Rosemarie Clarke’s missing votes: Cara Davani refuses to tell

Guest blog by Amir Tahir

On 22^nd December last I submitted a Freedom of Information request to Brent Council asking for the following:

1. The number of nominations/votes received by individual Brent Staff Achievement Award winners 2014                                                                                                                                                                          2. The number of nominations/votes received for Rosemarie Clarke for Brent Staff Achievement Awards 2014.

By return I received the following acknowledgement from Cara Davani:

‘Thank you for your information request. We (sic) will forward it to the relevant department who will contact you shortly.’

On 21^st January  I received the following from Brent Council HR department.

‘The requested information is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the
Freedom of Information Act (FoIA).  The information is personal data as defined by
the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). As it is information about individuals, we are
unable to give this to you; release of this information would constitute a breach of
Principle 1 of the DPA. Principle 1 states that personal data shall be processed
(used) fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be used unless at least one of
the conditions in Schedule 2 of the DPA is met; in this case none of those conditions
have (sic) been met.* This response therefore acts as a refusal notice under section 17 of
the FoIA.’  

                                                                    * I would welcome opinions on this. AT

Obviously, my request for the total number of Rosemarie’s votes was not made out of idle curiosity; we all know that the response to the ’Vote for Rosemarie’ idea was overwhelming with Civic Centre staff and members of the public expressing  their solidarity with Rosemarie and their admiration for the way she had conducted herself in the face of what a British court has adjudged was Cara Davani and Brent Council’s racial discrimination, victimisation  and constructive dismissal. The online vote she received was massive. Nor was it my intention in any way to detract from the achievements of the other worthy winners of Brent Staff Achievement  awards.

However, the Council leadership’s mean-spirited response to the avalanche of votes for Rosemarie seems to me a missed opportunity for Butt, Gilbert and Davani finally to concede that those voting for Rosemarie possibly had a point; that Civic Centre staff and the public generally support Rosemarie for principled and valid reasons; and that an employment tribunal judge’s opinion possibly carries a little more authority than that of a small cabal of mutually back-scratching and terminally compromised senior managers  and local politicians.          

Pavey Review not yet available but notes on Constitutional challenge released

The Agenda for Thuursday's meeting of the General Purposes Committee has now been published. The meeting is due to discuss the Pavey Review of Brent Human Resources but the report is not yet available on the Agenda web page.

I understand this is because there are some late additions being made. Instead of the report there is a placeholder:

Following the loss of an employment tribunal case in September, 2014, Councillor Pavey, Deputy Leader, who has Cabinet responsibility for Equalities and the Council’s role as employer, agreed to take stock of the Council’s policies and practice to see where improvements could be made.  Councillor Pavey has now completed his review and will present the findings to the General Purposes Committee.

Although the fullest possible report is obviously desirable, it is unfortunate that members of the committee, the press and the public won't have time to consider it in detail before the meeting.

The Annual Brent Diversity Profile LINK  has been published and this graphic tells its own story about racial equality (Sc3 is the lowest and Hay the highest). Overall % of council workers who are BME is 62%):

Meanwhile the indefatigible Philip Grant is now able to pass on notes of his meeting with Brent Council Leader Muhammed Butt following a resident's successful Freedom of Information request.

Philip asked for a meeting to raise his concerns over the Council's respect of its constitution.

Cllr. Butt had agreed that Mr Grant should take a note of their discussions, and that these should be sent to him for checking, with a view to producing an agreed accurate record of those discussions. It was Cllr. Butt's change of mind on that agreement which means that the Council now claims they are no more than Mr Grant's 'own personal recollection of the meeting'.

Regular readers of Wembley Matters will be able to put a name to the anonymised "AB", especially if they follow those initials in alphabetical order.

Cuts may have greatest impact on the most vulnerable says Brent Council budget report

Brent Council spending

There was a short Twitter exchange during last night's Council Meeting on the possibility of raising Council Tax with some arguing that by freezing Council Tax for five years the Council had undermined its own revenue base.  Others said that the amount raised beneath the 2% limit was so small as to hardly compensate for the loss of government grant made to Councils who freeze the tax. In terms of the amount raised as a proportion of the £54m cuts required it was piffling.

Former Labour councillor, and Brent Executive member, James Powney discusses this on his blog today. LINK

In Green Party circles the idea of a 'progressive' Council Tax has engaged people in debate LINK

Meanwhile here in Brent full reports have been published for each  potential area for cuts or revenue raising possibilities. In some cases there are soft and hard options given. The latter being ceasing service delivery.  The report to the cabinet makes clear that no decisions are required of the Cabinet at this stage except to go out for consultation on the proposals.

These are the links to the various reports:

• Chief Finance Officer's report budget-report, item 4. PDF 214 KB
• Appendix 1 Savings budget-app1, item 4. HTM 1 KB
• Adult Social Care 1-asc, item 4. PDF 299 KB
• Children and  Young People 2-cyp, item 4. PDF 266 KB
• Environment 3-env, item 4. PDF 399 KB
• Regeneration and Growth 4-rg, item 4. PDF 462 KB
• Assistant Chief Executive 5-ace, item 4. PDF 238 KB
• Public Health 6-ph, item 4. PDF 118 KB
• Finance and IT 7-fin-it, item 4. PDF 124 KB
• Human Resources 8-hr, item 4. PDF 120 KB
• Budget Savings by theme budget-app1-pdf-format, item 4. PDF 214 KB

The main report states:

There is a risk that the collective savings will have a significant impact on those vulnerable people who are the greatest users of council services.

Overall, the groups most at risk of being impacted are older people, disabled people, children and people from black ethnic backgrounds.

There would also be a low impact on women, people who do not speak English and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. There is a risk that disabled people could be severely affected by experiencing a raft of changes from different service areas, even if each proposal may appear to have a limited impact in isolation.

Many proposals will have an impact on staff, especially in corporate services where the majority of the budgets are made up of staffing costs.

Given the scale of staffing reductions, there is potential for these proposals to have a significant impact on all levels of the workforce. The majority of the workforce is BAME and it is important that changes are not disproportionate in terms of their impact. Brent’s Managing Change Policy and Procedure provides a framework to be followed during times of organisational change to minimise the risk of a negative impact on any equality groups. The Managing Change Policy requires that staffing changes undergo equality analysis to ensure that the restructure process is conducted in a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory manner. The Equality Team will review the cumulative impact of restructures on the workforce diversity profile.

 Cllr Sam Stopp's commentary on the Full Council meeting should perhaps be read with the above comments in mind LINK

Will the Pavey review of HR win the confidence of staff?

In this week's Kilburn Times,  Brent Green  Party candidates for the forthcoming general election reiterate the Party's call for an independent inquiry into Brent Council, This would not only cover the human resources issues, including working conditions,  but also the appointment of a permanent Chief Executive and  the restructing of the senior managment team. We felt that an independent investigation was the only way to gain the confidemnce of staff and wanted to involve residents, associations,  voluntary organisations, teneants; groups and trade unions.

Philip Grant in this Guest Blog gives his personal assessment of the  more limited internal review being conducted by Michael Pavey:

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Councillor Pavey’s Review of Brent’s HR and Equalities practices and procedures

Anyone who has been following the story of the Rosemarie Clarke Employment Tribunal case will be aware that when Brent Council announced on 26 September that they would be appealing against the judgement, they also said there would be a review. The Council said that its Deputy Leader, Cllr. Michael Pavey, would ‘take stock of our [Employment] policies and practice’, ‘to ensure that we learn lessons from this case’. 

I did wonder at the time whether this was just a PR smokescreen, to draw attention away from Brent’s unfair and unreasonable decision to appeal. However, I have recently exchanged some emails with Cllr. Pavey which leave me a little more optimistic, and (with his permission) I would like to share some of the correspondence with you.

Ex Brent Council manager slams decision to appeal Employment Tribunal Judgment and failure to order independent investigation

Christine Collins, who used to be Community Engagement Manager at Brent Council, took to a Soapbox at Wembley Connects tonight to lambast the Council's decision to appeal over the recent Employment Tribunal case and its failure to appoint an independent investigator to review the workings of the Human Resources Department.

Collins told the audience that they may recognise her (she used to be the officer facilitating such events) but that she was now speaking in a personal capacity.

She said that she wanted to talk about the Employment Tribunal findings in a case against the Council which found that:

• a black staff member was directly discriminated against on the protected characteristics of race
• the claimant suffered victimisation
• the claimant was constructively dismissed

Christine Collins said that she had read the full findings and the picture painted of employment at Brent Council over the last couple of years was 'horribly familiar'.

She explained that in the summer she was proud to stand side by side with Brent councillors in Cricklewood to stop a group of racists and fascists from ;marching through our streets to divide our community.'

'Imagine my disappointment,' she went on, ' to learn how these same councillors have reacted to the Employment Tribunal findings.'

Collins said that she had expected a council committed to fighting racism and supporting diversity in its employment practices, to be horrified by the findings, sympathetic to the member of staff who was treated so appallingly and anxious to ensure that the climate  of fear and bullying was fully and independently investigated.

Instead the council had decided to appeal the decision which would put the staff member through further stress and anxiety. In addition they had decided to appoint 'one of their own to investigate.'

Pausing to look up from her speech and addressing the councillors and residents assembled at  Patidar House she said:

 'I say "Shame on you Brent Council!"'

Concluding her speech Christine Collins called on Brent councillors to accept the Tribunal findings and have a totally independent review of the conduct of Human Resources in Brent Council:

They are happy to take on large numbers of external consultants to carry out reviews of all kinds of things - why not this? If they are so convinced there is nothing seriously wrong, what have they got to hide?

Brent Council leader Cllr Muhammed Butt arrived late to the forum but asked to comment on the Employment Tribunal by Cllr Krupa Sheth, chair of  Wembley Connects, said that the council had to  'undertake due process' in making the appeal and that 'both sides have to be heard',

Challenged by residents with cries of 'nonsense' he became increasingly angry and stumbled over his words. Directly asked if he would order an independent investigation he said 'No' and claimed that Michael Pavey's review would hear from staff and independent consultants.

The audience reacted with derision and calls of 'shame'.

Pavey Review won't address the real issues at Brent Council

On Tuesday Brent Council issued a statement expanding on the Pavey Review of Human Resources at Brent Council following the Employment Tribunal.  I reproduce it below for your information.

I am afraid that the review completely fails to recognise and address the seriousness of the allegations about the conduct of HR in Brent Council and the evidence in the Employment Tribunal papers. It does not encompass the wider problem of apparent collusion by senior council officers in that conduct.

The Pavey Review is unsatisfactory because:

1. It will be conducted while staff remain in fear of victimisation and bullying and their eventual loss of job as a result of revealing what is going on inside the Council. At the very least the senior staff concerned should be suspended (a neutral act) while the review takes place. The emails and phone calls I have had from Brent staff as a result of Wembley Matters' coverage of the issue leave me in no doubt that current staff will need a lot of persuading to speak openly. There is also the question of staff who have left and the gagging clauses imposed by HR as well as HR's ban on staff (on pain of dismissal) speaking to elected councillors about employment issues.

2. Michael Pavey is very close to Muhammed Butt, leader of the Council.  Cllr Butt has been alleged to be the 'prisoner' of members of the Corporate Management Team as a result of the machinations that took place over the sacking and replacement of previous Chief Executive Gareth Daniel.  Pavey has said he sees his role in the Council as backing Muhammed Butt's leadership and has excelled at this since his appointment in the role. It is doubtful whether he will produce any findings that are critical of Butt's leadership.

3. Michael Pavey as well as being Deputy Leader is lead member responsible for  Council as Employer, Legal Service, Complaints and Equalities. At least three of those areas of which he is in charge are those that have failed to some extent according to the Employment Tribunal and its accompanying evidence.  In effect Pavey will be investigating the effectiveness of his own oversight of these departments.

4. The last sentence of the Council statement appears to preempt the outcome of the investigation by assuming that the result will be in the form of 'individual action plans'. If the problem is systemic then there has to be action at that level.

In the light of the above the appointment of an independent investigator, acceptable to both sides, is still the only viable option if the aim is to get to the root of the problem.

BRENT COUNCIL STATEMENT

A review of Brent Council's HR and equalities practice and procedures is set to be spearheaded by Councillor Michael Pavey, Deputy Leader of the Council, in light of the recent employment tribunal.
The review aims to identify where improvements can be made and ensure that appropriate action plans are developed and delivered. The review will include a comprehensive survey of all HR and equalities policies and procedures and will ensure that a diverse range of views and perspectives are considered.

Advice from external experts will be sought and the review will look to learn from best practice at other local authorities.

Councillor Pavey says: “The diverse nature of Brent Council’s workforce is one of our core strengths and, importantly, is reflective of the diversity of local people. Therefore, it is vital that we shine a light on our existing policies and procedures to ensure that we constantly strive for best practice to support people of all backgrounds to achieve their full potential.

“I am committed to leading a full and detailed review to determine where improvements can be made. I will be working closely with colleagues inside the council and external experts to achieve this and will ensure there is involvement from members of the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities throughout the process.”

The first draft of the report is scheduled for December 2014, with a commitment to the delivery and implementation of individual action plans in January 2015.

Butt to be rebuffed by Labour Group on Monday?

The Brrent Council Labour Group on Monday will be discussing proposals for the Labour leader (and thus at present the Council leader)  and Cabinet to be elected on a basis other than an automatic annual election.

Muhammed Butt after the May elections said that a four year cycle would end the problem of him having to 'look over his shoulder' all the time.

Brent Central Labour Party recently passed the following motion unopposed:

Brent Central CLP believes that because of the benefits in terms of accountability the Leader of the Labour Group and the Cabinet should remain as annually elected positions.

The potential loss of democratic accountability and the loss of ability to exercise some power on an annual basis has been too much for some councillors although there had been talk of introducing some compromise process which would require a certain number of signatories to trigger an election.

Meanwhile disquiet is mounting over the reputational damage the Council and Labour Party is suffering due to the Cabinet's failure to grasp the nettle of the current scandal regarding the Human Resources Department and the personal, business and career relationships between senior council officers.

There has been one Cabinet resignation recently with Cllr Perrin unwilling to explain the reasons for his resignation beyond the usual 'personal reasons' statement.  It would be to his credit if he had taken a principled stand on the Cavani-Corporate Management Team issue and had opposed the decision to spend council tax payers' money on an appeal over the Employment Tribunal's Judgment.

James Powney's concerns expressed on his blog may be dismissed by some as sour grapes from a member of the deposed Ann John team but his concerns are shared by Labour Party members on the Brent Trades Union Council and members of the Brent Labour Representatation Committee who were never Johnites.

James Powney comments on 'tragic situation' regarding Brent Council bullying allegations

Former Brent Labour councillor James Powney has posted two interesting articles on the current controversies in Brent regarding the Human Resources Department and the Employment Tribunal findings of Racial discrmination, victimisation and constructive dismissal.

Yesterday he wrote:

Following an Employment Tribunal that found Brent Council had tolerated racist bullying, there has rightly been a lot of disquiet.  The concerns are highly unlikely to be met by any internal review into the issue, as such a review is far to close to the people alleged to be involved to have any credibility.

What saddens me most about this is that Brent has over many years made real efforts to tackle equality issues, and this looks like an organisation losing those hard fought gains through neglect and perhaps something worse.

Commenting that the Council had come through a rigorous review over the libraries case he went on:

Since then I get an impression of decline.  A lot of this follows on from the removal of Gareth Daniel as Chief Executive.  There has never been any public explanation of why this was done, but I suspect part of it was because Gareth had objected vigorously to a particular councillor bullying staff.  The councillor bore him a grudge as a result and persued a vendetta against him.

Once you start allowing this kind of thing without objection, you begin to create a culture where it is acceptable, and people cease even to object to bullying and simply keep their heads down.  That is a tragic situation not just for the victims but also the organisation as a whole.

I agree that the root of much of the current situation goes back to the removal of Gareth Daniel and deals that were done at the time. The leaking of email communications between Gareth Daniel and Muhammed Butt, to the local press, the suspension of Clive Heaphy for gross misconduct (not financial) and then the settlement with him, the initial stand of three Corporate Management Team members in support of Daniel and the rapid appointment of Christine Gilbert are all part of the scenario.

James Powney today discusses some of the wider issues involved LINK:

I mentioned some of the failings of Brent's human resources yesterday.  Understandably there has been a lot of focus on accusations of racism and bulling, but I think the Human Resources function at Brent Council has a number of problems that need examination by rather more rigorous examiners than the "internal review" apparently set up.  The questions I have in mind are:

1) The obvious concerns about issues to do with bullying, intimidation and possible misuse of funds.
2) The continued appointment of an "interim" Chief Executive whose term appears to be set to extend for more than two years.  During this time other London Boroughs (eg Barnet) have seen seen Chief Executives go and be replaced.  Lambeth Council has advertised recently.  Why is Brent unable to perform this basic function?
3) The rising use of interim staff, which is an enormous cost to the taxpayer, and whether this reflects an underlying weakness in the structure of the organisation.
4) Whether anyone is getting any benefit from the One Oracle project.  One of the main aims of this was supposed to be the improvement in human resources information, which should lead to genuine efficiency savings as well as potentially improving the Council in terms of diversity and so on.

I am sure that these concerns are shared by many Labour councillors as well as local Labour Party members.

The bullet has to be bitten.

Breeding at the top of Brent Council

The tangle of previous employment, business and personal relationships among the top management of Brent Council is rapidly becoming a talking point in the Civic Centre.

The case of Cara Davani, Head of Human Resources and Andy Potts, Principal Employment and Education Lawyer in the Legal and Procurement Department is particularly colourful.  Fiona Ledden heads up Legal and Procurement.

Cara Davani has recently announced that Andy Potts has become a partner in Kebulak her dog breeding business. LINK

Terrier World LINK congratulated the breeders by posting a picture of their twins who were born in June. (scxroll down)

The name of one of the twins is purely coincidental. (I hope)

Brent Council case gets curiouser and curiouser

The Employment Tribunal Judgement and papers referred to Cara Davani's 'micro-management' at Brent Council.

It was  interesting therefore that I received an email this morning in response to one I had sent to Brent Communications Team. I had asked if the salaries of Christine Gilbert and Cara Davani were still being paid into private companies.

The reply, although unsigned, came with the sender: Cara Davani brent.foi@mail.icasework.com

It said that my request would be forwarded to the relevant department who would contact me shortly.

An FoI request about Brent's decision to appeal against the Employment Tribunal judgement, submitted independently by another person interested in the case, was also acknowledged in an unsigned email which identified the sender as Cara Davani.

All a bit odd. Is Cara Davani apart from HR now in charge of Freedom of Information requests...about matters relating to herself?

New Brent Cabinet must lance this boil

Before the election the Brent Green Party called for an independent investigation into various controversial aspects of the running of Brent Council which had emerged in postings on Wembley Matters.

Brent Council refused to comment on these during the election period but now a new adminstration is in place it is time to launch an independent investigation so that a fresh start can be made which will win the confidence of Brent Council workers and residents.

These are the issues for investigation:

1. Corporate Management Team officers being paid through their private companies rather than normal pay roll (the allegation has been made that these are tax avoidance schemes)
2. The contractual arrangements for CMT officers and interim appointments (the allegation has been made that these are on more favourable terms and are less clearly defined than for ordinary Brent Council workers)
3. Previous employment and business connections between senior offices appointed by Brent Council on an interim basis (the allegation has been made that colleagues who worked together at Ofsted and Tower Hamlets Council have formed a new group of senior officers at Brent Council. Further that an officer in a personal relationship with another officer had adjudicated on fraud allegations against her)
4. The working culture of the Human Resources department (aside from a current Employment Tribunal case allegations have been made by individuals of bullying and harrassment aimed at moving them out of their jobs)
5. Brent Council's Whistle Blowing Policy to ensure that it adequately protects whistle-blowers from harassment and retribution

A further issue now that the election is out of the way is the appointment of a Chief Executive. Christine Gilbert's interim appointment was extended by the Brent Executive on the recommendation of Fiona Ledden until after the election.  The permanent position should now be publicy advertised with a transparent recruitment process.


LINKS: (Also see the comments on these posts)

http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/eric-pickles-urged-to-investigate-brent.html

http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/victimisation-bullying-racial-and.html

http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/revisiting-christine-gilberts.html

http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/brent-not-commenting-on-tewari.html

http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/eric-pickles-urged-to-investigate-brent.html

Clean up tasks for the new Labour Brent Executive

As the new Labour group prepares to meet to decide the size, portfolios and membership of the new Executive, just a reminder of the issues that need to be addressed.

First there is the matter of the Human Resources management at the Council and associated issues of interim contracts and salaries paid into private companies.

The Green Party has called for an independent investigation of:

1. Corporate Management Team officers being paid through their private companies rather than normal pay roll
2. The contractual arrangements for CMT officers and interim appointments
3. Previous employment and business connections between senior offices appointed by Brent Council on an interim basis
4. The working culture of the Human Resources department 
5. Brent Council's Whistle Blowing Policy to ensure that it adequately protects whistle-blowers from harassment and retribution

To which a reader has added:
6. Instances of council policies, procedures, standing orders, scheme of delegation etc being circumvented.

Secondly, there is the important issue of the appointment of Chief Executive.  Christine Gilbert's acting role was extended by the Brent Executive  until after the local elections on the recommendation of Fiona Ledden, Head of Legal and Procurement. The report stated:

The recruitment process for a new permanent  Chief Executive should be delayed because the current recruitment process for  three other CEs in London boroughs would limit the quality of candidates, to allow the restructuring of council senior management to go ahead smoothly, and  to ensure continuity and reputation management over the move to the Civic Centre and the 2014 local elections. 

At the time Paul Lorber, Liberal Democrat leader of the opposition, opposed the extension and raised the important issue of how the permanent appointment would be made.  Given the new overwhelmingly Labour composition of the council and the revelations about previous connections between members of the Corporate Management Team at Ofsted and Tower Hamlets, as well as personal relationship connections, a transparent recruitment process is essential.

Such a process would exclude from the recruitment process any officer with such connections and include opposition councillors as well as Labour backbenchers.

Thirdly, there is the task of ending all interim arrangements so that a permanent team with fully compliant contracts and paid through the council payroll are in place for the next four years. 

Brent Greens call for independent investigation into Brent Council revelations

Brent Green Party issued the following statement this morning:

Brent Green Party is deeply concerned about recent revelations concerning the Corporate Management Team at Brent Council. We call on for an independent investigation of:

1. Corporate Management Team officers being paid through their private companies rather than normal pay roll
2. The contractual arrangements for CMT officers and interim appointments
3. Previous employment and business connections between senior offices appointed by Brent Council on an interim basis
4. The working culture of the Human Resources department
5. Brent Council's Whistle Blowing Policy to ensure that it adequately protects whistle-blowers from harassment and retribution

We further call on Council election candidates to pledge to press for this investigation if elected on Thursday.

Link1

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