So with the excuses out of the way I will begin.

This year I have had the unfortunate honour, like many a parent in this country, to have had to deal with local council Social Services department and the court system. Now let me start by saying that I hold no grudge against the overall Social Services organisation and the fantastic work they do every day up and down the country. I myself was in the care of them in my younger days and they do have the best wishes of the child at heart… most of the time. This one example was one where the interests of the child were there at the beginning but wained at the end.

Much earlier in the year an incident occurred where Social Services became involved with mother & daughter. As a result I was asked if my daughter would be able to stay with me and I agreed whole heartedly, who wouldn’t? It was at this point that things took a turn for the worse, not that I saw it coming mind, as I was set upon a path that would prove to be both expensive, shocking and to some extent pointless.

Whilst having my daughter to stay, Social Services began the process of interviewing me to determine how strong my relationship with my daughter is and why is it that she behaves like any other 8 year old with me? During the initial meeting it was recommended that I seek a residence order. Such an order would have Social Services’ full backing and that they feared my daughter would be put into care should I not go down this route. So I immediately started the process as requested, as I didn’t want my daughter going into care and the mere suggestion scared the life out of me. Now, a residence order quite simply is determined by a judge as to where a child resides. Simple yes? No.

I was not aware of the detailed circumstances surrounding the ‘initial’ incident that brought about the involvement of Social Services, I had been given very basic information and it was certainly not enough to get an immediate residence order, but that’s OK I thought, Social Services have requested this and they are writing a letter to support my application & it’ll be ready for the court date. So I submitted the basic paperwork (paid the fee) and waited to go to court. Who knew that the judge would deem it serious enough for the court date to be set a week later? Well, Social Services didn’t turn up (as I assumed they would), nor did they write their letter, so the judge postponed the case & requested a full report to be drawn up by Social Services. A ‘Section 7′ report, no less, where the full details of the case were put before the judge and involved Social Services interviewing everyone in relation to my daughter. It took months, all the time there were meetings being held to resolve the issues between mother & daughter (which I still believe was a good thing) yet with every passing month I started to wonder how seriously was any judge going to take this given that the actual incident happened months earlier? Time is a great healer after all… isn’t it?

Eventually in July, six months after all this began, the Section 7 was finished just in time for the third appearance in court. I had a solicitor (a very good one, but pricey.. the good ones are it seems) and we were ready to go to court again. Only no-one had received the Section 7 report except for the court. The judge had hers, but no-one else had even seen it. So while everyone had copies faxed, etc., the judge had a chance to read her copy and we sat down to see what had been said. I won’t go into detail, only to say that the report stated there were no issues with my relationship with my daughter… at all. There were issues with her other parental relationship but the summary suggested instead of residence, that I should get weekend access only. What???

In complete contrast to the rest of the report the summary stopped short of recommending the very course of action I had been asked to take in the first place. It was like someone within Social Services had come along with a big marker pen at the end & said ‘you cant write that’.

I was gobsmacked. Even the judge was a little surprised. As a result a fourth hearing was scheduled for late August whereby Social Services would appear to give a narrative to the report as it didn’t seem to make sense.

They didn’t show up.. the person dealing with the case was on vacation.

I was on a hiding to nothing. I have to say that the judge at this point was amazing, he basically said that he had seen a number of occasions where this had happened. A course of action had been recommended with the warning of very severe consequences should it not be followed, (e.g. your child will be taken into care) only for it to lack support from the very people that should be providing it.

I have to say that now a new Social Worker has been assigned to my daughter, her relationship with her mother is improved greatly and they are working on those issues with the help that has been provided. So yes, in answer to the earlier question time is a healer, they need more time and they now have it. So there are positives to come out of this tale, however there are lessons to be learned and I have learned them well.

1. If I were to ever have Social Services recommend a similar course of action to myself or anyone I know, then I would ask them to put the reasons why they are making such a request in writing FIRST.

2. Get a solicitor from the outset, I was naive to think that filling in the correct paperwork & trusting someone to do as they said they would is enough… it isn’t.

3. You can’t put a price on good advice. Get it as soon as possible, get it from a professional and if possible get it on recommendation.

I am aware I have skipped over a lot of detail but then I don’t believe it’s necessary to bring it all up here but the message is there.. I hope.

You probably never have. A 4 or a 5 certainly but a 2 or a 1? Possibly never.

Now the strange part is that the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) or as it was known ‘Scores on the Doors’ are there so that we (the customer) can make an informed choice about where we eat. These scores let us know that the owners, managers & employees take care in storing and preparing the food that we are going to eat.

So why isn’t it mandatory for this score to be displayed? Yes you read correctly, it is not mandatory for a business to display the score it has received by the local council officers. If you want to make an informed choice you would either have to look up the information on the Food Standards Agency website – here or check with your local council before deciding if you want to eat at a particular establishment. Really? Like that’s going to happen.

Ok, for example… say a restaurant takes the time to invest in training its staff and fulfilling all the processes to obtain a score of 5 – Very Good (why this isn’t labelled as excellent is beyond me by the way). Then you would expect that they would want all their potential customers to know that they have such a high rating, possibly a likely scenario for a new business obtaining a score of 4 – Good. Its a great advertisement for any business to show that they comply with the standards set & are highly rated, but not all businesses show their score even when its a 4 or 5.

In fact only 56% of businesses in England & Wales receiving a Food Hygiene Rating of 4 or higher display it.*

Its no surprise of course that a mere 12% of businesses in England & Wales receiving a score below 2 are displaying that on their windows.*

If it is not mandatory then how are we supposed to know? Is the Food Hygiene Rating scheme even relevant given that some councils will not re-inspect a business receiving a 4 or 5 rating for further 2 years? A lot can happen in 2 years.

The Welsh Assembly is committed to making the display of Food Hygiene Rating scores mandatory but what about England & Scotland and does that go far enough? Do we need to see councils re-inspecting on a more frequent basis or should we push more emphasis on customer ratings, which lets face it have been open to abuse on ‘some’ review sites in recent times.

What do you think?

* source: Food Standards Agency research published 10 May 2012.

When it comes to eating out there seems to be a correct way to use social media and a very wrong way.

Doing it wrong – diners & businesses

Diners…

How infuriating is it to receive a tweet from a diner that simply contains a photo of the dish (whichever course or possibly all of them) and the words ‘Nom Nom’? We don’t know where you are, what the dish is, have you cooked this yourself and we’ll try to forget the fact that you have yet to taste said dish and already you are ‘Nom Nom’ing’ it.

We of course could also receive notification that you have simply ‘Checked in’ at your favour fish and chip shop… every day… at 6:30pm… Hell you’re even the ‘Mayor’ of the place (or plaice). Failing that our diner might simply inform everyone ‘I had a great meal in the George & Dragon’, well thats nice… as again we have no idea what you had or recommend, which of the numerous establishments with the same name you have visited or how to find this place for ourselves. Thanks for that.

Nom Nom? WTF!!

Businesses…

Also fall foul of submitting the dish of the day photo. Either they have the worlds largest menu or we’re not going to be eating everything you’ve been posting… twice a day… everyday… for the last two months. Some businesses simply spurt out the offer of the day.. or was that of the hour and want you to retweet it or share it with as many people as possible. Really? You’re that desperate for customers? Thats exactly how you sound, I’m so desperate for anyone to come by the shop/branch/website that I’ll give the stuff away. Whatever went wrong with talking to your followers, they have at least taken the time to follow you and they want see what you are doing. Posting the same toot at the same time every day really turns people off.

Free Stuff – Yay!!!

Ok so there are some examples of how not to do it and it wasn’t hard to search them on Twitter before finding them… so how should it be done?

Well if you’re a business, do yourself a huge favour and follow @Yardbird (Florida Restaurant) @GrindCoffeeBar (London coffee bar) or @BrownsCoffeeHse (Canterbury coffee house) …other twitter users are available… for some examples of how to reach out to your customers or just as importantly your future customers. These guys tweet their customers, they get to know what they like and what they don’t like. If something is working their customers will tell their friends and followers, if something is not working these same customers are going to tell them first and not their friends. The saying ‘if I am doing something right tell your friends, if I am doing something wrong tell me’ has never been more important than when using social media. Asking a customer that has visited you (and has openly stated that they have) what did they have, did we look after you etc. breaks the ice but is invaluable in finding how you can do better. Now if you want to display these comments then you either need to be displaying them on your website or you need to be looking closely at twitreview (which keeps tweeted reviews for 60 days) and how you can start using it now… for free

From a diners point of view there needs to be a new approach to the ‘Nom Nom’ technique – how much better for your followers or friends if the photo simply showed you smiling with your companions after finishing a fabulous meal – far better than a picture of your food thats slowly getting cold thats for sure. Now how about looking to see if the business itself are on twitter? That way they will see what you think of their food, they’ll also be grateful that you are sharing the experience with your followers & friends… But please, for the love of god.. if you have a problem with your food, the wine or even the service… please please please try & resolve it in the restaurant first. How on earth is a business supposed to put right an error, if the first they hear of it is when you have left the building, taken a taxi home and are sat in your PJ’s? By all means if they have still not resolved your problem then tweet away, they probably deserve it, but most will be happy to fix any problem you may have IF YOU TELL THEM ABOUT IT!!!

Here comes the advert for Twitreview.

Now if they are a really cool place to eat they might be using Twitreview and want you to comment using their OWLi (see the site) or will be listed in Twitreview. Using twitreview means that your review/thoughts will be kept for 60 days and it will also show your followers/friends where the business is. So they know how to get there.. clever right? It also means that if your friends use it you can see exactly where they recommend. If a business isn’t on twitreview you can let us know (clicking on the pencil icon) and of course you can tweet any thoughts/additions etc to @Twr_uk

Now the reviewer in question does not return to a restaurant once he has reviewed it, regardless of the review’s age or that the business has changed hands. He flatly refuses to return. I know this because he has noted on Twitter in the past that once he has reviewed he will not return. This made me think of a scene from the 2007 Disney Pixar film Ratatouille, where the restaurant critic Anton Ego (voiced by the fantastic Peter O’Toole) is equally obtuse to the plight of the restaurateur.

It does however bring to question an interesting point, are old reviews relevant?

My personal view is no. The critic would obviously say otherwise or maybe he simply wanted to namedrop a restaurant he reviewed six years earlier because the Prime Minister and his wife recently visited it. It would also appear that a well-known review site (and a number of copycat sites) agree with the critic and choose to keep reviews (good and bad) well past their sell by date.

In my honest opinion, I believe the critic and the review sites are wrong – very wrong. Any review of a business – whether that is a restaurant, hotel, café or takeaway – should be relevant to the food and service as it is now, not five or six years ago. If a restaurant has had poor reviews in the past then why should it not be given the opportunity to improve? Should it always be known as it was… not as it is? I can understand why a restaurant critic would not wish to return to a restaurant because of the time it might take. There are new restaurants opening all the time and he or she would need to keep up with the demands of their readership, but to refuse because they have been before is simply unacceptable.

Every business should learn from feedback in all its forms and improvement as a result should be promoted, especially when this is received from paying customers.

Slowly, businesses are starting to see the benefit of listening to their customers and are investing time and money to gather this valuable information. They aren’t just seeing social media as a way of promoting themselves, but also as a way of engaging with their customers and gaining feedback – not only about staff and products but on what the customer wants.

Twitreview was started because of the very scenario seen with the critic and with the ‘other’ review sites. Businesses change and should not have a poor review hanging around their necks forever. They should be applauded for listening and improving because the business that listens and acts upon feedback will be the business that wins. We hold reviews on Twitreview for 60 days, not forever.

The most important point is how long do you think a restaurant review should be valid for?

Today Whitstable celebrated the beginning of May with its annual May Day Festival and we were out of the house nice and early to soak up the atmosphere. The day started with the Whitstable 10K run which was attended by people from as far as the Czech Republic. Personally, I was out of breath just climbing up Tankerton Slopes but we arrived just in time to see ‘Barry’, sorry Shaun Willamson, start the proceedings.

Once the race had started I must confess the immediate urge for a bacon roll and a large coffee, so we headed off to the castle where ‘Barry’ – the other one, I hasten to add – was given a guided tour like a mega celebrity… normally only reserved for Brad & Angelina. He looked like he was thoroughly enjoying the attention though.

We, like Barry, walked round the stalls that had pretty much covered all the available space in front of Whitstable Castle, although I’m sure that he had the easier task due to his superstar status. It was heaving, where on earth did everyone come from? Had they all thought that their significant others wouldn’t be finished for at least 1 1/2 hours so lets get a bacon sarnie? Trying to move from one stall to another took some skill, as we weren’t being escorted like the former ‘Eastender’ and I do apologise to the old lady I almost face palmed into the pineapple jam stall.. someone pushed me… honest.

Later in the afternoon we stood patiently as the magician went through his routine, I assume it’s his routine to not like children, as it seemed that he mostly ignored them until they stood up or were spotted picking something from their nostrils. Then the main event started and with as much fanfare as a broken microphone could muster… the Bush arrived. I’d met this plant before….

Krynoid – Evil Plant

I’ve watched Doctor Who for many years, my favourite Doctor being Tom Baker. Now the Doctor did battle in 1976 with the most evil plant in the universe – the Krynoids. Today I faced one of them in the flesh… or rather leaf and these people were celebrating its arrival. Madness!!

Whitstable Castle – May Day Bush. photo ©BBC

If that wasn’t putting a downer on my day, to defend us from this most evil of plant life, several groups ready to do battle with handkerchiefs, a couple of sticks and some pretty sick dance moves. Have they not seen the episode? No amount of Weedol would kill this thing and they were going to do what? Dance battle it!!

Defender of the Planet

Well to be quite frank, they all looked like that they had far too many stiff ones before deciding to race parade up the hill towards the castle. What they hadn’t reckoned on was the fact that the Krynoid had obviously been expecting them and brought one of its youngsters along as back up.

Baby Krynoid

At that point we thought it best to leave before the carnage got too great. I honestly could not remember how the episode in 1976 was resolved, but I’m sure people were turned into walking plants. We decided this was as a good a time as any to get an ice cream, because if the world is going to end at the hands leaves of an 8 foot high bush, you’ve got to throw caution to the wind and sod the calories.

For other people however…. It was all too much.

all photos (except the BBC one) are my own

Now I’ve lived all over this fine country of ours, from my home town of Runcorn in Cheshire, to the Highlands of Scotland (Kinloss) and as of a couple of days ago, I now live in Whitstable.. which is in Kent. Now all three of the above are all on the coast, well Runcorn is sort of on the coast… its on the river Mersey and in my younger days it was as close to the coast as I thought I would get. I have also lived in towns and cities that are not on the coast, such as London, Chelmsford & Brentwood in Essex. I have recently noticed that in such towns or cities you don’t have the freedom that you feel you have being beside the sea. (Cue cheesy song.. oh I do like to be… no? oh ok!)

Is this small taste of freedom the reason why so many flock to the coast for their holidays, its certainly not a cheap thing to do that’s for sure, but are the perceived boundaries around us why so many stay in their home town year after year. If you go out to a city park or wooded area, you still have fences surrounding it, curtailing where you may roam and any amount of travel outside of these physical boundaries actually requires a level of effort on your part. Is it that it is simply too much effort to, even for a short time, escape city life for a wide open expanse or are we content to make do with accessible areas that are deemed ‘available’ to us by a council or land owner that require less effort? Are these boundaries mental ones as well as physical?

I don’t feel that you get these when you live beside the sea, there isn’t the mental boundary to keep you in because for the most part as far as the eye can see is water.. no trees, no hedgerow and no fences. There may be the physical fact that you can’t swim or sail but from a mental point of view you are free. For me the challenges of daily life are still the same, job/money/business/children etc, but yet being here in Whitstable I feel much more able to deal with them head on and its not because Whitstable as a town holds all the answers, not at all, my fantastic partner Sharon certainly helps provide some of those.

Maybe it is the feeling of freedom that helps you think outside the box… because the box is no longer there.

I always guessed that it is easier for a small town to have a sense of community, somewhere a person feels that as a member of the town that they want to support it by shopping locally, eating in local restaurants or attending events that have been organised by the local council or groups. These things are what I consider to be a ‘sense of community’, but why is it that the town where I’ve lived for the last 3 years – my apologies, Chelmsford has recently been honoured with City status – seems to lack a community spirit. What is missing… if anything?

The definition of community is: A group of interacting people, living in some proximity. So to interact with each other, people living in area need events or functions to bring them together. Such events would either provide entertainment or will be for the good of the local area

Now Chelmsford has a number of events over the course of the year, where local people come together to interact. There is the Street Diversions event in October of each year, where over the course of a weekend street performers entertain in the ‘city’ centre. Last year’s event was attended by approximately 10,000 people & cost £56,000 – a third of the visitors were from outside the local area. There is the annual lighting of the Christmas lights  and concerts in Hylands Park such as the V Festival (for a fee…quite a large fee at times) but what about those community events, the craft sessions, the dance & music workshops where are they being held? Where are the events that bring the community together as one, where you can meet your neighbours or do something for your local area or surroundings. I know the local school has summer/winter fetes as all schools do to raise funds but there seems to be very little else. So I thought I would see if i was just missing the details, I checked the local free paper & then Google.

In the paper there are 2 auctions, one stamp exhibition and an advert for a boot fair being held 19 miles away in a completely different area.

On checking Google, there are 5 community centres in Chelmsford for approximately 100,000 people…. 5. These community centres are a valuable source of local information for any area but I couldn’t find details of their events, although I now know how much it costs to hire two of the centres for a party.

Now I am in the process of moving to Whitstable in Kent, my partner lives there and I have been a regular visitor to the town for well over a year. Whitstable’s population is approximately a third of that in Chelmsford and with it being a seaside town you would expect it to put on many more events to attract visitors, especially during a holiday period. However, I have noticed that there are many more events that are actually aimed directly at the local population and not just those visiting for the day/week. During periods where expected visitor numbers would to be lower (winter time for example) there are still events for both local adults & children. So if more people are interacting in Whitstable than Chelmsford, would it be correct to suggest that there is a stronger sense of community in the Kent town?

Unfortunately, I think the answer is yes, but not because of a lack of events but for a very simple reason, lack of communication. While this is a big issue, with a little digging I was able to find around 25 events that are being held in Chelmsford this week – some of which were listed on the City Council’s own website but its not all the council’s fault. In Whitstable, as well as the local Canterbury Council website being possibly one of the best examples I have seen of how to promote local events, the event holders are also actively using social media to advertise what’s going on, which also serves as a reminder of the upcoming event to those that may be interested. It obviously helps that those planning to attend such events are tweeting the details, location and time to their followers/friends, but such is the sense of community that these are events that people want to share & experience together.

I’ve added both website links so you can see for yourself the difference between the two.

While any area needs local residents to interact positively with each other for it to have a sense of community, if the events to enable them to do so are poorly advertised (even by the local council) then how are people to know whats happening around them? We have a number of major events this year – Diamond Jubilee, Olympic Games, Paralympic Games so there has never before been such an opportunity to get involved with your local community, so please do keep looking in your local area or council site to see what is going on and how you can take part.

If you are in Chelmsford, you might want to email your local councillor and show them how Canterbury, Whitstable & Herne Bay let their residents know what’s going on.

On the 14th April, Liverpool & Everton fans did just that, as expected seeing as they are so closely knitted together, with whole families supporting both team and a mix of blue & red. Fantastic

On the 15th April, this was not the case. The world looked upon Wembley expecting to see the same reverence, two fantastic teams with such loyal supporters showing they too could show the dignity & respect for fellow fans and be an example those yet to take up the great game.

They should have looked elsewhere. A unbelievable battle between two greats of London football was overshadowed by callous chanting during the minutes silence and another call for goal line technology.

When does chanting about the death of follower supporters, albeit 23 years ago, become acceptable in the modern game? All teams have their history but a few, only a few, have their tragedies. These tragedies are not the heartbreak over an agonising penalty miss or the free kick that shouldn’t have been given, these are people who have lost their lives and left loved ones behind. In this particular case, not because there were running pitched battles on the terraces trying to carve somebodies head open with a piece of broken seating, some of them were children who have left behind mothers & fathers, as well as brothers & sisters. Their crime? Was to be at the place there were supposed to be, in good time to see the build up and feel the excitement….. the wrong time. Would any club in the world want to be associated with supporters who boo or chant during a required silence that lasts just one minute, would any fan want to be subjected to that if it was their son – daughter – boyfriend – girlfriend – husband or wife that had lost their life? Image having someone chant at you because your loved one had died…. for the next 23 years.

In the US there is a zero tolerance for such behaviour of anger or violence towards a supporter of another team. They eject fans on the spot for such offences and now NFL fans have to take a course before they are allowed back into ANY stadium. The fan has to pay $75 to take the course, which they must pass or be fined upon entering another NFL Stadium. Some clubs go further and insist that any fan that is ejected must write a letter of apology as well as take the course. Details were published in the NY Post today – Here.

Is this is what is required here in the UK? Should there be zero tolerance towards such displays seen over the weekend? I’ll let you have the last word with the poll below. Personally I was disgusted to witness such behaviour in this day & age, and like goal-line technology…. tackling such behaviour is way overdue.

It is however open to abuse and to some extent that state allows the abuse to happen. I read on Google+ overnight an account that I thought I would share and I wanted to hear your thoughts on this aspect of the system.

A gentleman was recently watching his son play football over the weekend, when he got into conversation with the mother of another boy on the team. She was quite open about the amount of surgery she had had done (boobs, bum, tummy & eyebrows), the fact she would be taking her three boys on holiday abroad this year and that she had just bought a new car. The gentlemen enquired as to her husbands job, to which she replied she had no partner & was on benefits herself.

He was taken by surprise as to how she could afford such luxuries, as he had worked all his life, he and his wife owned their own house (with mortgage), they both drive 10 year old cars and are lucky to be having their first holiday in 6 years to a cottage in Devon.

The woman again was very honest, she lives in a 3 bed council house, she gets tax credits, child allowance, her council rent & council tax paid by the benefits system. She also gets £550 from each of her 3 boys fathers in child maintenance. Thats some amount of disposable income… ah… actually child maintenance is not seen as income and is not taken into account when calculating housing or council tax.
I quote from DirectGov site relating to child maintenance. ‘Since April 2010 parents with care can keep all child maintenance paid to them and this should no longer affect their income-related benefits’. So someone can receive thousands of pounds in child maintenance per month & still claim all income related benefits.

Now the issue here is not that someone receives maintenance, that is correct and a child should be provided for. But how do we justify to hard working families that they can receive little or no state help, when it is obvious that the system is maybe out if balance. In the case in question the money provided for the children is being used as disposable income to fund cosmetic surgery because the state is providing the rest.

Now obviously each case has its individual circumstances but is the system fair to those that are putting into it or to only those taking out?

Now I freely admit to being a bit of a geek, hey I work in IT and co-founded a bloody good site (see post below), but I still marvel at the International Space Station. Twisst.nl gives quite a bit of information that is unique to each users location for example here is my @twisst36 mention from 11th April.

@curiousg3orge Two very bright ISS passes tonight. First one comes up 20:49 in the South.

It also comes with a link to the Twisst.nl site that is specific to me, telling how bright it is (very bright at the moment btw), which direction it is travelling in and how long it will be visible for. I gave Twisst my location when I signed up so these updates relate to where I live, meaning that if I look up at the time & direction given I should see the International Space Station. (crappy British weather permitting that is)

What does it look like? Well by the naked eye it looks like a really bright star that is moving across the sky. Not very exciting you might say but its not a star, and we know it isn’t. Its man-made and put together in the vacuum of space by only a handful of people. Some of the stuff they are testing up there at the moment is frankly mind boggling – you can see a list of their current experiments here

Now the simple fact that there is a manned out post in space isn’t new, I am old enough to remember both Mir & Skylab, but this outpost is very different to all those that have come before. Not only is it built by many different nations across the planet and its larger than an American Football field but it is the most social pieces of space engineering that has ever been built. We can read about it and follow its daily schedule on the web, we can tweet the very people who are living on board it and we can see some of the thousands of photos of our planet taken by them on the NASA Google+ page. They even worked with Angry Birds Space (check out the app & press the ISS image)

Now on top of all that thanks to a little service from the Netherlands, with frankly the strangest looking website ever (humour there), every now and again you can look up at just the right time to see it flying overhead. Something I don’t think I will ever grow tired of.

Thanks Twisst.nl