Chief Minister Julie Thomas will depart St Helena on Sunday 10 March 2024 for an official visit to Montserrat. Whilst there she will meet with the Governor of Montserrat, Premier, various members of parliament and the Montserrat administration.
Chief Minister Thomas will travel with Chief Secretary Susan O’Bey. The delegation will be joined by His Excellency Governor Nigel Phillips.
In accordance with section 37F (6) of the Constitution, Minister Mark Brooks has been appointed Deputy Chief Minister. During this time, Minister Brooks has been granted the authority to act in the capacity of the Chief Minister to discharge the functions and responsibilities of the office of Chief Minister, as well as the Chief Minister’s portfolio duties.
The Chief Minister is due to arrive back at St Helena on Saturday 23 March 2024.
The MVKaroline is scheduled to arrive at St Helena on Tuesday 12 March 2024 and will dock alongside Rupert’s Jetty. Cargo operations will start on this day and are expected to be completed by Wednesday 13 March 2024.
The MT Sarah will also arrive on Tuesday 12 March 2024 to discharge fuel. The MT Sarah will come alongside Rupert’s Jetty on Wednesday 13 March 2024, following the departure of the MV Karoline, and is expected to depart by Friday 15 March 2024.
The public are therefore advised that the Jamestown Wharf and the whole of lower Rupert’s, including the beach area, will be closed to the public from Tuesday 12 March 2024 until Friday 15 March 2024. Access to these areas will be strictly prohibited and is limited only to those who have made prior arrangements with Port Control.
Boat owners and operators are advised that mooring on the ‘span’ mooring rope near the landing steps at the Jamestown Wharf is prohibited for the duration of cargo operations.
The public are thanked in advance for their patience and cooperation.
In June last year, the Legislative Council approved the SHG budget for 2023-2024. To provide a better understanding of how that money was spent, throughout the year we have focused on individual portfolios and their plans for the year. At the end of last year we looked at the allocation for Central Support Services, and this week we’ll be covering the Education, Skills and Employment (ESE) Portfolio.
The SHG budget for 2023-2024 allocated £47,072,000 for recurrent and capital expenditure. Of this figure, ESE was allocated £3,585 000. This means that of the six portfolios included in the 2023-2024 Budget Book, ESE received 7.6% of the SHG recurrent budget.
What are ESE’s strategic aims?
Whilst all portfolios contribute to the five national goals, expenditure for ESE’s 2023-2024 budget primarily supports the national ‘Altogether Better for Children and Young People’ and ‘Altogether Wealthier’. To deliver this, ESE’s work programmes contribute to five of SHG’s 33 strategic objectives.
To support these national goals and strategic objectives, ESE is pursuing five main policy priority areas within the SHG Vision and Strategy Plan 2022-2025, which are informing and directing its work programmes. These are:
Enhancing educational attainment and learning outcomes for all.
Empowering young people to access opportunities.
Ensuring children and adults with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs are catered for through a comprehensive inclusion policy. This puts an ever growing pressure on Social Care to provide care and support, either in the community, or at one of the island’s care facilities.
Addressing skills gaps by valuing the local workforce and attracting, growing, and retaining the working age population.
Improving adult literacy and numeracy levels through relevant training and development programmes.
Where will ESE’s allocation be spent?
Of ESE’s £3,585,000 total budget, £2,414,258 is allocated for schools, the largest expenditure for the portfolio.
The ESE Portfolio provides the core service of full time education to all children on St Helena who are of compulsory school age (Reception to Year 11). We operate an inclusive system of education which ensures that all children, no matter their ability, circumstances, special educational needs or disability, have opportunity to access mainstream education. We also ensure ongoing training and development of our teaching staff.
Nursery education for children aged three to four years and opportunity for post school learning for 16 to 18 year olds (Year 12 and Year 13), which increases opportunity to access tertiary education, are additional non-core services offered by ESE.
If you would like more information about any areas of the ESE Portfolio’s work, please get in touch with Angela Benjamin, Head of Lifelong Learning, by email through angela.benjamin@sainthelena.gov.sh or by telephone on 22607.
The public are advised that renovation works are currently being carried out on the ground floor of the Post Office building in Jamestown.
Whilst renovation works are being carried out, public notices, such as marriage certificates, that would normally be displayed on the Post Office notice board will now be displayed at Essex House notice board.
Additionally, access to the Social Security, Income Tax, Statistics, and Procurement Offices will be via the Post and Customer Services Cash Office.
We expect these works to be completed within three weeks, at which point the official notice board will revert back to the Post Office building and normal access arrangements for government offices will resume. We will notify the public when this takes place.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused and the public are thanked for their cooperation and understanding.
The Post and Customer Services Centre will be closed from 13:30 on Wednesday 6 March 2024. Normal business hours will resume on Thursday 7 March 2024.
The Claims Office, Income Tax, Procurement and Finance Offices will also be closed from 14:00 on Wednesday 6 March 2024. Normal business hours will resume on Thursday 7 March 2024.
The public are thanked in advance for their understanding and cooperation.
The cargo vessel MV Unicloud is scheduled to arrive at St Helena onSunday 3 March 2024.
The public are therefore advised that the Jamestown Wharf and the whole of lower Rupert’s, including the beach area, will be closed from Sunday 3 March 2024. It will remain closed until all cargo operations have been completed.
Access to the Jamestown Wharf and lower Rupert’s will be strictly prohibited and is limited only to those who have made prior arrangements with Port Control.
Boat owners and operators are advised that mooring on the ‘span’ mooring rope near the landing steps at the Jamestown Wharf is prohibited for the duration of cargo operations.
Port Control thank the public in advance for their understanding and cooperation.
The Immigration Section of the Safety, Security and Home Affairs Portfolio will be closed for business on Tuesday 5 March 2024. Normal business will resume on Wednesday 6 March 2024.
We apologise for the inconvenience caused and the public are thanked for their understanding and cooperation.
Last year three public warning systems were installed on St Helena, located in Rupert’s and Jamestown.
During initial testing of the system in July 2023, a fault was identified with the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) boards which affected the system at both locations. The boards were sent to the manufacturer for repair and arrived back to St Helena in January 2024.
The service provider then conducted successful bench testing on the boards before reinstalling them. Whilst bench testing was successful, the system now needs to undergo live testing to ensure that the issue has been addressed.
Testing will therefore take place on Tuesday 05 March between 12:00 and 12:30. This will be at all three system sites in Rupert’s Valley and Jamestown.
As previously, the testing tone for the system is the RMS St Helena dinner bell.
As this is a test, you do not need to react to the warning system.
If the test is successful and indicates that the system is now operating as it should, the system will be put back into use. This will mean that regular monthly testing occurs on the first Tuesday of each month between 12:00 and 12:30, as before. A public awareness campaign will also take place, explaining in more detail how the system works, what tones you are likely to hear and what you should do in each scenario when you do hear those tones.
Due to the cargo operations scheduled for next week, the demonstration works using the Minimac paver have been brought forward to tomorrow Friday 1 March 2024 at 10:00.
This will take place on the seafront, from the road through the arch to the start of the concrete pavement near the HM Customs building. The public are welcome to attend to see how the paver works and what the new road surface looks like.
The road will remain open and traffic will be managed accordingly. All car parks in this vicinity will need to be vacated between 08:30 and 15:30. We thank the public in advance for their understanding.
After a successful road resurfacing trial on the access road to the public works yard earlier in the week, a public demonstration of the new Minimac paver machine will be carried out on the seafront.
Demonstration works using the paver are scheduled for Monday 4 March 2024 at 10:00. This will take place on the seafront, from the road through the arch to the start of the concrete pavement near the HM Customs building. The public are welcome to attend to see how the paver works and what the new road surface looks like.
The road will remain open and traffic will be managed accordingly. All car parks in this vicinity will need to be vacated between 08:30 and 15:30. We thank the public in advance for their understanding.
