Here is the latest update from Cardiff Council, covering: applications for secondary school places now open; predatory fraudster stole women's life savings in elaborate pest-control scam; Cardiff's COVID-19 case and test numbers; vaccination totals for Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan; and ‘Recipe for Life', providing the ingredients for success.

Applications For Secondary School Places Open

Applications for September 2022 secondary school places open today (Monday 27, September) and families are encouraged to ‘give us five' school preferences, to increase their chance of getting a place at a school of their choice.

Providing five schools in the first application form is one of 7 tips from Cardiff Council's Admissions Team, which aims to help families who are applying for a school place in Cardiff.

Simple step-by-step advice and guidance is available online and through an animation aimed at children and families, helping to explain the 7 tips including how the admissions process works and the importance of using all preferences available.

It also covers things like:

• the importance of applying on time, by the published application deadline
• the benefits of exploring all the schools in the child's area by visiting their websites and reading their reports
• making sure the application form includes essential information such as if the child has a sibling at the school or any additional learning, medical or social needs.

Cabinet Member for Education, Employment and Skills, Cllr Sarah Merry said: "We know that applying for a school place can be an anxious time for many families and so we want to make the process as simple and straightforward as we can, helping families to understand how the process works and how to get the best chance of getting a school that they want.

"Cardiff has many great schools and places can go quickly. By giving us five school preferences in the first application form, families can get the best chance of securing one of their preferred schools."

Read more here:

https://www.cardiffnewsroom.co.uk/releases/c25/27612.html

Predatory fraudster stole women's life savings in elaborate pest-control scam

A predatory fraudster will serve an extra 12 months in prison for charging two elderly and vulnerable victims more than £20,000 in an elaborate, pest-control scam, which would normally cost £48 to remedy.

Richard McCarthy, 28, from St Mellons, Cardiff, was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court last Friday, September 24th, following a guilty plea to two offences of fraud at a previous hearing in September 2020.

McCarthy who is currently on remand, serving a four-and-a-half-year sentence for burglary, had his jail term extended by a year for the new offences.

The court heard that ‘two elderly and vulnerable women' were targeted in the fraud, to fix an alleged rat infestation that was completely invented by McCarthy.

The fraudster targeted the first victim, a 71-year-old woman who lives alone, in January 2019 by knocking on her door posing as someone called ‘Richard', offering to repair a roof tile at her property. This was the beginning of an 8-day fraud - where the victim had her life savings of £11,400 taken from her.

Read more here:

https://www.cardiffnewsroom.co.uk/releases/c25/27617.html

Cardiff Cases and Tests - 7 Days Data (17 September - 23 September)

Based on latest figures from Public Health Wales

Data correct as of:

27 September 2021, 09:00

Cases: 2,084

Cases per 100,000 population: 568.0 (Wales: 650.6 cases per 100,000 population)

Testing episodes: 14,230

Testing per 100,000 population: 3,878.4

Positive proportion: 14.6% (Wales: 15.4% positive proportion)

Cardiff & Vale University Health Board Vaccination Status Update - 27 September

Data provided by CAVUHB

Based on the figures available at the time of publication.

Please note that there may be minor amendments to data as it is validated over time.

The total number of vaccination doses given by the Cardiff & Vale University Health Board so far, in both local authority areas:  719,954 (1^stDose: 371,077 2^ndDose: 348,877)

• 80 and over: 20,551 / 94.6% (1^stDose) 20,321 / 93.5% (2^ndDose)
• 75-79: 15,050 / 96.3% (1^stDose) 14,864 / 95.1% (2^ndDose)
• 70-74: 21,441 / 95.7% (1^stDose) 21,308 / 95.1% (2^ndDose)
• 65-69: 21,957 / 94.2% (1^stDose) 21,685 / 93% (2^ndDose)
• 60-64: 26,024 / 92.3% (1^stDose) 25,680 / 91.1% (2^ndDose)
• 55-59: 29,369 / 90.3% (1^stDose) 28,816 / 88.6% (2^ndDose)
• 50-54: 29,026 / 87.9% (1^stDose) 28,319 / 85.8% (2^ndDose)
• 40-49: 55,312 / 81.6% (1^stDose) 53,119 / 78.4% (2^ndDose)
• 30-39: 60,408 / 75.3% (1^stDose) 56,026 / 69.9% (2^ndDose)
• 18-29: 79,464 / 76.4% (1^stDose) 69,681 / 67% (2^ndDose)
• 16-17: 3,863 / 70.9% (1^stDose) 280 / 5.1% (2^ndDose)

• Care home residents: 2,074 / 98.1% (1^stDose) 2,047 / 96.8% (2^ndDose)
• Clinically extremely vulnerable: 11,343 / 93.7% (1^stDose) 11,068 / 91.5% (2^ndDose)
• Underlying Health Conditions: 46,243 / 90.1% (1^stDose) 44,495 / 86.6% (2^ndDose)

Recipe for Life...Providing the Ingredients for Success

Cardiff's latest crop of budding chefs have successfully laid-on a mouth-watering show-case event, the culmination of a new, oven-ready Council programme, ‘Recipe for Life...Providing the Ingredients for Success'.

Recipe for Life has been created by our Youth Service Post 16 Team, in partnership with the Council's Adult Community Learning, Into Work, the Youth Service Digital Team and Morgan's Table Community Café in Llanrumney.

In April, eight Cardiff youngsters began a comprehensive, 12-week programme, designed to give them a taste of working in the hospitality and catering industry, with a pinch of all-round personal development thrown in.

The project is aimed at Cardiff's 16 to 25-year-olds, not in education, employment or training. It flips between interactive theory sessions, delivered by our Post-16 Youth Mentors and Adult Community Learning, and practical workshops laid-on by Morgan's Table.