Sir Bobby Charlton welcomes families to Brainwave's new NW Centre

ON 16 October children's charity, Brainwave is opening the doors of its brand new North West Centre to families all over the north of England - and who better to do the welcoming than football legend Sir Bobby Charlton.

Christine Cryne, Brainwave's CEO, said:- "Sir Bobby is well known for all the work he does with youngsters to encourage them to reach their full potential and this is what Brainwave is about too. We work with families to provide home based therapy programmes for children with a range of disabilities such as Cerebral Palsy and Down's syndrome and other conditions such as development delay. Goals (but not the football kind) are set for children and exercises devised to get there. Sometimes these goals may be quite small, such as a child feeding themselves but this small step of independence means as much to the child and its family as a goal in the European Championships".

Sir Bobby Charlton is well known for his goal scoring. During his long playing career with Manchester United he scored 249 goals topped up by a further 49 for England. Of course, Sir Bobby is also famous for his part in England's winning team at the 1966 World Cup. Sir Bobby is due at the Centre at 11.30am and there will be a number of families from the region visiting the Centre ready and eager to meet him.

Brainwave works with families to deliver individual home based therapy and exercise programmes that help children with disabilities and developmental delay to achieve their potential. The modern Centre with therapy rooms, a state of the art sensory room and family area with a kitchen and play area provides an ideal environment for working with children for disabilities and other conditions.  Places on the programme are available for children at the North West Centre. For more information see:- brainwave.org.uk;   email them or phone:- 01925 825547.

SOUTHPORT MAN CHARGED WITH WASTING POLICE TIME

AN 18 year old man from Southport has been charged, by Merseyside Police, with wasting police time after making a false claim of rape. Steven Bebbington of Bath Street, Southport, will appear at North Sefton Magistrates Court on Friday, 30.10.09.

Employment tax break for new start ups given a cautious welcome by business group

A plan for a National Insurance (NI) tax holiday for new start-ups could create 60,000 jobs, it has been claimed by the Shadow Chancellor George Osborne at Conservative Party conference in Manchester.  The tax break on employers’ NI contributions, which would apply to the first 10 people recruited by a firm, was unveiled by the party as one of a series of measures it plans to introduce to ‘get Britain working’ should it win power in the next election.

The Forum of Private Business (FPB), which is campaigning against the 0.5% NI increase scheduled to take place in 2011 – when recession hit firms are likely to need to recruit again in order to meet demand and grow – is cautiously welcoming the latest proposal.

“For prospective employers, as one of a raft of measures aimed at getting Britain back to work and boosting the country’s skills base, abolishing National Insurance (NI) for new start ups stands out as today’s key announcement. At present, employers’ NI contributions are set to rise by 0.5% from 2011, just as small businesses are likely to be in a position to recruit staff in earnest. We will examine the savings that will need to be made to pay for this initiative, but welcome it in principle as a genuine stimulus to employment, small business growth and sustained economic recovery.” said Phil Orford, the FPB’s Chief Executive. 

According to the FPB’s recent quarterly Referendum survey of members, 37% of respondents said they would actively seek to recruit new employees in the coming year.  In its submission to the Government ahead of the Pre-Budget report, the FPB is calling for measures to support the smallest, most vulnerable employers at this critical time.  In addition to the delay, at least, in the 0.5% NI increase until the economy has recovered sufficiently to sustain it, the FPB wants a 12 month reduction in NI contributions for businesses with fewer than 10 employees.

The NI holiday would be available for the first 2 years of a new Conservative government.   During his speech at the 2009 conference, Mr Osborne said that details of the savings that will be required to pay for it will be revealed shortly...