Brent Youth Slashed

From Brent Connexions Website

The budget outlines cuts in youth provision that brought about the mass meeting at Brent Town Hall last week LINK 

Restructuring of the Brent Youth Service including job cuts will slash £153,000 from the budget with the cutting of the Dennis Jackson Centre (in Wembley) £36,000, St Raphael Centre £70,000, and Wembley Centre (£101,000). Cuts to Connexions which offers vital  information, advice and support to 13-19 year olds LINK will lose staff.

So the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition has stopped this generation of youths' schools being refurbished and taken away their EMA; and the Labour Council has closed their youth clubs and removed support.

Stand by for a summer of discontent!

Protecting the Vulnerable? Looked after Children and Those with Disabilities and SEN Hit

Victoria Climbie

'Transformation' is the Council's sub-Orwellian speak for cuts. The 'Social Care Transformation' is due to save £1,800,000 and I have been able to find few details about it. However the budget document going to the Executive on Tuesday  says that costs will be reduced in: foster placements, children in residential homes, semi-independent living, payments for adopted children as well as families 'without recourse to public funds'. They also expect to save costs on the Youth Offending Team.

A further  £1,300,000 will be saved through 'rationalisation' of fostering and adoption services and a 'rationalisation' of the safeguarding service through a 'streamlined' child protection conference process. The Young Carers Centre will no longer be funded - a vital support for younger children who are carers to older children or adults in their families.  These children often have to have time off school, take responsibility far beyond their years, and probably save other services thousands of pounds. There will also be reductions in the Crisis Intervention Service.

We were told that there would be no cuts in 'front-line' services - nothing could be more front-line than the services above. In a borough that in the past has been no stranger to scandals over inadequate child protection LINK this is just storing up problems for the future.

The budget also impacts on children with Disabilities and SEN. The valued Easter holiday play schemes will be axed. Alongside the cuts in children centres there will be a reduction in Special Educational Needs support for early years.  What many regard as an already under-staffed Education Psychology Service will be decreased further and a whacking £108,000 charge for non-statutory services will be shifted to schools.

All this will delay help for children most in need and add extra pressures on school staff and school budgets. Again the most vulnerable are being hit.

Three Children Centres Axed, others have budgets reduced

How many will be damaged irreparably by these cold calculations?

The budget going to the Brent Executive on Tuesday includes proposals to save a total of £2,250,000 from early years provision and children centres. An additional £1,300,000 will be cut in 2012-13

The Sudbury and Cricklewood Children Centres and the  Kingsbury Intergenerational Centre  will not start . The existing  centre teams will be restructured which not only will mean a loss of jobs but probably a reduction in the quality of staff as 'expensive' well-qualified early years specialist will no longer be recruited.. Sure Start central expenditure will be reduced as will allocations to each centre. In addition the Council is negotiating with Preston Park Primary, Wykeham Primary and Mount Stewart to persuade them to take over the running of modified children centres on their sites.

Although the document argues that the offer to vulnerable families can be maintained it is hard to see how this will be possible. It must be deeply troubling to Labour councillors to find themselves in this position.  Early intervention has been proved time and time again to be more effective than later intervention and to save money in the long run. It will not only cost more in financial times but the social cost for economically and socially disadvantaged families will be enormous.  Schools already facing funding cuts in real terms will in the future have to make additional provision for pupils who made insufficient progress in early years.

We will be failing a generation.

Save Cricklewood Library Public Meeting

SAVE CRICKLEWOOD LIBRARY

PUBLIC MEETING

Thursday February 10th 6.30pm-8pm

Cricklewood Library, Olive Road, NW2

ESOL Cuts Will Be Devastating for People on Low Wages, Women and Asylum Seekers

David Cameron demanded in his 'multiculturalism' speech that  immigrants should learn English.  At the same time his government is cutting entitlement to English classes at colleges of further education such as the College of North West London. 37% of the students at CNWL attend ESOL courses.  The Action for ESOL Campaign make the case against proposed changes in funding:

People who move to the UK need English language skills to access training, gain employment and participate in society. Enabling new arrivals and longer-term residents to fulfil their potential is essential. Migrants bring with them valuable skills, qualifications and experience which can lie untapped unless they have the chance to learn English.

The best way to achieve this is through publicly funded English language provision known as ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages).

Adequate and sustained funding of ESOL is not a luxury. It is an essential public service. This was recognized by Skills for Life, the national strategy for the improvement of adult literacy and numeracy. Thousands of migrants achieved levels of English which enabled them to join the jobs market, access training and participate more fully in their local communities. The strategy created a national curriculum for ESOL, training and qualifications for ESOL teachers and a research centre, the National Research and Development Centre. But now, the funding made available through the strategy is under threat and the good work begun by Skills for Life could be lost.

The government proposals indicate that:

- Full funding will be only be available for unemployed people on job-seeker’s allowance (JSA) or on employment support allowance (ESA), described as ‘active benefits’.

People on other benefits, described as ‘non-active benefits’, such as income support, or on low wages, and their dependants will have to pay the co-funded rate of 50% or the full cost of the course.

- Asylum seekers and people on Section 4 support will not be eligible for full public funding - they will be expected to pay 50%.

- There will be no public funding for ESOL in the workplace. Learners or employers will be expected to pay full cost.

- Since 2007, ESOL learners on benefits or low incomes have been able to get help towards fees from the discretionary Learner Support Fund for ESOL. We fear this will be unavailable in 2011-12.

- The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) grant which provided support for 16 - 18 year old ESOL learners will be withdrawn.

- The weighting for ESOL and Literacy, which was reduced from 1.4 to 1.2 in 2009, is to be further reduced to 1.0.

We predict devastating effects on ESOL provision, teachers' jobs and ESOL students. We believe that people on low wages, women and asylum seekers are likely to be worst hit.

Sign the Action for ESOL petition HERE

Many Reasons To Save Preston Library - Act Now

Save Preston Library campaigners at action meeting on Saturday

A message from the Save Preston Library Campaign

Brent Council wants to close 50% of libraries in the borough including Preston Library. It will close in June. Once it's gone, it's gone forever. It is likely that the land will be sold to developers and you will have to spend time and money travelling across the borough to access the books and services you pay for with your council tax. Is this fair? First it was education, then disabled centres, then the libraries. What next? Brent Council should be working for you. Don't let them ignore you. Act now!

You can help in many easy ways:

Fill out Brent’s consultation questionnaire at

www.brent.gov.uk/consultation. Paper copies are in the library.

Deadline is 4 MARCH 2011

PLEASE "STRONGLY DISAGREE" WITH COUNCIL PLANS. OTHERWISE IT WILL NOT COUNT.

Come to the Public Meeting: WED 16th FEBRUARY 7.30 - 9.00 pm at Preston Park Primary School, College Road, Wembley, HA9 8RJ.

The more people there, the more the council will take notice.

Sign the online petition (it takes just 30 seconds):

LINK or if this link doesn't work, go to

http://bit.ly/SavePrestonLibraryPetition. (Please sign only one.)

The more signatures, the more councillors will listen. Stand up and be counted.

*****Forward it! Facebook it! Tweet it! ******

Contact your local councillors. They work for you.

Their contact details are posted on http://democracy.brent.gov.uk/ or ask in the library.

Contact your MP. If you live in Brent North, your MP is Barry Gardiner.

Email him at gardinerb@parliament.uk or write to him at The House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.

Join the campaign. Subscribe to our emails: SavePrestonLibrary-Subscribe@yahoogroups.co.uk;

Join the Facebook Group: http://on.fb.me/fVJNK2.

Publicise the meeting on Wednesday 16th February 7.30pm Preston Park Primary School

If Preston Library is the only library that is accessible to you for whatever reasons, we need to hear from you as soon as possible.

When Preston Library closes for good, the nearest libraries will be Kingsbury Library Plus on Kingsbury High Road, and the Town Hall which will close when the proposed £100 million Civic Centre is built, moving it even further away. Both libraries will only be within walking distance for the very fit and able bodied. For many of us, it will involve transport costs.

Five local primary schools regularly use Preston Library: Preston Park, Byron Court and Wembley Primary as well as children from Uxendon Manor and Mt Stewart. Pupils from Preston Manor and nearby senior schools cram the tables after school to do their homework and revision. They will have to find alternative places much further away from home.

Brent Council wants to close our library. Attend the public meeting! Sign the online petition. 

KEEP OUR LIBRARY LOCAL!

We Love Our Libraries

This video applies to ALL libraries, in London or in country towns...

Primary teacher: Why we must retain the Welsh Harp and Gordon Brown Centres

Magic! The Welsh Harp at dusk

I think it's vital we maintain funding for both Welsh Harp and the Gordon Brown Centre. I've been taking groups to the Gordon Brown Centre for almost 20 years now. Every group has thoroughly loved the experience and learn much - it's simply an outdoor learning centre - learning in a fun way. ! Having taught year six for so many years every Science opportunity is brought out from the rings on tree trunks to the bees pollinating the flowers ( depending on the season) !

The same applies to the  the Welsh Harp. We have taken groups for geography over a number of years and our students attending the Shine programme have also used it in their programme on Saturdays for the past three years. We will also be using it for kayaking this summer as we have done before.

In all both are valuable as outdoor learning centres and it would be criminal for the little green space we have in Brent to be taken from us with the increasing number of flats being built. What lungs will we have left in Brent?

Mark Betts St Joseph's Junior  School,Wembley