Pamela Ward Pearce of Longwood has been duly elected to serve as a Member of the St Helena Legislative Council.

Returning Officer, Gillian Francis, last night announced the results of the Polls for the Bye-election held yesterday.

The total number of votes cast for each candidate was:

Pamela Ward Pearce         222 

Anthony Green                   176

 Lionel Williams                    37

Geoffrey Knipe                      13

The Count took place from 8.30pm to just after 9pm last night.

In total 448 people cast valid votes. This represents approximately 19.9% of those eligible to vote.

 There were two invalid Ballot Papers.

 Compared to the Bye-election in 2014, yesterday’s Bye-election saw a drop of 5.7% in voters. In 2014 a total of 579 people cast valid votes representing approximately 25.6 % of those eligible to vote at that time.

SHG

5 March 2015

Following a recent road traffic accident, the Highway Authority has given approval for Ladder Hill Road to be closed on Sunday, 8 March 2015, for essential repairs. The road will be closed from 8am to 4pm.

Diversions will be in place.

The Roads Section would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused, and thank the public in advance for their continued understanding and cooperation.

SHG

3 March 2015

Arriving to the Island on Thursday, 26 February 2015, was Senior Social Worker, Stephanie Jones.

Stephanie is based at Brick House, Upper Jamestown, and is contracted by SHG for two years. Stephanie’s role as Senior Social Worker includes safeguarding children and adults. She will also be working on child protection and with children in need, and closely working with junior members of staff in Social Services and helping to develop policies and procedures.

Stephanie said:

“I am hoping to bring good practice to my new role and to build relationships with other agencies to help safeguard children on the Island. One of the challenges which I have come across is not having the resources which we are able to access in the UK, however I am going to alter my practices slightly and be more creative.

“My immediate impressions of the Social Services offered on St Helena, is that everyone is positive in wanting to do their best. Everyone is friendly and wants to work together with the aim to safeguard children and adults, which is most important.”

For the last fifteen years, Stephanie has worked within Social Services. She began her career as a Social Support Worker in a refuge supporting families who had suffered from domestic abuse. From there Stephanie qualified as a Social Worker by working at a local authority in North West England, with children and families.

Eighteen months ago Stephanie was employed as a Lecturer in Social Work at Staffordshire University, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students studying towards their BA (Hons) Degree.

Since her arrival, Stephanie has visited Barn View, the Challenging Behaviour Unit and the Sheltered Accommodations.

She concluded:

“I’m really positive about my job role here on the Island and what I have to offer. I’m also looking forward to working with other agencies and facilities.”

SHG

3 March 2015

Don’t forget that Wednesday, 4 March 2015, is Polling Day.

St Helena will go to the Polls to elect a new Member to fill the vacant seat on Legislative Council. Candidates for the 2015 Bye-election are: Anthony Arthur Green of St Paul’s, Geoffrey Patrick George Knipe of Sandy Bay, Pamela Ward Pearce of Longwood and Lionel George Williams of St Paul’s.

Polling stations will be at the Blue Hill Community Centre, Half Tree Hollow Clinic, Harford Community Centre, St Mary’s Church at the Briars, Kingshurst Community Centre, Levelwood Community Centre, Jamestown Community Centre, and Sandy Bay Community Centre.

Constituents in the Alarm Forest electoral district should note the change in venue for the Polling Station i.e. St Mary’s Church.

Only those named on the Register of Electors dated 4 February 2015 will be able to vote in the Bye-election and you must vote in the Polling District in which you are registered.

To inspect the current Register of Electors you may contact the Returning Officer, Assistant Returning Officers or Assistant Registration Officers. Copies of the Register are also available at the Customer Service Centre, Public Library and on the SHG website.

 SHG

2 March 2015

An Apprenticeship Awareness Workshop was held, for the first time, on Thursday 26 February 2015, at the Education Learning Centre in Jamestown.

The workshop was organised by the Lifelong Learning Services with input from Enterprise St Helena, enabling all apprentices to come together. The day reminded apprentices of the requirements of an Apprenticeship and covered the importance of good work ethics, health and safety and injecting motivation. It was also an opportunity to hear apprentices’ views and to build a vision for the future in a fun learning environment.

Facilitators, Work Development Co-ordinator, Cynthia Bennett, Construction Training Manager, David Goodrick of Enterprise St Helena, and Teacher Training Advisor, Christine Blake gave presentations throughout the day. A total of 31 apprentices attended the workshop, all of whom gave positive feedback.

Cynthia commented:

“Overall the day was very successful.  All apprentices seemed to have enjoyed the day, increased their learning and became more motivated.

From the feedback that we received, apprentices felt that it was very interesting and useful.  However, there were also some very good suggestions for future improvements – this was much appreciated by the directorate.” 

Judging from the results of the workshop on Thursday, the Education Directorate felt it would be beneficial to organise at least two workshops a year for apprentices.

A photo is attached to this release.

 SHG

2 March 2015

St Helena Government (SHG) in partnership with UK Charity, Samaritans, and SURE South Atlantic Ltd are pleased to announce that a free and confidential telephone support service is now available. The telephone number for this service is 20000.

Callers can be assured that any calls placed via this number will be directed to Samaritans in the UK, they are entirely confidential, and will not appear on the caller’s telephone bills.

Samaritans are there round-the-clock, every single day of the year to provide emotional support for people who are experiencing feelings of emotional distress. Samaritans are committed to the following values – listening without judging, confidentiality, people making their own decisions, and giving people time and space to talk, with another person, about whatever is getting to them to help see a way through this.

SHG understands the increasing needs of the community and this support service will complement existing local services.

Members of the public with any concerns regarding this support may call any of the following services, who will be happy to help:

Safeguarding Directorate              00290 22713

Police Confidential Help Line      00290 22888

Mental Health Services                 00290 22593

Human Rights Office                     00290 22133

Assistant Chief Secretary, Paul McGinnety, commented:

“We understand the need for people on the Island to be able to access confidential off- Island support and it is with great pleasure that we are able to work with the UK Samaritans to provide such a service.  We are also indebted to SURE who have agreed to cover the costs of all of the calls and their team who have provided us with a unique number which will not show up on individual bills. Can I stress that this is a confidential line to provide support for people who need it and only if the service is mis-used will the caller lose their right to confidentiality. I would like to place on record our thanks to Samaritans and SURE.”

SHG

2 March 2015 

A cross section of employees from both the public and private sector have recently undergone intense management training with visiting trainer, Bruce MacDonald, on behalf of the Graduate School of Business from the University of Cape Town.

Through a partnership training initiative between Enterprise St Helena and Lifelong Learning Services, Bruce delivered a series of workshops to junior and middle managers working on the Island. Organisations were invited to nominate staff for the training and, in total, 31 people from a range of organisations, including St Helena Government, Solomon & Company (St Helena) Plc, Bank of St Helena, the RMS and various other organisations participated in the training programme.

Training was intense and workshops ran from 9am to 4pm over four and half days.

Bruce explained:

“The training involved lots of discussion, debates and group work and focused on general management techniques. With the support of my colleague, Megan Hooper, who joined the sessions via video link, we were able to deliver to participants a programme on leadership, knowing oneself and knowing others, understanding behaviour, group dynamics, business simulation and an introduction to finance.

“In four days you can’t cover very much so what we decided to do was to take the basics of management and provide participants with models and frameworks that they can use over appropriate circumstances. It’s up to participants to use their mature judgement and apply what they use and when – it’s looking at the process of learning and not specifically what you learn.”  

The training was well received by participants and some of their comments included:

“I am delighted with the outcomes of the training. I found it to be insightful and thought provoking and am excited to go back to work to understand how I can implement the various ideas that I learnt while working through the training. The course was very well designed and allowed managers at all levels to be able to engage with the facilitators and with other managers on the course who work across a diverse range of sectors. I would recommend this training to any manager as an opportunity to reflect on their current management style, identify where they want to be and begin to make the changes they need to get there.”

“I found the course educational and the visual aids were very informative.  The stages of decision making learnt are easily adaptable when making decisions on a day-to-day basis. The course was very beneficial.”

“The course was a great refresher on management techniques and we were also introduced to some new concepts. The trainers were excellent and helped us to gain an insight on understanding and managing organisational behaviours, systems thinking and managing change.  Thank you to the organisers.”

Bruce concluded:

“All participants engaged really well and have been very enthusiastic.

“The proof of the pudding will be what attendees do when they go back to work. What they’ve learnt will emerge over time and hopefully they will be able to apply what they’ve learnt in a real work situation.”

Bruce departed the Island on Thursday 26 February 2015.

A photo is attached to this release.

 SHG

2 March 2015

Councillors will continue to hold constituency meetings during early March 2015.

Topics for discussion are Health and Water, but members of the public are encouraged to attend the meetings in their districts to raise any issues they might have.

The schedule for the remaining meetings is displayed below. All meetings will begin at 7.30pm.

SHG

2 March 2015

During the course of early construction at the Half Tree Hollow Comprehensive Development Area (CDA), including the setting-out of the planned road alignment, surveyors undertaking checks have noted discrepancies between the registered land parcel boundaries, historic survey data and actual boundaries on site. Some re-design of the road and drainage alignment is proposed to adjust for the new survey information and in order to avoid possible encroachment onto established development including services.

Construction on the main road and sewers has been put back while the designers look at this again. The pause in construction also provides an opportunity to consider alterations to site drainage to serve the wider area beyond the CDA including the planned prison development at Sundale.

In the short term, some land re-grading work will continue on the site access road approach, which is hoped will benefit some residents.

SHG

2 March 2015