NottAlone Sessions, Fostering in Nottinghamshire, QMC Medical Records Access Delays & More
Happy Tuesday everyone and a massive welcome to all our new subscribers. I really hope you enjoy the daily read as subscribers now receive 7 - YES SEVEN FREE newsletters every week.
Its time to grab a brew, dig out the shortbread, put the phone on silent and kick back for 10.
Todays thought for the day ... "“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” ― Leo Tolstoy
Enjoy the read, please email us if you have a story for us and have a great day wherever you are in Bassetlaw.
Justin Doddy, Editor
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Hundreds of children to take part in NottAlone’s ‘Self-Care Summer’
NottAlone Live 2026 will take place on Tuesday 7 and Wednesday 8 July with hundreds of children and young people from across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire expected to attend and take part in workshops around mental health and wellbeing. This year, students from Arnold Hill Academy have chosen the event theme of 'Self-Care Summer'.
NottAlone Live is a free, invite-only mental health event for schools, young people in further education and those outside of traditional school settings, hosted by NottAlone.
The aim of NottAlone Live, which is held at the YMCA Community and Activity Centre in Newark, is to give local young people a day away from the classroom, where they can learn important lessons about managing worries, friendships and good mental health, while also taking part in activities that offer creative or physical outlets such as yoga, dance, art, and creating their own rap songs. They can also learn about the support available to them from local providers and hopefully, feel more knowledgeable about where to go if they need help.
The event, which is in its fourth year and is usually held in February during Children’s Mental Health Week, has been moved this year to July, opening up new opportunities to host outdoor activities for the first time, such as a netball session with England Netball.
Organisers of the event and workshops, who span across Nottinghamshire County Council, Nottingham City Council and NHS, aim to reflect the Self-Care Summer theme by bringing young people together outside of the school environment, learning and sharing ideas, information and practice to support their general wellbeing.
Dr Órlaith Green, Educational Psychologist, Co-Founder of NottAlone and Co-Host of The NottAlone Podcast, said:
“I’m so excited to see the wealth of workshops available to the young people attending NottAlone Live this year. Each year we build on the success of the previous year and this time I feel the teams involved in bringing this together have outdone themselves. The children and young people are in for a truly special day and I hope they learn some valuable lessons about their mental health along the way.”
Dr Maddi Popoola, Educational Psychologist, Co-Founder of NottAlone and Co-Host of The NottAlone Podcast, said:
“Every year we come away from the NottAlone Live events with a real buzz. The young people we meet at the events inspire us and show us that what we’re doing has real meaning. I can’t wait to see it all unfold again and seeing the spark in these young people’s eyes.”
The young ambassadors from Arnold Hill who chose the event’s theme are also holding workshops of their own, where they will share craft skills with their peers, showing them how to create dreamcatchers and scrapbooks for wellbeing.
Also taking place at the event, a special episode of The NottAlone Podcast will be recorded, bringing young people’s voices to the front of the mental health conversation, hearing their experiences and perspectives first-hand. The episode will be released as a special bonus episode of the podcast later in July.
NottAlone is a mental health initiative with a website providing mental health information and links to support for people of all ages in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. It is a partnership between Nottinghamshire County Council, Nottingham City Council and the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board.
Looking to kick-start your career or explore new opportunities?
Join the Bridge into Apprenticeships event at The Bridge Skills Hub, Worksop on Wednesday 8 July 2026, 6pm–8pm
Hosted by Bassetlaw District Council and commissioned by EMCCA, this exciting regional event will bring together local employers, training providers, apprenticeship experts, and current apprentices to showcase the many pathways available through apprenticeships and technical education.
Discover how you can Earn while you learn, Gain valuable real-world experience, Build skills for a rewarding career and Connect with local employers and training providers.
Apprenticeships offer fantastic opportunities for learners while helping businesses develop the skilled workforce of the future.
Whether you're considering your next step, supporting someone exploring career options, or an employer looking to inspire future talent, this event is not to be missed.
The Bridge Skills Hub, Worksop - Wednesday 8 July 2026 - 6:00pm – 8:00pm
NEWARK: The future of a building that was last used as a café back in 2022 has been confirmed.
By: Joe Locker, LDRS
A former café in Newark’s Market Place, which is next to Toni and Guy, will now become a new art school after plans were approved.
It had more recently been used by Lily’s Café and Tea Rooms, while a vacant apartment sits on the floors above.Newark and Sherwood District Council, which is in the process of regenerating the Market Place, tabled plans to bring it back to life as an art school.Plans were unanimously given the go-ahead at a meeting on Thursday (July 2).
Cllr Tim Wildgust (Con) said:
“What a good idea. Let’s get on with it.”
The council, which submitted the plans itself, said the vacant unit would be let out to an external operator, but the name is yet to be revealed.Plans come as the authority is spending £3.6 million regenerating the Market Place, including planting trees and putting in benches, as well as making the area more accessible by flattening some potentially hazardous cobbled areas. This will make it wheelchair and pram friendly, the council says.
Some of the market stalls will be confined to a smaller area, to make the most of the space for other events and alfresco dining opportunities.
The authority is hoping to begin work in January 2027, with completion expected 11 to 12 months later.However, these overall plans have come under scrutiny from some town council members. Meanwhile, the art school plans did not receive any objections, and have been widely supported.
Bill Davidson, of Newark Business Club Action Group, welcomed the plans and said:
“We consider it would enhance the prospects and profitability of the associated undertaking to the benefit of Newark’s business environment, visitors and residents.”
The site is located within what the council says is a “highly sensitive historical location”, with high quality listed buildings, including the Grade I Newark Town Hall and St Mary Magdalene Church, being located nearby.
No external alterations will be made, the council said.
Image courtesy of LDRS
Could You Have £2,200 Waiting for You? Check Your Child Trust Fund Today
Good news for many young people and families across Bassetlaw
The UK Government has launched a new Child Trust Fund Taskforce to help reunite more than 750,000 young people with unclaimed savings worth over £1.6 billion nationwide.
On average, each unclaimed account contains around £2,200.Child Trust Funds were set up for children born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011, but many young adults either don't realise they have one or aren't sure where it's held.
Economic Secretary to the Treasury Rachel Blake MP said:
"Too many young people are missing out simply because they are not aware of where their Child Trust Fund is or how to access it.
"We are acting to fix that by bringing government and industry together – improving coordination and making it easier for people to find and claim what's rightfully theirs."
HMRC Chief Executive JP Marks added:
"Many young people have Child Trust Fund accounts with an average £2,200 waiting to be claimed. This is their money, and we want to do all we can to help them find and access it."
If you, your children, or someone you know was born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011, it's well worth checking. The Government's free online search only takes a few minutes using a National Insurance number, and anyone aged 18 or over can access their money immediately.
It could be a welcome financial boost for university, driving lessons, travelling, a first home, or simply getting started in adult life.
Our three interesting facts for today ....
The roundest country in the world is Sierra Leone
US basketball player Jimmy Butler removed the rear-view mirrors on his car as a reminder never to look back
Sunscreen was invented for people climbing glaciers
Nottinghamshire councillors are calling for the removal of the 9.30am weekday restriction for bus travel.
By: Lauren Monaghan, LDRS
The Conservative opposition group at Nottinghamshire County Council has proposed a debate next week around the time restrictions for eligible people those who currently hold this type of pass.
In a motion proposed by Councillor Andy Brown (Con) to be discussed at a full council meeting next Thursday (July 9), the Conservatives are asking the Reform-led authority to write to the East Midlands Mayor, Claire Ward, requesting for the removal of the 9.30am weekday restriction for bus travel.
Currently, those with a concessionary bus pass have free off-peak travel on local buses between 9.30am to 11pm and all day on weekends and bank holidays.
For elderly and disabled pass holders under the County Council, their pass also allows them free weekday travel after 9.30am on NET trams and all day on weekends.
The Conservatives say this rule prevents these people, who are often elderly or disabled, from travelling on buses to early medical appointments, getting to work and accessing other essential services without extra costs, and the restriction has already been removed by the mayor in Greater Manchester.
Concessionary pass holder and campaigner Des Conway said:
“It’s really important. A lot of people with mobility problems more often than not use medical facilities and will have appointments before half nine.
“It’s not just medical appointments… it’s all about leisure and enjoyment, it’s getting out and about.
“I could go out into town at 7am if I get the bus into town or to Southwell to visit the countryside – there’s so many advantages.”
Mr Conway said the move was a good opportunity “to put pressure on” Andy Burnham, the newly elected Labour MP for Makerfield and the former Greater Manchester mayor, if he was to become the next Prime Minister, to roll out this type of free-travel across England.
Cllr Sam Smith, leader of the Conservative opposition on the County Council said:
“All councillors represent residents who stand as bus stops as buses pass by before half nine in the morning or after 11pm and they can’t get on them with their concessionary pass, whether they’re elderly or other vulnerable adults.
“Doctor appointments and surgeries and supermarkets operate outside of the times dictated by the bus services – that’s what we’re trying to address.”
The motion will be debated in next week’s full council meeting.
Fostering has become ‘our life’ says couple supporting children in Nottinghamshire
Twelve years ago, Paula and her husband Andy opened their home and hearts to become foster carers.
The Nottinghamshire couple first discovered fostering and say it has become such a rewarding part of their lives that they now encourage others to take their first step into fostering. What began as a curiosity after seeing a lamppost banner calling on people to foster a child, has since become a way of life.
“Fostering is our life now,” said Paula.
Paula said the support they have received from Nottinghamshire fostering service has helped them with both the rewards and challenges of caring for children.
“I feel like we’ve been really supported, we’ve had excellent supervising social workers, we’ve felt supported by every one of them.”
For the past two years the dedicated couple have been part of the Mockingbird programme which involves linking foster families with an experienced foster carer, known as the ‘hub carer’, who provides guidance and support for adults and children in foster families.
This extended family network brings foster families together into small support groups, known as hubs. Each hub includes up to ten foster families and, together, they form a community where children and carers feel connected and supported.
Paula said the programme’s family-based approach was one of the reasons they were keen to get involved as hub carers.
“The whole idea behind it, which we loved, is that it takes a village to raise a child, and it is based on a family model.
“What the Mockingbird does, by creating this family model, is provide long term stability for those children so that placements don’t break down when there are challenges.
“The Mockingbird hub carers can step in and help, we can say ‘why don’t you bring the children over to us and we’ll have them for a couple of days.’ It normalises care for those children, so it's not respite, it's come and have a sleepover.”
In Nottinghamshire we have three hubs supporting six to ten families each. The hubs have regular meet-ups, shared activities and experiences, help to reduce isolation, strengthen placement stability, and create a sense of belonging.
Reflecting on their fostering journey, Paula acknowledges that fostering can be both challenging and hugely rewarding but says the experience has brought immense fulfilment to their family.
“You’ve got to make sure it is right for your family. If you’ve got children yourself, you’ve got to be talking to them, making sure that they’re happy and want to be involved.”
“You can have a lot of fun with this, and it can be really fulfilling and at the same time it can be really challenging.”
For anyone considering becoming a foster carer, Paula’s message is simple: embrace the support available and become part of the wider fostering community.
Councillor Rory Green, Cabinet Member for Children and Families, echoed Paula’s message encouraging people to consider fostering. He said,
“Our foster carers are amazing people, Paula and Andy’s story proves that. They are selfless in the support they give and that has made a huge difference to children in our county.
“I want to say a big thank you to them both for their years of dedication, we really cannot do it without you. It was a pleasure meeting them both and seeing firsthand the support the Mockingbird group provides to foster carers.”
“If you have ever thought about becoming a foster carer please get in touch. I know there are more people who can offer their time and support to children who need it, and we are here to help you with support and advice.”
If you are interested in fostering for your local council, take your first step today. Find out more by visiting Foster for East Midlands or call 03033 132950.
Content & Image courtesy of NCC
A great day ahead for Bassetlaw Non-League footie fans ! - You're spoilt for choice
Tue, 07 Jul 2026 Dronfield Town V Retford United FC19:45 KOStonelow Stadium, S18 2EU.
Tue, 07 Jul 2026 Retford FC V Worksop Town FC7.45pm KOThe Green Bros. Rail Stadium, DN22 7NJ
Tue, 07 Jul 2026 SJR Worksop CIC Vs Parkgate 7.30pm KORetford Oaks (3G), DN22 7BP
Tue, 07 Jul 2026 Harworth Colliery Football Club V AFC Mansfield 7.45pm KOJones and Company Solicitors Rec., DN11 8AE
Whatever your team - enjoy, stay safe and please check club socials for details before you travel
Images courtesy of the clubs involved.
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE: Family waited nearly three years for vital medical records
By:Lauren Monaghan LDRS
Families involved in the largest maternity review in NHS history say they have had to endure a “long battle” to access all of their medical records.
For Carly Wesson and Carl Everton, accessing initial data and records about their and their daughter, baby Ladybird’s, care under Nottingham University Hospitals Trust (NUH) took two years and eight months.
Baby Ladybird and her parents are one of the 2,430 families involved in Donna Ockenden’s independent maternity review into harrowing maternity care failings at NUH, which examined 2,505 cases of death and serious harm and involved 838 current or former staff giving evidence.
Some of the cases dated as far back to 2006, though the majority of cases are from 2012 to 2025. Over the years many of the families have been left to try and make sense of their failed care experiences through submitting what are known as subject access requests (SARs) to NUH.
SARS allow people to request copies of their personal data or other information about them held by an organisation.
Organisations must comply with a SAR within one month of receiving requests. This can be extended to three months if requests are deemed ‘complex’.
Carly, 45, and Carl, 48, submitted their SAR in June 2023 to gain answers and vital information about their care, after deciding to end their pregnancy with their daughter, Ladybird, after initial tests indicated she had a life-threatening chromosomal abnormality – more detailed test results following the medical termination revealed this was not the case.
The parents had to wait until February 2026 until they received their SAR, but the emails within it only went up to March 2024.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the couple said because of the lengthy delay and the fact there was information missing from the original SAR, they submitted other SARs “straight away” for the time period following March 2024 and to obtain missing information, saying it was a “long battle” to access their information.
These extra SARs have also now gone over the month and three-month timescales.
Carly said:
“When they send you emails [within a SAR], you’d imagine they’d send all the attachments, but they don’t, the attachments are where a lot of the vital stuff is… you have to re-go through every email, see where the attachment is and ask for it again.”
Carl said: “The one person that’s totally missing, in all the emails, is our consultant…
“We can’t believe that [they’re] not featured in any email anywhere.
“They’re compounding harm… it’s information that’s rightfully ours about our wrongfully dead daughter, that’s the information that we’re duly owed and need.
“We’re supposed to be having open and honest and transparent relationship with the trust – and believe you me they’re trying, we can’t knock them for the work they are doing – but still on the front line we’re still here having issues, and they’re aware of that.”
Carly added:
“Unfortunately, for me, I still think it’s reputational damage limitation.. I still feel they’re very aware of what they’re sending out and, personally, I don’t believe they’re being as honest as they could be.”
Another family involved in Donna Ockenden’s maternity review also detailed waiting too long to receive crucial medical information.
Mel, mother to her 10-year-old daughter who has a brain injury and was born under NUH, said she had not been contacted since April 2026 about her daughter’s “crucial” brain scans she had requested to see.
Putting her experience to NUH board members in a board meeting on June 25, she said:
“[My daughter] has cysts on the brain which we knew she had, but I’ve since found out those have been named and they are cysts that are potentially fatal.”
After giving NUH’s data team all relevant information and individual dates she said:
“Suddenly that information stopped… bearing in mind this is crucial information… that information should be to hand, so where are those scans?”
“It’s the lack of communication, it’s not fair. We’ve already endured harm and this compounds the harm.”
Responding to Mel’s experience during the meeting, Andy Callow, Digital and Transformation Officer at NUH, apologised for the reduced communication, saying he was aware of each SAR beyond expected timescales and that he would follow it up.
The LDRS spoke with NUH Chief Executive Anthony May regarding families’ delays in accessing information where he said the cases were “incredibly complex” but NUH would not purposely “hide” records from families.
He continued:
“There are literally, I would imagine, millions of documents we’re providing. Trying to quality assure those and make sure we give families what they want in an appropriate way has been very, very challenging.
“I’m not aware there are documents missing, if there are we will try and find them. We do stick to standards around document retention. It’s very complicated, very complex, very resource intensive – that isn’t an excuse.
“We have engaged transparently from day one with the families and Donna [Ockenden] and tried to provide them what they want. Nobody in the trust would try and cover up and hide things from families because we’re trying to change the culture.
“[Families] need to keep raising [concerns] with us so we’ll keep trying to meet their needs. We do not want a culture where people feel, somehow, we’re holding stuff back from them and covering it up, that’s not our intention.”
As of June 2026, NUH’s SAR backlog is 676, down from 900 in September 2025 and 1,688 in April 2025.
NUH has implemented a new structure to make its data service more centralised and to reduce its reliance on contractors, agency and fixed-term contractors. About 83 percent of its overdue SARs are no longer than three months old.
The trust says it has 26 pre-2026 SAR cases, where one of cases has more than 90,000 documents requiring review and redaction. Only a small number of these relates to maternity.
Alongside SAR delays, Carly and Carl also requested for an access log in November 2025 – a digital log of each staff member that has looked into or viewed their records. They have not received any form of data yet.
Carl put this concern to NUH board members in June’s meeting, saying NUH was applying a “thin veil of GDPR” to access logs, despite reminding the board an anonymous set of logs could be provided.
Mr Callow acknowledged it is families’ “right” to have the access logs but said the trust had to “balance” it with data protection regulations. Medical Director Manjeet Shehmar assured the parents they would receive this data but could not provide a timescale at the time.
In a statement to the LDRS, Tracy Pilcher, Chief Nurse at NUH, apologised to Carly, Carl, Mel and other families waiting on SARs, saying “this is not good enough”.
She said:
“We made a commitment at our [June 25 board meeting] to look into any information that families are still waiting for and to address their concerns surrounding this. We will be providing them with an update in the coming weeks.
“Last year, we commissioned an urgent review of our Quality Assurance processes and since then there have been improvements in the way our SARs are handled and responded to. However, we appreciate that this hasn’t been the experience in these cases, and for that we are extremely sorry.”
A spokesperson for the Information Commissioner’s Office [ICO] said:
“We are aware of current SARs delays at NUH and have opened an investigation to review this. As this is a live investigation, we are unable to comment further.”
SARs and access logs are not the only data area the trust has had problems with,
NUH has also experienced issues with delayed Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, where back in July 2025 the ICO served NUH with an enforcement notice after not adhering to its FOI duties, finding a 17 percent average compliance rate within 20 working days in the fourth quarter of 2024/25.
The ICO required the trust to comply with its improvements by December 31, 2025.
This was not achieved by the December date, but Mr Callow said in June’s board meeting the trust would be meeting its FOI compliance by the end of June 2026.
Thanks so much for reading our local newsletter and for supporting us. We’re committed to providing Bassetlaw with the quality local news service it deserves, but sustaining this work may come with some challenges. Our team is currently discussing how to make Bassetlaw Today financially viable in the long term, and one option we’re considering is introducing a subscription model to help cover our costs.
We want to be open with you about these conversations so you’re aware that a fee may need to be introduced in the future. If that happens, we hope you’ll continue to stand with us and support the publication.
Have a great day and I look forward to seeing you read our next newsletter.
Justin Doddy, Editor
P.S. Your feedback about this newsletter is important to me. You can email me your feedback to news@bassettlawtoday.co.uk
