2 June 2023

I hope you all had a good bank holiday weekend and enjoyed the good weather.

On Tuesday I took advantage of a relatively quiet day to catch up on emails and paper from the long weekend. We also had a short Cabinet members briefing, which is the first meeting since the Cabinet was selected at the Council's Annual General Meeting last week.

Mid-week I attended the Council's Health and Wellbeing board at Municipal Buildings where we discussed the Integrated Mental Health Strategy Group and a Health protection update.

 On Thursday I attended two training sessions for members following May's election - one on Health and Safety and another on the Councillor's Code of Conduct. Although I have been a Councillor for almost 30 years, I think that these training sessions are important in keeping up to date with the latest rules and regulations. Being a Councillor is a demanding job, and there will be lots of induction sessions and training for myself and the other Councillors in the coming weeks.

Today I will be attending the Tees Valley Integrated Care Partnership Area meeting, which I chair. A busy agenda includes updates from various Managers and Directors of Public Health from across the Tees Valley, discussing the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHSFT Community Mental Health Model and a forward plan for the wider Tees Valley among other things.

At the weekend I am looking forward to spending some time with my family. The regular football season has finished with Middlesbrough narrowly missing out on promotion. The FA Cup Final this Saturday  is an all-Manchester derby, with City taking on United in what I expect will be an exciting and passionate match, one not to be missed!