Innovation is being served up in Halton / Innovation is brewing in Halton There is a refreshing approach to local employment opportunities and skills development being served up at Norton Priory Museum and Gardens in Halton. The Museum works in partnership with Halton Borough Council Adult Services enterprise ‘Country Gardens’ to give adults with physical, sensory or learning disabilities the opportunity to gain valuable work experience in food handling and the catering industry. The Refectory, located in the main building and the Tea Room located in the Walled Garden are delivered through a service level agreement with ‘Country Gardens‘. Employees play a meaningful part in all areas of production, serving customers, providing table service, cleaning, stocking up and a hundred and one other tasks associated with the running of a successful café and catering service. They can study for NVQ’s in Food Handling and Royal Society for Food Awareness certificates. For Halton Borough Council the strategy is simple. Divert resources from traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ based day-‐care services, and create opportunities structured for business and linked to the commercial world. Instead of passively receiving traditional day centre activities, their customers now have opportunities to spend a varied and rewarding day, contributing to the day today running of a business. The experience increases levels of confidence, pays people a wage and gives them a self value that is priceless. For Norton Priory this activity is part of a long term commitment to local people with learning and physical disabilities. The Museum has been responding to local skills development needs since the 1990s through its horticultural and grounds maintenance projects. The Country Gardens project is an extension of this ethos. Of equal importance to the Museum is its engage in activities that bind it closer to the Borough. It is important to Director, Claire McDade, that Norton Priory continue to build and maintain a reputation as an organisation that is ‘go to’ and ‘risk taking’, particularly in the current economic climate. Developing and maintaining the partnership with Halton Borough Council takes time. Director, Claire McDade stressed the need ‘to revisit the partnership...[it] must evolve and mutate’ to be relevant to the business needs and charitable objectives of the museum and to the environment we are working in. Next on the horizon for this partnership and more importantly for the employees is the Microbrewery that will open on site in 2011. As Stiofan O’Suillibhan, Divisional Manager, Halton Borough Council says ‘I think that’s pretty unique. I am not aware of any, and I don’t know if you are, where a social services department is involved in producing beer’. Whilst this is a leap for Halton Borough Council it has a part to play in the interpretation mix for the Museum’s priory and gardens. As McDade points out the addition of a micro-‐brewery also works well historically as the religious community as well as the stately home that succeeded the canons would have brewed their own beer on site too. Further information Stiofan O’Suillibhan, Divisional Manager, Halton Borough Council, tel: 07771805126 email: stiofan.osuillibhan@halton.gov.uk http://www.localinnovation.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=19454441
Claire McDade, Director, Norton Priory Museum and Gardens, tel: 01928 569895 clairemcdade@nortonpriory.org