Brent gets 'enormous slice of funding' from Arts Council for 6 organisations

 

 Some Deafinitely Thatre productions

From Brent Council

 

Six creative and cultural organisations in Brent are set for a £5million boost over the next three years, ensuring more local people can enjoy fantastic, fulfilling art and culture on their doorstep.

 

The funding from Arts Council England is part of their investment programme for 2023-2026. This massive investment comes at a time when Arts Council England has prioritised bringing art, culture, and creativity to more people outside of central London. As an outer London Borough Brent will benefit from the approach to spread funding culture to outside central London.

 

£5,061,423 is being split between the following organisations:

• Deafinitely Theatre, £795,249
• Fresh Arts C.I.C, £300,000
• Kiln Theatre, £2,837,703
• Magic Sound Ltd, £450,000
• Mahogany Community Ventures Limited, £473,532
• The Children's Bookshow, £204,939
  

 

By funding new organisations in new places, the Arts Council is delivering on the vision set out in its strategy, Let's Create: that everyone, everywhere, deserves to benefit from public investment in culture and creativity.

 

Cllr Fleur Donnelly-Jackson, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement, Equalities and Culture said:

We are proud that six incredible cultural organisations that are based in Brent have been awarded this enormous slice of funding by Arts Council England. Brent is the Borough of Cultures, brimming with talent and diversity.

Our successful Brent 2020 programme helped build a tremendous amount of momentum and this extra Arts Council funding is further evidence that the creatives industries are alive and well in Brent.

This funding will help this infectious energy go even further and I can’t wait to see the positive impact of this investment come to life.

 

Clary Salandy, co-founder of Mahogany Carnival Design, said:

We were very moved to receive the email with positive news about remaining in the NPO portfolio. In these times, this is not just a lifeline for a little arts organisation like us; it is also an investment in the creative futures of the diverse people of Brent and in the preservation and evolution of the Carnival art form.

This NPO success will create more opportunities for developing the creative skill of our community through more brilliant carnival work.

Bush Farm and Roe Green Walled Garden among groups to win NCIL funding

 

The barn at Bush Farm, badly in need of attention

My Aunt Muriel haymaking at Bush Farm 80 years ago,  Summer 1942

I was pleased to hear that both Barn Hill Conservation Group and the Bush Farm Collective whose Neighbourhood CIL bids were featured on Wembley Matters LINK LINK, succeeded in winning funding.

The Conservation Group will use the funding for infrastructure work at the Victorian Roe Green Walled Garden, including repairs to the barn that visitors will remember as housing an amazing selection of, well I am not too sure what to call them - bric-a-brac, curios, collectors' items?  Always fascinating.  

The Bush Farm Collective will also be using some of the money for restoration work  on its barn (see above) and fencing.  There are plans for a community garden, toilets and outdoor learning facilities. The Collective now has a farming licence and hope to have a small number of animals on site including sheep.

Barn Hill Conservation Group: We Need Your Help - YOU DECIDE - Vote on 25th June, 2022., from 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm to secure funding for repairs to Roe Green Walled Garden

 

From Barn Hill Conservation Group

The volunteers of the Barn Hill Conservation Group need your vote to secure funding for urgent repairs to the infrastructure at Roe Green Walled Garden.

 

The garden has existed since Victorian times and serves as the headquarters of the conservation group. It was restored by volunteers of the Barn Hill Conservation Group nearly four decades ago and has been maintained by them ever since.

 

The Roe Green Walled Garden is a community garden with fruit trees, a herbaceous border, a wildlife pond, vegetable beds, and a toddlers' play area. It is a welcoming place for young families and older people alike. The Barn Hill Conservation Group volunteers continued to maintain Fryent Country Park and Roe Green Walled Garden throughout the pandemic. The mental health benefits of time spent in a natural environment are well documented and our green spaces have provided our residents much needed respite throughout the pandemic. Last year Fryent Country Park was voted best country park in Brent.

 

Please cast your vote for the Infrastructure Repairs that are urgently required at Roe Green Walled Garden. Carrying out this much needed work will enable us to continue our work maintaining Fryent Country Park and Roe Green Walled Garden so future generations can enjoy these spaces and carry the baton to continue efforts to preserve our green spaces and the natural environment.

 

You can book a place at the event You Decide at Kingsbury High School on Saturday, June 25th, between 1:00 and 3:30 pm, by following the button.

 

Saturday, 25th June, 2022

From 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm

 

Kingsbury High School,

Tyler's Hall,

Bacon Lane, NW9 9AT

This is for residents who live in the Kingsbury and Kenton Brent Connects area.

Click Here to Register to Vote

Labour leaflet's ambiguous claims over sources of funding to help residents

 

Under the headline 'Your Labour Council is reducing the cost of living in Queensbury' the Labour Party is distributing the above claims in its election leaflet distributed in the ward.

Some are at best ambigous and suggest help is from the council rather than via the council.  Take for example the £150 refund on Council Tax. The Council's own website is very clear this this comes from the government:

A Council response to a Freedom of Information request by Paul Lorber lists all the Covid-19 grants that have been available and is a valuable source for cross-checking claims over the forthcoming period.

You will note that the Brent Council appears to have been unsuccessful in spending some of the grants available for business, while the Schools Department has, rightly, spent to the full.  Overall the 'repayment' column, totally £70m is concerning - is this unspent money that the council had to pay back to the government?

Brent Council Leader Muhammed Butt claims 'Levelling Up' funding criteria discriminates against London

 This is an unedited press release from Brent Council published today:

 

The funding formula for a £4.8billion package of infrastructure investment has been criticised as it does not use standard measures to assess levels of need and has led to London boroughs like Brent missing out on the top priority list.

The Government’s ‘Levelling Up Fund’ details how local authorities can bid for cash to pay for projects that can help boost the economy such as transport improvements, town centre regeneration, culture and heritage.

Every local authority in England has been put into one of three tiers – with tier 1 being those areas deemed most in need of investment. Only two London’s boroughs are in the top tier that mainly contains authorities from northern England. 

Out of the three tiers, Brent has been marked down into the second group. This is despite Brent having a relatively high level of unemployment – with 23,160 residents out of work and more than 10 percent of the borough’s working age population claiming unemployment benefits. The average claimant rate across the areas first in line for cash from the Levelling Up Fund is 7 per cent, three per cent lower than Brent. 

The Office of National Statistics also shows that Brent is the 38^th worst area for average income deprivation out of 314 local authorities in England.

"If the Covid crisis has taught us anything it has proved beyond doubt how unequal our society has become,” says Cllr Muhammed Butt, Brent Council Leader. “We have all been in the same storm but we’re not all in the same boat. Inequality costs lives and prevents people in less well-off areas from reaching their full potential. 

“Even when the pandemic is over, the legacy of job losses, reduced hours and poor mental and physical health are all issues that need urgent action. No one should be left behind and levelling up parts of northern England should not be at the expense of diverse boroughs like Brent. The council is determined to make Brent better, fairer and greener but we cannot do this alone. The council is concerned that the criteria used to assess the funding needs of different areas seems to discriminate against London. We are lobbying the Government to change the funding formula and make areas like Brent a priority for investment too.”

Sadiq Khan agrees 6 month deal on TfL funding - scrapping of Under-18s and Over-60s free travel 'defeated' or just delayed?

 From the London Mayor Sadiq Khan's Office

The Mayor of London has today reached an eleventh-hour agreement with the Government on a funding deal to keep tube, bus and other TfL services in the capital running until March 2021.

Sadiq Khan said the deal was "not ideal” but added: "We fought hard against this Government which is so determined to punish our city for doing the right thing to tackle Covid-19. The only reason TfL needs government support is because its fares income has almost dried up since March.”

The Mayor has succeeded in killing off the very worst Government proposals, which were confirmed in writing by the Transport Secretary during the negotiations. The Mayor had rejected the extension of the £15 daily Congestion Charge to the North and South circular roads as ministers had wanted – in a proposal which would have hit four million more Londoners hard. The Government has now backed down from this condition.

The Government also wanted to scrap free travel for under-18s and over-60s. These proposals have also been successfully defeated. The Government also wanted TfL fares to rise by more than the previously agreed RPI+1 per cent This has also been successfully fought off.

The deal makes around £1.8 billion of Government grant and borrowing available on current projections to TfL in the second half of this financial year. Transport for London will itself make up through cost savings the £160million gap the deal leaves from the nearly £2 billion the organisation projects it will need to run the tube, bus & other TfL services for the remainder of this financial year.

As part of the deal, London will also have to raise extra money in future years. Decisions about how this additional funding will be raised are yet to be made by the Mayor, but some of the options that he and the government have agreed to be looked at include a modest increase in council tax, pending the appropriate consultation, as well as keeping in place the temporary changes to the central London Congestion Charge that were introduced in June 2020, subject to consultation.

Despite providing the private rail operating companies with 18 months of funding with no conditions attached, the Government has refused to give TfL more than a six-month deal and even this has come with conditions. This means another financial agreement will have to be negotiated just before next year’s mayoral election, a far from ideal time to negotiate a fair long-term deal for London.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said:

“These negotiations with Government have been an appalling and totally unnecessary distraction at a time when every ounce of attention should have been focused on trying to slow the spread of Covid-19 and protecting jobs.

“The pandemic has had the same impact on the finances of the privatised rail companies as it has had on TfL and the Government immediately bailed them out for 18 months with no strings attached. There is simply no reason why the same easy solution could not have been applied to London, which would have allowed us all to focus on the issues that matter most to Londoners, which are tackling the virus and protecting jobs.

“I am pleased that we have succeeded in killing off the very worst Government proposals.

"These proposals from the Government would have hammered Londoners by massively expanding the congestion charge zone, scrapping free travel for older and younger Londoners and increasing TfL fares by more than RPI+1. I am determined that none of this will now happen.

"This is not a perfect deal, but we fought hard to get to the best possible place. The only reason TfL needs Government support is because almost all our fares income has dried up since March as Londoners have done the right thing.”

From London Green Party

Green Party Assembly Member and Mayoral Candidate,  Sian Berry said: 

"A six month agreement leaves all the same arguments to flare up again ahead of the Mayor and Assembly elections when we needed long-term security.

"I am sick of Londoners being used as a political football by the Government. It's clear is so many recent events that they are only interested in winning power. not governing well and the uncertainty this leaves Londoners facing is not in the city's best interests.

And it is completely unfair to make a council tax rise and fare increase cover travelcards for older and young Londoners. If we had a fair, smart road charging system in the works for a longer term deal, these extra charges for all Londoners would not be necessary."

 

NEU survey finds schools at breaking point as funding pressures hit support for SEND pupils

The results of a snapshot survey of 1,026 primary and secondary school teachers in England, shows the alarming levels of inadequate and underfunded provision for pupils with Special Educational Neesd and Disability (SEND). School and local authority budget cuts are making it nigh impossible to provide the quality of education that every child with SEND is entitled to and which teachers, pecial Edcational needs Co-ordintors (SENCOs) and school staff want to be giving.

When asked to describe the situation at their school, and whether there are enough appropriately trained staff to support SEND pupils effectively:

·      81% said that there was ‘less than enough’ staff.

·      Only 14% believed that there was ‘about enough’ or ‘more than enough’.

·       

Respondents went further, describing their personal situation in compelling detail:

·      “Half of the teaching assistants were made redundant. Only seven Teaching Assistants (TAs) for nearly 800 kids.”

·      “Number of SEND support staff is a quarter of what it was ten years ago.”

·      “Cut by over 50% due to budget cuts.”

·      “Class sizes too large, so even when support is available, it’s ineffective.”

·      “28 students on SEND register and no support. I teach a practical subject where it is dangerous.”

·       

When asked if there has been a change in the number of learning support assistants or TAs at their school since 2017, as a consequence of real-terms funding cuts:

·      73% confirmed there were now fewer posts.

·      As a consequence of these staff cuts, 94% of respondents confirmed that it was having a negative effect on the support which schools are able to give SEND pupils.

·       

The survey also asked what barriers are faced by SEND pupils in the school environment:

·      Excessive waiting times for access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), speech and language or behaviour support, is true for 95% of primary schools and 75% of secondary schools, according to respondents.

·      The situation is generally worse for primary schools. 84% reported excessive waiting times for assessment of need/Education. Health and Care plans, compared to 65% in secondary schools. 56% of primaries confirmed there are no local specialist services available to them, compared with 40% of secondaries.

·      Over one-third of primary school respondents (38%) said that a school or parent must personally fund pupil assessments as the local authority cannot. This compares with a quarter (25%) of secondary respondents.

·      Across the board, 82% of respondents confirmed that SENCOs do not have enough time to support classroom teachers.

90% of respondents said these barriers conspire to make it harder for pupils to access the curriculum or succeed in learning. 94% confirm that the pressures on teaching are increasing as a direct result and 59% said pupils miss school, part of the school day or part of the curriculum.

Finally, we asked respondents to consider the National Audit Office’s question as to how support, and outcomes, for pupils with SEND could be improved within current funding levels. 

The responses were overwhelmingly of a piece:

·      “Not within current funding levels. It’s impossible.”

·      “Less paperwork? But really, they can’t. Funding must be increased for improvement.”

·      “We need more people on the ground.”

·      “To be honest maintaining current funding levels is out of the question – education is in crisis.”

·      “Within current funding? No way. Schools are stretched tight!”

·      “Teachers want to meet the needs of all children but we are not experts. We now have to buy in to   essential services and we cannot afford to do so.”

·      “We have children on part-time timetables as adequate support cannot be given. We have staff off on stress as adequate support cannot be given. Both of these could be alleviated 

           by better funding.”

Reacting to the findings, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:

“These are shocking reports from the frontline of teaching. The infrastructure to support SEND pupils is wearing away. Schools do everything they can, but the barriers and waiting lists created by this Government’s actions, are having terrible effects on pupils who need help now. It is alarming that excessive waiting times are more pronounced in primary schools, where early intervention is so vital, and that so many children are on part-time timetables.

“These facts are plain to schools and parents. It therefore beggars belief that in spite of successive reports showing the real experience of teachers and school leaders, the Department for Education simply digs its heels over funding. The NEU will continue to campaign for our schools to get the funding they need to give children the education they deserve.”

Apply by January 25th for funds to create or refurbish local pocket parks

 

Wooden sculptures in Tubbs Road Pocket Park

The government, through the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government,  is inviting applications from community groups interested in establishing a new pocket park or refurbishing an existing one. The government has unfortunately given a very tight deadline of 5pm on Friday 25 January for applications but, if you would like to make one, please visit the government’s website for full details and an application form. LINK

From the Prospectus:

What is Pocket Parks Plus?

The scheme provides grants to community-led bodies working in partnership with their local authority with the aim of creating new pocket parks or bringing existing green spaces up to a safe, usable standard and ensuring long-term support for those initiatives. 

For the purposes of this scheme we will define a pocket park as a piece of land of up to 0.4 hectares (although many are around 0.02 hectares, the size of a tennis court) which may already be under grass, but which is unused, undeveloped or derelict.

Why is this support available?

Building safer, stronger communities and creating places which are ‘owned’ and valued by everyone within local communities are key to the aims of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. 

We know that communities value the green spaces around them and their positive impact on social well-being and physical and mental health is well documented. This programme will focus on providing spaces that are tailored to address the needs of a local area. Providing spaces where people can enhance their wellbeing, have access to healthy exercise, meet other people and find companionship are vital in addressing issues such as increasing health costs, loneliness and division within local communities. Parks and green spaces provide a wealth of opportunities to get closer to nature, meet up with friends, play, take physical exercise, walk the dog or even just have some quiet time in the fresh air with a cup of coffee from their local high street. They could also be used to hold community events such as street parties or music events which support local retailers. 

Parks can also contribute to wider government outcomes, including delivering a quality natural environment and increasing opportunities for people to overcome isolation and engage with their communities. 

To help achieve these aims we will prioritise our support to communities who can provide evidence of local needs that can be addressed through the creation or refurbishment of a green space.

Pocket parks – locally identified, smaller areas of green space ultra-local to where people live and work – can provide those wellbeing opportunities, as well as helping to improve community integration, community pride and social action, especially where communities are involved in the upkeep and development decisions of the park. 

In this scheme we will consider projects for refurbishment of a park or part of a park where this will bring those currently in a state of disrepair back into public use for the long-term and provide a safe accessible place for people in the local community to use. This could include improving access for those with limited mobilty or building or refurbishing a children’s play area, enabling the park to be a focal point for young families. This does not include funding of general maintenance or repairs which remains the responsibility of the local authority. 

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is therefore providing a £1 million fund to support the development of new pocket parks and to refurbish existing parks that have fallen into disrepair where their restoration could have a significant positive impact on the local community and address a specific local need. This funding will help put communities and their partners in a position to take on the management of green spaces of value to them, and contribute resource towards upgrading spaces so that they are in good condition and communities can focus on managing them for the future. 

Applications must reach us by email at pocketparksplus@communities.gov.uk by 5:00pm on Friday 25 January 2019

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Brent receives share of migration funding

Unedited press release from Brent Council

Brent has been awarded over £440,000 of funding over three years from a £19 million government pot to help support emerging communities in Brent.


Aiming to ease pressure on local services from recent migration, the fund will help Brent Council provide services to meet the growth in new communities and put support structures in place for new residents which promote independence and help them to adapt to life in the UK.


This includes a new community outreach team as well as drop-in sessions, Eastern European and Latin American fairs and recognised courses in English Language (ESOL), which will cover CV-building, employability and citizenship skills, designed to equip residents with the tools they need to participate in daily life.


Also on offer will be conversational English workshops and cross-cultural activities to celebrate and share community culture.


Cllr Margaret McLennan, Deputy Leader of Brent Council said:

Brent is one of the most diverse boroughs in London and we want to make sure that new residents feel supported and equipped to take part in everyday life. We work hard to make Brent a great place to live and work. At a time of stretched resources for councils across the country, this funding will help meet the challenges of a growing population as we take a joined up approach to easing pressure on local services.


This funding gives us the opportunity to provide a wealth of resources for new residents which they can rely on, reducing the risk of exploitation by rogue landlords or employers who pay below the legal minimum wage.

The funding will be delivered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to support projects until 2020.

Figures reveal decline in demand for Reception school places in Brent

An FoI request regarding school rolls in Brent following the January 'in Year' census has revealed a considerable number of unfilled Reception class places in the borough as well as unfilled places scattered across the primary school years.  Some of the vacancies are at schools that were expanded as a result of the high primary demand of recent years. Demographic factors such as EU citizens going home post-Brexit and families being housed outside of London as a result of the Benefit Cap may have affected the numbers.

In the late 70s primary schools suffered from what was called 'falling rolls' as the population of children reduced.  This resulted in the closure of some schools and amalgamation of others. In what was then the Inner London Education Authority teachers were compulsorily redeployed to schools needing teachers.

We are not at that point yet but some schools might eventually reduce their forms of entry - the number of classes they take in at Reception and then in each year group throughout the school. Each form of entry is 30 pupils, so when interpreting the figures for the number of vacancies in each school the number of forms of entry needs to be taken into account. 10 vacancies in a five form entry school is much less serious that 10 vacancies in a one form entry school.

School funding is for the most part based on the number of pupils, so schools suffering from a large number of vacancies will incur a financial loss. Budgeting becomes more difficult when the reduction in numbers is less than a whole class, so the school cannot reduce the number of teachers but has less money to spend on them and teaching assistants.  I understand that some schools which have expanded may have negotiated a 'cushion; with the local authority so they are funded for a full teacher's salary even if the class has vacancies. Unfilled vacancies reduce the number of pupil in each class in a cohort so there is some educational advantage but at a time of education cuts these are undermined by the financial impact.

The core funding per primary pupil (before sums for deprivation, EAL and other factors are added) is about £3,400.

In the table below, based on the FoI response LINK,  I have included vacancies throughout the school as well as Reception vacancies. I have listed only those schools with significant vacancies. St Mary's RC Primary at only 2 forms of entry is the one with one of the highest percentage vacancies.

Kilburn Grange Free School is not funded by the local authority but instead directly funded by the DfE. As a new school it only has children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. It has only filled the equivalent of 4 out of 6 classes.

The figures do raise the issue of whether the planned Ark Primary free school on the carpark of York House in Wembley is needed at its planned 3 forms of entry (90 children a year) when the recently expanded Elsley Primary School (it doubled in size) has 48 vacancies, although it will be argued the places are needed for the new Quintain developments.

School Name	Forms of entry	Vacancies (unfilled places Reception)	Waiting List	Total vacancies whole school
Brentfield	3	20	0	44
Bryon Court	5	44	0	69
Carlton Vale Infants	2	22	0	66
Christchurch CofE	1	8	0	21
East Lane Primary	3	0	0	156
Elsley Primary School	4	48	0	71
Harlesden Primary School	3	38	0	112
Kilburn Grange Free School	2	13	0	62
Lyon Park Primary	4	8	2	20
Newfield Primary	2	17	1	48
Preston Park Primary	3	12	1	45
Roe Green Strathcona School	1	23	1	75
St Andrew & St Francis CofE	2	9	0	18
St Mary's CofE Primary	2	7	1	48
St Mary's RC Primary School	2	25	0	150
The Stonebridge Primary	3	57	0	85
Uxendon Primary School	3	16	2	53
Total vacancies		367		1143

How Brent schools have been hit by real-terms funding cut

From the National Education Union

While schools have been doing all they can to shield their pupils from the damage caused by the £2.8 billion real-terms cut from school budgets since 2015, the lack of investment in education is really biting.

The latest research from the School Cuts Coalition, drawn from figures produced by the Government itself, shows that secondary school staff numbers in England have fallen by 15,000 between 2014/15 and 2016/17 despite them having 4,500 more pupils to teach.

Secondary schools have seen their staffing fall by an average of 5.5 posts since 2015. These cuts are affecting front line teaching, with each school losing an average of 2.4 classroom teachers and 1.6 teaching assistants as well as 1.5 support staff. 

The School Cuts coalition warn that the situation is likely to get even worse, as 17,942 (nine out of ten) primary and secondary schools in England and Wales are predicted to be hit by a real-terms cut in funding per pupil between 2015-19.

Hank Roberts, Brent ATL secretary said, “Government cuts to education are really hurting Brent’s schools. This new research shows the effect cuts are having on Brent's schools.”

Sotira Michael, Brent NUT secretary said, “We should be investing in our young people. Education Secretary Damian Hinds must make school funding is top priority.”

To see how funding cuts have affected your school, visit schoolcuts.org.uk

 

THE FIGURES FOR BRENT SCHOOLS ARE IN THE SPREADSHEET BELOW (Click bottom right square to enlarge)

The data is drawn from a comparison of School workforce in England: November 2016 and School workforce in England: November 2014. We have also used Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2015 and Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2017 to calculate the pupil : classroom teacher ratio and the pupil : teaching assistant ratio.