The Brent Green Group of Councillors stands in full solidarity with the workers at Woodfield School in their fight against fire and rehire.

Brent Green Group of Councillors has issued the following statement ahead of Wednesday's 'Mega Picket' at Woodfield school.

  

The Brent Green Group of Councillors stands in full solidarity with the workers at Woodfield School in their fight against fire and rehire.

 

The decision by Compass Learning Partnership to issue 47 staff with fire-and-rehire notices is shameful. These are workers who support some of the most vulnerable children in Brent.

 

This dispute raises serious questions about priorities. Whilst support staff are being threatened with dismissal for refusing cuts worth hundreds of pounds a month, the Trust has faced questions over executive pay and financial management. The advertised salary for its CEO role was up to £139,891, yet low-paid frontline workers are being told they must accept worse terms and conditions.

 

We are deeply disappointed that the Labour government has failed to deliver on its promises to working people. Nearly two years into office, workers are still being threatened with fire and rehire while ministers offer little more than warm words. No school worker should face losing their livelihood for refusing to accept a pay cut. Labour has also shown no serious willingness to confront the structural failures of the academy system, which concentrates power in the hands of unelected trusts and leaves staff and communities with little meaningful accountability.

 

The academy system was sold as a way to improve education. Instead, too often it has created opaque structures where highly paid executives make decisions over the heads of staff, parents and local communities. The Green Party opposes the academy model and supports bringing schools back into a democratically accountable local authority system. Education is a public service, not a business opportunity. Yet Labour has chosen to retain the academy system, making only minor changes whilst leaving its fundamental problems intact.

 

We call on Compass Learning Partnership to withdraw the fire-and-rehire notices immediately and return to meaningful negotiations with staff and trade unions. We also call on the government to finally ban fire and rehire and begin reversing the marketisation of our education system.

 

The Brent Green Group will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the workers at Woodfield School.

 

Strike Day 18: Why NEU members at Woodfield School are on strike

 

Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre Saved?

 

Some years ago: Brent teacher unions, Brent Friends of the Earth, Brent Greens and Brent Campaign Against Climate Change fight to keep the WHEEC open 

 

A paper going to the next Brent Cabinet from officers puts forward a cross-council plan that could ensure the future of the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre after several years of doubt as to its future. Officers deserve credit for an imaginative scheme that could deliver a much enhanced programme and a new building to replace the current classrooms that are well on thew way out. There are more details to come including the future of the chapel, currently leased out, and the specific site of the new building. The papers says the classrooms will be demolished and returned to open space. The £3m capital cost will be funded from the High Needs Capital Grant.

The proposal is part of a Post-16 SEND offer:

 

It is proposed that the Post-16 Skills Resource Centre operates from two sites. The Welsh Harp Centre would be developed to provide a horticultural facility with work experience and volunteering opportunities. The second site would be based in new facilities on the Airco Close site in Kingsbury, alongside an expansion of the special school provision that is delivered by the Compass Learning Trust. An expansion of special school places had previously been planned at The Village and Woodfield Schools. Use of the Airco Close site would facilitate the Compass Learning Trust developing 14+ pathways to employment for children with SEND. The intention is that the Compass Learning Trust also operates the Horticultural Facility at Welsh Harp to bring cohesion to the offer across the two sites. However, the lease would remain with the Council which would oversee the use of the site by third sector and community organisations, including the Scouts who have shown interest in operating from the site in partnership with the Council.

 

The detailed proposals for the Welsh Harp:

3.11 The proposed Welsh Harp Horticultural Facility would provide training in horticulture, work experience, periods of volunteering and employment and enterprise development. This facility responds directly to the Borough Plan objectives ‘The Best Start in Life’ and ‘A Healthier Brent’. The proposed facility would also respond to the Council’s Climate Emergency Strategy 2021-2030, as it would provide opportunity for residents to be better connected to nature and enhance green spaces and biodiversity.

3.12 The Welsh Harp Facility would re-provide with input from the third sector the existing Environmental Education Centre that works with schools and volunteers, operating in tandem with the Welsh Harp Joint Consultative Committee and supporting development of a biodiversity centre. The facility would also support pupils from across Brent schools to engage in environmental science. It would also be able to support Brent in Bloom and the delivery of commercial contracts, again increasing the economic activity and visibility of
younger residents with disabilities.

3.13 The Welsh Harp Centre could operate as a training centre for 5 days per week and at weekends and the evenings would open to the public for wider programme of activities including supporting residents to grow their own food and learn about heathy meals alongside wider environmentally based activities.

3.14 The current building is in poor quality and at the end of its lifespan and requires significant capital investment to replace. This proposal would enable the Environmental Education programme to schools to continue to be delivered as part of the wider building use alongside the Post-16 horticultural use. The capital project to replace the building is estimated to cost £3m. This would be funded from the SEND Capital Grant (see below).

3.15 Table 1 below proposes the high-level milestones to deliver the Welsh Harp new building. More detail will be included in the capital project business case for the project.

 

  

3.16 As a revenue invest to save proposal, the Welsh Harp Centre would provide activities focused on contributing towards the following objectives, with funding allocated to activities that would directly impact on outcomes for Brent residents that can be tracked and reported on annually:

a) Independent life and work skills training and support for the post-16 SEND population resulting in a reduction in HNB expenditure through, for example, a reduction in the number of EHCPs that are maintained as young people receive training that helps them to secure employment.

b) the Public Health Outcomes Framework, and in particular indicators that improve the wider determinants of health / health inequalities, for example increasing employment opportunities for young adults with learning disabilities, addressing social isolation and loneliness and supporting the wider public to make healthy lifestyle choices. These indicators would be measured for young people and adults accessing the Centre.

c) Adult Social Care measures, specifically the proportion of adults with a learning disability in paid employment, the proportion of people with a learning disability living in their own home or with family and the proportion of people who use services who have control over their daily life.

d) NHSE outcomes including the employment of people with long-term conditions or who feel supported to manage their condition and the NHS Learning Disability and ASD long term plan.