Some local Labour Party members complained to me last week that they were 'always the last to know' about Labour events in Brent - Wembley Matters often knows before them.
Brent Council's photo of Khan visit
It does seem that Sadiq Khan's PR visit to South Kilburn, to sing the praises of Brent Council's housing and regeneration programme, was kept under wraps - perhaps to avoid any embarrassing interventions by local residents (see Kilburn Times Letters page this week). Jeremy Corbyn's visit to the Rauch City Church (the former Gaumont Cinema) in Kilburn High Road this evening was only a rumour until a few days ago.
It is perhaps fitting, given some of the more over the top declarations of support for JC, that tonight's event is being held in a place of worship.
Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt has always been close to Khan, at one time there was even a wild rumour that he might land a City Hall job, but he has not joined the Labour List LINK group of councillors backing Owen Smith.
Given their closeness he may have known about Khan's intention to come out in support of Owen Smith in today's Observer.
These are our local councillors who are supporting Smith:
The list of councillor supporters of Corbyn is rather harder to access as it is in no particular order but Cllrs Claudia Hector and Rita Conneely are on the list. A year ago Cllrs Tom Miller and Abdi Aden signed upto support Corbyn.
I am happy to update these lists if any councillor wants to be added.
The headlines from the Olympics are full of the achievement of Usain
Bolt, in winning three sprint gold medals for the third successive Games. But
Bolt was only following the giant strides of one of his predecessors. For a
“small island”, Jamaica has produced some fantastic athletes, but where did
this Olympic success begin? The answer is: Wembley.
The
first time that a team from Jamaica took part in the Olympics was at the London
Games in 1948. The people of the island had raised the money by public
subscription to send them, and most of their athletes reached England after a
24 day voyage on a banana boat. There was no specially-built athletes village
for the competitors at these post-war “austerity Games”, and while the men were
housed, along with some other Commonwealth teams, at Wembley County School in
Stanley Avenue (now part of Alperton Community School), the women stayed as
guests of local families. You can read more about this on the Brent Archives
website LINK
The Jamaican Olympic Team at Wembley County School, July 1949 [Courtesy of the 'Old Alpertonians']
The Jamaican team captain, Arthur Wint, was already in England, having
just finished his first year as a medical student at St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
Born into a middle-class family at Plowden, Manchester County, in 1920, his
life had already been interesting. At 17 he was named Jamaica’s “Boy Athlete of
the Year”, and in 1938 he won the 800m gold medal at the Pan American Games in
Panama. The Second World War put an end to international competitions, and when
the RAF started to recruit from the British colonies, he joined up with his
brothers, Lloyd and Douglas, in 1942. Along with many other Jamaicans, they
were trained in Canada. He gained his “wings” in 1944, and saw active service
as a Spitfire pilot until 1947, when he left the RAF having won a scholarship
to train as a doctor.
At
Wembley Stadium, the Jamaicans showed the world what their athletes were
capable of. Wint won silver in the 800m, then went head-to-head with his
team-mate Herb McKenley (who had finished 4th in the 200m) and
several top Americans in the 400m final. McKenley was the favourite, having
recently broken the world record, but the long-striding, 6’5”, Wint overtook
him in the home straight to win Jamaica’s first Olympic gold medal. McKenley
took the silver medal, and they were both hoping for gold
in 4x400m relay. However, disaster struck when Wint pulled a muscle while
trying to chase down the leading USA runner on the final lap.
Arthur Wint taking gold ahead of Herb McKenley in the 400 metres final [Source Brent Archives - 1948 official Report]
Arthur Wint promised his disappointed relay team-mates that they would
have a gold medal at the next Olympic Games. At Helsinki, in 1952, that promise
was delivered. In the individual events Wint again won silver in the 800m,
while McKenley took silver medals in both the 100m and 400m. As part of the
Jamaican 4x400m relay team they then won gold, in a world record time of
3:03.9.
The 1952 Olympic 4x400m relay champions, Jamaica. L-R: Arthur Wint, George Rhodon, Herb McKenley and Les Laing
After qualifying as a doctor at Bart’s in 1953 (and running his final
race, in an athletics meeting at Wembley Stadium in the same year), Wint went
back to Jamaica in 1955. He worked as the only doctor and surgeon in Hanover
Parish for many years, and in 1973 was awarded the Jamaican Order of
Distinction for his service to charities, schools and business. He returned to
England in 1974 for four years, as his country’s High Commissioner in London,
before working as Senior Medical Officer at Linstead Hospital in Jamaica from
1978 to 1985. He died at Linstead in 1992.
Usain Bolt is a modern giant of athletics, but Arthur Wint, who was
known as “the Gentle Giant”, set a high standard for Jamaica’s Olympians to
follow. If Bolt can follow his glittering career on the track with a life of
service to his country and people like that of his predecessor, he will rightly
be remembered as a true Great.
Wembley Leisure Centre will be opening soon at Grand Felda House on Empire Way, Wembley Park which is yet another student accommodation block.
The Leisure Centre will be run by Better, an off-shoot of the GLL social enterprise. There will be 100+ station gym as well as the 25m swimming pool.
Swimming facilities for Wembley have long been an aspiration for many families. Recently the French School's application for a pool on its site was turned down by Brent Planning Committee. A few years ago a temporary pool at Chalkhill Primary School proved very popular.
It appears from their website that the pool will be bookable by school groups and families but it will be important to check out the costs.
This is what Better say about swimming lessons on their website LINK:
Better Swim School teach more than 90,000 swimmers throughout the UK,
and our swim school programme is designed to be flexible and
affordable, with prices starting from as little as £3 per lesson
(dependent on location). Our experienced, qualified teachers follow the
Amateur Swimming Association's National Learn to Swim Teaching Plan. We
support all swimmers to progress and take the plunge, whatever their
level of ability. Suitable for all age groups, our classes include:
One-to-one sessions
Under 5s
Adult lessons
And much, much more...
On your first visit you can to collect your child's membership card
from reception. You'll also get a free swimming hat from your swimming
teacher, as these must be worn for every lesson.
Progress Tracking
Better Swim School provides an online tool - our Home Portal - that helps you to track your progress or your child's progress in the pool. Once you book a course,
it's easy to set up an account using your unique barcode number. Once
registered, you'll be able to log in to access information and updates
directly from your swimming instructor. Features include:
Record of Achievement - clear and regular updates on progress, including achievements and areas for improvement.
Book Lessons - choose dates, times and Swim School Stage (subject to availability).
One account for multiple children - perfect for schools and families.
Allowing you to move up unto the next class upon successful progression.
Printing your Parent Barcode to gain quick access to our centres at lesson times.
Pay Online - skip the queue and go straight to your lesson.
Our Lessons
Lessons are delivered on a rolling programme that allows pupils to
join at any stage and progress at their own pace. For those who want to
make waves quickly, one-to-one lessons are available, as well as
intensive courses during the holidays. Our lessons operate for 50 weeks
of the year with a gap in lessons over the Christmas period.
For readers unfamiliar with the impact of sickle cell this video provides some background
There have been a number of angry reactions to Nan Tewari's guest blog LINK about the threatened cut to the funding of the Brent Sickle Cell project which highlighted the threat itself and the failure to adequately consult with the populations most affected in Stonebridge and Harlesden wards.
The decision of the Brent Clinical Commissing Group to hold a consultation meeting at an inconvenient time in Wembley Park drew this response:
The decision to hold the meeting away from Harlesden and Stonebridge is a
deliberate and cynical act of tokenism by Brent CCG and renders the
meeting as merely a 'paper exercise'. Why is Brent CCG treating this
vulnerable group of patients in such a dismissive way?
It would
appear that Brent CCG is increasingly showing itself to be incapable of
performing it's functions with any degree of competence.
Time it was held up to public scrutiny.
One comment asked bluntly if it was 'because we are black?'
Nan herself put it in the context of the treatment of residents in Harlesden and Stonebridge and the perceived lack of action by local councillors.
As if it weren't bad enough that the Central Mid A & E was closed down.....
As if it weren't bad enough that sickle cell treatment was moved to Northwick Park, 2 buses away......
As if it weren't bad enough the Harlesden population lives a decade less than others in Brent......
I
suppose after closing down the Stonebridge adventure playground,
Brent's councillors are too embarrassed to take Brent CCG to task over
this - if indeed the sleepy councillors can even be bothered about it -
after all, Harlesden and Stonebridge are pretty much captive voters for
them.
Leroy Decosta Simpson, Harlesden activist said that he would would like to see the paperwork and get his 'big bwoys' to look into it.
Philip Grant in his usual meticulous way looked at the documentation and wrote:
The report that went to the CCG's Governing Body on 6 July includes the following important paragraph:
'Overall
the service is seen by service users as a valued and forward thinking
service model that supports the management of this long term condition,
in an area of particularly high prevalence. However, the agreed Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs) demonstrate a level of performance that
requires improving. The service provider has cited a number of
operational issues which has adversely impacted on performance and
delivery of the KPIs.'
The first sentence confirms that the
project, which had only been running for a year, was already providing a
very valuable and worthwhile service to the people who needed it most.
The
second sentence refers to the failure to meet some of the "Key
Performance Indicators", showing that the service needed to be improved,
while the third sentence shows that there were reasons to show why
these KPI's had not been met in the first year.
Given the
positive impact of providing the service in its "start-up" year, it is
difficult to understand why it was not given at least another year to
make the improvements that were needed. Instead, the CCG's Executive
recommended, and the Governing Body accepted, the following option:
'Not
to extend the pilot but explore alternative sustainable models for care
for example a peer support model with Brent Council or the use of the
PAM tool can be explored to support this cohort of patients.'
It
appears that the CCG wants to pass some of its own responsibility for
(and cost of) the care of sickle cell sufferers onto Brent Council,
whose services are already stretched, without consulting with or
considering the needs of 'this cohort of patients'.
Nan Tewari, referring to the last paragraph, responded:
A fellow patient rep who attended
the CCG meeting said afterwards, that the Brent Council public Health
rep on the Governing Body said flatly that the council had no money to
support a project.
This issue, which disproportionately affects Brent's Black Caribbean and Black African population, is one that could cause massive disaffection. The CCG's decision needs to be reviewed, proper consultation put in place and an independent Equalities Impact Assessment carried out.
Incidence of sickle cell trait is approximately 1 in 4 West Africans and 1 in 10 Black Caribbean.
The Brent Patient Voice submission to the CCG can be found HERE The Brent CCG Governing Body papers can be found HERE
Today is the 40th anniversary of the first moments of
the Grunwick strike – and we're proud to announce our plans to
commemorate it.
We'll be running a series of inspiring, thought-provoking events
exploring Grunwick and its legacy, launching with Grunwick
Memories on Saturday 27 August.
Grunwick Memories is a free event, giving you the
opportunity to explore and contribute to the Grunwick archive held by
Brent Museum and Archives. Come along and take part in
a story sharing session and add your memories and experiences of
the strike to the Archive. You will also get an exclusive look at
some of the materials that will feature in the upcoming exhibition.
Grunwick Memories will take place at Brent Archive, on
the second floor of The Library at Willesden Green, Willesden High
Road NW10 2SF, from 2-4 pm on Saturday 27 August. Please join us! Email museum.archives@brent.gov.uk or
call 020 8937 3600 for more information.
Other upcoming events:
• We are those lions: The story of the Grunwick strike
1976-78 exhibition, launching October 2016 at The
Library at Willesden Green. Look out for the launch date – coming
soon.
• The Great Grunwick Mural unveiling, Chapter Road, NW10.
Be the first to see our amazing murals in place near the original
Grunwick site. The design and unveiling details are still under
wraps, but we'll be revealing details over the next few weeks, along
with the names of our special guests, who'll be providing music and
entertainment.
• Explore Grunwick in more detail at our November
events, a film screening and discussion on “Race and the
Unions” at SOAS, November 2nd, and Grunwick 40: The
Conference, The Library at Willesden Green, November 26th –
booking for these events will open in October.
Yours in solidarity,
Grunwick 40
PS: Don't miss out on the reissued anniversary edition of Grunwick:
The Workers’ Story, by Jack Dromey and Graham Taylor, with
an updated introduction – due out in late September.
From Mohammed S Mamdani, Director, Sufra NW London
Chef Ignacio is on a mission to recruit, train and find employment for 20 adults in the catering industry.
This autumn, Sufra NW London launches Food Academy Plus, which will transform the lives of people who are on a low-income or long-term unemployed. It’s an intensive 10-week programme, requiring a commitment of 24 hours each week, which will include all the training, coaching and support needed to find sustainable employment.
It’s our most exciting project ever (I know I’ve said that about everything we do, but seriously, it gets even more exciting every time!).
Across the programme, participants will learn professional cooking skills, project management skills and customer service. There will also be compulsory study sessions in numeracy, literacy and ICT, work experience in a professional restaurant at the London Designer Outlet – as well as the support of a mentor and employment coach throughout. There will be plenty of real-life experience, including setting up a food stall outside Brent Civic Centre.
The programme will end with a pop-up restaurant at Sufra NW London, where we will invite local employers to see the skills of our graduates first-hand and head-hunt for new chefs, waiters and restaurant staff.
As an incentive, participants will receive a free chef’s uniform, 3-month bus pass and access to all in-house support and opportunities available at Sufra NW London. That includes a discretionary fund, which is used to financially support vulnerable and/or low-income volunteers. It really gets better and better!
We’re making a huge investment in this programme, and Chef Ignacio has a little bit of the Gordon Ramsey about him. He takes no bullsh*t and is looking for committed people who really want to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.
Interested candidates will need to complete an application form, which is available here. The deadline for applications is Thursday 22 September 2016 with interviews the following week.
VOLUNTEER: To support the programme, Chef Ignacio is looking for additional volunteers to assist with basic skills training in literacy, numeracy and ICT as well mentoring new recruits. You can find information on both roles here.
PROMOTE: If you work for a charity or community organisation, and would like us to come and present the opportunity to your service users or members, Paul and Karlem will be happy to come over for a chat.
What’s happening to the regular Food Academy programme?
It’s still happening. Chef Ignacio will continue to invest in the cookery skills of young people. If you’re aged under 19 years (and older than 12) expect to be astounded by Ignacio’s knife skills and his focaccia bread.
The course runs on Saturday mornings from 10am to 2pm for 5 weeks. At the end you’ll receive a recognised AQA certificate. You can register here.
1Voice Community Forum is a voluntary charity run by parent carers for
parent carers of disabled children who live in Brent.
Our main purpose is to relieve the needs of families and carers by offering
practical advice, support and signposting them to services and facilities that
are available to meet their needs. We also encourage parents to participate in
training and consultation events to empower themselves to reach a positive and
best outcome for their families.
We do this by running regular parent groups,
events, trips, attendance at relevant conferences and by running free
training on legislation and new guidance at the local and national level.
We also provide targeted training for parents on managing their children’s
disability and behavior in partnership with our colleagues from health,
education and voluntary agencies.
On Sunday August 28th we are holding a Community Fun 'n Pamper Day at Brent Civic Centre from 11am to 4pm. Starbucks are donating us space in their coffee shop and we are inviting you to join us for a day of relaxation, children's fun and enjoyment whilst you relax and enjoy the pampering on offer.
Prices are £2 adults and £1 children in advance or £3 adults and £2 children on the door.
Proceeds will go towards running our organisation.
We will be joined by Jeremy Corbyn, trade unionists and community
activists from across the country at this event on Sunday in Kilburn. This will be a coming together to
show support for Jeremy’s vision to rebuild and transform Britain.
This is a ticketed event so please RSVP HERE
The moral panic surrounding the launch of new media titles is not new, as I have discussed previously
when comparing the audience response of Disney’s film ‘Frozen’ to that
of the Disney ‘Davy Crockett’ film launched in the 1950s, but what is of
interest is the speed of this response, given that ‘Pokémon Go’ was
only launched a few weeks ago, on July 6th. The rapid take-up of the app
has occurred with little direct marketing.
For
the uninitiated, the free-to-play app draws on augmented reality
technology to enable players to capture and train virtual Pokémon
creatures, whose images pop up, overlaid on the ‘real’ world, on a
mobile device. Augmented Reality (AR) consists of a blend of the
physical world and the virtual world. In this blended reality,
three-dimensional images or environments are projected onto a physical
object or terrain, but users are not immersed in the same way as they
are with virtual reality experiences.
This is not the first app to use augmented reality to entice its users. We undertook a research study
on under 5’s use of tablet apps in the UK, in which children’s
engagement with augmented reality apps was examined. The research team
watched as children, enthralled, made the popular charity figure Pudsey
bear appear in 3D and dance to disco music using the Quiver app, or played with augmented reality animals that appeared in the ‘AR Flascards’ app. As we stated in a subsequent paper
from the study which reflected on play in the digital age,
“Contemporary play draws on both the digital and non-digital properties
of things and in doing so moves fluidly across boundaries of space and
time in ways that were not possible in the pre-digital era” (Marsh et
al., 2016). Augmented reality technology is still at an early stage of
development, but the hype surrounding it indicates that it has the
potential to excite and is a feature that is bound to become more
prevalent in the toy and game industry in the future.
The
‘Pokémon Go’ app is notable for its popularity across generations. It
appeals to those who collected the plastic Pokémon monsters in the
brand’s earlier incarnations, taking them back to a fondly remembered
childhood pastime. It could even remind them of previous GPS
location-based tagging games they may have played, such as ‘Foursquare’
(whose creator, Dennis Crowley, has said he is not at all bitter about the success of ‘Pokémon Go’).
Such nostalgic media practices are nothing new, as numerous scholars have noted,
but what makes this one particularly exciting for its adult fans is the
transformation of their childhood monsters into virtual characters that
live in their smartphone. The app is also drawing in a new Pokémon
audience, one that knows little about the original television animation,
video games or toys, launched initially in 1995. It offers
opportunities, therefore, for family play, as noted by commentators who are keen to identify the game’s positive elements in the face of all of the media panic. And, as some have asked, shouldn’t we be pleased that the game has got people off sofas and into their local environments?
Of
course, this calculated appeal to an intergenerational audience is one
that is already paying off, with the app becoming more successful on
launch than Candy Crush, and Nintendo, the original creators of Pokémon,
estimated
to be worth an additional $12 billion because of it. For both Nintendo
and Niantic, the company that created the app, the real value of the
game may not be in the microtransactions it embeds, with the possibility
to purchase in-game features, but in the potential commercial use of
the data it collects from the people who play it. This, as scholars of children’s media practices have pointed out in relation to other digital games, raises key questions about data privacy and children’s rights.
It
would seem, therefore, that the launch of ‘Pokémon Go’ has resulted in
the familiar tropes of panic and hype that surround many launches of new
games and toys. The longevity of the app is difficult to ascertain at
this point in time. When the excitement dies down, it remains to be seen
what the impact of the app will be on future markets for this kind of
game.
‘Pokémon
Go’ has succeeded because of its combination of GPS and augmented
reality technologies, linked to a very popular media brand that already
involved collecting items — thus, players enjoy the familiarity of
playing with the old alongside experiencing the excitement of engaging
with the new. It will be difficult for other game studios to copy that
specific dynamic, but no doubt there will be many attempts to do so, and
we could see location-based AR games becoming further intertwined with
popular culture as people search local communities for virtual
representations of toys, musicians, TV and film characters, media icons
and more.
In
time, apps may be made available that enable user-generated content, so
that the general public can leave their virtual wares in physical spaces
for others to gather. Given children’s appetite for media content
created by other children, that would undoubtedly be a popular type of
app, albeit one potentially fraught with all kinds of safety issues. It
will be incumbent upon researchers of children’s media use to trace the
risks embedded in such developments, but also to identify the
opportunities they present for engaging children and young people in
digital content creation.
Now, forgive me, but I really have to leave it at that and get ready to go to my local ‘Pokémon Picnic’ — who knows, I might catch an Articuno…
– Jackie MarshProfessor of Education, Chair of the DigiLitEY project.
The Green Party has urged the British Government to act on its promise to help unaccompanied child refugees as UK councillors visit Calais LINK.
Natalie Bennett, Green Party Leader, said:
Britain has a humanitarian responsibility to help the unaccompanied children in Calais - and through what was known as the Dubbs amendment, passed four months ago, we have promised to do so.
Yet the Government has not acted, and thousands of unaccompanied children fleeing war have been left in acute danger.
History will not judge us favourably if we abandon our responsibility to these children.
The Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre, loved by generations of Brent children, was saved from closure when Thames 21 took over its running.
The extensive grounds need regular conservation to maximise habitat provision and volunteers are needed this Sunday, August 21st, 10am - 2pm to work on forming glades.
The extensive woodlands around the Centre (red circle)
This is the notice from Thames 21
INTERESTED IN CONSERVATION? Be part of a new Friends of the Welsh Harp group at this first Conservation Day.
This exciting new group will support the activities of the Welsh Harp
Environmental Education Centre and you will learn how to manage the
habitats in the area.
All welcome. Under 16’s need to be accompanied by a responsible
adult. Please bring a packed lunch. Meeting location will be at
the Education Centre.
We are going to be continuing forming glades as we did during the
first successful event. Thank you to all of those who made that event a
success! A glade is an open area within a woodland. A lot of the glades
around the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre are choked with ivy, as a consequence, biodiversity is not as high as it could be at
ground level within the woodland.
If the temperature is a lot cooler, we may tackle some small
blackthorn trees intruding on an area which should be wild grassland.
The Centre is at the end of Birchen Grove, off Blackbird Hill, Kingsbury, NW9 8RY Go through the large green gates and it is on the left past the allotments. Buses 182, 245 and 297 to Blackbird Hill get off at Lidl/McDonalds. 83 bus get off at Tudor Gardens.
Patients of the Sudbury Primary Care Practice are objecting to their GP practice being taken over a new provider without any consultation. In this guest blog Paul Lorber expresses his anger about their treatment by NHS England:
The patients from Sudbury have had enough of being messed about by the bureaucrats from NHS England.
We therefore occupied the GP Surgery in protest at being ignored.
NHS England are refusing inform us as patients and do not respond to any communications.
We (I have been a patient of this practice for over 30 years) have therefore decided to take direct action to hammer home our message.
More occupations are planned as we are determined to keep our existing doctors and not have the GP Surgery taken over.
These are my letters to NHS England:
Dear Ms Peppard
Please treat this email as a formal complaint against NHS England.
NHS England have created confusion, uncertainty and worry for the over 8,000 patients at this GP Surgery over the past 12 months.
NHS England representatives have provided misinformation and NO information and failed to respond to questions on a timely basis.
It is clear to me as a taxpayer that all the NHS England is good at is to waste public money and that the organisation is nothing more than a self serving waste of time.
Can you please pass this email to the head of NHS England and ask him/her to answer a very simple question by Friday of this week - What have NHS England done with my GPs and why have they failed to inform me?
Yours sincerely Paul Lorber
Dear Ms Peppard
I note that another 9 days have passed without any information from NHS England.
After all I am only a patient so what do I matter?
Yet the NHS England spokesperson is happy to tell the local Newspaper that a new provider will take over my GP Surgery on 1 November.
In view of this confident statement of certainty I fail to see why NHS England do have the decency to respond to questions from patients or to keep us informed.
I appreciate that you wish that we all just died or disappeared. Unfortunately we have no intention of doing so and every intention of fighting for our rights and our GPs.
Can you please respond by this Friday.
Yours faithfully
Paul Lorber Patient at Sudbury Vale Farm GP Practice and a Taxpayer contributing to the salaries of NHS England Staff
CVS Training Room, Ground Floor 5 Rutherford Way, Wembley, HA9
0BP Thurs 15 Sept, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
If you are a sickle cell patient, Brent CCG
cordially invites you to trek to Wembley Park for a meeting to deliver
personally, the news that it is about to close the BSCASS (Brent Sickle Cell
Advisory Support Service) project 2 days after the meeting.
Brent CCG regrets it has no money (or
thought) to schedule the meeting in Stonebridge or Harlesden for the
convenience of a vulnerable group of patients.
Brent CCG further regrets it sees no need to
include people who are at high risk of developing sickle cell either.
Brent CCG is pleased however that it does
have the money to spend on expensive solicitors to fend off attempts by Brent
Patient Voice to ensure the CCG complies with proper contract termination
processes; to explain why it had not undertaken an Equality Impact
Assessment before making the decision to cease funding; to give an
undertaking that it would put an alternative support service in place to
patients who have already seen their service relocated to Northwick Park, a
mere 2 bus rides away, and so on and so forth.
The CCG recognises the project has been
effective in reducing hospital out-patient and in-patient admissions. The
Sickle Cell Society has the provider contract for the BSCASS project. The
annual cost is £70,000 which pays for 2 workers. The project was
originally planned (and costed) for 3 years having started in May 2015.
Part of the contract included an agreed joint
governance structure through a steering group. The CCG senior rep only
ever attended one meeting. The CCG had voiced no dissatisfaction with
performance yet suddenly now, it is concerned that the service is not reaching
enough patients. All voluntary sector projects take time to ramp up
having first to recruit staff then to set the service up. The CCG
however, seems to believe that setting up a community project just requires the
handing out of money with no follow-up responsibility for any of the community
development or capacity building activity necessary to get the new service
going.
Contrast this with the help and support the
CCG gives to the Royal Free Hospital as provider of the outpatient cardiology
service to help the RF meet its KPIs (key performance indicators) and the RF’s
continued failure to fully deliver. Better still, more than a year after
the CCG was set up it was still using it’s newness as an excuse for poor
performance in several areas! Different rules for them it seems.
Re the 15 Sept meeting (no consultation from
the CCG on date and time, surprise, surprise) I expect Brent CCG would
appreciate some help on how a parent is meant to leave Wembley Park at 3 p.m.
to get to Harlesden in time to pick children up from school.
Contributions can be e-mailed to: breccg.brentenquiries@nhs.net
Not sure whether the CCG will listen to sense re the meeting date/time,
participation, or anything else, so do watch this space for any updates
The
Terrence Higgins Trust with Brent are Celebrating Diversity and promoting
better sexual health at Brent Mini Pride
Terrence
Higgins Trust will be at Brent Pride on Saturday 17th
September to raise awareness of HIV and of the importance of good sexual
health by promoting sexual health screening and engaging with the local
community in Brent
The UK’s
leading HIV and sexual health charity will be offering residents the
opportunity to come out and celebrate all that is great about Brent’s
culturally diverse community. We will be at Rucklidge Ave Park, Harlesden, NW10
4PS ( nearest tube station Willesden Junction) Between 12pm – 6pm.
Also at
the event will be Brent Fostering Services who will be on hand to offer advice
and support to those considering or wanting to foster children needing a home.
There will also be an ice cream bar, deck chairs for sun bathing (
weather permitting) and music to chill out to and a balloon launch to
mark the occasion along with members from our specialist team on hand to over
advice and support along with free give a ways.
Mark
Banfield Project Manager at Terrence Higgins Trust, said:
Brent is a
fantastic place to be and work in now, with a such a diverse depth of cultures
living together Brent truly demonstrates and encompasses the values of
tolerance, community and unity; it in these values that we are united in and
our acceptance of others and is something we should all feel proud to be a part
of. ‘Pride is a huge celebration for the Brent and we’re thrilled to have the
opportunity to shine. We want everyone to enjoy a safe and happy Pride,
so we would encourage people to drop by our Terrence Higgins Trust stalls to
get the resources they need – whether it’s condoms, information about local
testing services, or just to ask a question about HIV or sexual health.”
Terrence
Higgins Trust provides support, information and advice services for those
living with HIV and affected by HIV or poor sexual health. We provide sexual
health advise and referrals to sexual health services including testing along
with a range of support services for those living with or affected by HIV . We
are based at 2nd Floor, Unit 53, The Design Works, Park Parade,
London, NW10 4HT
A recent report LINK shows Brent Council's carbon footprint has reduced by
11.3 per cent, totalling approximately £220K worth of savings per year.
CO2 emissions have reduced from 14,189 tonnes in 2013/14
to 12,585 in 2015/16, creating a total reduction of 1605 tonnes. The
reduction will continue as our Carbon Management Programme works towards
its target of a 15 per cent total reduction.
This will involve replacing streetlights with greener LED upgrades,
encouraging staff to reduce the energy used in council buildings and
aiming to retrofit some buildings to make them more energy efficient and
better for the environment.
Rescue Our Schools - Families & communities standing up for state education
Dear Supporters,
For this, our 5th newsletter, we have decided to focus on Free Schools.
Did you know that local authorities are no longer permitted to open new schools maintained by them? All new schools must either be academies (often set up by chains or MATs) or so-called "Free Schools". It seems they are costing us tax payers rather a lot...
Free schools have been hitting the headlines again, and not for good reasons. Last week the founder and former head of Kings Science Academy Bradford (one of the first wave of free schools in 2011), along with two staff, was convicted of fraudulently obtaining £150,000 from grants relating to the set up of the school. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-36943526
Add to these clear examples of poor practice growing concerns about how much these additional free schools cost and that the whole programme is not living up to the claims that were made for it.
If there is a free school planned in your area, please look carefully at what is proposed, whether it is really needed, and what impact it might have on existing schools. Rescue Our Schools would like more focus on meeting the needs of existing schools than on extending choice for some at the expense of the system overall.
If you have a state education story that you'd like to share with us and/or our followers, please do drop us a line: info@rescueourschools.co.uk.
Grammar Schools
By all accounts our new Prime Minister, Teresa May, is now considering lifting the long-standing ban on new grammar schools. This is a controversial issue, already triggering much debate. Read Rescue Our School's press release on the subject here: http://www.rescueourschools.co.uk/
What do you think? Do you agree with us that selection means rejection for most pupils? We'd love to hear from you.
Calling all fundraisers and creatives !
Rescue Our Schools is looking for an experienced fundraiser and creatives to volunteer to help raise money so that we can launch some exciting new projects.
We are keen for as many people as possible to know about what's happening to our state education system. If you are on social media, our Facebook and Twitter feeds are full of updates. Why not sign up, like our page or follow us? And if you have already, maybe you could ask your friends to do the same and subscribe to these newsletters? Or you could spark up a conversation with other parents you know? The more people who know about the peril are schools are in, the better.
