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Any shift in cuts strategy after Daniel's departure?

There is no official news of the pay-off that Gareth Daniel is likely to get following his departure as Chief Executive but informed speculation starts at £1m.  His salary was more than £200,000 and there are precedents in Brent for handsome pay-offs of senior officers including that of a former Director of Education.

The cover arrangements for the post are in several stages:  Fiona Ledden, Director of Legal and Procurement, will be the immediate stand-in but she will be replaced by an 'external interim Chief Executive' in the next few weeks, pending the appointment of a new Chief Executive which could take several months.

If the clash between Daniel as Chief Executive and Muhammed Butt as leader was over cuts, then budget plans could be in for some revision as well as the crucial decision over whether to raise Council Tax. This is an area where senior council officers (4 out of 6 of whom declared their support for Daniel) are likely to intervene in the interregnum which coincides with preparation for next year's budget. It is here that the Director of Regeneration and Major Projects will be influential.

Brent Council Executive does not seem to have considered the possible deletion of the Chief Executive post as some councils have done LINK

Fiona Ledden, in my experience of  observing council meetings, is a woman of few words, but those she does utter, as perhaps befits her legal background, are always on the side of caution and following the letter of the law.

SEN children uncollected while others delivered to wrong locations

Brent Council has apologised for the problems special needs pupils and their  parents encountered with the new school transport system introduced this term LINK. They admitted:

We know that many families have not had the information they needed, when they needed it, about the services for their child. We also know that in some cases transport has failed to arrive when it should have, some children have been delivered to wrong locations, and there have been problems with route timings. To compound these problems it has been extremely difficult to get through to the (West London Alliance) Transport Bureau on the phone. We understand how upsetting, inconvenient and difficult this is to all those affected and can only apologise. 

They went on:

It is clear that the Bureau was over optimistic about the timetables for implementing the new IT system on which they were relying and that serious problems about data transfer from former IT systems, incomplete testing of the system, and the relative inexperience of staff led to the problems that have occurred.

As a result of this failure Brent and Harrow Councils' transport staff temporarily took back the responsibility for designing routes last week and 'will develop new and reliable routes and schedules for their Boroughs based on last term's routes, using their previous software packages'.

Chalkhill stabbing victim dies

I have come back to the sad news that Aaron, who was stabbed outside the Community Centre in Chalkhill the week before last  and appeared to be making a recovery, collapsed and died yesterday.

Local people are very distressed at the news as Aaron was well-liked. I understand that Aaron was a twin but lost his brother Anton to cancer a few years ago despite donating one of his kidneys.

Community leaders and residents are working to keep the estate calm.

Two people have been arrested in connection with the incident.

Retreating into the hills while Brent implodes

Off to the hills for a week so no postings on Wembley Matters for a while.

It looks as if I will return to a changed Brent Council landscape. Any tips on who will be acting Chief Exec if today's golden handshake negotiations succeed?

Any money on Andy Donald?

Will the Ann John loyalists strike back?

Keep up on Twitter @bktimes

Lorber calls for end to Brent Council infighting

Cllr Paul Lorber, Liberal Democrat and former leader of Brent Council has made the following statement on the current situation on the Council:

This is an extraordinary breakdown in relationships and poses a real risk to the effective running of Brent Council. I have had my differences with Gareth Daniel over the years but have always found it possible to maintain a professional relationship.

If Labour councillors are clumsily trying to ease Mr Daniel out of his position they are risking very large sums of public cash on redundancy and compensation payments, not to mention the damage to their and the council’s reputation.

It’s clear that the Labour group is split down the middle and Cllr Butt is being undermined even by his own Executive members. For the sake of Brent’s residents this infighting needs to end.

What future for education in Brent?

Education has been very much in the news recently from parental protests over the ending of hot meals at Our Lady of Grace Junior School hitting today's front page of the Wembley and Willesden Observer, to the failure of several free schools to open leaving children adrift and Michael Gove admitting the GCSE marking was 'unfair' but doing nothing about it.

In Brent the headteacher of Newman Catholic College (formerly Cardinal Hinsley High School) has admitted there is a danger of forced academy conversion after poor results and other schools are considering academy conversion or becoming cooperative federations. In nearby Harrow the biggest free school has just opened.

Brent Council has embarked on another round of school expansions creating primaries with more than 1,000 pupils and the possibility of more 'all through' schools. Headteachers are promoting a consortium public enterprise to replace Brent Council's School Support Service.

Sarah Teather has lost her job as an education minister but Michael Gove holds on to his position and will continue his 'reforms'.

So there couldn't be a better time (for the worse possible reasons!) to hold a debate about the future of education in Brent.

I hope as many people as possible make it to the debate that has been organised for September 20th at Copland High School. Details below:

Apology over new WLA bus service for special needs children

Monday's meeting of Brent Council will be debating the West London Alliance.  Ian Nichol, Chief Executive of the West London Alliance will speak on the progress being made on the work of the Alliance after which members will debate the issues arising. The WLA shares services across several boroughs (Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow) LINK  in order to save money through rationalisation, sharing of resources and reductions in backroom expenses. Last year the then Brent Council leader Cllr Ann John expressed mixed feelings about the WLA remarking that it moved services one step further away from direct local accountability.

Coincidentally Brent Council has had to issue an apology today to special needs children after problems with the new WLA Transport Service:

Many children with Special Education Needs (SEN) will have experienced difficulties in their school transport arrangements this week. 

We apologise for the inconvenience and upset that we know these problems will have caused to children and their families.

The new transport system operated by the WLA Transport Bureau has experienced some significant problems in these early days. 

We are reworking transport arrangements to ensure that they work more reliably from Monday 10 September and will ensure that parents and carers have written confirmation of the arrangements for their child over the weekend.

This confirmation may be hand delivered.

In the meantime, if you experience problems, please call the WLA Transport Bureau on 020 8583 5530 / 5531 / 5536 / 5537 and we will work with you to resolve them.