Cllr Gail Engert (Lib Dem, shadow spokesperson for children, schools and families) asked a series of 20 questions about Haringey Council’s handling of the Baby P tragedy earlier this week. The Journal has reproduced them – and the answers Gail got – in full.
Category Archives: Blog
Haringey residents face long waits for treatment
This week’s Journal runs the story:
Cancer drugs wait: Haringey in UK’s bottom four
CANCER sufferers in Haringey face one of the longest fights in the country for drugs to treat their illness.
Patients have to wait up to three months for a decision on appeals for certain types of medication, putting the Haringey Teaching Primary Care Trust (PCT) in the bottom four of England’s 152 trusts.
It relates to waiting times for appeals for drugs that are either judged too expensive or have not been assessed by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.
The survey by charity Macmillan Cancer Support has led to renewed demands for action by Hornsey and Wood Green MP Lynne Featherstone.
She said: “Three months is not acceptable about decisions that mean the difference between life and death.”
Fire Brigade rushes to help
Three cheers for Hornsey firefighters! I had to call the fire brigade last night. Sitting in my lounge at about 10pm a terrible noise started. Difficult to describe – a bit like a pneumatic drill / burglar alarm – but worse. I went to open the front door to see where the noise was coming from and as the noise got louder – thought to myself it was in the street somewhere.
Went back to the lounge and my younger daughter came down and I asked her if she could hear it. She could – and she went to front door and opened it and agreed it was louder outside. But then she went to the corner of the house and said it was the radiator in that corner.
I went over – and it was making a terrible noise – but there was even more noise from below in the basement where the boilers are. The house seemed at that point to be vibrating – so we screamed for my elder daughter to come, grabbed the dog and got out the house – as it felt as if something was about to blow.
I called 999 and the Fire Brigade, moved the car out the drive, put one daughter and dog in the car and the other daughter ran back in to turn off heating and hot water – which did stop the noise. We waited. Within a couple of minutes the firefighters arrived – checked everything – said it was a hammer airlock (probably) and that we had done the right thing. As another firefighter came up the path – he said – hello, I lobbied you in Parliament last week. And so he had! Small world.
Anyway – just want to say a public thank you – as it was a very frightening situation and they were there when we needed them. Literally – my heroes!
[Update: Conservative Brian Coleman has attacked me for calling out the firemen. More on this in my latest blog post – including the Fire Brigade confirming it was right for me to call them out.]
Equality impact assessments: are they effective?
Got the chance yesterday to ask a question in Parliament of the Government about equality impact assessments:
Lynne Featherstone: I am keen for equality impact assessments to be effective, but I fear that in some cases they have been more about going through the motions. Can the Minister tell me what work is being done to assess the value and change that result from such assessments, and what extra resource she will provide under the new legislation to ensure that there is effectiveness, not just a tick-box approach?
Vera Baird (Solicitor General, Law Officers’ Department): We have been examining, in specific terms, the impact that, for instance, going through a whole gender pay audit can have. Sometimes it is a process rather than an impact. That is why we have hesitated rather than going wholesale for impact assessments, assuming that they are the key to all mythologies and will put everything right. They do not necessarily do that. We are working on this, and we consider that the watchword for the equality Bill and for equal pay in particular is transparency. We will pin a number of proposals on to that basic bedrock as we take the Bill forward. (Source: TheyWorkForYou.com)
What happened at Haringey Council last night?
As I wasn’t actually at the Haringey Full Council last night – watching via webcast instead – I asked Ed Butcher, one of the local Liberal Democrat councillors and my Head of Office, if he would write a guest blog to cover the meeting properly. Here it is:
Opposition means lots of things, but one thing I hadn’t fully appreciated until last night’s council meeting is the physicality of being in opposition. As Labour councillor after Labour councillor voted in hollow and weak voices to keep George Meehan and Liz Santry in post, not one of them was able to look us in the eye. Their sorrow and weariness was apparent, but they defiantly limped on.
At times like this you have to ask what you would have done differently. I simply do not accept Haringey Labour’s excuses. After over 40 years of running the borough, I don’t think they fully appreciate the culture of silence, stonewalling and secrecy that exists. This is what we would change. But, the real story is that I don’t think they really know what’s going on themselves.
Haringey Labour councillors have become so trusting and reliant on the advice of their officers that they have become incapable questioning it. With governance should come a healthy scepticism about what you’re being told. Having seen the Director of Children Service speak after the verdict, the public can make up their own mind as to the quality of that advice.
The culture of secrecy pervades the organisation. People who worked in Haringey child protection services have come forward with alarming stories claiming that they were told to shut up when they tried to raise concerns. This goes right to the top, where I know there have been attempts to bully and threaten my council colleagues into silence rather than welcome our independent scrutiny.
Even in last night’s meeting, probably the most public meeting our council has ever had, the Labour whip could not help themselves from shutting down the debate. We tabled two important motions. One was a vote in no confidence in the leader and the executive member for children’s services. The second was a motion to stop any compromise deals. Haringey has a dark history in paying off its staff to silence them – most notably a former Chief Executive whose departure cost £1m. The purpose of this motion was clear. There should only be two ways for any officer to leave following this. Either they resign of their own accord or they are sacked for gross incompetence. Not a penny of council tax money should be used to buy their silence. So with only 15 minutes of the council meeting left, the Labour whip accused us of talking for too long and decided it was far more important to move on to other business, such as appointment to outside bodies, rather than use the remaining time to discuss compromise deals. Plus ça change…
At the council meeting we were told that we could be reassured because of a litany of actions since the death of Baby P. There have been reviews, training, external checks, and now a further inspection. None of this has been open to scrutiny, none of them public. Not much of an assurance.
I asked Councillor Santry what she had done to review matters. She seemed to think an intermittent committee reviewing targets was enough. It says it all really.
I have little doubt there will be a blood letting and they will resign following the inspection report. But I wasn’t voting for change of face at the top, I was voting for a change of culture. I only hope the process the Government have imposed can deliver this. My fear is a stage managed departure will leave much unchanged and our at risk children at even greater risk.
Haringey Council debates Baby P's death
Haringey Labour can no longer distinguish between right and wrong. I watched some of Haringey Full Council’s meeting last night on their webcast and spoke to one of the councillors afterwards.
The first thing I saw was them misleading the Council by suggesting that the Lib Dem Group couldn’t ask questions as their Leader Robert Gorrie and Gail Engert (Schools and Children’s spokesperson for the opposition) had had sight of the full serious case review. They hadn’t – and stood up to say so – correct the record. Then the Council said that the MP had been given a copy. No I haven’t. That I had seen it. No I hadn’t. And no – I wasn’t there but one of the councillors stood up to correct that record. The MP had not received a copy nor had she seen it. I will see it later today under Privy Council terms. That was before they even got started.
What was most clear that Haringey Labour are still in the business of self-preservation before anything else. The Lib Dem Group did a fantastic job of holding Haringey’s feet to the fire – but whilst Labour didn’t use the tricks I thought they would use to block debate and to get out of their culpability they used a different one to block the vote of no confidence. They wouldn’t allow the vote – and so when I hear on the news today that Labour leaders etc survived a vote of no confidence. No they didn’t – they didn’t allow it to the vote.
And the Christmas Card competition winner is…
Nicest job of the year yesterday – going to the school to meet the winner of my Christmas Card competition. The theme was ‘I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas’.
This year the winner is Louisa Owen (pictured) who is only 6 years old, and from St Aidan’s Primary School, Stroud Green.
Louisa’s design will be on the front of my Christmas Card and she received a certificate, some chocolates and book tokens.
The runners up will have their pictures on the back and they are: Raheam Watts, Nightingale Primary; Pasha Patel, Alexandra Primary; Regina Gul, Nightingale Primary; and Lila-Rose Marcuson, Highgate Primary.
Thank you to all the schools and all the children who took part.
Why Polly Toynbee is wrong
Tonight will see the Haringey Liberal Democrat Council Group’s motion of no confidence in Haringey’s political leadership debated – well that is if the Labour Members don’t talk it out by spending so long on other things it is not reached. That is their usual tactic in Haringey – although they should be utterly ashamed if they try that one. Their other tactic (and I remember only too well as Leader of the Opposition on Haringey for five years) was to put an amendment negating everything in the Lib Dem motion and saying how wonderful they are. They wouldn’t dare this time – I hope.
Leaving the politics aside for the moment, over the weekend it because clear that Ed Balls has decided to allow five MPs (including myself) to have sight of the Serious Case Review in full version. I have been calling for it to be published (redacted – i.e. with personal or sensitive information blocked out) and I think the Information Commissioner has said that is possible. But am not sure and will check. If I do see it it will be on Privy Council basis – i.e. that I can never reveal what it says – which may be difficult. It won’t be difficult if the urgent investigation has looked at it and investigated the key issues and Ed Balls takes swift and stringent action upon receiving it. Any less – and I will continue fighting at full blast.
I have had so many helpful contributions from those in the profession, people who have had personal experience of Haringey from the staff side. I hope the inspectors are going to talk to those who have recently left Haringey Social Services – as I am told that they often leave because of the way things are run.
I note the Polly Toynbee brigade’s feeble attempt to protect Labour Haringey by rattling sabres about not slagging them off otherwise social workers won’t come. But Polly – they won’t come because bad management has left them clearly vulnerable and children unsafe – not because that is now out in the wide world. What Haringey needs is a Social Services department that can start again – enabling social workers to do their very best – not just jump to fill in forms for fear.
For goodness sake – at one of my surgeries, staff were literally afraid to speak to me. I know staff have all been warned by email not to talk about Baby P – well that may be a very successful, information hiding corporate approach – but it hardly fills me with confidence about a change in culture and openness at Haringey. That’s what needs changing – and change won’t come from hiding away the problems.
Old Holborn's comment
I note the comment to one of my posts from Old Holborn. It is very cryptic and if you follow the link he says that I am ‘nearly there’ and that there is an email that instructs the department to cut costs by not taking children into care’. Help me Old Holborn – if you know something that can further the investigation and where to look – don’t hold back!
This week's Ham & High column
It’s now up on my website, and is about the issue of the moment – Baby P:
Our justice system has done its part with the prosecution of those responsible, but we also need to be sure that we learn what can be learnt. There is much we do not yet know – such as why there was a four month gap between the decision to have Baby P checked over by a paediatrician and the appointment actually taking place.
But we do know how Haringey Council has been responding to warnings about how it was looking after children. For all the good work done by many front line staff, at the most senior levels the reaction to concerns and warnings has been one of delays, hostility, failures to act and unwillingness to accept responsibility.
You can read the full article, which goes into detail about Haringey’s previous mistakes, over on my website.
Lynne Featherstone 