Wembley's Lycee International de Londres Winston Churchill on target for September opening

Lycee International de Londres Winston Churchill today

This week the hoardings around the Lycee International de Londres Winston Churchill have been taken down and locals are able to see the result of the work that has been going on.  Workmen tell me that the internal work is largely completed and work on the grounds is taking place as well as installation of iron railings on the existing perimeter wall.

The building includes the refurbished Brent Town Hall (before the merger of Wembley and Willesden, Wembley Town Hall) and a new block for primary pupils. The school's website shows the completed site, complete with running track where the Council car park used to be.

One can't but notice that the building looks far more substantial than many recent new school builds in the borough.

The school is due to open on September 3rd 2015 for Years 1 to 11 with Years 12 and 13 starting in subsequent academic years.

The school will offer a bilingual education with 'an Anglo Saxon' ethos and will be fee paying:

2015- 2016 school fees will be as follows:

• Maternelle: £10,470 / year
• Elementaire: £9,770 / year
• Collège: £9,770 / year
• Lycée: £10,470 / year 

These fees include lunch, insurance and, from Primary onwards, an appropriate tablet device.

Please note that:
There is a non-refundable £90 pre-registration fee per pupil.

If you are offered a place, you will receive an email explaining in detail the acceptance procedure and the Terms and Conditions. A first registration fee of £1,200 per pupil, as well as an advance payment of £1,000 on the first term fees, must be paid to secure the place. These fees are non-refundable.

The school has published a welcoming letter to parents on its website:

Dear families,

It is my pleasure and privilege to welcome you to the Lycée International de Londres. Our school aims to create a nurturing and vibrant environment where students and adults thrive sharing the joys of teaching and learning alike. The Lycée provides an international education based on the French National Curriculum leading to the French Baccalaureate.

Rooted in the tradition of French educational excellence, and aiming to offer the most modern pedagogical approaches, our ethos reflects our commitment to foster the development of the whole child along with collective achievement through mutual respect and dedication.

Our campus encompasses newly refurbished and purpose ­built buildings surrounded by large outdoor leisure and sports facilities on five acres of land. These beautiful surroundings and brand new teaching spaces will offer the school’s 1,100 pupils a wonderful campus ­style environment. The Lycée also houses a large gymnasium, a bright and spacious library, state­-of-­the­-art science labs, a music room and a drama studio: we want to offer the best a modern school can offer today.

We hope you and your children will join our community, share our values and adhere to our ethos. We look forward to welcoming our first classes Autumn 2015.

It is a great honour for me to be entrusted with the mission to build and lead, with your support, such a vibrant community of learners. Rest assured that I will do everything in my power to gain your trust, act with your support and provide the energy and inspiration to succeed in our endeavour.

Best wishes,
Mireille Rabaté
Head of school

The website includes a video extolling the virtues of blingualism/multilingualism:



 The school's website is available in both French and English HERE

Preston Community Library's reservations over Council's asset strategy

This is what Philip Bromberg of the Preston Community Library Campaign presented to Cabinet yesterday evening:

I am speaking on behalf of Preston Community Library, a charity which, as I hope you all know, is currently running a library on a temporary licence in the Preston Library building on Carlton Avenue East.

As you know, Brent Labour Party made a very clear pledge before last year's election to offer the Preston Library building "at a peppercorn rent to any local group who can provide a sustainable community library....that is our pledge....We will not open to competitive tender in order to give preference to local groups."

Since last year we have done everything that you asked us to do. We've submitted a business plan for a permanent library which has been praised by Brent CVS. From a standing start barely a month ago,  we are now offering the full range of traditional library services - we have several thousand books available for borrowing, including a wide range of large print books which cater to the needs of elderly people, we have a children's library which is lending books to a local primary school, we have a range of newspapers and magazines, we offer study space and, from today, we have four public access computers and WiFi which are free to library users.

We're also already offering much more than a traditional library. We have (free) ESOL classes on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays, and we're talking to a local school who want to fund us to offer these classes to their parents. We've trained two new ESOL teachers. We're running yoga classes for adults and for families. We run movement, exercise and dance classes. We host a weekly creative writing group and a Scrabble group. We've worked very closely with vulnerable adults from a local residential home who've played an important part in getting the library open. And very soon - with funding from you - we will be running a community cinema. In short, we are already doing very precisely the things which Brent says it wants community groups to be doing. Needless to say, all of this has taken a huge amount - thousands of hours - of very hard work by an extraordinarily dedicated group of people.

Bearing all of this in mind, I have a couple of observations to make about the proposed Property and Asset Strategy:

The third objective of the new strategy (p.3) is to increase ongoing revenue generation, but you do note that "clearly there will be times when these objectives will be at odds with each other". So I remind you again that your election promise was to offer the Preston Library building at a peppercorn rent.

And on pp. 7 & 11 the strategy says that "all opportunities for Community Asset Transfer should be advertised" and recommends a competitive process. Competitive tendering was, of course, explicitly ruled out in the Labour Party's election pledge last year. We're not, though, worried about an open and transparent process, provided that process takes place in the context of your very clear election pledge to support a community library in Carlton Avenue East.

Preston Community Library is the area's only secular community space; it is fully accessible and open to everyone regardless of race, religion, age or gender. In barely a month, and on a very restrictive temporary licence, PCL is already doing hugely impressive work. When we have a proper lease, we will be able to do much, much more.

Complacency at Cabinet as controversy swept under the carpet

Preston Community Library representatives spoke at Cabinet tonight on the issue of Brent Council's new Property and Asset Strategy.   They were concerned that the community library they now have up and running in the building, which provides many services to the local community apart from lending books,  should not be affected by the strategy which states:

Fundamentally the strategy moves away from a presumption to dispose outright of property towards one of retaining and acquiring assets with a view to maximising revenue potential.

Muhammed Butt, leader of the council said that the  council also recognised the importance of social value of property, rather than just monetary value.

Several Cabinet members praised the campaign which had been promised the Preston library building at a peppercorn rent.  However Cllr Moher indicated that discussions were taking place on the use of part of the building to provide additional school places.

Clearly there will be some difficult decisions when weighing up any conflict between monetary and social values in a period of budgetary cuts.

Ex councillor James Powney wrote on his blog:

The new strategy has two apparently contradictory aims.  One is to maximise value through renting property.  The second is maximise "social value" through renting below market rates to worthy causes.  Of course this all takes place in an environment where the Council's income from fees & charges, Council Tax and government grant will all be in decline.  Inevitably, this locks Brent Council into cutting public services to the maximum extent possible, which I suspect is not a policy that the majority of those who voted in May 2014 would support (although it is very much what the newly elected Tory government supports).

There are likely to be a number of Community Asset Transfers with voluntary organisations running services from former Brent buildings. 

Cabinet approved the Strategy Report's recommendations which Cllr Pavey claimed marked a 'massive' change in Council policy - but he does tend to suffer from superlative inflation.

They went on to approve authority to tender for a Direct Payments Service contract for adult and children's social care. Cllr Hirani argued that this would enable better working conditions and wages as it would do away with the profit requirement of agency providers.

The Council is expecting an increase of 400 people on Direct Payments over the next three years, a total of 1,127.

Cabinet approved the award of the Local HealthWatch Service contract to CommUNITY Barnet, Cllr Pavey remarked that the current HealthWatch has been well-intentioned but ineffective. It had not been successful in getting community engagement and representing patients.

There were similar remarks about the youth service when the Cabinet discussed the £1m cut it is making which will result in further demands on the voluntary and faith sectors.  In answer to Cllr Mashari who asked if this represented a move away from a universal youth service, Cllr Ruth Moher said she doubted if Brent had such a service at present and that the present service was not coherent, it had developed rather than was planned.  She remarked that that there was no point in providing a service if what it provided was not what young people wanted, so they would be consulted. She went on to say that the Coucil had never done a proper mapping of the services that were already offered acxross the borough by the council, voluntary organisations and faith groups.

Cllr Moher referred to the paragraph about the dangers for the Roundwood Centre if the strategy was not successful. Cllr Mashari said that there were many groups just waiting to get into the centre and she looked forward to it being better used and more dynamic.

There seemed little recognition of what could be read between the lines of the report and was pixcked up by the Kilburn Times - this could mark the end of youth provision in Brent.

I was shocked that there was no delegation at the council from the youth service or its users,  or the Youth Parliament which is, after all, supposed to represent young people.  Cabinet were told that their had been a question from the former chair of Brent Youth Parliament asking what a youth worker attached to the BYP would actually do - the answer was value to say the least.  However, the BYP, kept on at a cost of £60,000 may have to watch out as Cllr Moher said that they would be looking at 'different ways' of delivering that service.

Ruth Moher also presented the report on the Expansion of Stonebridge School and was equally complacent saying that most of the respondents to the consultation had been concerned about the future of Stonebridge Adventure Playground, swallowed up by the school expansion and accompanying regeneration. Referring to the 700 letters  received against the proposal she said that these had all been the same so didn't mean much and went on to say, about a 1,000 plus petition calling for the saving of the adventure playground, 'as we know you can get anyone to sign a petition.

Dear reader, I was moved to protest at this disparagement from a councillor who had never once visited the playground!

Cllr Pavey then jumped in to tell us all how big schools were great (he is chair of governors at the BIG Wembley Primary), the bigger the better ('massive' 'bigger the better' - is there a theme emerging here?) and suggested that Quintain with its BIG profits could be persuaded to add another form of entry or two at its proposed primary school.

Cllr Butt followed this with his usual statement. The provision of school places was a statutory responsibility and the Council owes it to residents and children to provide places: 'We will not shy away from making difficult decisions'.

So, we have to admire Brent Council for making the 'difficult' decision to close a children's playground, even though it, as well as the school,  served families and children in one of the poorest parts of London. Campaigners were never persuaded that the Council had considered the possibility of an alternative design for the  expansion of the school that kept the playground or had even tried to find it an alternative site.

And wasn't Stonebridge Adventure Playground a community asset?

The meeting concluded with a refreshingly eloquent presentation by Cllr Eleanor Southwood, the new lead member for the environment. It was not about her portfolio but a report from a Scrutiny Committee task group that she led on the pupil premium and how it is used in Brent schools.

Cllr Southwood  said that the group had looked at case studies and talked to pupils not just about the impact on attainment but on enjoyment of school and the broadening of horizons.

The good practice described in the report will be shared with the Brent Schools Partnership.

Brent among the London leaders in social cleansing

This article by Housing Action Southwark & Lambeth on Novaramedia is reproduced under the Creative Commons Licensing Scheme. The article is unchanged from the original LINK except for the headline.

The 2011 Localism Act introduced new powers allowing councils to discharge their duty to homeless households into the private rented sector. Before this legal change, homeless households had been able to reject offers of private accommodation offered by the council and wait in temporary accommodation (often for extremely long periods) until an offer of social housing, nearly always in their home borough, was made. Now councils have powers to force people out of their communities permanently and into insecure private accommodation – which itself is one of the biggest causes of homelessness – and they are using them.

The households that councils have a legal duty towards are families with children and those with severe disabilities, meaning that it is often people with vulnerabilities who are being forcibly removed from their communities or threatened with homelessness. Whereas previous investigations (in The Independent and Vice) into social cleansing in London have looked at out-of-borough placements for homeless households, these out-of-borough placements have been for ‘temporary housing’, whereas the research in this article looks at the ‘settled’ accommodation that councils offer in order to completely discharge their duty to the homeless household.

Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL) has sent freedom of information (FOI) requests to every council in London asking a number of questions about how they are housing people in private accommodation and outside of their home borough. All the information below is for a 16-month period from October 2013 (when most councils had finalised their Localism Act policies) to January 2015 (when the requests were sent).

1. 2000 homeless households were forced by local authorities into private sector.

Since October 2013 a total of 2128 families have been forced into the private sector by the Localism Act, who previously should have been given social housing. The map below shows that many of the boroughs which use these powers are out of central London, in tube zones 3-6. The powers are new and HASL has heard that some Labour boroughs are holding off until others have ‘led the way’, hence few councils have forced more than 100 families into the private sector. However Brent and Newham have no such shame and have already forced nearly 400 and 1000 families into the private sector respectively (see point 5).

Image 1: Total Localism Act offers per borough from October 2013 to January 2015. Boroughs coloured white did not respond.

2. Over 1000 households were forced permanently out of their borough and nearly 500 out of London.

Of the households forced into the private sector 1000 were given places out of their home borough and 500 were out of London entirely. The most common destinations were edge-of-London boroughs such as Barking & Dagenham and Enfield, with Luton and Birmingham being used the most outside of London.

3. 670 households pushed into further homelessness by the Localism Act.

670 households, which is a third of the households given final offers in the private sector under the Localism Act, refused them. This is a huge proportion, especially considering the consequences.

These households will now be deemed ‘intentionally homeless’ for daring to stand up to the councils and will no longer get any help off the council’s housing department. They will then have to ask social services for help, where HASL has regularly seen families threatened with having their children taken off them for the crime of being homeless; in a recent high profile case the family were separated. Even if you keep your children, social services housing is normally poor quality, can be removed at a day’s notice and you can be put under punitive Job Centre-style programs for finding your own flat, normally out of London.

4. People are refusing social cleansing.

Our research has shown that the likely reason the 670 households refused their final offers under the Localism Act was because the offer was out-of-borough or out-of-London. The six boroughs which recorded people refusing offers (Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Haringey, Newham, Wandsworth) were either the worst for out-of-borough or out-of-London offers. This is shown clearly by comparing Sutton and Barnet, both of whom tried to send 64 households into the private rented sector since October 2013.

All 64 households in Sutton were offered tenancies in Sutton and they all accepted the offer. In contrast, Barnet gave 38 of the offers out of the borough, with 19 of those being out of London entirely. As a result of offering housing so far away only 35 households accepted (just over half).

5. Newham and Brent are the worst.

These two Labour-run councils accounted for two thirds of the total mandatory private sector offers across London. Newham and Brent have made 463 and 106 people homeless due to their private sector offers respectively. Together they account for 490 of the 563 out-of-London offers that have been made since October 2013 using the Localism Act. Where others have held back, these two councils are blazing a violent trail of social cleansing. Where Brent has made final offers to 48 households to move their whole lives to Luton, Newham has tried to forcefully move 142 families to Birmingham (of which over 100 refused, and are now presumably in further homelessness).

6. Many councils have not used the new powers but use more subtle force.

Even before the Localism Act, councils had many coercive tactics to get households to which they owed a homeless duty to accept private accommodation when they could have waited for social housing. This involved councils lying to people about their rights, and some councils are still using this method of forcing people into private housing over the explicit force of the Localism Act. The Localism Act also introduced powers to let local councils change their allocations policy for social housing. Some councils, such as Lambeth and Lewisham, are using this to give people no choice but to ‘choose’ private housing, regularly out of their borough.

When all the methods councils use of getting homeless households into the private rented sector are considered together, a total of over 7000 households have been placed in private accommodation by councils from October 2013 to January 2015. We found that in contrast to the forced placements discussed above, private sector placements – mainly through less explicitly forceful methods – are used most by central London boroughs. The second map shows the movements of households into private accommodation out of borough, and the worst are found in central London such as Camden, Lambeth and Westminster.

Image 2: The total movements into the private rented sector out of their home borough that has been administered by councils.

7. Councils are administering social cleansing.

The effect of all these out-of-borough placements is to move people out of central London into the outskirts and beyond. The final map shows that most central London boroughs had more households moved out by the council than moved in by others (red) and the boroughs on the outskirts of London found more households moved in by other councils than were being moved out (blue). This shows that London councils are administering mass social cleansing as thousands of people are being moved out of central London by their local council or threatened with destitution.

Image 3 – The net movements into and out of each council area by councils finding private rented sector tenancies. Negative (red) means more households have been moved out of an area than into it, and positive (blue) means more have been moved into an area than out of it.

8. This social cleansing is being challenged.

Both collective action and legal challenges are being made to stop the social cleansing of our communities. The highly publicized Westminster court case – although in relation to temporary accommodation rather than permanent/settled housing offers – could have ramifications for how local authorities find mandatory placements. The Focus E15 mums campaign started as a fight to get housing in their borough when they had been made offers in the private sector in Manchester, Hastings and Birmingham. Their campaign won them private housing in their home borough of Newham. Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth has made a leaflet with useful information for homeless households threatened with offers in the private sector. Local housing action groups can help people challenge an out-of-borough offer both through the appeals process and through collective action.

Novara Wire / CC BY-SA 4.0

Brent Foodbank: Could you volunteer to collect food donations for just 3 hours in the first week of July?

 

Request from Brent Foodback

 

At Brent Foodbank we are looking for volunteers to help us with a food collection on 2 / 3 / 4 July - including at Tesco Extra Wembley (across from Ikea) and Tesco Metro Wembley Central - and we have a feeling that some Wembley Matters readers might be interested in helping out, or are involved with youth groups or other groups who also might.  Brent Foodbank page at https://www.facebook.com/Brentfoodbankcollection

There's more info on the page but these are the essentials:

13 million people live below the poverty line. Our foodbank provides a minimum of 3 days emergency food and support to local Brent residents in crisis.

On 2nd, 3rd and 4th July 2015, Tesco stores nationwide are hosting a food collection to support the UK's foodbanks.

What can you do to help?

We need 100 of you to each give 3 hours of your time to greet shoppers at 3 Brent stores and ask them to buy an item from our shopping list.

Where do we need you?

We are greeting shoppers and collecting food items at the following stores:

• Tesco Extra Wembley (across from Ikea) 
• Tesco Metro Harlesden
• Tesco Metro Wembley Central

When are we collecting food? 

We're asking you to sign up to volunteer for 3 hours on any of the following days:

• Thursday 2nd July between 9 am and 6 pm
• Friday 3rd July between 10 am and 10 pm
• Saturday 4th July between 10 and and 10 pm

What do you do next?

Please Message us via the Message button on our Facebook page, or leave a comment, and we will be in touch with more info.

Quintain Wembley Masterplan Public Exhibition June 12th-16th

This invitation appears to have had only limited circulation top residents in the Wembley Stadium area so I am reprinting it here for information:

WEMBLEY PARK MASTERPLAN: INVITATION TO PUBLIC EXHIBITION

Yellow Pavilion, Olympic Way, Wembley, HA9 0FA

I am writing to you on behalf of Quintain Estates & Development plc – one of London’s leading investment and development specialists – to inform you about our plans to consult on the latest phase of the regeneration of Wembley Park. As a representative of a key local community group, I would like to invite you and your fellow members to come and view our latest plans at a public exhibition.

Quintain has been leading the development of Wembley Park since 2002. During this time, we have helped to shape the area and deliver substantial benefits including new homes, jobs, shops, hotels, public realm space and other amenities – all of which have helped to improve Wembley for local residents and new occupiers.

We are now looking to bring forward our masterplan proposals for the remainder of the land within Quintain’s ownership and we are keen to engage with the local community to help shape our designs for the area. As part of our consultation programme we will be holding a public exhibition to showcase our early ideas and to hear your thoughts; this will be held in the foyer of The Yellow Pavilion, Olympic Way, Wembley, HA9 0FA on:

• Friday 12th June 3pm-7pm
• Saturday 13th June 11am-4pm
• Sunday 14th June 11am-3pm
• Monday 15th June 11am-7pm
• Tuesday 16th June 3pm-7pm

Architects, Flanagan Lawrence, who are working up the masterplan designs, will be on hand with members of the Quintain team to answer questions and talk through the proposals. The exhibition will also give you an opportunity to see what has already been delivered to date as part of the on-going transformation of Wembley Park.

I hope you and fellow members are able to join us but if the times above are not convenient we would be pleased to come to a meeting of your group to set out our proposals. If you would like any further information or have any questions, please email us at info@wembleypark.com or freephone 0800 014 2427 and a member of the project team will get back to you.

Green Party solidarity for National Gallery strikers at PCS Rally in Trafalgar Square

As the Conservative Government moves to tighten anti-trade union laws, Romayne Phoenix, Green Party Trade Union Liaison officer, spoke today at the solidarity rally for National Gallery workers striking against privatisation. The rally was organised by their union the PCS and supported by the Green Party Trade Union Group.

Potential unintended cosequences of a 7 day NHS

Reposted from Open Democracy - Our NHS LINK, author Dr David Wrigley, under Creative Commons terms LINK. No changes have been made from the original text.

“We can become the first country in the world to deliver a truly 7-day NHS”, David Cameron used his ‘first major speech’ of his brand new Conservative majority government to tell us.

It sounds appealing - but does it stand up to scrutiny, or is it just more spin from the former spin doctor?

With 5 years of unconstrained power ahead of him, Cameron will now be expected to deliver on this key Tory manifesto promise.

If Cameron really wants to achieve a 7-day NHS he needs a 7 point plan. 

1. Get the 5 days right first.

If the government wants to make the NHS work safely and efficiently 7 days a week, then it might be a good idea to get the 5 days of Monday-Friday working well beforehand. At the moment the NHS is in dire financial straits – and its demoralised doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals are leaving or retiring early. What was the adage Cameron likes to use – fix the roof while the sun is shining? Well the sun isn’t shining much in the NHS these days - but you certainly need to fix the roof Mr Cameron, and pretty sharpish. 

2. Invest in your NHS staff 

Nurses got years of 0% or (at best) 1% pay increases during the coalition years. They effectively ‘donated’ over £1.5bn a year of unpaid overtime to keep the NHS afloat amidst the cuts. They were pilloried for failures that were not of their making. Blamed for scandals that were often due to hospitals chasing Foundation Trust status at all costs, their eye only on the bottom line. Many health professionals are becoming unwell now because they cannot give any more to the job they love. The number of nurses off with stress soared by up to 48% last year.

How are they going to feel now the government tells them that in a 24/7 NHS it will be “archaic” to pay supplements for working “unsocial hours”? Many nurses rely on these payments to boost their stagnating income.

3. Get your workforce planning sorted 

Cameron claimed last week that “We are training and hiring many more GPs right now”. But in fact one third of GP training places are empty. And one in three GPs plan to retire in the next 5 years, leading to a workforce time bomb fuelled by 5 years of unpopular NHS policies and huge cuts (known as ‘efficiency savings’).

4. Sort out social care and community healthcare

The huge cuts to local authorities has meant social care being cut to the bone, with budgets being slashed by up to 35%. Many elderly and vulnerable patients are being left alone or with haphazard 10 minute visits from zero-hour contract workers who have to dash from client to client in order to make any sort of living. These patients are becoming increasingly unwell and needing more NHS care. Inadequate community healthcare services (district nurses have been cut by 40% in 5 years) mean they languish in hospital beds, unable to be discharged safely to the community.

5. End the dog eat dog competitive market in the NHS 

We are wasting billions annually on administering an unwanted healthcare market where providers fight each other for contracts and NHS managers spend their lives refereeing and sorting this all out. No one (except the private health industry) has asked for this. The money saved from scrapping this market system could fund decent social care for all the elderly and vulnerable people in our society.

6. Make all NHS services available 7 days a week 

But tell us – as Cameron has so far refused to – what it would cost. Doing it properly would cost billions. As a GP if I see a patient on a Saturday or a Sunday I need the full range of services available to me in order to treat my patients effectively. I need a fully functioning hospital laboratory with blood collection services twice a day over the weekend. I need access to NHS physiotherapy for my patients with urgent musculoskeletal problems. I need access to health visitors to refer children needing their input. I need access to a fully functioning radiology department offering x-rays, CT scans, MRI scans, ultrasound and other investigations. 

7. Beware of the unintended consequences

Increasing the NHS to a full 7 day service will increase demand – and therefore cost. Cameron’s promised ‘extra’ £8bn would merely plug one small gap in the black hole opening up at the centre of the Department of Health. To stretch already overstretched services more thinly will lead to a poorer service in coming years – and no doubt, the electorate to blame the government for a failing NHS. Cameron may have already said he will be leaving Downing Street before 2020, but is this really the legacy he will want to leave for his successor?

A 7 day NHS service is attractive to patients and attractive to politicians seeking votes. But no other western health economy has managed to provide it, as Cameron said himself. With the NHS already struggling many really doubt this government can do it properly. I hope it won’t be imposed on already beleaguered NHS staff and they are forced to provide the 7 day service against their professional advice. 

Be careful of what you wish for Mr Cameron and Mr Hunt. This one could come back and bite you very hard indeed.