Youth Services face heavy Brent Council AND GLA cuts

Outside Brent Town Hall in Spring 2011

At the special meeting arrnged with then Brent Council leader, Ann John

In what might see a rerun of the 2011 youth campaign againstLabour Brent Council plans to cut the the youth service, the first reading report on the 2015-17 budget targets the Youth Service, along with Children's Centres for cuts.

The report states: The optiopns range from reveiwing the operating model (including management and infrastructure costs) to a reduction in the level of services provided.

In 2011 there was a large turnout of young people at the then Wembley Consulation Forum which won a meeting with the then Council leader Ann John.

She offered a meeting to discuss the cuts at Brent Town Hall and there was a large and articulate turnout. LINK  Among the most effective arguments were the relative costs of the Youth Service versus the cost of imprisonment for young[people who went off the rails as a consequence of the lack of facilities.

Very similar arguments are being raised about Stonebridge Adventure Playground. In 2011 the proposed cuts were reduced but some costs were saved through appointing one manager for several youth centres.

This round of cuts is far bigger than in 2011so young people have a real fight on their hands.

These proposals, along with the potential closure of Stonebridge Adventure Playground, will be a test for the Brent Youth Parliament and its capacity to stand up against the Council and represent young people's concerns.

Meanwhile the Labour Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow, Navin Shah, has condemned Boris Johnson's proposed cuts to education and youth services which will see the budger reduced from £22.6m in 2014-15 to £2.3m in 2016-17.

Navin Shah said:

The fact that Boris Johnson would even consider cuts of 90% to schemes designed to help some of Brent and Harrow’s most vulnerable young people tells you everything you need to know about his cavalier and uncaring approach to governing.

Projects to increase apprenticeships and support for people to stay on at school may seem like optional extras to Boris Johnson but for many young people they make a world of difference, helping them to get on in an increasingly competitive jobs market.

Boris Johnson may be focused on his next job in Parliament but he has a duty to responsibly see out his term working for all Londoners. These cuts however suggest more a policy of scorched earth, drastically cutting funding to important projects and leaving his successor to pick up the pieces.

Brent students take on the challenge of climate change

The first Brent Student Climate Change Conference was held yesterday attended by around 200 people including students, campaigners, authors and local politicians. Here are some of the images from the day to give you a flavour of the event:

Children's author Caren Trafford sets the scene

Competition prize winners with Mary Arnold, the Mayor and Muhammed Butt

1st Prize Winner Suraj Velani Y8  (Dual language PowerPoint presentation)

Runner up Joshua Herskovitz-Wong Y7 (Poster)

Equal runner up Antonino Cafiero-Regueira Y7 (PowerPoint presentation)

After film, presentations and a panel discussion in the morning students used the knowledge gained in workshops in the afternoon to make their own presentations on campaigns to combat climate change. They worked in mixed groups drawn from the colleges and schools attending. Here are some of the results:

Thivya Jeyashanker and Edison Lasku of the Brent Youth Parliament ended their presentation with this slide. During the lunch interval many students volunteered an interest in joining the Youth Parliament.

Getting Brent Youth Parliament involved in climate change issue

BCACC supporters - I am in disguise!

 In my role as Chair of Brent Campaign Against Climate Change I went with Jeff Bartley of Brent Council to talk to the Youth Parliament.

Along with the College of North West London we are planning a Conference on Climate Change for 6th formers and college students. The Conference will take place in March 2013 and we  want to get young people involved in the planning.  It is essential that we have their ideas at an early stage so that the Conference is participative and involving and based on young peoples' concerns.

I introduced the idea and Jeff gave a PowerPoint presentation on the plans so far. BYP members expressed support for a debate to be included in the day and like the idea of  hands on experience with green technologies. Younger members aged 11 and 12 had plenty of comments and contributions as well as their older colleagues and some fundamental questions were asked including 'Is the aim to prevent climate change or deal with its impact?' and 'What has careers advice got to do with climate change?' 

We hope to work on a separate event for primary schools to take place in Autumn this year.

Years ago I was involved in the group which set up the Youth Parliament and so it was good to see it in action. The Parliament reflected Brent's diversity but girls predominated today - perhaps because of the football match happening just down the road at the same time!

Are we hearing the true voice of Brent Youth?

Protest against threatened youth centre closures last year

 In January 2010 Barry Gardiner MP accused the the Brent Council (Lib-Dem and Conservative Coalition) of trying to intimidate members of the Brent Youth Parliament and raised the issue in the House of Commons. My report on it HERE attracted  40 comments so it was clearly an issue people felt strongly about.

Two years on I have received a message from a local youth activist who wants to publicise what s/he sees as new problems. I believe in giving youth a voice so reprint what s/he wrote below and invite youth and those involved with the Youth Service and Youth Parliament to respond. I make no personal judgment about the veracity of the comments but it is important that the issue is aired.

Dear Blogger,

I see you are writing a blog about Wembley as this came up during my searches for Wembley news. It is very good indeed. I have recently been getting wind of anger from teenagers in Brent about the youth service.. people are complaining about officers taking control of youth activities and "children and young people" are being left out in the cold. I draw your attention to one Facebook status:

"I cannot believe that a Brent Council officer in the Youth Service can get away with refusing to allow Brent youth radio members to have a Lead Councillor present in a meeting with them and him.

 X is correct when he says that this is serious and suspicious stuff and exactly what the prime minister has been talking about.

Council officers need to be more accountable and transparent in their dealings.
More young people should be educated about the need to Vote."

Extremely worrying I'm sure you will agree. I am also hearing that the BYP or Brent Youth Parliament has had members arguing  the same thing.. One person contacted me saying:

"BYP has become rigged. We have elections next month and the officers are showcasing who they want to be elected. Nobody else stands a chance."

If something is written on the matter by yourself something could be done! Please consider it.

 Please use the Comment facility or send me an e-mail with your views.

BMYVOICE - YOUTH PARLIAMENT
BRENT YOUTH RADIO

Empower the Youth: Power the Change

Brent Youth Parliament have launched a campaign to get young people to register to vote:

Since deciding on our main campaign which is to ‘Empower the Youth, Power the Change’. BYP members are planning and hosting a youth conference on November 23rd 2011.

The aim of the conference is for BYP to raise awareness of our campaign ‘Empower the youth, Power the Change’, which is about increasing political knowledge amongst young people.

The conference will also showcase the wide range of positive activities offered in Brent.

BYP members have developed a survey finding out young people’s views on voting, the recent riots and national cuts to youth services.

 What can I do?

If you are a young person aged between ten and 24, please complete the survey and if you answer the question at the end correctly you can choose to be entered in a draw to win £30 Brent Cross vouchers.

• Complete the survey now

Brent Youth Parliament website is HERE

Brent Youth Parliament 'Disregarded' on Library Closures

Kishan Parshotam, chair of Brent Youth Parliament made a presentation to the Scrutiny Committee yesterday setting out BYP's position on library closures. The BYP's recommendations are reproduced below:

Brent Youth Parliament’s Recommendations to Overview and Scrutiny
• BYP comprises of 72 elected members who represent the 72,000 young people of our borough’s young people.
• As a body, we understand that cuts do need to be made in the budget. However, cuts to libraries should be reconsidered, as they will have a detrimental effect on Brent’s educational standards and the young people you represent.
• Around 50% of the libraries’ regular users are young people aged 19 and under – the group that has suffered most from central government cuts already
• The sudden withdrawal of these services will hit this vulnerable group at a time when it is most needed.
• Students who responded to BYP’s “Have Your Say” forms were deeply concerned about library closures and wanted us to make it a priority to keep them open.
• Brent Town Hall, one of the libraries set to stay open, has seen overflow of study spaces for many years now. It is not acceptable to see young people studying on the stairs of the Town Hall.
• My local library, Barham Park, has been packed throughout the Easter break with students and young people of all ages. The impact on young people is going to be very substantial
• The Consultation at Brent Youth Parliament on 22nd February 2011 was ignored by the Head of Culture and Environment, who disregarded the views of young people on the day. In this meeting, the issue of study space for students was mentioned on numerous occasions – yet no proposal has been given as to how the impact on young people will be subsided.

Therefore, on behalf of Brent’s 72,000 young people, I would like the Scrutiny Committee to make the following recommendations to the Executive:
1. The Executive to ensure that the existing Libraries or suitable alternative local premises continue to be available for young people throughout the 2011 exam period
2. The Executive to look again at the implications and consequences of closing six libraries on young people living in the areas nearby
3. The Executive to consider provision of facilities of access to computers and revision space during exam periods in subsequent years in those areas where libraries are being closed. In addition, the Executive should ensure that as far as possible young people are made aware of these facilities.

Since the establishment of the Youth Parliament in 2007, the borough’s youth have
been encouraged to shape their communities. Please do not take away such a large
chunk of these same communities without considering the impacts.

How can youth be sociable?

You may have seen laminated posters, complete with a map, fixed to lamp posts around Brent. These are Dispersal Orders, mainly aimed at young people and are are increasingly being deployed by the Council and local police. In Wembley alone there are Dispersal Zones, or have been, in streets around  Ealing Road, Wembley Central, Wembley Triangle and Wembley Park (including the Chalkhill Estate).

The Council has a standard press release on these zones which usually include fairly vague complaints from residents and shopkeepers about crowds of anti-social youth and drug taking, this is accompanied by statements from the police and the bLead Member for Crime, extolling the virtues of  such zones. Each Zone has an introduction date and an end-date.

The zones give police and police community support officers powers to disperse groups of people, instruct them to leave the area and not return for 24 hours, and to take younger people home. Despite the fact that no initial criminal offence has been committed, if those ordered to leave refuse, or return to the area within 24 hours, they can be arrested or fined up to £2,500.  Although there has been some community support for the Zones there has been criticism that they merely shift the problem from area to area and that they stereotype groups of young people as automatically threatening.

In 2009  Youth Justice published  research entitled Criminalising Sociability Through Anti-social Behaviour Legislation: Dispersal Powers, Young People, and the Police. Researchers found that generally young people, youth parliaments etc were not consulted before the Zones were imposed and that consultation if it took place was often of a 'ticking the boxes' type rather than 'an essential bedrock of legitimacy'. Young people surveyed felt safer in large groups and this was particularly true of girls, but they also recognised that other people did not feel safe when they saw them in large groups. The researchers said that the paradox of dispersal orders was that when the groups were broken up and ordered out of a familiar area (often with shops, transport hubs, meeting places, green spaces and substantial pedestrian flow) individuals became more vulnerable.  Research indicates dispropotionate impact impact on ethnic minorities but Zones are often in largely ethnic minority areas. On the ground in Brent local people will often assume the orders are aimed at particular groups such as Somalis or Tamils.

The current edition of Partnership News the magazine of Brenthousing Partnership, has contributions from members of the OUR SAY youth team about Dispersal Zones in Brent which I reproduce below:

Paul Nugent, aged 17: Well just like ASBOs, it is a bad idea as you are taking away one's freedom of assembling, which I am pretty sure is a human right. So it firstly breaks that and it also will mean nothing except that young people will find another place to hang out. It's as simple as that.

Peter Nugent, also 17: If you're going to stop people hanging around in groups all they're going to do is move on to somewhere else. It could be argued that a lot of young people have nothing to do in terms of activities in their spare time; therefore they hang around in groups. Instead of wasting resources on dispersal zones why not use it to create somewhere they can hang out and not be 'intimidating'.

Daisy Farci, aged 14: Ummmmm. It is a good and bad idea as I think that it is ok to hang around in a public area during the day, but not after it gets dark as it can scare people. If groups are making loud noises and causing trouble then I think they should be told to move.

 It seems ironic that when concern is expressed about 'postal area' gangs, when youth face attack if they move outside their home turf, that there is also an official version, via Dispersal Zones, which seems to say stay in  your area/stay at home. Youth are also often told that they should get away from their computers and their 'cyber friends' and make real friends and learn to socialise. They would be right to ask 'Where?'

Funding for youth facilities is likely to be cut and libraries, often a good neutral meeting place which serves both as a homework base and a safe place for socialising, are being halved. These facilities are badly needed and should be protected against cuts.

Meanwhile the Brent Youth Parliament's admirable campaign to break down negative stereotypes of young people must surely be undermined by the proliferation of Dispersal Zones which can so easily reinforce such stereotypes.

Council accused of intimidating Brent Youth Parliament members

Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North, yesterday accused the Liberal Democrat led Brent Council of intimidating members of Brent Youth Parliament. He raised a point of order in yesterday evening's debate on the European Communities Act:

On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Mr. Speaker has given his full support to the work of the Youth Parliament and I seek your ruling, Mr. Deputy Speaker, as to whether it is in order for a public body to seek to intimidate its members in any way.

Recently, my hon. Friend Ms Butler invited young people who were members of her Facebook group to visit her in Parliament. Many of those young people were also members of the Brent Youth Parliament. Shortly thereafter, members of the Youth Parliament received a letter from Brent council's senior lawyer. The letter stressed that Brent Youth Parliament is supported by the London borough of Brent and it counselled them as follows: "You will obviously need to give careful consideration as to whether you wish to align yourself with a particular person or group and what impact this may have on others' perception of you as a Brent Youth Parliament member. If you do decide to participate in local politics, you will need to give consideration as to which person or group you are willing to be connected with and any implications of this."


Many of these young people have been frightened by the letter and regard it as a warning shot. They have previously believed that Brent council was encouraging young people to become politically active, but they now consider that it encourages them only if they are sympathetic to the Liberal Democrats. What action can this House take to ensure that these young people are not bullied in this way by a local authority?

The Deputy Speaker advised Mr Gardiner to write to the Speaker about the issue.