Brent Council to deliver some Barnet services

The Brent Executive is to be asked at their April meeing to 'agree the principle of Brent taking over delivery of the Registration and Nationality Service on behalf of Barnet, explore in detail the business case for doing so and agree the formulation of an Inter Authority Agreement.'

Early signs of Spring in Fryent Country Park

A stroll through Fryent Country Park turned into a slipping, sliding, squelchy, sucking battle with mud today but I was rewarded by early signs of Spring. There wasn't much sign of frog activity yet but birds were busy and that drumming of a woodpecker could be heard across the woodland.

Hazel catkins

Lesser Celandine

Pussy Willow

Gorse flowers

Bluebell leaves emerging

Gladstone Free School proposers answer some key questions

William Gladstone makes a point...

 The proposers of a secondary free school in NW2, the four form entry Gladstone Free School, have supplied the answers to questions I sent them about their plans. They have now met with an officer from Brent Council and think that their proposal ticks all the boxes of the  partnership principles set out by the council LINK

The Questions and Answers

1. How will you ensure that all children have access to the school and what will your admissions criteria be?

Our aim is to create a non-selective community school for the Cricklewood/ Gladstone Park area. The school will be open to all but if we are oversubscribed then distance from the school will be the main criterion. We want this school to reflect the local community and will try to place it where it is accessible, though we can’t select a site until we have been approved for funding.

2. Will your school reflect the socio-economic profile of its neighbourhood as measured by the proportion of children admitted who are entitled to free school meals.

We actively want a community school that reflects the profile of its neighbourhood and are planning for at least 27% (Brent's average) of pupils on free school meals. We have chosen distance as the main criterion with the intention of siting the school in the heart of that community. We hope this will ensure a fully representative pupil intake.

3. Will you give priority to children with statements of special education need and those who are Looked After?

Pupils with Special Education Needs who have the school named on their statement will be guaranteed a place. Looked after children are given priority, as they would be with a local authority school.

4. Will you insist that all teaching staff have Qualified Teacher Status?

We anticipate that the majority of teachers will have qualified teacher status (QTS). However, in order to best support the anticipated range of educational needs we will be using a wide variety of innovative strategies, including bringing in expertise from cultural organisations, industry, universities and so on. We can't therefore guarantee that all those teaching will have QTS. What we won’t be doing is using non-qualified teaching staff to cut costs or to make profits.

5. Will your teachers enjoy the same conditions of service as local authority school teachers?

Recruiting, developing and supporting the very best teachers is a key part of our vision. We will have fair terms of employment and will consult on those terms. Our hours and our term times might be different from the Local Authority and therefore we can’t guarantee at this stage that the terms of employment will be identical. We intend to seek the two ticks for disability rating as an employer.

6. How will you ensure democratic accountability for the school and its expenditure of public money?

Our published annual accounts will be publicly available to ensure accountability. We are forming a company with charitable aims to make the bid and run the school. A partnership with Brent council remains a possibility, and we welcome other proposals to ensure accountability.

7. Have you any premises ear-marked for the school?

We are not able to select or earmark premises until we have been approved for funding and have the buildings grant. If anyone knows of any large derelict sites which might suit our proposed school please get in touch. We want something in the heart of Cricklewood/ Gladstone park with good transport links and access to open space to support our active approaches to learning.

8. How far have you got with the application/approval process?

The DfE application submission window is from December 17th to January 4th. We have been recognised by the New Schools Network as a high potential new school and so are confident that our application is on track. We need to demonstrate demand for the school with 240 signatures of parents with children in years 4 and 5 on our pledge, and welcome assistance from parents and other members of the local community with that process. Please ask your readers to take a look at our website at www.gladstoneschool.org.

9. Would you consider a partnership with Brent Council for the school?

We have invited Brent Council to consider exactly that.

10. How will you consult with neighbouring schools and the community about your proposals?

We have made considerable efforts to communicate the plans about Gladstone School to local primaries, and have invited 40 headteachers to a special information briefing. We have put information on the NorthWestTwo residents association page and we are grateful for the opportunity to seek the views of readers of Wembley Matters. We had a stall at the Brent Golden Summer festival in Gladstone Park, and have an informal information briefing session at 11.00am every Thursday in the reception area of the Crown Moran Hotel on Cricklewood Broadway. We encourage feedback, either at the Crown briefings, or via our website. To date we have had an overwhelmingly positive reception to our proposals from local residents.

Anyone who seeks further answers is very welcome to use the "questions and answers" service on our website.

Financial management of Brent schools in the spotlight again

Brent headteachers getting ready for the start of the new term were greeted with further press coverage of alleged school financial mismanagement at the weekend. The Times Education Supplement of September 1st  had extensive coverage of the situation in the borough LINK.  The situation had already been extensively covered here in July LINK and I returned to it later in the month LINK

The TES quotes Clive Heaphy as warning that academy conversions could make things worse:

Clive Heaphy, Brent Council’s finance director, argues that the current vast expansion of academies is going to make the problem much worse.

“Inevitably there is a recipe there for difficult times ahead and potentially for some mismanagement issues and possibly some fraud issues,” he told TES, adding that increased autonomy for local authority schools had already made it much harder for town halls to guard against them misusing public money.

“I still retain personal accountability for schools’ finances and yet I see less and less data and have fewer and fewer levers to be able to do anything about it,” Mr Heaphy said. “There is very little action in reality you can take.”

On academies he said: “The only watchdog over them is the Department for Education itself. We have no relationship with them, but who does?”

The TES reveals details about the amount of debt accumulated by two Brent primary schools through exploitative financing arrangements:

Furness Primary is being sued by a finance company for £301,083 plus interest calculated at £14,579 in April and still rising. But Brent Council said the equipment involved was worth just £9,150 when it was sold off by the finance company in February.

Kensal Rise Primary is being sued by the same company for £287,000. Both schools have made counterclaims for money they say they have already paid “in error” - £805,000 in the case of Kensal Rise. The same school has also received a more recent claim from a second finance company for £253,000.

Brent says schools have been tempted into such deals by offers of up to £15,000 “cash back” a quarter from equipment suppliers that make initial lease repayments appear more favourable than the real long-term cost. Clive Heaphy, the authority’s finance director, said that primary heads were not always “business savvy” and cannot always “see through” such offers.

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Paralympic Torch Relay at Willesden Sports Centre

Plenty turned out despite the early start. In the end it was two hours late so additional people got to see it.

Children's play sliding down the agenda

 

In the wake of cuts to local government budgets, play is sliding down the agenda in many London councils, a survey by London Play has revealed. In the past year over 70 per cent of London's local authorities have either cut play provision - or do not have any play budget left to cut. And there are fears that the worst is yet to come. 

As the scramble for primary school places highlights the rate of growth in London's young population, it has emerged that opportunities for play are becoming fewer and further between. Despite pupil numbers in the capital being predicted to rise by more than nine per cent over the next three years, play facilities are being downgraded and cut back.  Of the 22 councils which responded to the London Play survey, 10 had made cuts to their play services in the past 12 months. Perhaps more worryingly, six had no budget left to cut. Only one council was making modest expansions to its service.

Having slashed its play budget by a massive 66 per cent, Camden stands out as the borough making the biggest reductions. Yet it remains one of the biggest spenders on play in the capital, with a budget of £1.5m - which will now be used to commission play services from the voluntary sector. In comparison, six of the local authorities responding to the survey had no revenue budget for play at all.

Many authorities have worked hard to limit the impact of the cuts on frontline services, and in some cases have developed innovative solutions to enable them to continue to support play. Some play services are linking up and pooling resources with housing providers or other partners who through play are able to engage better with groups they might otherwise have found difficult to reach.

Others are increasing income-generating activities. For example, in Richmond, play workers are being paid to run sessions in schools; the funds raised will support more open access play in future. Richmond's play development manager Barbara Morton explains: "Whilst charging for play ranger services may be controversial, developing a business model has been crucial in order to sustain the service for the future and to continue to offer play provision for the children in the borough." More controversially still, others are exploring the possibility of charging for services, as in the well-publicised case of Wandsworth council and its Battersea Park Adventure Playground.

London Play chair Melian Mansfield commented: "At a time when the number of children in London is rising dramatically, play is being cut. Play is crucial for the health and development of both children and London's communities and these cuts will have a disproportionate effect on both. Councils need to recognise this and treat play as a priority.  All children need to have access to opportunities to play, especially out of doors."

Brent 4th highest in England for eviction risk

Shelter's Eviction Risk Monitor published this month lists the London Borough of Brent as the 4th highest local authority in England for the proportion of mortgage and landlord possession claims. The three higher local authorities are all in Greater London: Barking and Dagenham, Newham and Haringey. The total between October 2010 and September 2011 in Brent is 2,435 a rate of 22.4 per 1,000 homes. These claims do not necessarily translate immediately into evictions but show how many people are struggling to meet their housing costs. The report, perhaps obviously, shows that high risk is associated with high local unemployment levels.

We already know that the number of evictions in the borough has increased prior to the housing benefit becoming operative and the Council expects an increasing number of claims for temporary housing in the new year. Temporary accommodation will have to be provided far away from Brent and 'temporary' may mean for up to 10 years.

Even without the cap, increasing unemployment, frozen wage; and higher energy and food costs, mean that people are finding it hard to pay their mortgages and rent. Shelter research suggests about one third of  families are struggling. At the same time, just when families will need it most, the Coalition government is proposing removing legal aid from debt, housing, welfare, employment and family disputes. The Legal Aid and Punishment of Offender's Bill enters its committee stage in the House of Lords today.

Nothing could show more starkly how Coalition policies are impacting on the most vulnerable. The video above gives an insight into what it will mean for families.

SHELTER REPORT

Draft West London Waste Plan

Avoiding this....but what will replace it?

 The draft Plan for dealing with the waste of the boroughs of Brent, Richmond, Ealing, Hounslow, Hillingdon and Harrow can be found HERE  It is an item on the agenda of Brent Council Executive at the meeting to be held on Monday 12th December, 7pm at Brent Town Hall.

Brent lagging behind on sustainable food

Kilburn and Kensal Harvesting Project (Video by Jonathan P Goldberg)

Brent is one of six London boroughs highlighted as "lagging behind disappointingly on action to support healthy and sustainable food" in a new report “Good Food for London” by Sustain and the London Food Link [1]

 

The report shows that although Brent is making progress in some areas such as - collecting food waste, community food growing spaces through the Capital Growth programme, and working towards achieving Fairtrade status, the Borough is sadly falling behind on many other areas - food in schools, “Food for Life”, sustainable fish, animal welfare, and healthy catering. 

 

Viv Stein, spokesperson for Brent Campaign against Climate Change, said:  “Brent’s recent Green Charter espoused the virtues of their sustainable credentials.  This new report shows that when it comes to sustainable food, they are way behind other London Boroughs and must do better.

 

Members of Transition Kensal to Kilburn planting on Kilburn tube station platform earlier this year.

“Community groups such as Transition Kensal to Kilburn have led the way in local food growing, and have shown that it can be grown virtually anywhere – there is even an allotment on Kilburn tube station!  Community-led fruit harvesting projects have also had a bumper year.  Whilst welcoming the Council’s forthcoming allotment and food growing strategy, when it comes to getting healthy, local, affordable and sustainable food into our schools and hospitals, Brent has a lot of catching up to do.”

 

Reference

[1] http://www.sustainweb.org/londonfoodlink/good_food_for_london/

Eight more Boroughs out of the total of 33 were praised for "making excellent progress on key food issues" - Camden, Croydon, Enfield, Greenwich, Merton, Sutton, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest - achieving progress on all or most of the key food activities surveyed. Meanwhile, six Boroughs were highlighted as "lagging behind disappointingly on action to support healthy and sustainable food" - Bexley, Brent, Hillingdon, Lewisham, Newham and Westminster.

March on Saturday to the Democracy Wall and Kingsbury Library

Preston Library Campaigners will be calling in at the Democracy Wall (also known as the Wall of Shame) when they march on Saturday from South Kenton Station to Kingsbury Library. They will leave South Kenton at 1.30pm and will call in at the Democracy Wall about 1.50pm.

You are invited to join in and dress up as your favourite story character.