Green Party urges Government to fulfil promise to help child asylum seekers

The Green Party has urged the British Government to act on its promise to help unaccompanied child refugees as UK councillors visit Calais LINK.

Natalie Bennett, Green Party Leader, said:

Britain has a humanitarian responsibility to help the unaccompanied children in Calais - and through what was known as the Dubbs amendment, passed four months ago, we have promised to do so.

Yet the Government has not acted, and thousands of unaccompanied children fleeing war have been left in acute danger.

History will not judge us favourably if we abandon our responsibility to these children.

We saved the Welsh Harp Environmental Centre - now help conserve its habitats this Sunday

The Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre, loved by generations of Brent children, was saved from closure when Thames 21 took over its running.

The extensive grounds need regular conservation to maximise habitat provision and volunteers are needed this Sunday, August 21st, 10am - 2pm to work on forming glades.

The extensive woodlands around the Centre (red circle)

This is the notice from Thames 21

INTERESTED IN CONSERVATION? Be part of a new Friends of the Welsh Harp group at this first Conservation Day.

This exciting new group will support the activities of the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre and you will learn how to manage the habitats in the area.

All welcome. Under 16’s need to be accompanied by a responsible adult.   Please bring a packed lunch.  Meeting location will be at the Education Centre.

We are going to be continuing forming glades as we did during the first successful event. Thank you to all of those who made that event a success! A glade is an open area within a woodland. A lot of the glades around the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre are choked with ivy, as a consequence, biodiversity is not as high as it could be at ground level within the woodland.

If the temperature is a lot cooler, we may tackle some small blackthorn trees intruding on an area which should be wild grassland.

The Centre is at the end of Birchen Grove, off Blackbird Hill, Kingsbury, NW9 8RY Go through the large green gates and it is on the left past the allotments. Buses 182, 245 and 297 to Blackbird Hill get off at Lidl/McDonalds.  83 bus get off at Tudor Gardens.

Patients set Friday deadline for NHS England to respond to Sudbury GP Practice protests and vow further occupations

Patients of the Sudbury Primary Care Practice are objecting to their GP practice being taken over a new provider without any consultation.  In this guest blog Paul Lorber expresses his anger about their treatment by NHS England:

The patients from Sudbury have had enough of being messed about by the bureaucrats from NHS England.

We therefore occupied the GP Surgery in protest at being ignored.

NHS England are refusing inform us as patients and do not respond to any communications.

We (I have been a patient of this practice for over 30 years) have therefore decided to take direct action to hammer home our message.

More occupations are planned as we are determined to keep our existing doctors and not have the GP Surgery taken over.

These are my letters to NHS England:

 Dear Ms Peppard

Please treat this email as a formal complaint against NHS England.

NHS England have created confusion, uncertainty and worry for the over 8,000 patients at this GP Surgery over the past 12 months.

NHS England representatives have provided misinformation and NO information and failed to respond to questions on a timely basis.

It is clear to me as a taxpayer that all the NHS England is good at is to waste public money and that the organisation is nothing more than a self serving waste of time.

Can you please pass this email to the head of NHS England and ask him/her to answer a very simple question by Friday of this week - What have NHS England done with my GPs and why have they failed to inform me?

Yours sincerely
Paul Lorber

Dear Ms Peppard

I note that another 9 days have passed without any information from NHS England.

After all I am only a patient so what do I matter?

Yet the NHS England spokesperson is happy to tell the local Newspaper that a new provider will take over my GP Surgery on 1 November.

In view of this confident statement of certainty I fail to see why NHS England do have the decency to respond to questions from patients or to keep us informed.

I appreciate that you wish that we all just died or disappeared. Unfortunately we have no intention of doing so and every intention of fighting for our rights and our GPs.

Can you please respond by this Friday.

Yours faithfully

Paul Lorber
Patient at Sudbury Vale Farm GP Practice and a Taxpayer contributing to the salaries of NHS England Staff

Save the Brent Sickle Cell Project

Personal guest blog by Nan Tewari

CVS Training Room, Ground Floor
5 Rutherford Way, Wembley, HA9 0BP
Thurs 15 Sept, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

If you are a sickle cell patient, Brent CCG cordially invites you to trek to Wembley Park for a meeting to deliver personally, the news that it is about to close the BSCASS (Brent Sickle Cell Advisory Support Service) project 2 days after the meeting.

Brent CCG regrets it has no money (or thought) to schedule the meeting in Stonebridge or Harlesden for the convenience of a vulnerable group of patients.

Brent CCG further regrets it sees no need to include people who are at high risk of developing sickle cell either.

Brent CCG is pleased however that it does have the money to spend on expensive solicitors to fend off attempts by Brent Patient Voice to ensure the CCG complies with proper contract termination processes;  to explain why it had not undertaken an Equality Impact Assessment before making the decision to cease funding;  to give an undertaking that it would put an alternative support service in place to patients who have already seen their service relocated to Northwick Park, a mere 2 bus rides away, and so on and so forth.

The CCG recognises the project has been effective in reducing hospital out-patient and in-patient admissions.  The Sickle Cell Society has the provider contract for the BSCASS project.  The annual cost is £70,000 which pays for 2 workers.  The project was originally planned (and costed) for 3 years having started in May 2015.  

Part of the contract included an agreed joint governance structure through a steering group.  The CCG senior rep only ever attended one meeting.  The CCG had voiced no dissatisfaction with performance yet suddenly now, it is concerned that the service is not reaching enough patients.  All voluntary sector projects take time to ramp up having first to recruit staff then to set the service up.  The CCG however, seems to believe that setting up a community project just requires the handing out of money with no follow-up responsibility for any of the community development or capacity building activity necessary to get the new service going.  

Contrast this with the help and support the CCG gives to the Royal Free Hospital as provider of the outpatient cardiology service to help the RF meet its KPIs (key performance indicators) and the RF’s continued failure to fully deliver.  Better still, more than a year after the CCG was set up it was still using it’s newness as an excuse for poor performance in several areas!  Different rules for them it seems.

Re the 15 Sept meeting (no consultation from the CCG on date and time, surprise, surprise) I expect Brent CCG would appreciate some help on how a parent is meant to leave Wembley Park at 3 p.m. to get to Harlesden in time to pick children up from school.  Contributions can be e-mailed to: breccg.brentenquiries@nhs.net
 
Not sure whether the CCG will listen to sense re the meeting date/time, participation, or anything else, so do watch this space for any updates

Brent Mini Pride, Harlesden, September 17th

From Terrence Higgins Trust

The Terrence Higgins Trust with Brent are Celebrating Diversity and promoting better sexual health at Brent Mini Pride

Terrence Higgins Trust will be at Brent  Pride on Saturday 17^th September  to raise awareness of HIV and of the importance of good sexual health by promoting sexual health screening and engaging with the local community in Brent 

The UK’s leading HIV and sexual health charity will be offering residents the opportunity to come out and celebrate all that is great about Brent’s culturally diverse community. We will be at Rucklidge Ave Park, Harlesden, NW10 4PS ( nearest tube station Willesden Junction) Between 12pm – 6pm.

Also at the event will be Brent Fostering Services who will be on hand to offer advice and support to those considering or wanting to foster children needing a home. There will also be an  ice cream bar, deck chairs for sun bathing ( weather permitting) and music to chill out to  and a balloon launch to mark the occasion along with members from our specialist team on hand to over advice and support along with free give a ways. 

Mark Banfield Project Manager  at Terrence Higgins Trust, said: 

Brent is a fantastic place to be and work in now, with a such a diverse depth of cultures living together Brent truly  demonstrates and encompasses the values of tolerance, community and unity; it in these values that we are united in and our acceptance of others and is something we should all feel proud to be a part of. ‘Pride is a huge celebration for the Brent and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to shine.  We want everyone to enjoy a safe and happy Pride, so we would encourage people to drop by our Terrence Higgins Trust stalls to get the resources they need – whether it’s condoms, information about local testing services, or just to ask a question about HIV or sexual health.”

Terrence Higgins Trust provides support, information and advice services for those living with HIV and affected by HIV or poor sexual health. We provide sexual health advise and referrals to sexual health services including testing along with a range of support services for those living with or affected by HIV . We are based at 2^nd Floor, Unit 53, The Design Works, Park Parade, London, NW10 4HT 

More information about Brent Pride can be found here http://www.tht.org.uk/our-charity/Our-work/Our-centres/Brent

Brent Council claims 11.3% reduction in its carbon footprint

From Brent Council

A recent report LINK shows Brent Council's carbon footprint has reduced by 11.3 per cent, totalling approximately £220K worth of savings per year.

CO₂ emissions have reduced from 14,189 tonnes in 2013/14 to 12,585 in 2015/16, creating a total reduction of 1605 tonnes. The reduction will continue as our Carbon Management Programme works towards its target of a 15 per cent total reduction.

This will involve replacing streetlights with greener LED upgrades, encouraging staff to reduce the energy used in council buildings and aiming to retrofit some buildings to make them more energy efficient and better for the environment.

Rescue Our Schools: Focus on free schools and grammar schools

From Rescue Our Schools

Rescue Our Schools - Families & communities standing up for state education

Dear Supporters,

For this, our 5th newsletter, we have decided to focus on Free Schools.

Did you know that local authorities are no longer permitted to open new schools maintained by them?
All new schools must either be academies (often set up by chains or MATs) or so-called "Free Schools". It seems they are costing us tax payers rather a lot...

http://schoolsweek.co.uk/2bn-fund-revealed-for-dfe-free-school-property-company/

Free Schools

Free schools have been hitting the headlines again, and not for good reasons. Last week the founder and former head of Kings Science Academy Bradford (one of the first wave of free schools in 2011), along with two staff, was convicted of fraudulently obtaining £150,000 from grants relating to the set up of the school. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-36943526

Then it was revealed that the Michaela Free School  have a policy of putting pupils into lunchtime isolation if their parents have not paid their (compulsory) lunch bill. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3713583/Superhead-claimed-Britain-s-education-broken-puts-pupils-detention-lunch-restricts-food-parents-failed-pay-school-meals.html

Add to these clear examples of poor practice growing concerns about how much these additional free schools cost and that the whole programme is not living up to the claims that were made for it.

If there is a free school planned in your area, please look carefully at what is proposed, whether it is really needed, and what impact it might have on existing schools. Rescue Our Schools would like more focus on meeting the needs of existing schools than on extending choice for some at the expense of the system overall.

For more information about free schools and some of the problems associated with them, have a look at the Local Schools Network (www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk) or SchoolsWeek (www.schoolsweek.co.uk )

Will it be back-to-academy rather than back-to-school for your kids?

One of our followers has written a piece for our website about how she feels following the conversion of her children's primary school to an academy.

http://www.rescueourschools.co.uk/news/2016/8/9/my-kids-school-is-converting-so-how-does-this-make-me-feel

If you have a state education story that you'd like to share with us and/or our followers, please do drop us a line: info@rescueourschools.co.uk.

Grammar Schools

By all accounts our new Prime Minister, Teresa May, is now considering lifting the long-standing ban on new grammar schools. This is a controversial issue, already triggering much debate. Read Rescue Our School's press release on the subject here: http://www.rescueourschools.co.uk/

What do you think? Do you agree with us that selection means rejection for most pupils? We'd love to hear from you.

Calling all fundraisers and creatives !

Rescue Our Schools is looking for an experienced fundraiser and creatives to volunteer to help raise money so that we can launch some exciting new projects.

Please get in touch if you'd like to join our team! info@rescueourschools.co.uk

Keep spreading the word

We are keen for as many people as possible to know about what's happening to our state education system. If you are on social media, our Facebook and Twitter feeds are full of updates. Why not sign up, like our page or follow us? And if you have already, maybe you could ask your friends to do the same and subscribe to these newsletters? Or you could spark up a conversation with other parents you know? The more people who know about the peril are schools are in, the better.

Twitter: @RescueSchools

Fryent Country Park Rangeelu Gujerat event next weekend

Part of Fryent Country Park, Kingsbury, will be given over the Rangeelu Gujerat Festival on Saturday 20th August and Sunday 21st August.  The Festival will run from 10am until 8pm.

The London boroughs of Brent and Harrow have the highest number of Gujerati speakers in London and the event is supported by Brent Council.

The organiser's state:

The two day event will provide a large platform to showcase Gujarat's Arts, Literature, Food, Fashion, Music, Dance, Tourism and much more. Visitors will experience an interactive walk through of market stalls, scents,  artisans and street food, live music and a kite event. The folk dancers, along with traditional costumes, perform and there is Gujarati comedy offering back-home jokes and phrases. Rangeelu Gujarat is a celebration of life, festivities and culture of Gujarat. Discover bestowing grace and elegance and gather to experience the diverse traditions and the generosity and hospitality of Gujarati people.

The event will be held on the Upper Hydes meadow and according to an unsigned notice at the park entrance this has been closed to the public until Monday August 22nd. The Fryent Way car park will be closed from August 18th until August 22nd with temporary alternative parking at Richard's West.

See map below: