Carmarthenshire County Council has actioned contingency plans to continue the care and employment of those affected by Friday’s announcement from Allied Healthcare to transfer its contracts.
Allied Healthcare provides a range of care services to people in need, and is commissioned by the local authority to deliver domiciliary care services to 120 clients in Carmarthenshire.
The company announced earlier this year that it was in financial difficulties and sought a company voluntary arrangement with its creditors.
Carmarthenshire County Council had put early contingency plans in place, which has allowed immediate action to be taken following the company’s most recent announcement.
The council is meeting with the company today (November 19, 2018) and will write letters to the staff and service users affected.
Cllr Jane Tremlett, Executive Board Member for Health and Social Care, said: “Most importantly we want to reassure those people receiving a service, and their families, who are affected by Allied’s announcement that their care will continue.
“We are meeting with the company today with a view to identifying around 80 members of staff who are providing domiciliary care on behalf of Allied to people in Carmarthenshire, and transferring them into the employment of Carmarthenshire County Council.
“We will be writing to staff and service users today to provide the necessary reassurance.”
Jake Morgan, Director for Communities, added: “We have robust contingency plans in place which means we are in an immediate position to offer transfer of employment to our existing in-house provision for any Carmarthenshire staff affected. These are highly valued and experienced members of staff who deliver important services to vulnerable people in our communities and I’d like to offer reassurance that their employment is safe.
“We are also working closely with colleagues in Pembrokeshire to ensure continuity of services across the county border.”
Letters are likely to be issued later today, and a series of information drop-in sessions are also being arranged.
Further communication will be made over the coming days to all those affected.
Staff from Jenkins Bakery shops throughout the area have been doing their bit to support the BBC’s Children In Need appeal.
The staff members dressed up in fancy dress on Friday night and rattled their collection tins for the popular charity television appeal.
Jenkins Bakery operations director Russell Jenkins said: “Our staff really joined in the Pudsey Bear spirit and enjoyed dressing up to raise funds for a great charity appeal. A big thank-you goes to our customers for their support.”
Ice temperatures inside the world’s highest glacier on the slopes of Mount Everest are warmer than expected, according to new research by glaciologists from Aberystwyth, Kathmandu, Leeds and Sheffield universities.
The findings are revealed in a paper published in Nature’s respected open-access journal, Scientific Reports.
Lead author Katie Miles and Professor Bryn Hubbard from the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth University, travelled to Khumbu Glacier, Nepal, in 2017 and 2018 as part of the EverDrill research project.
Working at heights of up to 5,000 m, PhD student Katie Miles and Professor Hubbard used a specially adapted car wash unit to drill deep into the glacial ice.
In May 2017, the team became the first to successfully drill to the base of Khumbu Glacier. They were also the first to record temperatures below the seasonally affected surface layer of the glacier.
Strings of temperature sensors, constructed with the help of Dr Samuel Doyle at Aberystwyth University, were installed into boreholes in the lower-elevation ablation area of the glacier and left to collect data for several months.
The resulting temperature measurements showed a minimum ice temperature of only −3.3 °C, with even the coldest ice being a full 2 °C warmer than the mean annual air temperature.
Katie Miles said: “Our results indicate that high-elevation Himalayan glaciers are vulnerable to even minor atmospheric warming, and there are important implications here for humans as well as the planet. Millions of people in the foothills of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region depend on glacier melt as part of their water resources. Rising surface temperatures could lead to a decrease over the next 30 years in the volume of water melting on the glaciers and contributing to downstream water resources.”
Professor Bryn Hubbard, Director of the Centre for Glaciology at Aberystwyth University and a holder of the Queen’s Polar Medal, said: “Our work in the Himalaya builds on wider research by the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth where we have been measuring and modelling how glacial ice flows for several decades – in the Arctic and Antarctica as well as the Alps and more recently, Nepal. Understanding what actually happens inside these glaciers is critical to developing computer models to help predict their response to anticipated climate change.
“A key property of the ‘warm’ ice we have measured within Khumbu Glacier is that any additional energy input, such as from the Sun’s rays and warm air, melts that ice, producing water, which means the glacier will be especially sensitive to future climatic warming. In contrast, further energy input into ‘cold’ ice (which is at any temperature below its melting point) simply heats that ice further towards zero, producing no meltwater.”
Professor Bryn Hubbard and Miss Katie Miles are collaborating on the EverDrill project with Dr Duncan Quincey (project leader) and Dr Evan Miles from the University of Leeds, and Dr Ann Rowan from the University of Sheffield. Both Dr Quincey and Dr Rowan are alumni of Aberystwyth University’s Department of Geography and Earth Sciences.
The work is funded by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council, NERC.
Photos:
Katie Miles and Professor Bryn Hubbard, picture on the Khumbu glacier in 2017.
GB Wheelchair Rugby (GBWR) will formally announce former Wales international rugby player Rupert Moon as an ambassador for GBWR at Llandarcy Academy of Sport on Sunday 18 November.
Rupert who played rugby for Welsh clubs Abertillery, Neath and most memorably Llanelli, won 24 caps for Wales at scrum half and over the last six years has been supporting the growth of wheelchair rugby in Wales.
He will join around 40 junior wheelchair rugby players at Llandarcy for the Lord’s Taverners Junior Wheelchair Rugby Welsh Festival.
The junior festival is an opportunity for junior players to take part in skills based activities and to compete against those with similar impairments.
There will be teams from Ospreys, Scarlets, Bristol Bears, Exeter, Gloucester and Solent Sharks.
The festival is also a great opportunity to showcase junior wheelchair rugby in Wales and the thriving partnership between the Lord’s Taverners, GBWR and local partnerships with Ospreys Scarlets, Active Gwent, Dragons the WRU, Disability Sport Wales and the Welsh Rugby Charitable Trust .
Also attending the festival will be current GB athlete Jim Roberts. Jim was a successful Welsh cross country runner when he caught bacterial meningitis whilst an under graduate at Coventry University. This resulted in a prolonged stay in hospital, and the amputation of both his legs.
A nurse who supported his rehab, introduced him to the sport of Wheelchair Rugby and Jim quickly became an influential force in the game.
He has been a regular in the GB team since 2013 and at the World Wheelchair Rugby Championships in Sydney is year was voted as the best world player in his class.
The festival will start at 11am and spectators are welcome.
Rupert Moon will formally be announced as GBWR’s ambassador in Wales at 1pm.
The festival is due to end at 3pm when Rupert will present the trophy to the winning team.
David Pond, CEO of Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby, said: “We are delighted to be at Llandarcy for this fantastic tournament and to see how wheelchair rugby is growing in Wales. It’s also really exciting that Rupert has accepted our invitation to become an ambassador. He has already done a great deal to raise the profile of the sport in Wales and his infectious enthusiasm and genuine willingness to support those who play will make a huge difference to the game in Wales.
“I would also like to thank all partners in Wales especially the Welsh Rugby Charitable Trust whose support has been critical in enabling us to grow junior and adult wheelchair rugby in Wales.”
Rupert Moon said: “I’m honoured to accept the role as an ambassador and look forward to continuing to work with GBWR to help more disabled people experience the joy of the game. If you have yet to see it then get along to Llandarcy and watch the juniors play or get yourself to Leicester for the Quad Nations in March when GB take on the best in the world.”
About Wheelchair Rugby:
Wheelchair rugby was first recognised as a full medal sport at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia. It has since featured at the Paralympic Games in Athens in 2004, Beijing in 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016. Originating in Canada in the 1970s, wheelchair rugby developed from the ‘murderball’ game – created by a group of disabled sportsmen. The GB national team came 4th in the World Wheelchair Rugby Championships in Sydney in August this year. They will play the top eight teams in the world at the World Wheelchair Rugby Challenge in October 2019 which sits alongside the Rugby World Cup.
The Lord’s Taverners is the UKs leading youth cricket and disability sports charity dedicated to giving disadvantaged and disabled young people a sporting chance. The charity helps fund the Lord’s Taverners Wheelchair Rugby Youth programme. www.lordstaverners.org
The latest stage of construction at the Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus has been marked with a special ceremony.
Funders, university staff, community stakeholders and industry representatives gathered for a steel signing ceremonyon Monday 12 November 2018 at Aberystwyth University’s Gogerddan campus.
The event marked the completion of the steel frame for the new Campus’s Seed Biobank.
Guests were invited to sign a steel beam, which was then lifted into place by a crane to become a permanent part of the structure of the building.
Speaking at the event, Professor Elizabeth Treasure, Vice-Chancellor of Aberystwyth University, said: “Even before completion, the Campus is very much open for business, acting as a magnet for business and university collaboration and co-location. The steel signing ceremony marks an exciting milestone in the timeline of our Campus build, and provides an opportunity for everyone to see the fantastic progress that has already been made on site. The development will provide a superb home for new businesses and partnerships, building on some well-established industrial collaborations and attracting new ones to Wales.”
There has been rapid progress over the last few months, with the preparation of the site’s foundations for the Seed Biobank and Biorefining Centre now complete.
The principal contractor, Willmott Dixon, has also been busy diverting services and erecting the steel structure of the initial Campus buildings.
The £40.5m development will foster collaboration between business and academia, providing world-leading facilities and expertise for the food and drink, biotechnology and agri-tech sectors, with funding from the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government, the BBSRC – part of UK Research and Innovation – and Aberystwyth University.
Dr Rhian Hayward MBE, Chief Executive Officer at the Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus, said: “As we celebrate progress, we are now focussed on how the new Campus facilities will support the business community and the university in collaborations that will see new products and services brought to market. Our door is now truly open for those exciting discussions.”
Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus will also house an Analytical Science Centre and a Future Food Centre, and will be fully operational by the summer of 2020.
Once open, the Campus will build on the existing capabilities within Aberystwyth University’s institutes, working particularly closely with the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) to facilitate enhanced access to the excellent research capabilities currently offered as well as shaping future translational research priorities.
Willmott Dixon have been working with Ceredigion County Council to provide work placements and apprenticeship opportunities to young people in the area.
Neal Stephens, Managing Director at Willmott Dixon said: “Today was a great event to celebrate the fantastic progress made so far, but our work extends beyond the buildings that we build. We want to leave a positive and lasting impact in the community. This is why we are working with the Council and other providers to offer opportunities for young people and the long term unemployed. While we are here, we want to ensure that the project benefits as many people as possible.”
One of the existing buildings, which will form part of the Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Camps on the Gogerddan site, has already been refurbished to a high standard and provides over 300m2 of rentable office accommodation to the business community. The facility has been modernised to cater specifically for companies wishing to co-locate with leading researchers in the biosciences and agri-tech sectors.
Photo: (left to right): Professor Elizabeth Treasure, Vice-Chancellor of Aberystwyth University; Peter Ryland, Deputy Director, Welsh European Funding Office at Welsh Government; Paul Gemmill, Chief Operating Officer, BBSRC; Neal Stephens, Managing Director at Willmott Dixon and Dr Rhian Hayward MBE, Chief Executive Officer and the Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus
Around £28million of efficiency savings need to be found by Carmarthenshire County Council over the next three years.
The council’s Executive Board will start discussions about the budget at its next meeting, looking at a variety of proposals put forward to help balance the books.
Carmarthenshire, like other councils in Wales, has faced annual reductions in its funding from Welsh Government year on year, whilst having to meet rising costs and increasing demands for services.
More than £50million of savings has been delivered in the last five years alone, in a time when the council has continued to invest in new state of the art schools for children, and facilities to support the county’s economy, particularly to create jobs.
Over the next few months, people will be given the opportunity to give feedback on 27 new service proposals being considered over the next three years. This is in addition to more than £5.5million of internal managerial savings that need to be made by council officers by 2020.
Cllr David Jenkins, Executive Board Member for Resources, said: “Once again we have had a disappointing provisional settlement from Welsh Government which leaves us in a very challenging position with difficult choices to make between balancing the books and the needs of our communities.
“As always, we will be taking the views of members of the public on board as part of a wide-ranging consultation on proposals, and we will do all we can to mitigate the impact on front-line services. This is an important opportunity for everybody to get involved.
“Behind the scenes our officers have already made efficiency savings by doing things differently – reviewing what we do, how we do it, and where we can make improvements. By doing this, £16million of savings have been achieved internally over the last three years.”
Members of the Executive Board will meet on November 19 at County Hall to start talks on next year’s budget. Following their agreement, a public consultation will start on November 20.
