Supporting the Respect campaign at the Heart of Burton Partnership

Celebrating Burton success stories

Our first stop was to the Community Services Unit on Burton's High Street, which houses the national Claims Management Monitoring and Compliance Unit.

The Unit, which is provided by Staffordshire County Council under contract to the Ministry of Justice, regulates claims management businesses, such as 'no- win no fee' companies on a national scale.  The unit has just been given the thumbs up the County Council's Network as a beacon of good practice, and is now expanding to cope with the huge surge in companies needing authorisation to trade. 

 It has been hugely successful in protecting consumers against rogue companies, and long may that continue.

We also paid a visit to the Heart of Burton Partnership, based on Horniglow Road, which has been undertaking some sterling work in improving quality of life in the Burton area.  The scheme, which is a partnership between Staffordshire County Council, East Staffordshire Borough Council, Burton residents and local service providers, has gone from strength to strength, recently with the huge success of its 'Respect' campaign.  This campaign has seen hundreds of residents sign up to the Respect charter, which commits them to respect the views of everyone, regardless of their faith, age, colour, culture, sexuality or ability.  It really has brought the community together.

I also visited the county council's Burton Short-Term Breaks Unit, whose main focus is on preventing children from entering the care system through the provision of intensive family support packages.  The service enables families to have some space in a crisis situation with the aim of children to continue to live their family where this is safe. 

 The service is crucial to the county council's aim and I'm extremely proud of this high quality service.