CORNWALL DATA

CLICK FOR LATEST ADDED Housing waiting lists

In this ongoing post I shall bring together data about Cornwall from various sources so that they are more readily accessible: other data will be added to this current post and data will also be updated. Much is already posted at scattered places on this blog of course. All the data refers only to Cornwall and its parts (and sometimes includes and sometimes excludes the Isles of Scilly). Sources are given in square brackets; I have also included some website addresses, though these may change, so that you can explore the data for yourself. Explanatory notes with the original data are important for understanding.

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CLICK INDEX
Empty dwellings | Second homes | Average pay | Unemployment: JSA claimants | Pupil funding | Free school meals | Deprivation in Cornwall | Civil partnerships | Children born in Cornwall | Population of Cornwall | Pensioners in Cornwall | Land use in Cornwall | Cornwall MPs’ expenses and allowances | Landfill in Cornwall |School place appeals in Cornwall | Place survey 2008| House repossessions |Housing waiting lists| Miscellaneous

EMPTY DWELLINGS
There were 9012 empty dwellings in Cornwall at 6 October 2008
— Caradon 1588, Carrick 1604, Kerrier 1597, North Cornwall 1746, Penwith 1084, Restormel 1393 [Hansard 14 May 2009 columns 998W-999W].

SECOND HOMES
Cornwall (excluding Scillies) total 13 603 at October 2008
— Caradon 1813, Carrick 1917, Kerrier 1368, North Cornwall 4000, Penwith 2779, Restormel 1726 [House of Commons Library DEP 2009-1230, 27 April 2009, data is given for the five years 2004-2008].

In terms of numbers of second homes, North Cornwall is 7th out of 354 England authorities, Penwith 15th, Carrick 24th, Caradon 26th, Restormel 30th, and Kerrier 47th. These positions represent numbers of second homes not percentages of housing stock. The Isles of Scilly had 212 second homes in 2008.

AVERAGE PAY
£21 004 at April 2008
median, annual, gross, fulltime, all workers, by Cornwall and Scilly residence, at April 2008 [ONS, ASHE 2008, Table 8.7a].

There are various ways of measuring average pay, eg mean and median average, male and female and both, fulltime and part time, by place of work and by place of residence, by local authority and by constituency, weekly pay and annual pay. Figures for median average pay tend to be less than for mean average.

UNEMPLOYMENT: JOBSEEKERS ALLOWANCE CLAIMANTS
October 2009: 8336 (2.7 percent of the resident working-age population of Cornwall and Scillies). This is a rise of 232 over last month. In October 2008 the figure was 5381 (1.7 percent). The figure peaked in February 2009 at 10 220 (3.3 percent). [ONS]

The contribution-based jobseekers allowance (JSA) is £64.30 a week for people over 25 and £50.95 a week for people under 25. The jobseekers claimant count is not a measure of unemployment but of people claiming the benefit who must be, inter alia, available for work and actively seeking work.

This website gives details of jobseeker claimant counts over time for Cornwall:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1967128581/subreports/jsa_time_series/report.aspx

More data about the claimant count in Cornwall is here:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=15084

These are general labour statistics for Cornwall and Scilly:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1967128581/report.aspx

The latest labour force survey data, a measure of unemployment, is for October 2007-September 2008: http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1967128581/subreports/ea_time_series/report.aspx

PUPIL FUNDING
The per pupil grant from central government for Cornwall school pupils is £3879 for 2009/10; the England average is £4218 (dedicated schools grant: indicative allocations to local education authorities).
[teachernet website of the DCSF]

Earlier funding data is here:
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/schoolfunding/2006-07_funding_arrangements/

The dedicated schools grant (DSG) began in 2006/07 and earlier per pupil allocations are not directly comparable. Before 2006/07 schools were funded largely through the formula grant which, apart from the DSG, is the main grant from central government to local authorities.

FREE SCHOOL MEALS
Eligibility for free school meals is an indication of income deprivation and is an influence on educational achievement.

Percentage of primary and nursery pupils eligible for free school meals, January 2009:
England 16.0 percent
Cornwall 11.0 percent

Percentage of secondary pupils eligible for free school meals, January 2009:
England 13.4 percent
Cornwall 9.3 percent
[DCSF web page Schools, pupils and their characteristics; tables 11a and 11b in 'Local authority tables'.]
The website is www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000843/index.shtml
The eligibility percentages for Tower Hamlets are 47.5 and 55.7.

The relationship of eligibility for free school meals and not gaining any GCSEs above grade D is given in DEP 2009-0918 of 19 March 2009 (Parliamentary Library).

Also see the data for deprivation below.

DEPRIVATION IN CORNWALL
There are several ways of measuring deprivation. The Index of multiple deprivation (IMD) is a major one.

The latest IMD measurements (2007) show Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly at 69th out of 142 ‘counties, cities, and London boroughs’ in England, where 1st is the most deprived. The IMD puts the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly primary care trust (CIOS) area at 74th out of 152 trust areas where 1st is the most deprived.

The IMD 2007 give these results for the former districts of Cornwall out of 354 districts in England, the score 1st is the most deprived: Penwith 36th, Kerrier 86th, Restormel 89th, North Cornwall 96th, Carrick 120th, and Caradon 156th.

IMD deprivation varies vastly across Cornwall and the measurements for 32 482 subwards in England which are available show this clearly.

See the IMD 2007 here.

The Health Observatory website here has some deprivation data for Cornwall too. Also look at the data above for free school meals in Cornwall.

CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS
Civil partnerships became possible in Britain with the coming into force of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 in December 2005. Between that date and the end of last year 307 people entered civil partnerships in Cornwall and Scillies: Table 5 of the Data by area of formation file on this ONS website.

CHILDREN BORN IN CORNWALL
The ONS published in August 2009 the latest details for England and Wales of the numbers of live births to mothers who themselves were born in the United Kingdom or born outside the United Kingdom in each of the eight years 2001-2008. The figures for Cornwall (excluding the Isles of Scilly), with much lower percentages than for England as a whole, for the first and last years of the series are:

2008: 5423 live births, 92.4 percent of which were to mothers born inside the UK
2001: 4463 live births, 94.5 percent of which were to mothers born in the UK.

The data is in tables 3a-3h on this ONS website which also gives separate figures for each of the former districts in Cornwall. [ONS]

POPULATION OF CORNWALL
The population of Cornwall in mid 2008 was 532 200. About 428 000 (80 percent) were aged eighteen or over. The full figures, including analysis for gender, ages, and districts, are in the Mid-2008 UK file on this ONS website . [ONS]

PENSIONERS IN CORNWALL
There are about 133 000 old age pensioners in Cornwall (males aged 65 and over, females 60 and over). The full figures, including for both the county and the former districts, are in the Mid-2008 UK file on this ONS website . [ONS]

LAND USE IN CORNWALL
Details of land use in Cornwall are available for the six former districts and for wards. The categories are given in square metres for domestic buildings, nondomestic buildings, domestic gardens, roads, rail, paths, greenspace, water, other, and unclassified. The tables are at Census ward levels GLUD 2005 tables . GLUD means Generalised land use database. An explanatory document of the GLUD statistics is here .

CORNWALL MPS’ EXPENSES AND ALLOWANCES
These are readily accessible at this Guardian website http://mps-expenses.guardian.co.uk/liberal-democrat/andrew-george. The last name in the url should be changed as appropriate to colin-breed, daniel-rogerson, julia-goldsworthy, or matthew-taylor.

LANDFILL IN CORNWALL
Cornwall 2007/08:
Total municipal waste 324 480 tonnes
Total municipal waste sent to landfill 210 386 tonnes (64.84 percent of total municipal waste)
The average proportion of municipal waste sent to landfill for the 121 unitary and waste disposal authorities in England was 54.42 percent.
[Hansard 26 October 2009 column 50W-54W]

SCHOOL PLACE APPEALS IN CORNWALL
In 2007/08 there were 277 appeals by parents against the non-admission of their child to their preferred primary school in Cornwall; 75 were successful. For secondary schools in Cornwall the figures are 405 and 151.

8183 children were admitted to Cornwall primary schools September 2007-January 2008 and 6514 to secondary schools in the same period.
[Department for children, families, and schools: here (scroll to table 3)]

PLACE SURVEY
A survey in 2008 by the Department for Communities and Local Government looked at people’s views of the locality and local services. Question 5 asked people how strongly they felt they belonged to their immediate neighbourhood. In the Cornwall area 66.5 percent said fairly or very strongly. This was 53rd out of 353 council areas, the largest percentage being at number 1.
[Department of Communities and Local Government Place survey 2008]

HOUSE REPOSSESSIONS
There was a total of 180 mortgage possession claims in Cornwall (unitary authority) in quarter 3 of 2009. This represents 0.8 households in every 1000 households and the total was a drop of 20 percent on quarter 3 of 2008. The figures for England were 23 205 mortgage possession claims, 1. 1 in every 1000 households, and a drop of 34 percent.
[Ministry of Justice12 November 2009]

HOUSING WAITING LISTS
There were 17 650 households on housing waiting lists in the six former districts of Cornwall at April 2008. In 1997 the number was 8043. The details from the Department of communities, by district and by years 1997-2008, are here.

MISCELLANEOUS
Statistics for Cornish towns is a booklet produced by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The revised version is dated September 2009. It contains data about deprivation, the number and size of businesses, unemployment, and population. Read it through the South West Observatory here.The South West Observatory website also has other data.

South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) has published in October 2009 Economic profile: issue 8 which discusses Cornwall’s economy in the recession on pages 20-25. Read it here.

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General sources

ASHE Annual survey of hours and earnings (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statBase/product.asp?vlnk=13101)

DEP Deposited parliamentary papers (http://deposits.parliament.uk)

Hansard (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoday/cmdebate/home.htm)

ONS Office for National Statistics

Teachernet (http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/docbank/index.cfm?id=12222)

A useful website for understanding local government language is: http://localgovglossary.wikispaces.com/
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VORSPRUNG CORNWALL 5

I shall post here continuing good news for Cornwall, developments which will positively help the people of Cornwall and the local economy and everyday lives. Everyone who wants the people of Cornwall to succeed in the modern world will welcome them. This post covers the first half of 2009. Vorsprung Cornwall 1 and 2 cover 2007 and Vorsprung Cornwall 3 and 4 cover 2008.

* The claimant count figures for 14 May 2009 show a fall in Cornwall to 8847 compared to April 2009. This is the number claiming jobseekers allowance and is the usual quoted measure of unemployment (there are other figures for unemployment). The drop is welcome, especially as unemployment is rising in Britain, though perhaps in Cornwall we are now in the weeks of seasonal work. However, the May 2009 figure was twice that of May 2008, a sign of serious job losses.(17 June 2009)

* The Southwest regional development agency (SWRDA), established in 1999, has announced its budget plans for the next two years, 2009-2011, after having its money cut by the recession. Cornwall is doing very well indeed from the new SWRDA plans. About £52.2 million is available for capital projects in the county, much the largest share of any of the SWRDA areas. Of course, Cornwall also has around £415 million EU Convergence Program money available for viable projects 2007-2013.

A list of the Cornwall projects supported by the SWRDA is given here. A briefing by the SWRDA is here. (9 June 2009)

* Way back in 1997 the Labour government promised to end mixed-sex wards and facilities in hospitals. It has been very slow progress. This January the government acted decisively to settle its promise throughout the country this year; and in April the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT) was granted £750 000 from the Department of Health’s privacy and dignity program for its plans to end any mixed wards and facilities in its three hospitals at Treliske, Hayle, and Penzance. For patients in Cornwall that is excellent news.

* At the urging of the government, doctors (GPs) have been extending the opening hours of their practices. This is a progressive move which makes consultation easier for people who work in the day and cannot easily get time off, and for their employers and work colleagues too. The Department of Health has released the figures for the incidence of extended hours in primary care trusts, including the Cornwall and Isle of Scilly (CIOSPCT) one: in March sixty eight of the seventy GP practices in CIOSPCT were operating extended hours, that is 97.1 percent of the practices. This is much above the England average, 73.5 percent. The details are here. (April 2009)

* Since February 2007 the Vorsprung Cornwall posts here have been crying up the positive concrete things happening in Cornwall. Now a new project, Confident Cornwall, has been set up by others, supported by the local newspapers and business groups. It is to “showcase the good news” about Cornwall. This is excellent news. There is much to celebrate in Cornwall. (March 2009)

* There are plans to turn the site of Glasney College, a medieval Christian monastery at Penryn, into a garden, thus preserving the monastic ruins which are below the surface. The monastery was demolished during the religious reforms of Henry VIII. A range of facilities, such as arts and crafts, is possible at the garden. (12 March 2009)

* Small businesses in construction Cornwall, plumbers and electricians for example, have been helped by the government’s decision to bring forward £6.889 million of spending in schools from 2010/11 to this year, 2009/10. This is part of a total of £919 million spending brought forward for schools in England to help defeat the effects of the recession.

It’s good news for Cornwall businesses and for schools, though the money will be deducted from 2010/11 school allocations. It is spending brought forward not additional spending.

The education department explains it here and there is a list of which education authorities get what here. (4 March 2009)

* St Michael’s hospital at Hayle, part of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT), is to undergo a £6 million renewal. As part of that there will be two new operating theatres for breast surgery and orthopedics and these will be the largest and most up-to-date in the RCHT. This is excellent news for the NHS in Cornwall and for patients. See here for more details. (17 January 2009). The two new operating theatres are funded by the national Department of Health through the exceptional public dividend capital scheme. (Hansard 23 March 2009 column 162W).

* Let me begin the new year with a hopeful and positive report in today’s Western Morning News. The Peninsular Medical School is looking to establish a major research institute on the environment and health at Treliske, Truro. EU funds are being sought and jobs for locals and work for local businesses will follow. (1 January 2009)

POVERTY AND SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT IN CORNWALL

See the addenda of 16 October and 30 October 2009 at the end for further information

Data for educational achievement in Cornwall show, I think, the adverse effects of poverty.

A paper (DEP2009-0918) of 19 March 2009 in the parliamentary library gives the numbers and percentages of (a) all pupils and of (b) only pupils eligible for free school meals in Cornwall (and all 152 local authorities in England) who did not gain any GCSEs above grade D for each year from 2003 to 2008.

Here are the percentages for 2008 for Cornwall:
All pupils 19.8 percent
Pupils eligible for free school meals 39.9 percent.

For all Cornwall pupils there is a modest improvement over the years since 2003; for free-school-meals Cornwall pupils the improvements are more marked.

Of course these GCSE results are general figures and there are admirable exceptions to them. However, free school meals are seen by many as a proxy measurement for poverty. The data revealed in the library paper is an issue that should exercise all those concerned about young people in Cornwall, including local and parliamentary politicians and educationists. It isn’t new; it has been known – or at least the knowledge about it has been available – for a long time. Why is the gap still so scandalously large? What can we do, economically, socially, and educationally, to narrow it further? How can we, indeed, reduce the general proportion achieving so little? As far as I can see not a single party in Cornwall is engaged with this though it is an important issue about the lives, schooling, and futures of teenagers in Cornwall; it is about their their achievement and self-esteem and sense of themselves. This issue is part of the real, everyday pro-Cornish agenda; recognising the needs of people in Cornwall and trying to help them to meet those needs.

The parliamentary library and the document DEP2009-0918 are here.

Addendum 16 October 2009

Hansard 12 October 2009 column 860W gives further figures about the relationship between free school meals and achievement in school in England:
Percentage of pupils on free school meals achieveing level 3 or below in reading, writing, and maths: 33 percent
Percentage of pupils not on free school meals achieving level 3 or below in reading, writing, and maths: 66 percent.
No date is given for the information. As ever, read the footnotes to the original in Hansard.

Addendum 30 October 2009

See Hansard 29 October 2009 column 593W (questions by Nick GIbb and David Laws) for further data about free school meals and school achievement.

CORNISH HISTORY IN SCHOOLS

Cornish nationalists advocate the teaching of Cornish history in schools in Cornwall. I’m going to look at what this might mean and some of the questions it throws up. As ever, nationalists differ, as other groups do, in their views about all these issues; there is no one Cornish nationalist view. Cornish nationalism and nationalist on my blog should always be understood as partitive.

I support the teaching of local history in schools; and, indeed, as many aspects of local particularisms as can be managed by a school timetable. Pupils should explore the local geography, economy, and language or dialect, for example. Cornish history in schools in Cornwall is not an exclusively Cornish nationalist issue: it is an educational issue that everyone can support. I should definitely like to see pupils in schools in Cornwall studying at an appropriate level the contended and complex history of Cornwall and that includes nationalist interpretations and arguments, though not those alone. However, history in schools is not ideological, it is not a mask for politics.

There are, of course, constraints on what a school can do: knowledge is vast, the curriculum crowded, and the school day and pupils’ attention are finite. School history cannot do everything and teachers have to select what to teach. Presently, as well as the history of the mandatory national curriculum of England, they do have the discretion to teach the history of their locality so there is no bar on a school in Cornwall teaching local history. This happens to an extent already with individual aspects of the history of Cornwall and with the sense of place project. A recent inspection report (October 2008) on Cape Cornwall secondary school at St Just commented favourably that “Pupils have a very good understanding of the culture of their local area, as shown in an assembly celebrating the unique nature and culture of West Cornwall” and added that the pupils “are starting to have a lot more contact with the local and world communities.” It is not only through history lessons that school pupils learn about Cornwall; and they are learning. Have a look at this post for positive work on the Cornish language in our schools.

I am now going to explore Cornish history in schools in terms of history skills, structure, content, and purpose.

History skills

Before looking at questions about the history of Cornwall in schools let me begin with general history skills, the basis of all history teaching and learning, what should be the foundation of all school history. History in schools should focus not only on facts, often contended and often incomplete, and on dramatic events, but also on the skills needed to judge and interpret history and its sources, and how to seek out sources. What we do not know, what we think is probable, and what we know are easily muddled in school history – as they are in life. Pupils need to know how to distinguish between facts, interpretations and opinions, and values and judgements; between likelihoods and wild surmises; to understand uncertainty and disagreements in knowledge; and the interplay of continuity and change. From this melange pupils should be encouraged to reach their own, often provisional, views. I believe the primary aim of education is to encourage pupils into rational independence.

Structure

What exactly does teaching the history of Cornwall in schools mean structurally?

Does it mean replacing the present mainstream history syllabus with one focused wholly on Cornwall rather than England and Britain and the world or does it mean including details of the history of Cornwall in the mainstream course or adding on a self-contained course on Cornish history? Mebyon Kernow’s policy of a “national curriculum for Cornwall” which would include “Cornish history” in all schools in Cornwall is doubly ambiguous: what is meant by the terms “national curriculum for Cornwall” and “Cornish history”?

I think too that we need clarity about the future of the present sense of place project. Does nationalism seek to abandon it or to build upon that work, using that approach, developing the project and spreading it to more and more schools in Cornwall? Or is something else sought, a history more sharply focused on nationalist issues and mandatory in all schools in Cornwall?

There is an unhelpful absence of details about structure.

Content and purpose

First, I think Cornish history for schools should not see the past as surer and more monochromatic than is warranted by the evidence; it should appreciate, as academic historians do, that there is, alongside the certainties, in the history of Cornwall complexity, ambiguity, uncertainty, and contended interpretations. In the Aristotle’s teeth posts on this blog I look at some of the off-beam and contended “Cornish history”.

Second, there is not one set of true facts open to one true interpretation that establishes a one true Cornish history.

Third, following on from these two points, how far would a Cornish history syllabus be monocentric or diverse? It would be unacceptable and a lost opportunity for education if, for example, we had only a tendentious and purposive Cornish nationalist take on the history in schools rather than a history recognising complexity, ambiguity, and a diversity of views, interpretations, and arguments. I think most people, whether nationalist or non-nationalist, believe there should be diversity.

However, diversity raises its own questions. This is an aspect of my argument in several posts: I believe that ‘Cornish’ does not necessarily imply nationalist and I reject nationalist attempts to appropriate Cornishness and the very word Cornish and give it a reductive nationalist definition. People in Cornwall have various outlooks and we should resist, in history as in everything else, language which characterises and dismisses non-nationalist views as non-Cornish and thus seeks to deny them indigenous legitimacy. There is no one “Cornish point of view” and nationalist arguments are not the only ‘Cornish’ arguments in any sphere.

Bearing that in mind, what does a diverse approach in Cornish history mean? Are we talking about side-by-side arguments presented as distinctly indigenous “Cornish” and foreign “English”? Is such ethnic labelling of arguments legitimate? I believe that pupils should be encouraged to focus on the merits of the reasoned arguments rather than to characterise them in polarised partisan terms such as cornocentric or anglocentric, inappropriate in schools at least.

Fourth, I think a basic aim of Cornish history in schools should be to help pupils unravel what is particular to Cornwall and what is common experience throughout England and the western world, pupils being encouraged to see the events in Cornwall not parochially but in their relevant wider contexts. A theme for this history should be the relationship between Cornwall and (the rest of) England – how it changes over time and how it shows continuity.

Fifth, there seems to be a hope and expectation among some that Cornish history in schools will in itself nationalise many pupils by leading them to claim a particular personal identity and a particular political view of the place of Cornwall out of England and thus over time create a nation of nationalists. What I think is important is that pupils have a genuinely diverse history curriculum, learn historical skills, and reach their own provisional conclusions, what I earlier referred to as rational independence. Although schools have an important role in socialising children, history in schools should not be ideologically purposive.

Of course mutatis mutandis these considerations apply to all local history in all schools in England. I certainly think pupils and students everywhere should learn about the history of their locality.

Identity

As for identity, which much exercises some strands of Cornish nationalism, out of this history the question of identities and changes in them would arise naturally and the conflicting ideas could be explored. I doubt if all pupils would see events in history identically or claim identical identities. Let me also here question the mistaken notion that one has to choose only one identity, Cornish or…

Clarify

It’s time for nationalists to clarify how they see the purpose, structure, and content of Cornish history in schools remembering that most pupils – and we are talking about history in schools not university or adult library books – are not at all interested in the unsure minutiae of historic politics; their interest is likely to be excited by the everyday life of people, their dreams and fears, their joys and despairs and miseries, their labours and leisure, and any school history must focus on those.

AGGREGATE NONSENSE

I shall not spend much time on this as I have been here several times before. There is more data about educational spending in Cornwall: Hansard for 19 January 2009, columns 1137W onwards give the per pupil spending for 2008/09. For Cornwall the figure is £4340. There are 148 authorities listed in the data; nineteen have lower percapita funding than Cornwall.

However, my general point once more is that these overall funding figures for local education authorities are meaningless and lead us down unhelpful paths. We can do better than a Cornwall-wide statistic and if we are serious about egalitarian levelling up and helping everyone, including those at the bottom, get a fair deal, we have to focus on the present inequalities within Cornwall.

The education department has produced deprivation data, based on tax credits, for education authorities and schools. In the authority table Cornwall comes in at 56 out of 150 authorities (the lower the number the worst the deprivation). However, the education department has published data for deprivation at school level though it is based on area not actual attending pupils. Look now at the school data: the deprivation indicator for the most deprived Cornish school is 80.58%, for the least deprived Cornish school 23.62%; they rank 1306 and 20 507 in the table of 21 665 schools in England (the smaller the rank number the more deprivation). These are vast differences and they cry out against the unhelpfulness of a single aggregate statistic for the whole county and grounding politics in this aggregate nonsense.

Do look at the original statistics for the explanatory details of the numbers and terms.

Additamentum 29 January 2009

Hansard 28 January 2009 columns 658W-661W give the per-pupil funding for 2007-2008 and 2008-2009.

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VORSPRUNG CORNWALL 4

I shall post here continuing good news for Cornwall, developments which will positively help the people of Cornwall and the local economy and everyday lives. Everyone who wants the people of Cornwall to succeed in the modern world will welcome them. This post covers the second half of 2008 to December. Vorsprung Cornwall 1 and 2 cover 2007 and Vorsprung Cornwall 3 covers January-June 2008.

* The West Briton reports that Pool, between Camborne and Redruth, is to see a major new development. £40 million will be spent to create a new campus for Cornwall College and £12 million to create a business innovation centre. Eventually and hopefully about two thousand new office jobs will be created at Pool. This is very good news indeed for education and the economy in Cornwall. (11 December 2008)

* A parliamentary answer (Hansard 17 November 2008 column 132W) shows that the number of people sleeping rough in Cornwall has fallen from thirty six in 1998 to zero in 2008. This is progress, especially in Penwith which accounted for half the county’s rough sleepers in 1998. Of course, this does not reveal whether the rough sleepers have moved into accommodation or have simply moved on. (18 November 2008)

* Two lifeguards in Cornwall have been awarded the RNLI silver medal for their courageous rescue of a holiday maker from treacherous seas at Trebarwith in June. After bringing him from the sea, they resuscitated him and kept him alive until the helicopter arrived to take him to hospital. You can read the RNLI account here. They are heroes. (14 November 2008)

* Excellent news for people in Cornwall seeking work. £27 million is available for new projects to help people improve their present skills or develop new skills and thus increase their chances of finding work. The money is from the European Social Fund (ESF) and has just been announced by the UK government. It will support three projects in each of the three areas of Merseryside, South Yorkshire, and Cornwall. Project applicants will have to put up 25 percent match funding in Cornwall but 50 percent in the other two areas.

This is additional to the £100 million from the ESF and British government for improving work skills announced on 15 October 2008 to help people facing redundancy. (6 November 2008)

* The Healthcare Commission has produced an assessment of the urgent and emergency services in areas* covered by primary care trusts in England. There are numerous ratings for numerous aspects of services such as out-of-hours GP services, A and E departments, and ambulance services. Details of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly area are here. The good news is that the Cornwall area’s overall score is in the top one third of results, the “best performing”. There is also summary file of all the areas’ ratings. (26 September 2008) *The Commission defines the areas as “within 152 localities set by the boundaries of the primary care trusts.”

* A project which has helped a thousand unemployed people in south Kerrier is expanding its catchment area westwards. The project, funded by the government and the EU, offers guidance and also helps job seekers to overcome difficulties with the costs of travel, childcare, and clothes, for example. An excellent, successful project. You can read a report on it here . (25 September 2008)

* Part of the Dobwalls bypass is now opened and it is expected that the new road will be fully open by November. The bypass is costing £42 million and will take traffic away from Dobwalls village on the A38, the Cornwall-Plymouth road. It began in late 2006 and will end congestion in Dobwalls making life there pleasanter and speeding the traffic

* Business Cornwall reports that RAM Gasket Solutions, a Redruth firm employing fourteen people, has won investment grants to expand. Three new jobs will be created. This is good news for the Cornwall economy, the firm, and its workers. Celebrate this success.

* Last March it was announced that the English open golf tournament was coming to St Mellion golf club from 2009 to at least 2013. Now the exact dates for 2009 have been announced . This tournament will attract top golfers and thousands of spectators to St Mellion, near Saltash, and will create scores of new golf-related jobs. The boost to the local economy should be impressive.

CORNWALL BREATHES

The Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO) have published the 2008 health profiles today. You can read the report for Cornwall and for each of its six districts here .

For Cornwall as a whole the APHO report is generally good news. For example, in five of the districts there is a smaller proportion of people living in the most deprived fifth of areas of England than the average for England; and in every district men and women have a higher life expectancy at birth than the average for England.

The APHO report gives information for each district too and although here the news is generally good of course there are difficult spheres where it is less rosy compared to the averages for England. For example, look at the figures in Penwith for index-of-multiple-deprivation, child poverty, and educational achievement.

There is much here to be pleased about. Not complacent, but recognising a record of progress. Cornwall, again, isn’t at the bottom.

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Source: Association of Public Health Observatories website article Welcome to health profiles

CORNISH MOVES OFF THE TEA TOWEL

After the spats about how to spell the Cornish language, spoken fluently by about three hundred people, there is positive news. No, not the agreement last month on a spelling system – the arguments still continue – but six books written by Will Coleman in Cornish for young children. Every year three pupil in Cornwall will get a free copy of one of the books which are about an imagined village and its people and animals.

The books were commissioned by the Cornish Language Partnership (CLP), a body of various language interests and the county and district councils in Cornwall, funded by the British government, the EU, and Cornwall county council.

Look, I’m not a Cornish nationalist and I don’t share the heady linguistic visions of some, I don’t believe for one moment that Cornwall will become bilingual, but I welcome this positive move to introduce some of the language to young people. It stands in stark and magnificent contrast to the unhappy nonsenses that have bedevilled and apparently still bedevil the language. Coleman and the CLP deserve warm congratulations on a constructive move.

ECRASEZ L’INFAME

There’s an accumulation of information about dismaying homophobic abuse in schools. Last year Stonewall published a report and now the Association of teachers and lecturers (ATL) has put out a similar one and has a position paper.

Today’s Guardian has three letters which I think are realistically positive about possibilities.

The Stonewall and ATL reports are distressing. The ATL suggests that too many teachers do not challenge homophobic language and bullying and says that “homophobia remains a pervasive and persistent problem within our society, including schools and colleges.”

Schools and colleges need to understand that homophobic language and behaviour are unacceptable. As unacceptable as racism and religious bigotry. It isn’t enough for a school to have a policy against homophobia; it must effectively deal with homophobia and challenge it thoroughly and continually. Ecrasez-l’infame, homophobic behaviour and language.

I think we must assume that some schools in Cornwall have a homophobic problem too. In the light of the Stonewall and ATL reports the Cornwall education authority should explain how schools here are dealing effectively with such language and behaviour.

PSST, CORNWALL UNSCREWED

I know it’s hammering the point and I’ve held off putting up this post but here goes. There are two pieces of data to mull over.

A parliamentary answer about the percentage increase in education spending in local education authorities from 1997/98 to 2005/06 shows Cornwall at 96th out of 149, that is ninety five authorities received higher percentage increases than Cornwall and fifty three lower (Hansard 12 December 2007 columns 722W-725W).

The dedicated schools grant for 2008/09 from central government shows that Cornwall has higher perpupil funding than ten other education authorities in England and that eighty seven education authorities, including Cornwall, have perpupil funding less than the average for England. These figures are similar to those for 2007/08 that last year I put here .

Cornwall is not at the top of the funding tables but once more the claim by grievancers that Cornwall is singularly unfairly treated in education by central government is shown to be wrong; Cornwall is not the most poorly treated authority and is not singled out by central government for unique low funding. The complaint based on comparative grounds, on what other authorities receive, fails.

Of course none of these figures prove that Cornwall, or any local education authority, is receiving a fair and adequate share of education spending given its circumstances. That requires different arguments and the grievancers do not make in convincing detail any such arguments. Look at all the deprivation and poverty data I have put on this blog and ask yourself whether the data suggest strongly that Cornwall as a whole is singularly impoverished and should therefore receive as a whole more education spending comparative to other places. However, it may well be that schools in the seriously deprived areas of Cornwall should receive more funding and teachers. Does it make sense to see Cornwall as a whole in terms of education funding?