A salute to Philip Grant for his work on the Davani case

Nan Tewari, who first raised the issue of the behaviour of Brent Council Human Resources on this blog LINK wrote the following comment on the post below about Brent Council settling the Rosemarie Clarke case 'out of court'. I think her comment deserves more prominence.

What stands out in this sorry saga is the power of one individual's tenacious struggle to expose the truth and how that struggle carried out in the public domain, i.e. Wembley Matters, bolstered its effects to ensure a massive degree of success.

Philip Grant's relentless pursuit of matters of fact in this case, together with Martin Francis shining a light on that pursuit, has had the powerful effect of seeing off Cara Davani, Andrew Potts and Christine Gilbert.

After stringing out the Chief Exective 'interim' role for 3 years, Brent Council and Gilbert would have been quite comfortable for her to throw her hat into the ring for the permanent position and for her to have been appointed based on her sterling record of failure to follow basic procedures and nurturing conflicts of interest.

Andrew Potts, business and personal partner of Davani, emerged as a beneficiary of the legal department restructure that had been conducted by Davani and signed (nodded?) off by Gilbert.

Davani herself was secure enough to work on adding such unlikely strings to her bow as taking on responsibility for equality and diversity as well as wanting the acclaim of a Business in the Community award to trumpet the Council's equality achievements as a means of countering the public disgrace at the Watford Tribunal and the public disrepute she brought the council into, for blatant race discrimination.

And Philip's efforts have also exposed for all to see (the video of the council meeting would probably warrant an 18 certificate in the scheme of these things!!) the underlying ill manners and discourtesy of Cllr Butt and Cllr Dr Helen Carr BA (Hons); M Phil (Oxon); Cert TEFL; Dip; DPil who appear singularly unable to understand the balanced deportment required of public figures.

So at a time when it appears that we the public are powerless against those in power, Philip Grant has led the way in showing that we can put the frighteners on public institutions whatever they may choose to admit or however much they may attempt to conceal.

Philip, we salute you.

Nick Gibb 'wrong' to attribute increase in children in 'good or outstanding schools' to academisation

By Henry Stuart republished from original article on Local Schools Network
This is another really useful article by Nick which shows how the government misleads on the basics.

 Government ministers have repeatedly claimed that one million more children are in "good" or "outstanding" schools, and that this is a direct result of their academies policy. For example Nick Gibb, speaking at the consideration of the Education and Adoption Bill on Friday 11th September, said "there are 1,100 sponsored academies that started life as under-performing schools, which is a colossal achievement that has led directly to over 1 million [more] children being taught in “good” or “outstanding” schools." (col 208)

Analysis of Ofsted Data View does indicate that it is true that one million more pupils are in schools rated "good" or "outstanding" and it is clearly the case that many schools have been converted to academies. But a basic analysis of the data suggests it was not academisation that caused any improvement.

Vast majority of improved primaries are not academies
78% of the increase has been in primary schools, where only a small minority of schools have become academies. Indeed the latest Ofsted dataset indicates that there are 167 sponsored academy primary schools that are currently rated "good" or "outstanding". Assuming these have the same average size as primaries overall (411 pupils), this gives a total of 68,537 children.

Extra pupils in "good" or "outstanding" primaries           996,604
Pupils in "good" or "outstanding" sponsored primaries    68,637
% in sponsored academies                                                  7%

So for every 100 extra pupils in "good" or "outstanding" primaries, 93 were in schools that were not sponsored academies. The percentage of primary schools that are "good" or "outstanding" has gone from 67% in 2010 to 82% in 2015 but the vast majority of this improvement has been due to improvements in maintained schools, not in sponsored academies. Nick Gibb is entirely wrong to say the improvement results "directly" from the performance of sponsored academies.

Ratings for primaries are improving but more secondaries are being rated "inadequate"
The Ofsted annual report of 2014 made note of the fact that primary schools were continuing to improve but that this was not the case for secondaries (where the majority of schools are not academies). Indeed there is a worrying increase in the number rated "inadequate":

“Children in primary schools have a better chance than ever of attending an effective school. Eighty-two per cent of primary schools are now good or outstanding, which means that 190,000 more pupils are attending good or outstanding primary schools than last year. However, the picture is not as positive for secondary schools: only 71% are good or outstanding, a figure that is no better than last year. Some 170,000 pupils are now in inadequate secondary schools compared with 100,000 two years ago.” (Ofsted annual report 2014 p8)

I have noted here that sponsored secondaries are far more likely to remain or become "inadequate" than similar maintained schools, and here that sponsored academies lead to slower school improvement. The concern is that the direct effect of sponsored academies has actually been this substantial increase in secondaries rated "inadequate".

The data indicates that the Education Bill, in forcing all "inadequate" or "coasting" schools to become sponsored academies, is likely to substantially increase the number of pupils in "inadequate" schools.

Data Notes

Data on pupil numbers come from DfE for 2010 and 2015.

Data on schools overall Ofsted ratings come from Ofsted Data View.

The Ofsted dataset on ratings for all schools (June 2015), from which the numbers of Sponsored academies that are "good" or "outstanding" were calculated can be found here.

My calculations indicate that there are 997,000 more children in "good" or "outstanding" primaries in 2015 than in 2010 and 274,000 in secondaries, giving a total of 1.27 million. However 275,000 of the extra primary pupils are due to the increase in pupil numbers. If we take these out, the total is 999,000 extra pupils in "good" or "outstanding" schools, effectively the one milliion that the government claims.

Week of Action to Rage Against the Tories October 3rd-7th

Brent Fightback  and Brent Trades Council have organised a coach to go to Manchester for the October 4th Rage Against the Tories demonstration.  It will leave from Brent Trades Hall, 375 High Road, NW10 2JR.

Tickets are £20/£10 email: brentunited@gmail.com

Visit St Raphael's Edible Garden on Saturday afternoon

Pitfield Way, St Raphael's, Neasden, London,  NW10 0PR

Brent Council settles Employment Tribunal compensation out of court

Ten minutes before the Employment Tribunal remedy hearing was due to start at Watford Tribunal on Wednesday  Brent Council settled with Rosemarie Clarke's legal team out of court.

Although details are subject to a Confidentiality Agreement an award would normally cover legal costs and loss of earnings.

This marks almost the last chapter in the saga with the main protagonists including Cara Davani, Andy Potts, Fiona Ledden and Christine Gilbert no longer employed by Brent Council.

Muhammed Butt, a stout defender of Cara Davani, remains in post and of course Philip Grant's two questions remain unanswered.

Brent Council to act on pedestrian safety in Forty Lane traffic corridor

Bird's Eye view of the two junctions (photo taken before Asda petrol station was constructed)

Local residents,  have been in contact with Brent Council to express concern about pedestrian safety at the Bridge Road/Forty Avenue/Barnhill junction and the junction of Forty Lane/Kings Drive and the Asda petrol station and car park. LINK

Children from The Ark Aademy (Primary and Secondary), Michaela Secondary, Lycee de Londres (Primary and Secondary) and Chalkhill Primary all use these crossings.

Brent Council has now sent this response:

Thank you for contacting us with your concerns about pedestrian safety at the junction of Kings Drive and Forty Lane.

I can assure you that pedestrian safety, particularly for vulnerable pedestrians such as children, is a high priority and we are active in introducing road safety measures for the benefit of all road users. Funding has been prioritised for road safety and accessibility improvements to the Forty Lane Corridor between Bridge Road and The Paddocks through our 2016/17 Local Implementation Plan (LIP) submission. A transport study is currently in progress to develop designs to improve pedestrian accessibility and safety, and congestion along this corridor with improvements to the Forty Lane/ Forty Avenue/ Bridge Road / Barnhill signal junction envisaged to commence from Summer 2016, subject to consultation. 

I acknowledge the need for immediate action to discourage motorists contravening the traffic regulations at the junction of Kings Drive and Forty Lane. We shall therefore review the existing signage and road markings to improve compliance and this will include the introduction of camera enforcement signs along with increased enforcement during peak hours to target habitual offenders.

Regards,

Sandor Fazekas
Project Development Manager
Transportation
Community Services

Extract from LIP report to be discussed at the Brent Cabinet Meeting on Monday. Child pedestrian traffic has increased considerably since April 2012 with the opening of new schools and expansion in the immediate vicinity.

A very unpleasant Lidl surprise for local customer

A Chalkhill resident has complained to Lidl customer services after what he claims was an unjust and humiliating experience at the supermarket’s branch in Blackbird Hill, Kingsbury.

A very unpleasant surprise.

Early on Monday morning a  member of staff approached A and accused him of shoplifting. No attempt was made to search A or say what evidence existed to prove the allegation.  The incident took place in front of the public and a checkout assistant joined in saying that A was ‘always shoplifting’ although there had been no previous incident or allegation against A who is a regular customer.

The incident caused A great distress and brought on a fit of nervous tremors in the store. He says that a proper process should have been followed in which the police would be called and video tape or witness statements sought and his person searched before a charge was brought.  This would have given him the opportunity to defend himself.

Instead he was addressed in what he says was ‘ a very aggressive and arrogant manner’ and told that he had been shoplifting and must leave the store or the police would be called.

A, who says he feels a ‘strong sense of injustice’, wants local people to be warned by what happened to him and is seeking an apology from Lidl.

Lidl Press Office have not responded to a request for their reaction.

Rugby World Cup disruption in Wembley on Sunday

New Zealand play Argentina in the Rugby World Cup on Sunday afternoon (k.o 16.45) and there will be some road closures in the Wembley Park area,  Full transport details HERE