Is Michaela Academy Free School viable?

A Freedom Of Information request has revealed that Michaela Academy, a secondary free school due to open in a disused College of North West London building, in September 2014, has received only 50 1st preference applications for the 120 places available.

In addition to 46 first preferences from Brent there were a further 4 from Harrow. Applications naming the school but not as first choice came from Croydon, Ealing, Harrow and Hillingdon.

The school, the creation of Katharine Birbalsingh, who lost her previous job when she spoke about children in her then school at a Tory Party Conference, had tried to set up in two other London boroughs but was firmly told it was not wanted.

The building the school is due to occupy, Arena House, opposite Wembley Park station, is rumoured to need its asbestos removed. There is no evidence of any work being carried out and some windows have been left open which allows pigeons access. It is rather a sad sight.

With the recent revelations that free school costs are twice as high as predicted, some free school opening with very few pupils,  free schools employing unqualified teachers and free school heads walking out after 6 months in the job, it is legitimate to ask, with only 46 first preference applicants, whether Michaela is viable.

An objective Department for Education would subject any further expenditure to stern scrutiny. However as after her Tory Conference appearance Birbalsingh is Michael Gove's darling and a favourite of the Tory Right, that seems unlikely. Brent Council certainly establish whether the money could be better spent and make their views known to the DfE.

The 120 places are likely to fill up eventually not only with children for whom the school is not their first choice, but who have failed to get into other schools, but also with new comers who moved into Brent after the application process closed.

It isn't a great start.

Brent's housing crisis in figures

Shelter has issued the latest figures on housing need which are for the third quarter of 2013. Full data is available HERE

I have made a table for the main figures for Brent below:

London Borough of Brent	Quarter 3 2013	Quarter 2 2013
Families with children accepted as homeless	72	40
Households accepted as homeless	155	113
Households found to be homeless but not in priority need	63	33
Households found to be ‘intentionally homeless’	12	18
Households in temporary accommodation	3,410	3,484
Number of children in temporary accommodation	5,729	5,837
Households with dependent children in temporary accommodation	2,640	2,692
Possession claims issued by landlords	655	535
Possession claims by mortgage lenders	83	59

Library Planning fraud investigation still awaited as developer consults in a pub

Guest blog from a Kensal Rise Library campaigner in a personal capacity

Many people are asking when the police investigation in to the fake email support for Andrew Gillck’s change-of-use planning application for Kensal Rise Library be completed. It is, after all, three months since the council was first handed evidence of online fraud - an attempt to inflate local backing for Mr Gillick’s proposals. Brent later claimed that it had passed this material to the police.

Not exactly, alas. The council had simply forwarded its findings to the civilian-run national fraud and internet-crime reporting centre, Action Fraud. True, this is the first step in reporting electronic fraud and one which Brent was obliged to follow. Why the council didn’t tell residents that Action Fraud is a holding-centre only, not itself an investigatory body, and that it would take time before the actual police inquiry got underway is another matter.

So it transpires that it’s only in the last couple of weeks that Brent’s findings have actually reached the City of London Police’s National Fraud and Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), where they will be reviewed. How long it’ll take the NFIB to decide if there’s a criminal case to answer is unknown, likewise whether Brent is proactively monitoring developments or simply waiting on events. 

A report last month by Mark Smulian in the Local Government Chronicle quotes a Brent Council spokesman: ‘It is clear that a number of the emails came from bogus email addresses but, unfortunately, it is not so clear that this necessarily constitutes a criminal offence’ LINK

As an astute observer has commented, however: ‘It should be remembered that in addition to the fake email debacle, real fraud did occur - someone generated letters & emails of support using real addresses without their owners’ permission. It is these cases that I would imagine are the most criminally damaging’. The case of Kensal Rise businesswoman Kirsty Slattery is but one example reported in the Brent and Kilburn Times  LINK

What is clear is that Mr Gillick is currently revising his plans for the historic Mark Twain/Andrew Carnegie library - his original planning application was unanimously rejected by Brent’s planning committee in September. Sensitive to accusations of previously having failed to consult them and so hoping to win over local residents to his latest scheme, the developer recently held a public ‘exhibition’ of his new proposals in a Kensal Rise pub.

To date, though, it seems he hasn’t yet submitted a new planning application to the council, nor should any be considered by the planning department until the outcome of the NFIB’s investigation is known. Unfortunately, the council’s line is to repeat, mantra-like, that it ‘has a responsibility and obligation to consider any valid planning application that is put forward from any individual(s). It must consider each on its merits in accordance with its statutory obligations’ (Christine Gilbert, acting chief executive). 

Against the ongoing police inquiry and the possibility of prosecution for planning fraud, it would be absurd for Brent to pursue business as usual with respect to any further application from Mr Gillick for any Brent development - an apparent fake email in support of the Barham Library Complex appears directly linked to the Platinum Revolver/Kensal Properties Ltd developer - or anyone else for Kensal Rise Library. Meantime, it’s good to hear that the council has strengthened its ‘procedures...to require those who wish to make comments on–line to register and provide us with their contact details’, particularly as, according to a computer expert, ‘It’s [wan’t] very clever of Brent to collect comments via a system that [was] this easy to spoof’.

Protest over London Mayor grabbing the New Homes Bonus

New Homes Bonus is granted to councils in recognition of the pressures they and their communities face when new housing is built in their borough. For example, the cost of more people using locally delivered services, such as adult care or libraries, or investment in infrastructure.

The Autumn Statement announced that, from 2015, London boroughs will face a cut of £70 million in the New Homes Bonus. It also announced that outside of London the New Homes Bonus will not be given to Local Enterprise Panel (LEPs), as had been originally proposed, but would instead continue to go to the councils who deliver local services. The government has, however, decided that in London the New Homes Bonus will be given to the London Local Enterprise Panel, chaired by the Mayor of London.

Chair of London Councils, Mayor Jules Pipe, said:

All Londoners should be outraged by this move. If the New Homes Bonus is essential for councils in Leeds and Manchester to fund the pressures of growth, why should Londoners be any different? This must be reversed.

The very fact that it has been proposed raises fundamental questions about the governance of the growth agenda in London and the government’s commitment to it.

Have your say on Thursday about the future of local hospitals

Wembley residents will get the chance to air their views on proposed hospital reform in the borough which could see two hospital trusts in North West London merge.

The meeting, held by Brent Local Involvement Network (LINk) on Thursday December 12th  will discuss plans for a proposed merger between North West London Hospital Trust and Ealing Hospital Trust.

Residents are invited to air their concerns and answer any questions from experts at both hospital trusts during the meeting in the Sattavis Patidar Centre in Forty Avenue.

Although there are no concrete plans for the merger a potential scenario could see Central Middlesex Hospital in Acton Lane, lose its Accident and Emergency Department.

Ealing Hospital Trust manages Ealing Hospital as well as community services across Brent, Harrow and Ealing while the North West London Hospital Trust manages Northwick Park Hospital and St Mark’s hospitals in Watford Road and Central Middlesex Hospital in Park Royal.

The hospital trusts are planning a merger after an independent report revealed that both trusts were among 20 trusts country wide that were not clinically or financially viable.

The evening begins at 7pm. For more information contact Carol Sealy on 0208 965 0309 or email: Carol.Sealy@hestia.org

At this stage, Brent LINk does not have an opinion regarding the merger.

Vulnerable students abandoned as Copland closes Mentoring Department

Guest Blog 

Last week a special event was held at Copland Community High School to mark the closure of the Mentoring Department at the school.  The Department, which has changed pupils' lives, is a victim of the spending cuts at the school and perhaps also of the different educational philosophy and priorities of the new management.

The event attracted an audience of more than 100 in contrast with the consultation meeting on a takeover of the school by Ark academy attended hby only 15 or so. Perhaps that showed what parents and the school community really value about Copland.

The event was opened by narrators who said:

The core of the work within the Department is dealing with emotions and relating to one another. The first time you step in, you pretty much learn to acknowledge whoever is in there by greeting and acknowledging the others existence. Just from this simple ethos....the popularity of the Department grew. Student would would come down from all different backgrounds, regardless of their 'demographic label'. Whether you're African, Indian, Somalian, Polish, Romanian, English, Caribbean......a talker, are silent, a shaker, a mover or dancer..... 

The respect and love which spills through the Department is universal, indiscriminative and is available to ALL. But then.....there is your height I guess....many tall people will have learned the hard way of being greeted by the low ceiling. Most important of all....during a very unsettling time of changes within the main school structure....one core aspect if the school has been consistent and predictable....the Love and Commitment of backbones of the department.....

Our Hearts have always been open and available to serve you.....students, ex-students, university placement students, parents and carers, Copland staff and Brent external agencies.What you all would not realise is that the Team  had support for each other by meeting regularly, ritually having clinical supervision and sharing the same ethos used with service-users towards each other...which is why it all worked. 

We are not only a Team, but a family....who are....finally....flying the nest. 

To mark this 'flight' you will be mesmerised by a colourful collection of memoirs from you....the true examples of achievement and positive impact....as we prepare to leave our symbolic imprint....please ensure your mobiles are on silent, you are sitting comfortably and are ready for the curtain call performance on behalf of Copland's very Beloved Mentoring Department. 

What will happen to these vulnerable young people? Why do specialised and seasoned home-grown staff have to leave Brent and be welcomed into neighbouring boroughs? Discussion is fruitful and healthy ..., voices need to be heard because on the night of the significant news that Nelson Mandela had passed, there was a resonating message from the Lead Learning Mentor and Dramatherapist to 'fight the academy fight in order to defend what is right!'.

Green Left: It's time to make a stand and refuse to implement Coalition cuts

As councils across the country prepare their 2014-15 budgets and are confronted by the need to make savage cuts that will  drastically affect the quality of their poorest residents' lives, Green Left has issued the following statement:

The Green party of England and Wales fought the 2010 general election in opposition to the savage public service cuts supported by the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties. The Green party offered a different approach to reducing the country’s debts, which included making the wealthy (people and corporations) pay their fair share of tax, investing in the economy to produce sustainable growth through the Green New Deal, some cuts for example to Trident and pledging to protect public services particularly for the most vulnerable in our society.

Unfortunately, we did not win the general election and so are unable to put these policies into practice, although Caroline Lucas has almost single handedly taken the opposition to the Coalition government cuts agenda. The ideologically driven shrink the state policies of the Coalition government aim to reduce public spending and turn most of the public services over to private corporations. Our elected representatives in local government are on the front line in the assault on public spending, with local authorities having their funding from central government cut by around a third since 2010. 

Councils of all political stripes are hurting and they worry about whether they will even be able to fund their statutory duties in the future. Local government is under serious threat and everyone involved in it knows this to be true, despite the blithe statements about local authorities making efficiency savings and encouraging local business growth to pay for services, trumpeted by the Coalition central government. All the easy savings and many not so easy have been made now, and a future of even more of the same is daunting.

We in Green Left say enough is enough, and call on all of our existing elected Green party local councillors and any that are elected in the 2014 local elections, to firmly refuse to implement these Coalition government cuts to essential public services. If the government sends civil servants to carry out their dirty work then the responsibility for the cuts will be firmly in the public view, and our elected representatives can be in the forefront of a popular campaign against them. The time has surely come to make a stand, in solidarity with our communities that depend so heavily on the services provided and with the local authority workforce who have endured cuts in wages if not redundancy.

Caroline Lucas is Wildlife MP of the Year

Caroline Lucas has been voted Wildlife MP of the year by readers of Mark Avery's 'Standing Up for Nature' blog.

The full results were:

Caroline Lucas 39%
Owen Paterson 23.5%
Barry Gardiner  13.5%
Zac Goldsmith 11.8%
None of the Above 5.2%
Joan Walley 4.5%
Nick Clegg 2.5%

The Tories seem to have mobilised for badger hunting, climate change sceptic Owen Paterson. Maybe they do have a sense of irony.