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MAWDESLEY'S
METHUSALA FESTIVAL ADDS MARDI GRAS TO THE MIX & UNVEILS MAIN STAGE
HEADLINE ACTS
 
LANCASHIRE'S biggest family
music festival has confirmed its 2013 line up as the 3 day
August Bank Holiday event draws nearer.
More than 20 bands will play two stages in the fields beneath
Mawdesley's towering windmills at this year's Methusala Festival.
Shooglenifty will headline at the festival's main stage on Saturday
night. Other highlights across the holiday weekend's Friday night,
Saturday and Sunday are Boomin, Kiss of the Gypsy, Gilmore & Roberts
and a host of other fantastic bands including local heroes Chris
Bannister, Slither and not forgetting Rock FM's Danny Bee.
Family festival fanciers are urged to join one village, singing its
heart out and dancing in a field for three days of original music.
The main event is served with a side order of arts, entertainments
and activities for the kids, a festival market, real ale cider bar
for adults and a rock up and roll session tent for those who want to
give their own music an airing. And on Saturday afternoon things
really start hotting up when Mawdesley stages its own Mardi Gras
(costume hire on site if you're up for shaking your tail feather!)
Tickets from:-
methusala.co.uk or from
Mawdesley Londis or call Andrew Gaskell on:- 01704 823200. Early bird
weekend tickets:- £25, individual day tickets from:- £10 and camping:- £6
per night. The event takes place at Mawdesley's Rock & River.
MRSA cases fall
to zero at hospital trust
NO cases of MRSA
bloodstream infection were recorded at Southport and Ormskirk
Hospital NHS Trust last year, according to its latest annual report.
"We are proud to be one of only 32 NHS acute trusts which
recorded no MRSA bacteraemia infections in 2012/13 out of a total of
164 organisations. Measures taken in the North West Regional
Spinal Injuries Unit also saw transmission of MRSA colonisation fall
to zero for the first time since 1990. This is a tremendous
achievement given the challenge of balancing infection control
priorities with the rehabilitation needs of patients." said Executive Medical Director Mr Rob
Gillies. MRSA (meticillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) is a version of a
widespread germ which is resistant to some antibiotics. It can be
treated.
Clostridium difficile infections, which can occur in people who have
recently had a course of antibiotics and are in hospital, also fell
with 23 infections reported; a 30% reduction on 2011/12.
The Annual Report shows a challenging year in some clinical areas
but in diagnostics, cancer referrals and treatment waits, the Trust
was meeting or planning to exceed the targets set for it by the year
end.
Trust chairman Sir Ron Watson CBE said:- "2012/13 was a year
of major organisational change in the NHS with big rises in demand
for a number of our services. Staff must be thanked for their
unstinting dedication to maintaining and improving the services our
patients expect of us."
£200k for youth
projects in Liverpool
MAYOR Joe Anderson is
making available a £200,000 pot of money for projects benefiting
young people. Bidding has now opened for applications from the
Mayoral Youth Fund. Schools and youth parliaments, and
representatives of schools Councils, are being asked to come up with
ideas for projects. The aim is to fund schemes that young
people feel will have a real impact in their community or possibly
across the whole of the City. It must be for activity outside
of schools, and is not intended to be used by schools.
Applicants will need to indicate what they think their project will
achieve and who it will benefit. It could be a group activity, or an
event involving young people.
Mayor Joe Anderson said:- "No-one knows young people better
than young people themselves, which I why I want them to drive this
scheme. I am passionate about making sure that they get the
opportunity to bid for funding for projects that will benefit their
age group. The schemes they come up with will have far more
relevance, credibility and impact than anything I could suggest."
The completed applications will be considered by a panel made up of
the Prime Ministers of the schools and youth parliaments and the
Mayor. Applications are available
online.
The closing date is Monday, 7 October 2013. |
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Report shows
over half of parents and carers do not feel confident to protect
their children from sexual abuse
59% of parents and carers
are not as confident as they would like to be when it comes to
protecting their children from sexual abuse. And if they had
concerns only 70% would feel confident to act upon or report these
concerns. 7.7 million families have dependent children in the UK
which could mean 4.5 million families are lacking the confidence to
protect their children.
The Alvechurch based Lucy Faithfull Foundation reveals the figures
in a new report from its Stop it Now! UK and Ireland Campaign and
Helpline.
Data was collected from 2,303 parents and carers who Stop it Now!
worked with between October 2012 and March 2013. Parents and carers
were asked to rate their confidence levels in a number of areas
before attending a seminar on child sexual abuse prevention.
Findings show:-
► Prior to the workshop only 41% of parents and carers rated
themselves as 'confident' or 'very confident'
about
being able to keep their children safe from sexual abuse.
Post-workshop this almost doubled to 79%
► Prior to the workshop only 70% of parents and carers stated they
felt 'confident' or 'very confident' about acting on,
or reporting, any concerns they may have about child sexual abuse.
Post workshop this had risen to 92%
► Prior to the workshop, only 27% of parents and carers stated they
felt 'confident' or 'very confident' about being able
to spot signs of sexual abuse in their child's behaviour. Post
workshop this almost trebled to 79%
► Prior to the workshop only 13% of parents and carers felt
'confident'
or 'very confident' about spotting potentially concerning
behaviour in an adult. Post workshop 69% rated themselves as 'confident'
or 'very confident'
The findings are contained in the Stop it Now! UK and Ireland
Helpline and Campaign 10 year report, which also shows that calls
to the confidential resource climbed from 1,024 in 2003 to 5,676 in
2012. Over the last 3 years the number of callers has increased
at an average rate of 24% each year as the public has become more
aware of the Helpline's existence and as public concern about child
sexual abuse has risen.
Calls fall into 3 main categories of caller:-
► Adults concerned
about their own sexual thoughts or behaviour, 38%.
► Family, friends
and other adults concerned about the behaviour of another adult, 27%. ► Parents and carers concerned about a child or young
person's sexual behaviour, only 6%.
► Other callers include adults
concerned about children who may have been abused, just, 5%,
professionals seeking case advice, 13% and adult survivors of
sexual abuse, 7%.
Donald Findlater, Director of Research and Development with the Lucy
Faithfull Foundation and Director of Stop it Now! UK and Ireland
said:- "Our report clearly shows that while adults can and do
take action to protect a child when they know where to go for help,
many are not sure of what to look for and what action they can take
if they do have concern. The Stop it Now! Helpline is one of the few
places they can go for confidential, expert help, and growing
numbers of adults are using the service. Child sexual abuse affects
1 in 6 children in the UK. Whilst it often hits the headlines, this
is typically only after harm has been done. It is a scandal that so
little is done to prevent abuse before it happens. Sadly the Parents
Protect! sexual abuse prevention seminars, which achieved so much in
improving the knowledge and confidence of those best placed to
protect their children, have lost funding from the Department of
Education, despite on-going demand. The Governments of Scotland and
Wales continue to fund Parents Protect work for their parents and
carers. If we are to take the problem of child sexual abuse
seriously, we must behave as if prevention were a possibility. At
present it feels like we are resigned to the fact that lots of our
children are being abused and we simply wring our hands after the
next publicised tragedy. This does nothing to stop it happening and
it does even less for the thousands of children suffering abuse in
silence. We need a public education campaign on the same scale
as the drink drive and child obesity campaigns. We need Government
to take a comprehensive look at services to prevent abuse from
happening as well as to respond appropriately after it has happened;
and we need all of this yesterday. Our children deserve nothing
less."
Peter Saunders, Chief Executive of the National Association for
People Abused in Childhood, said:- "'The majority of adult
survivors of sexual abuse who contact the NAPAC support line tell us
they were abused by someone they knew. It is absolutely vital that
parents and carers are confident about what to look for and what to
do if they have concerns. It is not up to children to protect
themselves and we know very few children disclose the abuse that is
happening to them at the time. Parents, carers, family members and
other protective adults are best placed to protect children but they
must be informed and able to seek help and take action if they have
concerns."
The Helpline and Campaign report covers ten years of pioneering work
to protect children from sexual abuse. It concludes by stating that
to really tackle child sexual abuse in the UK, Government needs to
adopt a comprehensive approach to prevention.
The Stop it Now! Helpline is currently the subject of an independent
evaluation funded by the EU and conducted by NatCen Social Research,
Britain's largest independent social research organisation. Due to
conclude in Spring 2014, the evaluation will inform the development
of similar sexual abuse prevention help lines elsewhere in Europe.
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