Posts

Documenting Past Failures: (3) NRF, EduAction and an open letter to Cllr. Chris Robbins

February 10, 2015 Cllr. Chris Robbins, EduAction, NRF

One of the outside organisations that LBWF paid NRF monies to was EduAction, or more properly EduAction Waltham Forest Ltd., a joint venture formed by Amey Plc (‘one of today’s leading public services providers’) and Nord Anglia Education. In the 2000s, EduAction ran the schools in the borough, after a damning Ofsted report at the turn of the century had disposed of the idea that the local authority was up to the job. It was always said that EduAction was receiving NRF monies to help it run special programmes, aimed for instance those at those most at risk of failure or truancy. However, I was never convinced, and gradually, too, LBWF’s relations with EduAction came under increas... »

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Documenting Past Failures: (2) NRF and Dr. Foster

February 10, 2015 Dr. Foster, NRF, The BNI

The Dr. Foster episode is one that always will be close to my heart, not only because it demonstrated everything that was wrong about the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF)/Better Neighbourhoods Initiative (BNI) programme, but also because it had a surprising kick in the tail, and one that was highly gratifying to me. The story is as follows – and I apologise for the minutiae, but as will become clear, they are necessary to expose the scale of the duplicity that occurred. In late 2006, LBWF’s Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), chair Cllr. Clyde Loakes, paid Dr Foster Intelligence (DFI) £47,150 from the BNI budget to produce a report which would focus on the most deprived areas in the borough, ... »

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Documenting Past Failures: (1) Introduction

February 4, 2015 Cllr. Clyde Loakes, NRF, Past failures: overview, The BNI

Over the coming months, and at irregular intervals, I’ll be posting Documenting Past Failures pieces, which will look at some of the episodes that I’ve been involved in since 2004, broadly in chronological sequence. To start with, I’ll be looking mostly at how LBWF used Neighbourhood Renewal Fund monies. The background is as follows. In 2001, the government launched a new National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal which aimed to reverse long-term decline in wards defined as ‘deprived’ by tackling key issues (such as poor health, worklessness, and crime), and at the same time empowering local residents, so that the impetus for change would be self-sustaining (Social Exclusi... »

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Asbestos matters again: St. Mary’s School, Walthamstow

February 2, 2015 Asbestos at St. Mary's School

A quick visit to the Health and Safety Executive’s website reveals that LBWF has form on asbestos – see here: http://www.hse.gov.uk/notices/breach/breach_list.asp?PN=1&ST=B&SN=F&EO=%3D&SF=RID&SV=1257558&SO=ANBID Some of the episodes have attracted significant comment, too, for example here: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/wfnews/8331074.WALTHAM_FOREST__Union_slams_council_over_safety_rap/ More recently, NPS London Ltd (NPSL) and LBWF have commissioned their own investigations into events at St. Mary’s School, Walthamstow, and these merit some scrutiny. What has emerged is that in 2011 and 2012, the school was subject to phased refurbishment works, and early on, ... »

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Some background: a short history of local scandals

February 2, 2015 Past failures: overview

Here’s an article that I contributed to the Dec14/Jan15 issue of Labour Briefing (which I reproduce with the kind permission of the editors). It looks at some recent Waltham Forest history, and gives more than a clue as to why this blog was set up. Waltham Forest’s missing millions ‘In 2009, spurred on by a spate of bad publicity about its flagship Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) programme, and premonitions that the Audit Commission was about to halve its star rating, London Borough of Waltham Forest (LBWF) appointed an Independent Panel, chaired by the LDA’s Sir Peter Rogers, to scrutinise its workings. The results were startling. The Panel found that, in its rush to gain... »

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