If you’ve been reading my regular reviews over the course of 2025, you’ll be aware that at the end of January we hosted a delegation from the Local Government Association as part of a Corporate Peer Challenge.  We were pleased to receive our report following the visit and this week welcomed back some members of the original delegation.  They were here for the day on Friday to see how we were responding to the report before feeding back initial findings at the end of the day.  I’m delighted to receive further positive feedback around what we’re achieving at Trafford and the progress we have been making since the start of the year.  I was also delighted to hear specific praise directed towards my Executive colleagues and recognition of how well we work as a team.  External oversight and challenge are so important to any organisation, and I’ve found the Corporate Peer Challenge experience incredibly valuable.

One of the positive observations made during the original Corporate Peer Challenge week related to our Ambitions for Children Board.  So it was timely to be chairing our most recent board meeting earlier this week.  The Board brings together representatives from the council, health services, safeguarding, police and education.  It’s a place to monitor the services and support we collectively provide to our children and young people, provide challenge where necessary, and look at how we best work together to achieve the best outcomes.

Monitoring the support we have in place for our cared for and care experienced children and young people is one of the important reasons why we have a Corporate Parenting Board, and the latest board meeting also took place this week.  The most important part of the meeting was being held to account by some of our cared for and care experienced young people.  They asked us all, as corporate parents, what we were doing to ensure they got the best support with their education, health, training opportunities and skills for life.  This interaction took up the best part of the meeting, and it was good to hear where we are getting things right, as well as thinking about where we can improve further.

Both our Ambitions Board and Corporate Parenting Board provide an opportunity for updates from our teams in Children’s Services and they are a huge asset to Trafford Council along with all our employees.  Recognising the importance of our workforce is one of the reasons why the council organises regular ‘Let’s Talk’ sessions and this week we had two events- one at the Town Hall in Stretford, and one in Sale.  This week’s sessions included updates on local government finance, Old Trafford Regeneration and Artificial Intelligence.  It was interesting to see how AI can support our council employees.  It was also very reassuring to know that we’re a long way off AI replacing humans!

Following Remembrance Services last weekend, on Tuesday at just before 11am, the Mayor, representatives from the Armed Forces, and members and officers of the council gathered in our gardens at the Town Hall to have some time for reflection and to observe the two minutes silence.  Although the occasion only lasted for around twenty minutes, I thought it was an incredibly powerful and moving act of remembrance.

Outside of meetings at the Town Hall, I’ve been back out on the doorstep with colleagues in Stretford and Humphrey Park Ward and we’re definitely into the wetter, darker part of the year now.  I also attended the latest meeting of Stretford’s Town Centre Forum, which felt really positive.  Business representatives, community representatives and councillors came together and received an update on Stretford Town Centre and plans for Stretfest in 2026.

Stretford Town Centre is where I ended my week, where I had the great pleasure of switching on the Christmas lights in our new Town Centre.  As ever, it was wonderful to see so many people supporting the event and celebrating Stretford Town Centre’s regeneration- we’re all looking forward to new openings in the weeks and months ahead.