Is Brent children and families department 'fit for purpose'?

The Harrow Observer's story on Copland Community School reveals that Brent Council's own action plan to tackle the school's weaknesses had been declared 'not fit for purpose' by Ofsted LINK

Education secretary Michael Gove approved the appointment of an interim executive board, taking over the functions of the governing body, on June 19.

On the same day, Ofsted wrote to the school to declare both the school's nor Brent Council's action plans, designed to address the failings found by Ofsted a month earlier, as "not fit for purpose". (sic -the paper's original wording. I assume neither were fit for purpose)

The letter reveals a quarter of the staff, including some of the senior leadership team, are taking voluntary redundancy at the end of this academic year in a bid to cut the wage bill and the school has permission to hire a maximum of seven Newly-Qualified Teachers as replacements.

In exchanges over the Copland issue Cllr Michael Pavey, lead member for children and families, had said that the local authority did not, because of cuts, have the capacity to improve the schools and to try  to do so would break it. If the local authority's children and families department and its school improvement service could not provide a viable plan it surely raises the question about what might happen with other schools that get into difficulties. Indeed, it raises the unavoidable question: Is Brent 's children and families department fit for purpose? The DfE is likely to have asked itself this question..

The former director of children and families has just retired ahead of the council's senior management restructuring and Sara Williams has taken over as interim director.  Faira Ellks, head of the school improvement service has also retired and has been temporarily replaced by Rachel Matthews. The service has been cut back and partially replaced by the Brent Schools Partnership which is at an early stage of development.

The Brent Education Commission, set up by Christine Gilbert, interim Chief Executive of Brent Council and a former head of Ofsted, is due to report in November.

There is an urgent need to restore confidence in the children and families department and its capacity to provide strong leadership and effective support for schools. When parents called for strong support for their campaign against forced academisation of Gladstone Park Primary School following its 'inadequate' Ofsted rating there were reports that the authority did not want to make a strong stand and take on Michael Gove's academy broker (former Brent director of education Jacky Griffin) for fear of incurring the attention, and the wrath, of the DfE and bringing about an inspection of the local authority.

In the present circumstance of transition and uncertaintly it may not do well if such an inspection were to take place.

The hasty imposition of an Interim Executive Board at Copland and acceptance that Gladstone Park will convert to an academy may be an attempt to 'prove' to the DfE that they are up to the job - by acquiescing  to Gove's agenda.

If the authority itself is 'failing' or 'inadequate' it will lose the confidence of schools and their governing bodies and possibly  hasten voluntary academy conversions across the borough's primary schools.

Back bench Labour councillors and the opposition must ensure that the Executive realises the extent of the problem and acts accordingly.

Krutika Pau to take early retirement following Brent Council's restructuring

Photo: The Globe

 Krutika Pau, Brent's Director Children and Families, has announced that she will be taking early retirement and will leave the Council at the end of this month.

This follows the restructuring of the Council's corporate management whcih will see a new post of Strategic Director (Education, Health and Social Care) who will manage education, adult and children's social care, and public health.

An interim Director of Children and Families will be appointed through an internal process to bridge the gap before the new structure comes into effect. Sara Williams is currently assistant director.

Under Krutika Pau's directorship standards of achievement in Brent schools have risen often to above the national average, but  almost all Brent's non-faith secondary schools have become academies and a crisis at Copland High School is currently hitting the headlines. Pau has faced criticism for not taking a stronger line on forced academies and being too accommodating on free schools.

Dr Pau's resignation also follows the change in councillor leadership leadership on Chiodlren and Families with Michael Pavey replacing Mary Arnold.

Some clues about Krutika's views can be found on this April 2013 post on The Globe LINK

Krutika Pau is the Director of Children and Families at Brent Council. She previously worked for the then Department for Education and Skills, where she led on the development of city academies across London. She was appointed director of children and families at the council in September 2010.

Q: What are your proudest achievements?
A: An outstanding education enables young people to follow their passions and can be an exit strategy out of poverty.  There is an overall trajectory of improving educational standards in Brent and our young people are more likely to continue into higher education and are succeeding in securing places at the very best universities. However, we cannot afford to be complacent and need to ensure that all children in Brent are receiving a top quality education of which we can be proud.
Q: Please tell us about your current position?
A: I am the statutory director of children’s services in the London Borough of Brent.  There are over 70,000 children in Brent and currently the Council is the corporate parent for 344 children.  My department works directly with children, parents and carers, schools and a wide range of partners, including health, police and the voluntary sector. I work closely with elected councillors to ensure we continue to improve outcomes for all our children and families, particularly the
most vulnerable.
Q: What has been the biggest obstacle in your career?
A: Of course you get some lucky breaks, but I have always tried to take responsibility for developing my own career. You need to be self aware and continue to cultivate your strengths whilst working on those skills which require further improvement. You have to be courageous and seek opportunities to step out of your comfort zone.
Q: Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?
A: I have been very fortunate to have had a handful of key people who have actively supported me along my journey.  However, the strong public service ethos demonstrated by my father throughout my childhood, has been like a golden thread running through my career. This provided me with a firm value base including the key characteristics of perseverance, resilience and reflection which act as a moral compass in turbulent times.
Q: What is the best thing about your current role?
A: The ability to lead across a whole system to build alliances and translate strategic vision into local improvement plans.  My role gives me a vantage point – a helicopter view of needs, resources, solutions and connections.  This is essential in order to navigate through a complex set of challenges as we move forward with an ambitious agenda to deliver sustained improvements for Brent residents.
Q: And the worst?
A: Seeing the impact of neglect and abuse on children by adults who should be keeping them safe and supporting them to grow into happy and confident young people. We need more people to come forward as potential foster carers and adopters – ordinary people have the ability to make an extraordinary difference in the lives of our most vulnerable children.
Q: What are your long term goals?
A: I am passionate about improving the life chances and choices of all children and young people and I want for them, what I want for my own children….the very best opportunities so they can fulfil their potential in life. Sadly many children have the odds stacked against them at a very early stage and some never recover from this poor start. I will continue to improve the system which supports the most vulnerable children and families, wherever they are, to overcome the barriers which prevent them from leading fulfilling lives.
Q: If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why?
A:Not quite a historical figure, but I think it would be interesting to spend some time with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader.  She comes across as a woman of great conviction, dignity and inner strength.

Another Brent Executive post challenged ahead of Thursday's hustings

Margaret McLennan

A  further Brent Executive post is to be contested this week with Housing, currently led by Cllr Janice Long, joining the list which includes Children and Families, Customers and Citizens, Environment and Neighbourhoods and Crime and Public Safety. The Housing challenger, Cllr Margaret McLennan (Northwick Park) is not someone normally associated with the so-called 'Young Turks'.

The hustings will be held at Neasden Methodist Church, Neasden Lane (on the roundabout) at 8pm on Thursday and the vote  takes place on Saturday May 11th at the Annual General Meeting.

Although it is generally expected that Muhammed Butt's supporters will do well with allies of former leader Ann John in rather a rut at the moment, one Buttite  member of the current Executive was less confident, remarking that Labour councillors 'are a funny old lot' and hard to predict.

Meanwhile the selection process has begun for Labour's  councillor candidates for 2014 and I have heard that there are 150 expressions of interest for 63 posts, although that has  not been verified.

If it is the case, this is quite remarkable considering the gloomy outlook for local government with the Coalition slowly strangling it in terms of finance and political power.It will be hard to argue next time that 'I didn't come into politics to make cuts'.

Significantly one backbench councillor recently remarked that s/he was seriously thinking about whether they had been more politically effective as a local activist than as a councillor.

Brent Council still fails to support Gladstone Park parents

As you probably know I have had an exchange of letters with Cllr Mary Arnold (Brent Executive lead member for children and families) over education in Brent and my claim that the Labour Council is not standing up for a democratically accountable local school system and in particular backing the Gladstone Park Primary parents in their campaign against becoming a forced academy. (Mary Arnold saw that as me 'attacking Brent Education'.)

James Denselow has posted this defence from Mary on his blog:

What is Brent Labour doing in response to Gove’s agenda?

Answer from Cllr. Mary Arnold – Lead Member for Children and Families:

We are primarily campaigning with London Councils tackling  Gove on free schools  which are unaccountable and in the wrong places, unaccountable academies, cutbacks in the Early Intervention Grant reducing surestart for early years and unfair access to childcare.

In Brent we joined other local authorities in a national campaign to challenge the injustice of moving GCSE grade boundaries so over 100 Brent pupils were downgraded in English, undermining their career chances. Our campaign was covered by the national and local press with lots of my quotes over the period..

My letters to the local press on Gove’s u-turn on the curriculum are published

http://www.brentlabour.co.uk/gove_s_u_turn

and my article on Gove forcing schools in his academisation drive and his shocking dismissal of parents’ views at Gladstone is on the website.

http://www.brentlabour.co.uk/supporting_gladstone_primary

I sent my letter published in Brent and Kilburn Times challenging Martin Francis’ letter attacking Brent Education the previous week to all Labour activists but I think the H and K members are not always included. Lee is therefore including website references in his campaign newsletters

There is more including a H and K education ‘think piece’ I am contributing to. Happy to talk to members and send on campaign articles with more coming up.

Cllr Michael Pavey, (Labour, Barnhill) Chair of Governors at Wembley Primary School is said to be challenging Arnold for her Executive post at next month's AGM. Denselow is challenging Lesley Jones for her position and a good source has said that Cllr Roxanne Mashari (Labour, Welsh Harp) in challenging Cllr James Powney. 

So we can expect some manoeuvring ahead of the votes and a debate is always healthy. However a Brent Council spokesperson in the report below on the Gladstone Park Primary campaign again seems to indicate that Brent Council is willing to do little to fight forced academisation:

A Brent Council spokesman said the authority was working with the headteacher and governors on offering 'programme of support':

The DfE's default position is that a school which fails its Ofsted inspection becomes a sponsored academy and parents are campaigning against this. We understand that governors are still making their case to the secretary of state. It is inappropriate for the council to discuss future options directly with parents' groups. We discuss options with the governing body, which in turn has the role of consulting parents. We're sorry if we didn;t respond in a timely way to explain that.

No condemnation of forced academies policy, no condemnation of DfE bullying, no support for the parents' battle and no expression of confidence in the staff and governors' capacity to improve the school without being forced to become an academy.

I think that's pretty poor.

Gilbert wields the axe as senior posts go on Brent Council

The proposed structure - click to enlarge

There was a flurry of consternation at the Health Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Committee the other evening when members were shocked to discover the Director of Adult Social Care had seemed to suddenly disappear. A muttered explanation was not audible to the public gallery.

Christine Gilbert

An explanation seems to lie in the Brent Council Management Restructuring paper that is going to the General Purposes Committee on March 28th. The paper from Christine Gilbert, Interim Chief Executive proposes the amalgamation of a number of departments which include a new Education, Health and Social Care Department.

The proposals aim to take advantage of the move to the Civic Centre to defragment services, restructure in line with the shrinking Council and save about £900,000. A new post of Assistant Chief Executive is created.

There will be consultation on the changes before the first take effect in May 2013.

To save readers from navigating around the Brent website I have made the paper available below.

Cllr Mary Arnold: Gladstone Park forced academy is 'outrageous'

Cllr Mary Arnold, lead member for Children and Families on Brent Council, has declared support for Gladstone Park Primary School in a message to the NUT:

We are giving the governors a lot of support including approaches to DfE.

It is outrageous that the school is at risk of being forced into academy without a further inspection and a chance to improve their progress – especially as results were OK

Cuts to Services to Schools treat staff shabbily and pose risks for Brent's children

The full extent of the reduction in Services to School provided by Brent Council through the Children and Families Department is made clear in a report going before Brent's General Purposes Committee on Tuesday.

This is the latest reduction in council services and follows out-sourcing of school meals and cleaning to private companies many years ago, the ending of the Brent Council Supply Teachers desk with that role going to competing agencies  that take a large cut out of the fee schools pay, and the recent news that Brent Council will no longer provide a payroll service. Schools will have to find another provider by April 2013. The Council deemed the pay roll service non viable after may schools opted out, employing 'cheaper' private companies instead. Many of the payroll companies also provide a human resources service so  Brent HR may also be under threat in the future.

The reduction in Services to School is linked to the overall cuts in the Brent Budget, Coalition policy encouraging great school autonomy, the ending of ear-marked grants which the council previously administered, the loss of council revenue caused by schools becoming academies and upcoming changes in the way schools are funded.

As I have argued before on Wembley Matters as cuts are made by the council and services are provided by fewer staff - more work by fewer people for less pay - the quality of the service deteriorates and schools feel forced to consider sourcing from other providers.

Headteachers through the Brent Schools Forum have opted to set up a Brent Schools Partnership which aims to provide support and development between schools which will also buy-in to services provided by both the council and private providers.

Schools' Forum has also decided that much of the money currently retained by the council to provide services will instead be paid into individual school budgets. The budget for these services of £1,119,626 will now go to schools.

Services to Schools are funded from various sources:

• The Council's General Fund
• The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)
• Income provided by schools purchasing services
• Specific programme grants provided by health bodies and the Department for Education

This results in an indicative budget for 2013/14 of £1,579,800 compared to £2,130,000 this year, a reduction of more than half a million pounds. The report proposes a 'core school improvement service' with 7.47 full-time equivalent posts funded from the Council's General Fund and 13.2 fte posts funded by the DSG.

Apart from the core services the Schools' Forum also decided that the following services would be retained by the LA

• Early Years Quality Improvement Service £577,000
• Early Years  Special Education Needs and Disability Service £167,444
• Learning Zone at Wembley Stadium £81,000
• Specialist  Educational Need staff £162,959

Those no longer funded include the ethnic minority achievement and support for travellers, refugees and asylum seekers service  (£754, 830) and continuing support  for the reading recovery programme. Both these services have played a major role in the raising of standards of achievement in Brent schools. Surely this raises major equality issues?

The education welfare service which supports schools and parents in ensuring children attend school regularly and on time; the pre-exclusions teams which works with schools, pupils and parents to prevent them from being excluded, and the behaviour support team will no longer be managed from with the Services to Schools department and will 'be located elsewhere in Children and Families' alongside the Pupil Referral Units and other services for vulnerable pupils. However it appears that staff employed here cannot relax about their jobs as there will be a staffing reorganisation for them in 2013.

The report states that a total of 28 posts will be affected by the proposals. 11 are vacant and 17 currently filled. The report says there is a potential indirect discrimination as regards women in the proposed redundancies but suggests that this could be rendered lawful if 'any potential discriminatory effect is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim'.  A predictive Equalities Impact Assessment identifies that the majority of the staff affected are female with a significant proportion over 50. The report suggest that all 'reasonable' steps be taken to obtain alternative posts in 'Brent schools or around the council' for them..

Apart from job losses the new core service will also mean changes for those left behind (the 'more work by fewer people for less pay' principle).  The structure includes:

 ...generic posts whereby each school improvement lead will be expected to undertake some common general duties as well as to provide specialist leadership in one or more of overall co-ordination of the work of the team:

• Special Educational Needs
• Ethnic minority achievement and equalities
• Statutory assessment
• Behaviour, safety and well-being

I am concerned about these proposals for a variety of reasons:

•  The present team is successful with Brent schools achieving above the national average now, having been seen as failing in the past
• Experience shows that such teams once lost are extremely difficult to rebuild
• The proposals, taken alongside the development of academies and free schools in the borough, will further weaken the local authority
• The statutory role of the council in overseeing the interests of children and young people in Brent will be made more difficult by the proposals
• The performance of schools can change suddenly as a result of social and economic conditions as well as key staff changes and the council will lack the resources to deal with this
• The strategic guidance for schools provided by the School Improvement Service will be reduced and may not be strong within the proposed and untested Brent Schools Partnership
• The Brent Schools Partnership decisions were made without the agreement of school governing bodies who are responsible for strategic decisions
• The Partnership may take up the time of headteachers in terms of planning and administration that would otherwise b devoted to the improvement of teaching and learning in their schools
• Mutual support may be difficult for smaller schools or schools that are struggling to improve or dealing with reorganisation or major building works
• Although surviving staff will transfer to the Civic Centre with a Staff Development Centre as a facility survive and will the Brent Schools Partnership as a separate have to pay for training space
• The decline in the role and services of the local authority will provide ammunition for those arguing for conversion to academy status - 'What benefit is there in us staying an LA schools?'

To sum up I think we are taking a huge gamble which could put at risk our children's education. I also think that this is a shabby way to treat dedicated staff who have done so much for Brent children and their schools.

A new primary school for Wembley and other children's issues

The September 19th Brent Council Executive will be a big night for Krutika Pau, Director of Children and Families, with several major reports from her department being discussed.

However the first on is being fronted by Andy Donald, Director of Major Projects and Regeneration and concerns the acquisition of a site in the Wembley Stadium area for a new primary school.  This has been on the cards for a while and was part of the original Quintain/Wembley Plan. It was expected to be in Fulton Road but concerns have been expressed about the proximity of 'bad neighbour' waste management facilities. These concerns will have been heightened by the recent problem with a vile stench from the Careys/Seneca MRF in Hannah Close.

Educationally, and this is where Krutika Pau comes in, it is likely to be controversial if the council follows through the Executive's August decision to vigorously purse partnerships with free school and academy providers.

Ms Pau will be leading on 'A Plan for Children and Families in Brent 2012-2015' which sets out how to keep Brent children healthy and safe, close the attainment gap between different groups, provide school places and integrate services to 'develop resilient families'. Complex and challenging.

The Executive will also consider the Local Safeguarding Children's Board Annual Report and will be expecting to see significant improvements in some areas that were only deemed adequate when last assessed.  The Annual Fostering and Adoption Annual Report is also due to be considered and attention will focus on whether there have been improvements in the rate of adoption placements, the number of adoption orders, increasing the number of Brent adopters for Brent children and earlier matching of children to adopters.

For fostering the council seeks to increase the number of foster parents recruited and move children out of Independent Fostering Agencies.

We MUST hear from Children and Families about these vital issues

Brent Council's website is acting up but there still appears to be no report from Children and Families going to the Executive this evening.

I have posted before on this silence regarding a major area of Council business.  Here are some of the things happening right now that the Executive really should be asking about:

CHILDREN'S SAFEGUARDING - The possible injury or death of a child is quite high up in Brent Council's Corporate Risk Assessment and the Council's last Ofsted inspection in this area was only 'satisfactory' with some inadequate areas.

CHILDREN NOT IN SCHOOL - Failure to meet statutory obligations regarding offering all children of school age a school place is another issue on the Risk Register and it appears that some expansion programmes are falling behind.

FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT IN BRENT SCHOOL - A forth Brent headteacher hit the headlines in the Evening Standard last week after being suspended while investigations into financial management issues take place and the Copland accused appeared in court. These matters are damaging the reputation of Brent Council and Brent schools and deserve some scrutiny.

FREE SCHOOL - The School Expansion Report confirmed that the Council was seeking partners to set up a free school and this is something that split the local Labour Party.  Have any sponsors been found? Are they the rumoured Christian organisation?

ACADEMIES - Staff at Alperton high School have been on strike following the governing body's decision to seek Cooperative Academy status and Queens Park and Wembley High are  considering co-op conversion. All this will mean a further loss of money to the hard-pressed local authority. Meanwhile Sudbury Primary, already a foundation school, is also trying to fast-track to academy status. Sudbury was in the headlines last week for charging children to listen to the children's poet (and socialist activist) Michael Rosen.

COOPERATIVE TRUST - A public notice was published last week indicating Preston Manor All-though School's decision to go for Trust status with partners including The College of North West London, the Wembley Primary School Cluster and Woodfield Special School. The LA will have one trustee on the board.  

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT SERVICE - It appears that Brent Primary Headteachers' Group  has rejected all the possible options for future school improvement services and in-service education provision put forward by the Council and appear to be determined to 'go it alone' unless the SIS comes up with something better. This raises all sorts of questions about whether schools have the ability to provide such a service, how it will affect the workload of headteachers, and whether it will be sufficiently stringent to ensure that failing schools are spotted early on before children are damaged.


Neither the Lib Dem nor Tory opposition groups have a spokesperson on Children and Families, despite it being a major department, and it seems to me that these issues are not being given the attention they deserve.

The lack of leadership on education from either Brent officers or councillors has created a vacuum which ate present appears to have been filled by the two Johns: Yates and Simpson who as consultants are advising Brent primary headteachers.

Brent defends record on school finances monitoring

Krutika Pau, Brent's Director for Children and Families, has written to the Times Educational Supplement after they published a critical article drawing attention to the number of cases of financial mismanagement in Brent Schools, which obviously raised the question of  the effectiveness of Brent Council's monitoring and auditing processes. I posted on this issue recently LINK asking why there was no report from Children and Families on this issue tabled for Monday's Executive Meeting.

I was very dismayed to read the article entitled, “Financial scandal continues to plague Brent Council” that appeared in the TES on 4 May, accusing Brent Council of being negligent in its duty to oversee school finances robustly and effectively.

Brent Council takes its role in ensuring sound financial management in schools very seriously and takes firm action against schools whenever there is evidence of it taking place.

In the case of Malorees Primary School, a thorough audit of the school identified that a number of improvements in financial management were necessary and the current head teacher is actively engaged on making these changes.

Brent has over 80 schools which receive an audit on a two or three year basis. It would be impossible within current resources to audit every school each year. Auditing schools on a rolling programme basis, so that each one is audited every two to three years, is very normal within local authorities and Brent does more than most in relation to school audits and has a very detailed audit brief.

In fact, the very detailed nature of our audit brief is precisely why Brent has managed to uncover these, thankfully rare examples of financial mismanagement that have occurred in the four schools your article mentions, over a fairly long period of time.

Schools have a duty to monitor their financial position on an on-going basis and this can throw up potential overspends that could worsen in the future unless corrective action is taken. In the case of Malorees School, the current head teacher has identified potential issues and is working proactively with Brent Council to take decisive action now to ensure that any potential problems are averted in the future.

Whenever irregularities occur we do not attempt to conceal them but are open and transparent at all times about our investigations and provide appropriate support to schools so that corrective action can be taken.

Yours sincerely,
Dr Krutika Pau
Director of Children and Families

Brent Council seeks views on tackling child poverty

The high number of children in  most deprived wards

Click image to enlarge

Brent Council yesterday launched a consultation on its draft child poverty strategy. The Government requires each local authority to have such a strategy in place in 2011. The Council is keen to have feedback on any gaps in  the information they provide which will enable them to refine the final strategy. The consultation is aimed at council staff, community groups and young people.

Some key facts:

• Brent has become more deprived. It was the 35th most deprived borough in 2010 compared with 53rd previously.
• The highest rates of child poverty are in Stonebridge ward, Harlesden and South Kilburn. There are pockets of deprivation in other parts of the borough including in the south of Welsh Harp ward which was not deemed as deprived four years ago.
• Overall there  are up to 23,000 children (34.1%) in Brent living in poverty according the the Child Wellbeing Index.
• The numbers of children eligible for Free School Meals is a good indicator of poverty. The national average is 15.9% but Stonebridge 44.2%, Harlesden 38.7%, Dollis Hill 33.4%, Kilburn 33.2%, Dudden Hill 31% were much higher compared with Kenton at 11.6%.
• 72% of homeless cases have children or are pregnant. (This is likely to get worse when the housing benefit cap is fully implemented early next year). There has been a recent increase in the number of young Somali people who are homeless.
• There is lower educational attainment in early years and schools compared with London and national averages and lower attainment evident in some Black African and African Caribbean children.
• The highest number of lone parents is highest in Harlesden (570) and Stonebridge (560) compared with 95 in Northwick Park and 60 in Kenton
• Unemployment is highest in the most deprived areas with a Brent average of 9.3% compared with 8.7% in London and 7.7% nationally
• 7.6% of Jobseekers Allowance claimants are 18-24 years old compared with 6.7% in London and 6.9% nationally
• The Tellus Survey showed that lack of aspiration and fears about future prospects including jobs, further education and money are concerns amongst most young people and parents.

The consultation report says that Brent Council is responding to this situation by:

• Completing a child poverty needs assessment
• Drafting a strategy
• Consulting on the strategy

The Council gives its child poverty vision as:

For no children or young people to be disadvantaged by poverty by 2021 in Brent. Over the next decade we will ensure that each child has the best possible start in life and not be disadvantaged by family circumstance or background by breaking the cycle of deprivation

The problem is of course in achieving this vision against the back of Coalition policies whose overall impact, despite innovations such as the pupil premium, are increasing child poverty through reducing benefits, the housing benefit cap, and reducing the number of public sector jobs. The Council's own scope for initiative is clearly limited by the cuts in local authority funding and some of the cuts and higher charges they have made as a result will also impact on families and educational provision.

Faced with the statistics and the reality of  Coalition policies the objectives outlined in the consultation document  seem well-meaning but lacking in establishing a clear, practical policy direction. 'But how?' keeps coming into your mind:

Our objectives for 2021

1. To provide a safe and secure environment where all children are respected and cared for so that they grow into successful and responsible people.

2. To ensure all children have a happy life and life style to be able to progress and thrive.

3. To provide children with the best possible education in an environment where they can thrive; socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually.  

4. To ensure all children are happy, confident and ambitious capable to aim high and achieve what ever they aspire to.

The officers concerned hope that by establishing an over-arching framework they will enable different Council departments to produce more detailed plans. The consultation will be longer than usual and will involve 15 face to face meetings with various stakeholders covering the full range of provision.

The diagram below shows the framework:

Click on image to enlarge

The consultation itself is qualitative and asks open-ended questions including What are the causes of poverty? and In a ideal world what actions could be take to a. prevent children from living in poverty and b. deal with those who are already in poverty? There are 13 questions in all so whoever writes this up will have an enormous job to do as some of the questions invite mini-essays in response!

The consultation website is HERE and a PDF of the consultation document is HERE
The consultation closes on September 26th and comments should be sent to andrea.lagos@brent.gov.uk

New Director of Children and Families

Usually reliable sources tell me that Dr Krutika Pau has been appointed as the new Director of Brent Children and Families following the retirement of John Christie.   Krutika has worked for Brent (with a break) for a long time and until this appointment was Assistant Director for Strategy and Partnerships. As Krutika Tanna, she was principal research officer for the Brent Race Unit   She is known as an excellent administrator and organiser.  It will be interesting to see whether she now delivers on vision.

Blogging on June 8th 2010 I set out my views on what I felt was required:

Although policy is in theory made by councillors, the Director of Children and Families... is extremely powerful and his or her educational philosophy and perspective on current educational issues vitally important. Will the  Labour Council appoint someone with the ability to stand up for children and schools, with an independent mind and the strength to resist government pressure; or will they appoint someone who will manage 'efficiency savings' and implement poorly thought out 'innovations' and in the process oversee the deterioration of Brent's education system?

An issue that has concerned some in education in Brent is that the post was filled internally, in effect ring-fenced, because of the 'savings' restructuring going on in Brent. This meant that there was a very narrow field with only a handful of people eligible to apply. In contrast when headteacher and deputy headteacher posts in schools are vacant they are always, as a matter of policy, advertised nationally to ensure the widest and best quality field of candidates.  This is because the children of Brent need and deserve the best possible headteacher and the field should not be limited for other less worthy reasons.