Darren Johnson challenges Boris Johnson's free school plans

From EdExec:

In a speech to the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham today, Boris Johnson promised to help boost the number of free schools in London by launching a group, known as ‘Schools for London’.

Johnson described himself as being a “passionate supporter” of free schools in his speech and praised them for their traditional teaching methods.

Rachel Wolf, founder of the New Schools Network, said: “With nearly 200 schools now open or approved to open, the free schools movement has accelerated at a pace that means the centralised processes around finding sites can’t cope. London is particularly problematic, and a number of schools were unable to open or faced delays because of the challenges in finding sites for new schools. 

“We are delighted that the Mayor will be helping free schools across the capital find sites and look forward to working with the GLA to ease this bottleneck and secure more great schools for London’s parents.”

Johnson said that Schools for London would be aimed at promoting free schools and he will be looking at opening up the police and fire service property portfolios to house the new schools.

Darren Johnson, a London assembly Green Party member believes that the Mayor should be working with local authorities to build new LA run schools rather than “throwing money at free schools in a wasteful fashion.” He said: “Transparency and value for money are vital. I will be asking the Mayor to justify his enthusiasm for free schools by removing the veil of secrecy which has been drawn over the financing of the policy."

He added that free schools aren’t enough to tackle the shortage of school places in the capital: “Free schools tend to be quite small and this means they are unlikely to meet the huge demand across London for school places in the coming years. There is no planning with these schools, so they don’t always open in the areas with the biggest demand for school places.”

Whitehall figures estimate a shortage of 78,923 primary school places and 12,227 secondary school places across the capital between now and 2014/15.

The nightmare gets worse. As if it is not enough for London schools to have to cope with Michael Gove we now have  Boris Johnson butting in. Help!

Council to take on 'navigators' to help excluded families

Brent Council is advertising for 'navigators' to help families most at risk of social exclusion navigate their way through the various services in Brent. The advertisement reveals some innovative thinking, the problem to be addressed  and the overall aim of  trying to keep the families in their home.

Navigator (Ref:13573)
Fixed Term - 1 year

Do you want a hands-on insight into the impact of public policy on the lives of people living in poverty? To be part of one of the most exciting projects in the UK, at the cutting edge of innovation in service delivery? To change substantively the life chances of people trapped in a vicious cycle of exclusion?

With multiple needs, socially excluded individuals in our most deprived communities are brought into contact with multiple services. However, the services are organised, usually funded and traditionally delivered in disconnected silos – which can just exacerbate the exclusion.

In Brent, with the upcoming changes in housing benefit potentially making over 3,000 families homeless, we urgently need to link our residents with the right services. We must find a new way to work across the silos. Our ground-breaking pilot aims to do so this by bringing together a new team.  

Our six Navigators will each be given a caseload of the most excluded Brent families. You will establish contact and engage with them, probably in their own homes, and build an understanding of their needs. You will NOT look to solve all the issues yourself but you will help them navigate the system, finding the right service doors to knock on and ensuring the service response is understood and effective.

Your first focus will be trying to keep them in their homes, despite the impending impact of welfare reform.
You can’t be frightened of a challenge! We are creating something new here. As a team, you are going to decide how to deliver this; how to support each other; and how to maintain exceptional motivation. We are going to want to track closely what you do, to understand what works and what the cost-benefit is of your impact. 

You will not necessarily have experience of work like this but will have:
• At least one degree or the equivalent, with high analytic, creative and emotional intelligence;
• A demonstrable interest in public policy and/or services targeting excluded individuals;
• Exceptional interpersonal skills;
• Outstanding communication and IT skills;
• Great initiative and also team working ability;
• A willingness to deliver stretching targets and to be robustly performance managed.

Brent Council values the diversity of its community and aims to have a workforce that reflects this therefore encourage applications from all sections of the community.  Difference in a team reflects the diversity of our world sections of the community.  Difference in (sic) and enables us to see that world in new ways – delivering better services as a result.

If you would like to apply for this role, please click on the 'Apply now' button. 
Scale 6 £23,979 - £25,467 pa inc London Weighting
CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: 17 October 2012
POST BASED: Wembley

A&E closure will affect schools' capacity to deal with child illness and accidents

The UCC can deal with broken arms but not broken legs

My submission to the Shaping A Healthier Future had a particular focus on the impact of the Central Middlesex A&E closure on children and schools, as well as the role schools could play in preventative medicine.

This is an extract:
   
PROCESS

1. Dr Mark Spencer, leading on the Shaping a Healthier Future consultation, told a TV news programme before the consultation had begun that A&Es would close. This suggests that the consultation is a sham as decisions had been prior to the public having a say.
2. Despite claiming that ‘nothing had been decided’ the continuation of Central Middlesex A&E was not included as an option in the proposals. The statement is thus untrue and misleads the public.
3. No risk assessment was carried out on the proposals prior to the consultation so the public have had insufficient evidence on which to base their responses.
4. Throughout the consultation meetings it has been claimed that the proposals are not ‘cuts’. However flat funding at a time of population increase and increased demand does amount to a cut in real terms even before we take into account the financial plight of the Trust and the subsequent need to make ‘savings’. This again amounts to misleading the public.
5. Headteachers and school governing bodies, responsible for the health, safety and well-being of children in their care, were not consulted about Sustaining a Healthier Future.. Key stakeholders have thus had no say about the impact of the closures on a particularly vulnerable section of the community.

CENTRAL MIDDLESEX A&E

1. The department has been run down over several years, including overnight closure, pre-empting the closure proposals.
2. The department serves two of the most deprived wards in the capital (Stonebridge and Harlesden) with low life expectancy and high incidence of illness including a specialism in sickle cell anaemia affecting the African Caribbean population.
3. Car ownership at only 22% is low and public transport links poor making the journey to Northwick Park A&E difficult with potential dangers to patients of long and delayed journeys in emergencies.
4. The area has a significant number of sites where major incidents could occur which necessitate an easily accessible fully functioning A&E in the vicinity:
1. Railway lines including Euston-Birmingham mainline, Chiltern line, London Overground, Bakerloo, Jubilee, Metropolitan and in the future possibly HS2
2. The North Circular Road, Harrow Road, Edgware Road.
3. The industrial area around Wembley Stadium and Neasden, and the Park Royal Industrial estate (one of the largest in Europe)
4. Major venues including Wembley Stadium, Wembley Arena and Fountain Studios
5. The area has a rapidly growing child population so has increasing demand for A&E services associated with  childhood illnesses such as meningitis, asthma, allergic reactions and the increasing incidence of TB; as well as the usual head injuries and fractures associated with childhood accidents.
6. Many recent immigrants in the area are not registered with GPs which leads to increased use of A&E by their parents for childhood illnesses.
7. The assumption is that Urgent Care Centres and A&Es are complementary provision, operating on the same site. This will not be the case if Central Middlesex A&E is closed and instead cases that cannot be treated by the UGC will have to be transferred to Northwick Park A&E. This will necessitate an additional journey by ambulance, private transport, cab or public transport increasing the risk to the patient.
8. Concerns about first aiders in schools and work places having to make decisions about whether to send patients to the UGC or Northwick Park A&E were not answered convincingly during the consultation. We were told that they would soon get to know which was appropriate or could ring a new telephone service for advice. I remain concerned that this could put patients in danger and puts far too much responsibility on the first aiders concerned.
9. School first-aiders and support staff taking children to Northwick Park A&E act in locus parentis until parents get to the hospital. The distance and transport issues mean that parents will take longer to get to Northwick Park hospital with resultant distress for children, and school staff will have to stay at the hospital for longer periods.
10. Similar arguments can be made for other A&E facilities threatened with closure in the NW London NHS area.

URGENT CARE CENTRE

1. The demarcation lines between UCCs and A&E are unclear and without an A&E at Central Middlesex could cause dangerous delays to treatment.
2. The UGC is privatised and therefore less accountable to the local community and susceptible to market pressures.
3. The Central Middlesex UCC, run by Care UK.  having lost 6,000 x-rays does not have the confidence of the local community.

SCHOOLS

1. Schools and Children’s Centres have not been included in the section about care outside hospitals and preventative care in these settings could be of vital importance.
2. As mentioned above newly arrived families are often not registered with GPs and schools could play a role in campaigns over registration, immunisation and be a site for health checks on new arrivals.
3. The health service could also deliver support to groups of  parents in school on health, sexual health and other related issues in an environment in which they already feel at ease.
4. As well as health screening for new arrivals dental, eyesight, allergy and weight checks for all pupils could be reintroduced as a form of preventative care.

 

Don't let the ConDems make a casualty of our NHS

Hospital campaigners from Brent, Hammersmith and Fulham and Ealing converged on the NW London NHS headquarters in central London today to hand in petitions containing thousands of names opposing the closure of A&Es across West London. Some campaigners wore bandages to dramatise the threat to local people.

The consultation on Shaping a Healthier Future ends at midnight tonight. www.healthiernorthwestlondon.nhs.uk  for the online consultation form  or e-mail to consultation@nw.london.nhs.uk

Brent to join with other boroughs to out-source 'Public Realm' including waste and parks maintenance

In a report to go before the Executive on October 15th LINK officers are recommending that the Council join with Barnet, Hounslow and Richmond in a 'super contract' see my previous blog HERE that will cover:

• Household waste collections and recycling
• Street Cleansing operations
• Graffiti clearance
• Winter maintenance
• Cleansing of public conveniences
• Grounds maintenance to parks and open spaces (including Brent Housing Partnership HP estates)
• Grounds maintenance to cemeteries and grave digging
• Highway verges and shrub beds
• Playground inspection and maintenance
• Warden service
• Commercial waste

Brent's contract with Veolia ends on March 31st 2014. The contract, across the 4 boroughs and BHP which may not all buy into all the services, would be worth £700m over the 16 year contract period..

In a controversial move the report recommends:

The Executive to give approval to an exemption from Contract Standing Order 88 to allow an advert to be placed and a pre-qualification process to be run without the approval of evaluation criteria and certain other pre-tender considerations, subject to approval of such matters at a future Executive

And further recommends, as a consequence of the problem of the lack of a Brent Council depot when the last contract was awarded to Veolia, that the Council acquire a depot. Andy Donald Director of Regeneration and Major Projects, appears to be leading on this:

That the Executive agree to an amendment of £6.2m to the Council’s capital budget for 2012/13 to procure a new depot as set out in section 3.6 of the report. If a suitable site is identified, due to the reasons set out in paragraph 3.6.6, that the final terms of any acquisition including the purchase price be delegated to the Director of Regeneration and Major Projects and the Director of Finance and Corporate Services in consultation with their respective Lead Members. Such purchase price to be contained within the amendment to the Council’s capital budget as set out within this report

As a lay person it seems to me that this is not a particularly transparent or accountable  process when the Executive is not fully involved in an exceptionally large contract.

The proposal has come as a surprise to people in Barnet where a large number of staff are involved. In Brent waste management and recycling are already out-sourced to Veolia and it is the Parks and Sports staff who are most affected. The report states:

For Brent, whilst the majority of staffing implications are for staff currently employed by the current contractor, there are implications for existing Brent staff in Sports and Parks and Highway Operations. The proposal is that in excess of 50 council staff providing grounds maintenance and a number of staff in other services are transferred to the successful provider. In addition, if the decision is to create a single client arrangement a small number of staff in waste and recycling would be affected,

TUPE will apply and presumably this will also be the case for the cleaning and grounds maintenance contractors currently employed by Brent Housing Partnership, which also comes under Andy Donald's umbrella.

Boris Johnson ditches driverless trains plans according to reports today

It has been reported that Boris Johnson has withdrawn his plans for driverless underground trains which were due to be tested on the Jubilee Line.  See previous  blog from the RMT HERE

REPORT HERE

Come and present hospital petitions at 1pm today as consultation closes

 Brent hospital campaigners have collected more than 2,000 signatures on petitions opposing hospital closures in West London and the privatisation of the NHS.

They will join campaigners from Ealing and Hammersmith today at 1pm to present the petitions to the North West London NHS Trust at their offices at 15 Marylebone Road, NW1 (close to Regents Park).

Please join them if you can. Brent campaigners will meet at Baket Street Station at 12.45pm.

View Larger MapDriving Directions

The consultation on Shaping  Healthier Future closes  today at midnight.  The consultation document gives the NHS NW London address as Victoria Street SW1. In fact they have moved to Marylebone Road so I checked today that redirected postal responses would still be valid if they were received at Marylebone Road after today's deadline,. They confirmed that this would be the case.

E-mail responses should go to:  consultation@new.london.nhs.uk or online at www.healthiernorthwestlondon.nhs.uk  Many people have found the latter format restrictive as it does not allow them to support the continuation of Central Middlesex A&E.

Brent, Hammersmith and Ealing march together to save hospitals

Refusing to be divided from one another with localist claims of one hospital against another, campaigners from Brent, Ealing and Hammersmith and Fulham marched to gather on Saturday calling for ALL the hospital A&E departments in the area to be saved, thus preventing the eventual running down of the main hospitals.

Speakers included the Leader of Ealing Council and a Conservative councillor from Hammersmith. Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council, joined the march briefly before going off  another official engagement.

However it was the speeches from hospital workers, patients, trade unionists (including Christine Blower, General Secretary of the NUT) and a mother of 5 children which really galvanised the crowd.  Pete Firmin, secretary of Brent Trade Union Council, was applauded when he emphasised the need for unity and outlined how the closures were an attack on the most vulnerable in Stonebridge and Harlesden.

The following comments from the public on the Hammersmith and Fulham Council website about Charing Cross A&E  echo many that have been made about Central Middlesex A&E:

Closing this A&E would mean over-burdening others in West London - the people of Hammersmith need this facility. NHS efficiency drives are to do with saving money, not with saving lives.
Jane Thurston-Hoskins
 
Has anyone tried getting to the Chelsea and Westminster hospital in a hurry, especially during a Chelsea football match?!!
S Jenner
 
What are planners thinking of!! Have they ever been to C&W Hospital from almost any direction and any time. Fulham Road is permanently gridlocked even for busses and there is no near by underground.I suppose it is a convenient way of having a quiet A&E. And where do patient go when they have to be admitted. ?To ChX. And why was ChX's A&E department been given an overhaul only recently. I do speak out of experience with both hospitals. ChX is by far the more caring hospital And what if there is an accident on the A4 The so called planners are an absolute disgrace. I could go on!!
Dina Harris
 
Keep Charing Cross Hospital with a full range of departments. I am disabled; it is my nearest hospital and the most accessible one. I have been well looked after in dealing with my cataracts, hammer toes and mastectomy. I remember it being built, serving a great need.
Patricia Owen
 
Absolutely agree. Charing Cross is a fantastic hospital with very high standard of care, at the forefront of medical technology and life saving equipment. My son was saved there at 3.5 years old after falling under a car. I have just had a laparoscopy on my gall bladder. I cannot believe what a high standard it is. It is clean, friendly and has super nursing and consultant staff.
Ewa Sylwestrowicz