Monday 26 January 2015
Black Lives Matter: Film, Discussion, Entertainment, Food - Friday January 30th, Kilburn
Labels:
Awate,
Black Lives Matter,
Brent Anti-Racism Campaign,
DJ Kato,
Joy Gardner,
Ken Fero,
Mark Duggan,
Samuel King,
Shareefa Energy,
Stopwatch
Hunt's neo-liberalism distorts his understanding of education policy
Tristram Hunt's Guardian attack on the Green party's education policy LINK , characteristising it as 'total madness', seems to have spectacularly misfired today. Guardian readers looking up the detail have come back to comment favourably on the policy.
Our policy does of course mark a clear break with the neo-liberal policies of the three main parties which support competition and marketisation of schools based on what Chomsky recently called the 'grading of students and teachers'.
Labour of course began the marketisation of schools with their sponsored academies and this, along with the privatisation of the NHS, was a key element in Blair's New Labour strategy. Hunt, along with Lord Adonis, is essentially a Blairite and we cannot expect him to offer a fundamental critique of what the system, instigated by them, has become.
So what is this 'madness' Hunt has found:
Delaying the start of formal education until the age of six
There are many countries in the world where children start later than in England and Wales and achieve just as well, if not better, with less anxiety. The Green Party takes account of such evidence and understands the importance of play and exploration in early childhood rather than the testing and ranking at ever earlier ages supported by the neo-liberal parties.
Ending SAT tests in Primary Schools
SATS are essentially a way of grading teachers and schools putting them and their students under intense pressure. This has had the effect of narrowing the curriculum, deskilling teachers who are under pressure to 'teach to the test' and removes much of the joy from teaching and learning. Greens have a much broader view of what constitutes education.
Hunt suggests that children's progress would no longer be monitored, but of course SATs are not the only way to monitor and evaluate progress and tell us little about the individual child compared with other systems.
Abolition of Ofsted will end accountability
The Green Party would replace Ofsted with a collaborative system ending much of the stress, illness and rushed judgements associated with Ofsted:
The Green Party will instate a system of local accountability using continuous, collaborative assessment of schools. We would replace OFSTED with an independent National Council of Educational Excellence which would have regional officers tasked to work closely with Local Authorities. The National Council would be closely affiliated with the National Federation for Educational Research (NFER).
Where pupils’ attainment and progress is reported as part of a school’s holistic report to parents and the wider community it will include assessments, including value-added, moderated by the National Council of Education Excellence and the Local Authority’s School Improvement Service as well as the school’s own self evaluation.Education cannot compensate for society
In a variation of Michael Gove's 'enemies of promise' labelling of his opponents, Hunt suggests that Natalie Bennett speaks the language of 'low aspiration and defeatism' because she recognises that schools cannot compensate for all the ills of an unequal society.
This is what Natalie actually said:
I am gravely concerned about low exam results and high dropout rates from children from disadvantaged backgrounds. But I understand that even wonderful schools can’t fully compensate for severe poverty and stress at home - which is why making the minimum wage a living wage, affordable and warm homes, and ensuring decent benefits are available to all who needs them, are education issues as well as social justice issuesMore than 40 years in teaching and school governance has certainly taught me the importance of material conditions, and I would add a daily hot meal and a place to study to the list. These make an impact on levels of energy, motivation and self-worth. We have to work on both improving education and improving living conditions and increasing equality.
The focus on individual progression in education with its blame for failure on pupils, parents, teachers and schools, serves to let politicians off the hook over increased inequality, child poverty and inadequate housing.
What Hunt didn't say
Hunt failed to attack the Green Party's policy to end academies and free schools, integrate existing ones back into the Local Authority system, strengthen LAs through better funding and increased democratic accountability, restore LA's ability to build new schools where they are needed and end Performance Related Pay for teachers.
Perhaps they were too popular for him to advertise?
Green Party Education policy is HERE
Labels:
academies,
free schools,
Green Education Policy,
Michael Gove,
Natalie Bennett,
neo-liberalism,
SATs,
Tristram Hunt
Rosemarie Clarke’s missing votes: Cara Davani refuses to tell
Guest blog by Amir Tahir
On 22nd
December last I submitted a Freedom of Information request to Brent Council
asking for the following:
1. The number of nominations/votes received by individual
Brent Staff Achievement Award winners 2014
2. The number of nominations/votes received for Rosemarie Clarke for
Brent Staff Achievement Awards 2014.
By return I
received the following acknowledgement from Cara Davani:
‘Thank you for your information request. We (sic) will
forward it to the relevant department who will contact you shortly.’
On 21st January I received the following from Brent Council HR department.‘The requested information is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the
Freedom of Information Act (FoIA). The information is personal data as defined by
the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). As it is information about individuals, we are
unable to give this to you; release of this information would constitute a breach of
Principle 1 of the DPA. Principle 1 states that personal data shall be processed
(used) fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be used unless at least one of
the conditions in Schedule 2 of the DPA is met; in this case none of those conditions
have (sic) been met.* This response therefore acts as a refusal notice under section 17 of
the FoIA.’
* I would welcome opinions on this. AT
Obviously,
my request for the total number of Rosemarie’s votes was not made out of idle
curiosity; we all know that the response to the ’Vote for Rosemarie’ idea was
overwhelming with Civic Centre staff and members of the public expressing their solidarity with Rosemarie and their
admiration for the way she had conducted herself in the face of what a British
court has adjudged was Cara Davani and Brent
Council’s racial discrimination, victimisation
and constructive dismissal. The online vote she received was massive.
Nor was it my intention in any way to detract from the achievements of the
other worthy winners of Brent Staff Achievement
awards.
However, the Council leadership’s
mean-spirited response to the avalanche of votes for Rosemarie seems to me a
missed opportunity for Butt, Gilbert and Davani finally to concede that those
voting for Rosemarie possibly had a point; that Civic Centre staff and the
public generally support Rosemarie for principled and valid reasons; and that an
employment tribunal judge’s opinion possibly carries a little more authority
than that of a small cabal of mutually back-scratching and terminally
compromised senior managers and local
politicians.
Sunday 25 January 2015
Monday's crowded Cabinet agenda covers many crucial issues
The Brent Cabinet on the afternoon of Monday January 26th has an unusually crowded agenda with a great many detailed reports, supplements and appendices on vital matters. It is being held at 2pm at the Pakistan Community Centre, Willesden Green.
Here are the main items with link:
Museum and Archives Strategy
Adult Social Care Local Account 2013-14
Procuring an Accommodation based Respite Framework Agreement
Rate Discount Scheme for businesses accredited to Living Wage Foundation
Brent Local Welfare Assistance Scheme
Update of Schools Capital Portfolio
Purchasing system for management of Temporary Accommodation
Awarding of contract for procurement and management of temporary accommodatio for Housing Association Leasing Scheme
South Kilburn energy supplier for decentralised energy solution
South Kilburn Regenration Gloucester House, Durham Court, Chippenham Gardens secure tenancies for Phase 4
London Councils Grant
Authority to tender a contract for Health Watch
Financial report November 2014
The full Agenda which contains many more documents is HERE
Here are the main items with link:
Museum and Archives Strategy
Adult Social Care Local Account 2013-14
Procuring an Accommodation based Respite Framework Agreement
Rate Discount Scheme for businesses accredited to Living Wage Foundation
Brent Local Welfare Assistance Scheme
Update of Schools Capital Portfolio
Purchasing system for management of Temporary Accommodation
Awarding of contract for procurement and management of temporary accommodatio for Housing Association Leasing Scheme
South Kilburn energy supplier for decentralised energy solution
South Kilburn Regenration Gloucester House, Durham Court, Chippenham Gardens secure tenancies for Phase 4
London Councils Grant
Authority to tender a contract for Health Watch
Financial report November 2014
The full Agenda which contains many more documents is HERE
Fo! about FoI to Brent Council results in no information held!
It is rather odd that a Brent Labour councillor has to resort to a Freedom of Information request to his own Council about their performance regarding Freedom of Information requests. This is what Cllr Dan Filson did on Thursday. He got a response the next day which is amazing, However he did get fobbed off like the rest of us often are:
I am still waiting for the answer to an FoI request made on November 28th 2014. I hasd heard that the maintenance of large trees had been left out of the Publc Realm contract in which Veolia took over parks maintenance. It had been suggested to me that this was an oversight that would result in additional expenditure.
This is the response to my intial request:
-->
I am still waiting for the answer to an FoI request made on November 28th 2014. I hasd heard that the maintenance of large trees had been left out of the Publc Realm contract in which Veolia took over parks maintenance. It had been suggested to me that this was an oversight that would result in additional expenditure.
This is the response to my intial request:
1. State who is responsible for safety checks, maintenance, felling and replacementMy follow-up which is still awaiting a response:
of trees in Brent's parks, open spaces and cemeteries.
The Contractor is only responsible for minor tree works which can be carried out
whilst working at ground level. The Council is responsible for major tree works.
Grounds maintenance staff from Veolia and the Council’s monitoring officers
(horticulture) would look at trees when they are working in the park or carrying out
monitoring visits. The Coucnil would then engage specialist contractors to carry out
the major works.
1. Is the cost of major tree works by a sub-contractor included in
the Public Realm budget out-sourced to Veolia?
2. If not, what is the expected annual cost of this sub-contractedBREAKING NEWS: Having posted this article at the weekend I got this answer about 9.30am this morning:
work (recognising it might vary considerably due to major weather
events such as storms)?
1: No
2: The Council’s street trees maintenance contractor is Gristwood & Toms. The budget for street tree maintenance works was £500,000 in 2014/15, but this is expected to fall to £450,000 in 2015/16.
Labels:
Dan Filson,
FoI. Brent Council,
Freedom of Information,
parks maintenance,
public realm,
request,
Veolia
Friday 23 January 2015
West Hendon Public Inquiry hears comprehensive account of mistreatment of tenants
Paulette Singer, former community organiser on the West Hendon Estate, got a warm round of applause for this statement that she read out at the Public Inquiry yesterday evening:
1) I am writing this letter in objection to the Compulsory Purchase
Order as the former Community Organiser on the West Hendon estate and ongoing
supporter of the residents group ‘Our West Hendon’.
2) I spent a year and a half working on the West Hendon estate up until
November 2014. My role, paid for by central government as part of the Community
Organisers Programme was ‘building relationships in communities to activate
people and create social and political change through collective action’.
3) Part of my work involved taking on volunteers from within the
community whose role was to assist with the door-to-door listening process. In
March last year a group of these residents formed ‘Our West Hendon’ in a
attempt to both campaign about the perceived unfair treatment residents were
experiencing through the regeneration process and also in order for them to
have a support group in place to deal with individual housing cases. Along with
several volunteers I listened to over 300 people across the estate and in the
local area.
Labels:
Barnet Council,
Barnet Homes,
Barratt Homes,
community,
homes,
Paulette Singer,
public inquiry,
tenants,
Welsh Harp,
West Hendon Councillor Cornelius
Pavey Review not yet available but notes on Constitutional challenge released
The Agenda for Thuursday's meeting of the General Purposes Committee has now been published. The meeting is due to discuss the Pavey Review of Brent Human Resources but the report is not yet available on the Agenda web page.
I understand this is because there are some late additions being made. Instead of the report there is a placeholder:
I understand this is because there are some late additions being made. Instead of the report there is a placeholder:
Although the fullest possible report is obviously desirable, it is unfortunate that members of the committee, the press and the public won't have time to consider it in detail before the meeting.Following the loss of an employment tribunal case in September, 2014, Councillor Pavey, Deputy Leader, who has Cabinet responsibility for Equalities and the Council’s role as employer, agreed to take stock of the Council’s policies and practice to see where improvements could be made. Councillor Pavey has now completed his review and will present the findings to the General Purposes Committee.
The Annual Brent Diversity Profile LINK has been published and this graphic tells its own story about racial equality (Sc3 is the lowest and Hay the highest). Overall % of council workers who are BME is 62%):
Meanwhile the indefatigible Philip Grant is now able to pass on notes of his meeting with Brent Council Leader Muhammed Butt following a resident's successful Freedom of Information request.
Philip asked for a meeting to raise his concerns over the Council's respect of its constitution.
Cllr. Butt had agreed that
Mr Grant should take a note of their discussions, and that these should be sent
to him for checking, with a view to producing an agreed accurate record of those
discussions. It was Cllr. Butt's change of mind on that agreement which means
that the Council now claims they are no more than Mr Grant's 'own personal
recollection of the meeting'.
Regular readers of Wembley
Matters will be able to put a name to the anonymised "AB",
especially if they follow those initials in alphabetical order.
Labels:
BME,
Cara Davani,
Constitution,
Employment Tribunal,
equalities,
Human Resources,
Michael Pavey,
Muhamemd Butt,
Philip GRant,
racism
This is what working class community struggle looks like!
I joined West Hendon campaigners yesterday at their meeting and march to achieve justice in their fight against social cleansing and homelessness brought about by Barnet Council and Barratt Homes. Their social housing estate is being demolished to make way for luxury multi-storey homes on the edge of the Welsh Harp. The rehousing tenants are being offered is limited and the compensation leaseholders are offered is insufficient to get a new home.
Campaigners were joined by E15 Mothers and the New Era housing campaign as well a Unite Community.
The issue has been covered extensively on Wembley Matters and the Brent Greens and Brent Labour combined to oppose the development on social and environmental grounds. LINK
A Public Inquiry into the development is underway at Hendon Town Hall.
Campaigners were joined by E15 Mothers and the New Era housing campaign as well a Unite Community.
The issue has been covered extensively on Wembley Matters and the Brent Greens and Brent Labour combined to oppose the development on social and environmental grounds. LINK
A Public Inquiry into the development is underway at Hendon Town Hall.
Labels:
Barnet Council,
Barratt Homes,
Brent Labour,
E15 Mothers,
green party,
New Era,
Our West Hendon,
regeneration,
social cleansing,
struggle,
Unite the Community,
Welsh Harp
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