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‘Centre of excellence’

Fostering friendly schemes in the workplace aim to help employees with flexibility and tackle the shortage of placements in Guernsey.

The States of Guernsey has become the first fostering friendly employer and is encouraging businesses to sign up too.

Foster carer Claire Hutton said the scheme could help encourage people to become fosterers and “make that difference in society”.

The scheme helps employers understand where foster parents might need flexibility at work to do training, attend appointments and support children they are caring for.

Vicki Tennant, a senior supervisor in the island’s Family Placement Service, said there was “a massive untapped potential” of people who could become foster carers and many people need to work full-time because of the cost of living and higher mortgages and rent.

Ms Tennant added there was a “significant” need with just 20 fostering households looking after 44 children who are in care.

She said: “If those who are in work can have that extra support and flexibility from their employer, then that’s more people who can support our children.”

Ms Hutton said fostering “makes such a big difference in society” and gives children the support they need to “become employable” as adults.

Mrs Hutton said fostering “makes such a big difference in society” and gives children the support they need and also helps them “become employable” as adults.

“Putting the effort into them now makes such a big difference for society as a whole,” she added.

Plans to build a £35m waste plastic recycling plant have been submitted.

The facility in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, would use a process called pyrolysis to burn plastics to create a type of oil.

Clean Planet Energy, which is behind the proposals, said the plant would process 25,000 tonnes of plastic each year, including fast-food containers, shopping bags and plastic films, which would otherwise be sent to landfill or incinerated.

According to the plans, the facility at Sleaford Moor Enterprise Park would create up to 70 permanents jobs, as well as about 100 during a two-year construction period.

Pyrolysis is a thermal decomposition process that can chemically break down plastic into oil and gas.

Tom Field, a director at Clean Planet Energy, said the facility would mark “a key milestone” as part of a national roll-out of facilities “to tackle the plastic waste crisis at scale”.

The plant would be built between Pride Parkway and the A17.

Councillor Richard Wright, the leader of North Kesteven District Council, has welcomed the proposals, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Earlier this year, Wright said the plant would provide “a brilliant boost for our economy and jobs locally, and spell even better news for our environment”.

The plans are due to be decided by Lincolnshire County Council, which regulates waste disposal, and public comments can be submitted on the authority’s website.

Inflation measures how quickly the prices of goods and services are rising.

If the inflation rate is low, then prices are only rising slowly. If the rate is high, you might notice the price of things you buy going up when you shop.

If the rate of inflation falls, that doesn’t mean prices are falling; it means that prices are increasing at a slower rate.

Here’s an example: if a bottle of milk cost £1 in September 2024, but costs £1.05 in September 2025, then the annual inflation rate for milk is 5%.

If the rate was 2%, then the bottle of milk would cost £1.02 – still more than a year ago.

The Office for National Statistics tracks the prices of hundreds of items, from regular supermarket goods and fuel to travel costs and home furnishings.

It uses that “basket of goods” to update the main rate of inflation, the Consumer Prices Index, each month.