The closure of shops around Haringey as the recession bits has also seen a burst of fly-posting, blighting our high streets.
Our councillors in Crouch End have been particularly active on the issue – meeting with police and council enforcement officials, as you can read in the story on my website.
If you spot any fly-posting, you can report it on 020 8489 1000.
Labour’s attempt to support struggling home owners through the ‘Mortgage Rescue Scheme’ will only help two percent of Haringey home owners threatened by repossession according to figures I’d dug up with my colleagues.
The idea to go in and directly help home owners on the brink of repossession is a good one, but looking at the hard numbers, this seems like another Labour PR stunt with little real substance.
You can read more about the story on my website.
OK – so now I’ve had time to have a look at all Lord Laming’s proposals (from his review into the state of Children’s Services following the Baby P tragedy) – but my view is not much altered as his report is much as I expected. Another 50+ recommendations because his first recommendations were not implemented.
There’s some good strengthening stuff – but I still can’t see what will make it different so that we avoid the next time. For example – take the Safeguarding Children Board. This is where all the partners around child protection meet to discuss children at risk. In Haringey it is the Board that Sharon Shoesmith chaired, and it is from this Board that the deeply flawed Serious Case Review into the death of Baby P flowed. So flawed that Ed Balls has ordered a second Serious Case Review to be produced and has put in an independent chair.
Lord Laming has recommended an independent chair for all Safeguarding Children Boards and he further suggests the addition of two members of the public – but I’m not convinced this will really deal with the sort of events that went wrong in Haringey.
In the case of Baby P, my understanding is that various of those attending the Board did raise matters of concern – but the management wore down those who raised concerns and in the end forced through what it wanted to do. So – whilst Laming’s proposal could be a help, what we’re missing is a requirement to minute the discussions and disagreements. Lord knows every other bit of information is recorded, computerised, etc etc – but no records are kept of these crucial meetings – and that makes it far too easy to bulldozer past disagreements.
Next let’s look at Lord L’s recommendation for a National Unit for Safeguarding to ensure his recommendations are implemented. Forgive me – but the last thing we need is more central attempts to micromanage what is happening on the ground all round the country.
The eyes and ears that can really help are on the spot – locally. The tragedy is that they were ignored by Sharon Shoesmith and by the Labour Haringey leadership. It’s a strengthening of local accountability and scrutiny that we really need.
What went wrong in Haringey was that the Labour administration, ineffective and defensive, didn’t challenge officers. Ranks were closed, jobs were protected and there was a refusal by Labour or senior officers involved to engage or listen to the many voices that were trying to warn Haringey that children were at risk.
Quite frankly – I could go on and on. There are wider issues untouched by Laming’s investigation: budgetary pressures, the inspection regime (inspectors say things are good, something goes wrong, inspectors say things are bad), the temptation to fudge or mislead when jumping through government hoops brings funding, the need for whistle blowers to have somewhere to take their concerns and have them acted on; the failures of the health services – and so on.
I don’t want to be a misery guts – but I just don’t feel that Lord Laming’s work is going to really cut through the culture and attitude that Labour Haringey operates and which is the reason (in my view) why we have now had two tragedies, Victoria Climbie and Baby P, in Haringey.
Not (yet) had time to blog about Lord Laming’s report into the state of children’s services – so instead here’s a link to press coverage with my views:
Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone, who represents Haringey in north London where the Climbie and Baby P deaths occurred, has repeated her calls for a full public inquiry into the Baby P case.
She said: “Clearly the rulebook doesn’t need to be rewritten, the rules just need to be applied. To do this, Haringey needs two things above all – more accountability and more openness.
“However, key questions remain unanswered, such as why did Haringey’s whistle-blowing policy fail so badly?
“Why were the people who warned that something was wrong ignored? We have had review after review and yet we seem no closer to the truth.” (epolitix.com)
Local shops forced to close in Haringey due to the recession are being plagued by a rash of fly-posting. Local Liberal Democrats are urging action by Haringey Council to tackle the problem, which has become more widespread as more shops close, adding to the blight of the economic downturn in local shopping areas.
Last week Liberal Democrat councillors in Crouch End met with officers from the local Safer Neighbourhood Team and Haringey Council enforcement officials to launch an initiative to help co-ordinate efforts to eradicate new graffiti.
Residents can report new fly-posting to 020 8489 1000 with details of what has been seen, where, when and with details of the poster.
Cllr David Winskill, Crouch End, comments:
“Crouch End traders and residents are really feeling the pinch from the economic downturn. We want to avoid the situation that, when shops do close, fly-posters immediately start to graffiti local shops – this only adds to the effect of the recession.
“If we let fly-posters continue then this could lead to a rise in fly-tipping and general graffiti. Crouch End can weather this financial storm if we all work together.”
Lynne Featherstone MP added:
“As the recession bites more shops may be forced to close. The least Haringey Council can do is to ensure that our local shopping centres do not degrade further by clearing graffiti promptly.”
The initiative was welcomed by Graham Powell owner of Graham Fine Art, Crouch End, who added:
“I worked very hard with Enforcement to get fly-posting removed from the old Hogshead opposite my gallery. Persistence paid off and the building has been poster free for months. If all residents and shopkeepers pull together to report what they see, we can get on top of this problem.”
Repairs to roads across the London Borough of Haringey are taking place following a meeting of the Full Council on 23 February at which Cllr Martin Newton, Liberal Democrat Transport and Highways spokesperson, highlighted in a slide show the vast array of borough-wide problems on Haringey’s streets – from potholes and faded road markings to uneven pavements, worn out pedestrian crossings and dumping.
Cllr Newton, who came up with the idea of showing to the Labour-run council the real state of the borough, comments:
“Many of the issues raised, such as potholes and poor pavements, impact daily on the lives of residents but others, such as faded pedestrian crossings and worn-out anti-skid surfacing, can have more serious safety consequences. Everyone can see the state of the roads and pavements and highlighting these problems visually has produced some individual results borough-wide but Haringey Council must accept responsibility for our environment and its upkeep.
“I was shocked that Labour councillors were totally unaware of the many problems highlighted in the wards they represent and it proved a real wake-up call.”
Lynne Featherstone MP, added:
“I am glad that Haringey Council has finally sat up and listened. For too long Haringey Council has sat back waiting for roads, pavements and zebra crossings to degrade beyond repair. I hope now they will start to take proactive action – but I will not hold my breath.”
No political party has the monopoly of wanting the best for our children, but in their quest for higher standards, I hear neither of the other parties arguing for the value of a holistic education.And by this I don’t mean essential oils and or teaching children how to manage their chakra.
In the drive for three Rs, we are forgetting key aspects of what children need to understand to become rounded individuals.For me this was brought into sharp relief in case I was dealing with for a local resident in Hornsey & Wood Green.A Suzuki method music teacher contacted me to complain of the difficulty of getting schools to make time for children to do music lessons.Her view, which I share, was that the rigid structure of the national curriculum left little time in the school day for children to take on music lessons – particularly young children who don’t have much time and energy left at the end of the school day. I raised this with Ed Balls who rejected the concern, proudly extolling the virtues of the national curriculum and the wonders it had done for school children.
Yes it is important that a child should start secondary schooling being able to read, read and do arithmetic.But any teacher worth their salt will instinctively teach this.Focusing on the developing the professionalism of teachers with discreet checks here and there will make sure this happens.
Tory and Labour Governments have dogmatically pursued the mantra of national curriculum and what I call the three Ts – test, test and test again.But these pedagogic edicts issued from Whitehall have been the death knell for curricular activities that nurture the soul.If you can’t label it, level it and then test it – then it’s out.
For a brief moment I did think there was a glimmer of hope on the horizon.However, my joy at the ending of Key Stage 3 testing was quickly replaced with despair with what Labour intends to replace them with.A school in my constituency was unfortunate enough to take part in a pilot.This ‘radical’ new programme is supposed to free teachers from the shackles of SATS, but the name says it all – single level testing.
Education is about helping children to become better adults.As Liberal Democrats, we must continue to be all the forefront of pressing for holistic schooling.
This piece appeared in a booklet published by the Liberal Democrat Education Association in Spring 2009.
(c) Lynne Featherstone, 2009
Cambridge came calling. After my blog about unequal pay at Cambridge University – the Director of External Affairs and Indi Seehra, Director of Human Resources, came to Portcullis House. Having referred Cambridge University to the Equality and Human Rights Commission after seeing its voluntary pay audit (full credit for producing one) they were keen to tell me what steps they are taking to improve their gender pay gap. They said that they knew by publishing the pay audit they would expose themselves to criticism.
And they were right on that – and that is why these pay audits should be mandatory not voluntary, because many will balk at exposing their organisations in this way. The Government still is sticking to voluntary audits in the coming Equalities Bill (if it ever arrives) – so will keep on pushing for this to change.
In Cambridge’s case – by publishing the figures, I was able to pick it up, question their gender pay gap and the lack of women particularly at higher grades – and they came and explained what they were doing. I listened to their explanation and also the reviews and the efforts they are now going to put into narrowing that pay gap.
The real proof of the pudding though, will be next year, and the year after – when we can see whether their efforts result in a closing of the gaps. So – Cambridge – so far, so good – let’s see where we are next year.
Labour’s attempt to support struggling home owners through the ‘Mortgage Rescue Scheme’ will only help two percent of Haringey home owners threatened by repossession, according to research by Haringey Liberal Democrats.
The Mortgage Rescue Scheme, administered by Haringey Council, has been launched as the government’s means of helping struggling homeowners survive the recession. Through the scheme, Haringey Council buys part of the home threatened with repossession and lets it back to the former homeowner in order to make monthly payments more manageable.
However, the scheme has been capped nationally, so that only 6,000 rescues can be possible over the next two years in England. Broken down by local authority, that means only 15 Haringey homes will be rescued over that period, about 2% of the estimated 512 homes in Haringey issued with repossession orders in 2007-2008.
Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, is now calling on the government to extend the scheme to help more struggling Haringey residents.
Lynne Featherstone MP comments:
“The idea to go in and directly help home owners on the brink of repossession is a good one, but looking at the hard numbers, this seems like another Labour PR stunt with little real substance.
“With our high local house prices, many Haringey residents are already struggling with large mortgage payments. As the recession deepens, there is a real risk that more and more people might be faced with the terrifying threat of repossession.
“The housing situation in Haringey is already so difficult – and this scheme seems to do little to stop the record-high numbers of people already in temporary housing from escalating further.”
The Laming findings on how his recommendations following the Victoria Climbie tragedy have been implemented will be reported tomorrow.
I have had some qualms about Lord Laming looking at his own recommendations as I have been afraid he might not want to find fault. However, he takes the issue of child protection extremely seriously and is the wise old owl who realised that the leadership was key to changing the way a department works – hence the Children’s Act 2004 which made clear where individual responsibility should rest – and so ultimately was why Sharon Shoesmith and Liz Santry were in the frame.
From all the leaks, I expect that Laming will have looked pretty thoroughly at social workers’ caseloads and discovered that they are not kept to the 12 cases I believe he recommended. But I also hope that he has looked at the line management. We were all gobsmacked that Baby P could be visited so many times to no avail. Surely we must see the creation of a culture where if the social worker visiting is too scared or inexperienced etc to ask to see the child from top to bottom – it would be normal for her or him to go back and report this, be supported, and be accompanied back to satisfy themselves of the true condition of the child.
More tick boxes and process driven stuff is the last thing we need – so I’m glad that Laming looks to be staying clear of that. However, I am pretty sure that the atmosphere on the Safeguarding Children Board in Haringey was such that the members gave up putting forward their professional views – as my understanding is that they were simply over-ruled by management and bludgeoned ultimately into silent acquiescence. This needs to change – and so a key recommendation I will look for will be to have the Board discussions and particularly disagreements minuted. They are not currently.
Outside of the leadership and management within Children’s Services – I am fearful that the wider issues will not feature – and those wider issues if not examined now will cause us regret after some future tragedy.
So what about the joining together of education and children’s social services – has it worked? I tread carefully as they were joined to stop children falling through the gap – but clearly in Haringey the Director of Education found herself then in charge of an area where she had no experience. How significant was that? During the furore – Ms Shoesmith was supported by many Heads of Schools who praised her education record – but amongst the hundreds of people from social services who contacted me, not one praised her work on that side.
What about the issue of Haringey Labour Council not heeding any of the warnings that children were at risk? They had plenty – from me, from relatives, from whistleblowers and from opposition members. They ignored all of them. If something is wrong – how can the administration be made to listen? Secrecy, cover-ups and rank closing were the culture of Haringey Labour and officers. Gagging orders, injunctions, refusal to submit to scrutiny and so on meant that no light shone on what was going on. Moreover, even since the furore and the shaming of Haringey – Labour are still blocking moves to proper oversight.
Then there’s the inspection regime. Ofsted gave Haringey three stars just whilst all this was going on under the cover. How can we rely on an inspection system that failed so miserably? And what of the Government whose system of stars makes authorities jump through hoops to get funding and autonomy – putting the temptation in front of people to fiddle and distort the system?
And what of budgetary pressures – they are ever-present. It was said that in an email managers were told not to take children into care because there was no funding. What part did this play?
And finally – what of the nightmare going on in the health services? More of that later.
So you can see – whilst I am hopeful Lord Laming’s recommendations will address some of the issues – in my view we still need a public inquiry on these other issues to ensure that the whole debacle and failure that let Baby P be killed is properly and extensively addressed.
Lynne Featherstone 