minutes of those meetings. Items are referred from those Committees for decision, or reserved by councillors to speak on.
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, the annual remembrance of the six million Jews, Roma, Trade Unionists, LGBT+ and disabled people murdered by the Nazis and the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
With each passing year, the Holocaust fades from living memory and it is so important that we educate ourselves and our children of the industrialised mass murder committed in the name of ideology. Particularly as modern genocides continue to unfold, such as the Uyghurs in China.
The theme for this year's Holocaust Memorial Day is One Day. You can find out more about this year’s theme here hmd.org.uk/what-is-holoca…
A report by UNISON has uncovered an absolute scandal of almost £1.4 million of Southend University Hospital Trust money set aside for apprenticeships which is unusable because of government rules on how it can be used.
The apprenticeship levy, brought in by the government in 2017, means that companies have to out 0.5% of total payroll towards training of apprenticeships - but shockingly this can only be used to pay for training, not the wages of the apprentices themselves.
This means that for cash strapped NHS Trusts up and down the country, this money has sat in a pot which they cannot afford to make use of.