Green Party supports tomorrow's PCS strike

GREEN Party leader Natalie Bennett will tomorrow (Wednesday) morning be speaking at a PCS Union rally outside the Euston Tower in Central London in support of the union’s budget day protest, expressing support for PCS members on strike that day across the country.

Natalie said: “The union is rightly calling for decent pay for all civil servants this year, while pointing out to the government that this – and many other steps to reverse its austerity programme – could be paid for by serious action against wealthy tax dodgers.”

A union report has demonstrated that since the start of recession in 2008 the real value of wages has fallen by 7%, more than £50 billion a year. The report also found that median pay in the civil service is 4.4% lower than direct private sector comparators. In some grades, the gap was 10%. It is calling for a 5% rise in civil service pay this year to keep pace with inflation, and an end to reduction in pension rights.

The union represents, among others, customs, immigration, benefits and Jobcentre staff.
Natalie said: "Congratulations to the PCS for rightly identifying the importance of tackling tax evasion in rebalancing our economy. David Cameron has said he wants to act on the issue, but has failed to take any meaningful concrete steps.

“To save time, I’d point him to Green MP Caroline Lucas’s 2011 Tax and Financial Transparency Bill, which set out how the government could force companies to ‘publish what tax they pay’, requiring all companies filing accounts in the UK to include a statement on the turnover, pre-tax profit, tax charge and actual tax paid for each country in which they operate, without exception. He could simply move that as a government bill, and take a big stride towards collecting money the UK is owed.”

Natalie added that the PCS call for fair pay for all civil servants and for all contracts to be underpinned by the living wage, would be a small step towards rebalancing the UK economy, in which the wage share had fallen from around 60% to 55%, with a great increase in the inequality of the distribution of those wages.
“We need to make the minimum wage a living wage – that is an immediate step the government should take, but in the meantime, ensuring that government outsourcing meets this basic standard is an important step.”

Natalie added: “It is clear that we need to not only reverse George Osborne’s austerity agenda, and invest in the infrastructure we desperately need – including energy conservation, renewable energy, but also to move towards a living wage economy with jobs that workers can build a life on.”

Health and housing on the agenda tonight

Brent's Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be asked by local campaigners to refer the proposal to close Central Middlesex A&E to the Secretary of State at this evening's meeting. Ealing Council has already taken this step which has drawn an irritated response from NW London NHS:

Ealing Council has asked the Secretary of State for  Health to consider the programme. This is a shame, as  this process normally takes a few months and will d elay implementation of much needed improvements to local services which the majority of clinicians, local GP s and other local councils want to see go ahead.

Of course many residents think it is a 'shame' that we may lose out local A&E, especially when the alternative facility, Northwick Park, is already over-loaded.  A local resident has written to Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt putting her views:

Dear Cllr. Butt,

I am a resident of Brent and Brent should be fighting on behalf of their residents to keep all four Hospitals A&E departments open.  Urgent care centres are not acceptable they are not manned by many doctors or nurses, and are no alternative to an A&E unit.   How far will Brent residents have to go to the nearest A&E dept? will they be seen? How long will they have to wait?  This will put their lives at risk.  

 

St Marys Hospital Paddington, Northwick Park Middlesex A&E depts. are already full with the present numbers they deal with, how will closing four A&E's in North West London help the people of Brent?.

I have had two operations this year in Charring Cross Hospital, this hospital is to be sold off for real estate. Charring Cross Hospital services the people of Brent, I was sent there as St Marys Paddington do not have the facilities or the beds to cope.

The NHS was founded by the labour government in 1948, I expect a labour council to look after all its residents North and South of the borough and back Ealing borough council in fighting to keep all four A&E departments open. Emergency's, Maternity and the Ageing population are all at risk

Yours sincerely

Margaret von Stoll

Apart from the important issues of the future of Accident and Emergency services in the area and the Shaping the Healthier Future proposals, the Committee will also discuss and question NHS officers on failures in local pathology services:

A serious incident was logged in December 2012 after a concern was raised by a GP about the new system. It became clear that this was not an isolated case, and another GP complained of spurious results, missing results and samples not  processed. It was further identified that training for GPs had not taken place and that  alleged meetings with GPs had not in reality occurred. A number of issues have now been identified with different test results and these are listed in the report.

 As as health campaigners are attending the Committee, housing campaigners will be at Mencap in Willesden High Road for a meeting starting at 6.30pm to discuss strategies for dealing with the deepening housing crisis in the borough. Details were published earlier on this blog and can be found HERE

No Willesden Town Square registration but some crumbs of comfort

The public inquiry report into the registration of the space outside Willesden Green Library took much longer than anticipated to be completed and it is far fuller than most. However the conclusion is that registration is not recommended despite the huge efforts of Martin Redston to convince the planning inspector that residents had a case:

Martin said:

By now you will have heard that the Inspector rejected my application for registration. His report of 211 pages is exceptionally long and detailed. Having read it carefully I would confirm that I think that he has been fair and reasonable in his treatment of all sides in the matter . ...He cannot recommend registration but he is sympathetic to our community in seeking to protect the open space.

..it seems to me that there is a small crumb of comfort in that  if you read Mr Brown's various comments throughout his summary, conclusions and recommendations he considers that the square could be registered on the basis of a more defined local neighbourhood, and if free festivals (clarified by him to be a suitable pastime) in particular had been organised on a continuing basis for the entire 20 year period. He also implies that the council might like to consider the fact that they have actually increased the profile of the square in the last few years, it seems a shame to lose it now.

A report on the outcome can be read HERE on the Kilburn Times website

Gove's disciple starts consulting on her 'elite traditional' free school

Arena House where 'elite' education will take place

 The Michaela Community Secondary Free School has embarked on a 'consultation' regarding its intention to open at Arena House, opposite Wembley Park Station. 

The person behind the application is Katharine Birbalsingh who was lauded at the Tory Party conference after attacking comprehensive education. Controversially she showed slides of her pupils as part of her attack.

She has used this appearance as a platform to put forward some decidedly odd ideas on the curriculum and is hoping that Michael Gove will follow up his enthusiasm for her right-wing ideas with plenty of tax payers' money for her new school - money that could have been used to support other schools in the borough.

Michaela promise an 'elite traditional' education and there will be a longer extended day with activities including 'competitive' sport, Mandarin, business and financial skills.There will be an emphasis on discipline. I hope Michaela and Ark Academy do not get into a who can be toughest war.

Free schools receive disproportionate funding and it is clear that Arena House will need a lot of costly work before it is fit for purpose. There will be 840 pupils and anyone who knows the building will realise that there is very little space that could be used as a playground. Its position right up against a noisy railway line and adjacent to a busy road is not exactly ideal either.

Emails advertising the consultation have been sent to local schools and consultation meetings will be held at Chalkhill Community Centre, Barnhill Road on Tuesday 26th March (3-5pm) and Thursday 4th April (6-8pm).

If the school does open its 840 pupils will join those of Ark Academy, which is not yet operating at capacity,  the1,000 students who will attend the Brent Town Hall  independent French secondary school,  pupils from the Preston Manor All-through school and children from Chalkhill Primary School in one small area of Wembley.

The consultation brochure can be found HERE

Wet and dangerous welcome to 'Destination Wembley'

Leader of Brent Council, Muhamed Butt, told fellow members of the Labour Councillors' Business Network this morning about his plans for 'Destination Wembley'.

I hope councillors and business people from other parts of the country did not arrive via the Wembley Central station 'gateway'. The photograph above was taken at the foot of the steps on the southbound Bakerloo/Overground platform on Saturday.

Visitors to Wembley, already confused and bewildered by the closure of Wembley Park station and the lack of Jubilee and Metropolitan line trains, found themselves splashing through pools of water, avoiding mops and buckets and dodging drips as they squeezed on to the over-crowded platform.

Not a great advertisement for 'Destination Wembley' I am afraid.

Act Now to Keep Climate Change in the geography curriculum

The announcement that Michael Gove wants to remove teaching about climate change from the curriculum of under 14 year olds has been met with equal amounts of disbelief and anger from many quarters.  A national campaign got Mary Seacole and Ouladah Equianno retained in the history curriculum - we must now act on geography.

People and Planet has set up an on-line e-action page HERE and I reproduce their statement below:

In 2011, in response to a proposal to drop climate change from the national science curriculum, People & Planet's petition to the Department for Education was the largest email campaign received by the department that year. But new proposals now threaten to remove climate change from the geography curriculum.

At People & Planet, our experience working in schools and colleges has shown us that teaching about climate change is crucial to ensuring a new generation of young people who understand and are able to be leaders on climate change, taking action to protect the environment and human life.
Prof. Sir David King, the government’s former science adviser, says:

“It would be absurd if the issues around environmental pollution weren’t core to the curriculum. I think we would be abdicating our duty to future generations if we didn’t teach these things in the curriculum.”

Adapt the letter to Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, and Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, which is HERE and say what you think of these new guidelines removing climate change from the national geography curriculum.

Please adapt the suggested text and subject line below, and remember to:

• let them know if you are a student, teacher, parent - or just concerned
• tell them how important your own knowledge and understanding of climate change has been to you
• be polite!

Fellow Lib Dem MPs show Teather the way on forced academies

Although Sarah Teather MP cancelled her meeting with Gladstone Primary School parents last week two of her Lib Dem colleagues in the House of Commons, John Pugh and David Ward, made their opposition to the DfE's bullying tactics clear in the Westminster Hall debate on forced academies.

I hope she will take time to read what was said in the debate LINK and to read John Pugh's post-debate press release below:

In Westminster today, John Pugh MP led a debate about schools which are forced to become academies. Many other MPs supported John with similar concerns about ‘aggressive’ and ‘threatening’ representatives of the Department of Education. 

Under Ofsted’s new inspection framework, 123 primary schools across the country have been identified as ‘unsatisfactory’ under new Ofsted performance measures. 

Highly paid brokers are employed by the Department to manage the transition to academy status. The Department for health considers this to be the right way to tackle failing schools. Often, school governors and parents are not given a voice in the transition process.

The decision to remove the school from local authority management seems to be taken with little regard to the quality of the local authorities’ track record in education. Sefton, for example, has a strong track record in education. Further, it is the Department for Education, not the school, are also the ones to decide which academy group is best for a school to join.

Some schools have been offered money to change status. ‘£40,000 per school and an additional £25,000 for legal fees’ were offered to a cluster of Lancashire schools if they became independent from the local authorities, according to Lancashire Branch of the National Union of Headteachers. Many school governors have not felt able to give their names but have reported ‘bullying tactics’ by officials.

The Minister responded to John Pugh’s debate today by repeating the statement that the academies program had a track record of success. Previously, the Department for Education has said that is has no targets for converting schools to academies. 

John Pugh remains concerned that creating new academies has become the Government’s aim, instead of working with school governors to improve the quality of teaching for children and parents.

He said today:   

It is unacceptable that the Department for Education is employing aggressive tactics to push through unpopular changes on schools in this way. There remain many unanswered questions around the success rate and value for money of the academies program. Further, I have serious concerns about the removal of assets funded by the tax payer from local authority control. 

Two-way consultation must be undertaken by the Department for Education with governors and parents, before decisions are made. 

We don’t accept bullying in schools so why would we accept bullying from the Department for Education?

Labour must get behind the Gladstone Parents' campaign to defend our schools

Turmoil in the school system is increasing to such an extent that soon the word 'system' will not apply. This was one of the underlying themes at this weekend's AGM of the Anti-Academies Alliance.

The meeting coincided with news that Kensal Rise Primary as a result of its difficulties is now beginning a consultation on the possibility of having ARK Schools, which run the ARK Academy in Wembley and 17 others academies, as its sponsor. Meanwhile Copland High School, the only remaining local authority secondary school in Brent, is anxiously awaiting the outcome of its recent Ofsted inspection. Its performance table LINK position makes it vulnerable to be putting into a category leading to forced academisation. It is worth noting that Crest Boys' Academy is below Copland on several of the outcomes. The staff at Copland  are likely to put up a strong fight agaionst any attempt at forced academisation.

Hearing reports from around the country it became clear that one of the most important elements in the resistance of forced academisation was the role of the local authority. Where they strongly supported their local school AND showed that they had the capacity to support its improvement, the possibility of resisting forced academisation was strengthened.

I share the view of many parents and teachers involved at Salusbury Primary and Gladstone Park that Labour councillors and  Brent Council officers  have been pretty supine in the face of Gove's bullying policy. Promised letters to the DfE stating the local authority's confidence in Gladstone Park Primary's ability to improve with the support of the local authority have failed to materialise.

 The School Improvement Service is being cut back to its core functions and many of its non statutory, but important, functions are to be taken over by the untested Brent Schools Partnership. This is a consortium of schools that will be both a clearing house for bought-in services and a means of providing mutual support between schools. Headteachers point to the success of a similar grouping in Harrow.

There is now some doubt whether the core School Improvement Service retained by the Council will be fit for purpose with staff leaving ahead of the restructuring and some schools deciding not to buy into the additional services offered. It seems that Haringey Council was unable to guarantee that it had the resources to support Downhills Primary which led to its forced academisation - we don't want Brent schools to have the same experience.

One of the most powerful contributions on Saturday was from teaching staff at an academy who gave a vivid account of the bullying by management that had begun after a honeymoon period. They now feared so much for their jobs that they asked not to be named at the meeting. They told us that in the primary department of the all-through academy 75% of the teacher had left and half of those had done so without another job to go to.

Bullying now appears to run right through the system from the top with Michael Gove, down to individual staff rooms. Parents say it reaches their children in the classroom with the example of Year 5 children (9 and 10 year olds) threatened with being kept in at every break with additional work at home because their mock SAT test results did not meet school targets.

Bullying is clearly evident in the behaviour of DfE 'brokers' , usually private providers, who are employed by the DfE to 'manage' the conversion of primary schools into academies. This has been a key focus for campaigners and has won sympathetic coverage in the press.

One parent summed it up saying:

How can Harris (academy sponsor) come into our school and educate our children when they have so much contempt for the children's parents and families.

 Over and above the bullying theme and the telling personal anecdotes we must continue to emphasise issues of democracy, local accountability and back door privatisation.

The formation of a Parents Against Forced Academies was welcomed and there was a strong call for a nationwide campaign for education to save it from Gove's wrecking strategies along the lines of the  Save Our NHS campaign.

Here in Brent it would be good to see Muhammed Butt and councillors stop shilly-shallying and get behind Gladstone Park parents who have been left to fight for democracy and accountability all on their own.