Anything Changed Yet? - Who Cares About The Public Voice?

A year ago, Max Caller, an Inspector from the government, was in Northamptonshire County Council examining current and historical documents concerning the council and talking to officers, councillors and other stakeholders. The inspection report he eventually published had a headline stating Northamptonshire Council Council had failed and the most quoted comment was that local government was about “doing the boring well”.

Revisiting it, it’s interesting to examine whether we’re making progress. The Caller report also stated that “The council’s approach comes across as sloppy, lacking in rigour and without challenge“. There was particular concern about the secrecy of the administration and the lack of information given to councillors event when they asked for it. Genuinely, the pace of change has meant that it’s really hard to keep up for those in the organisation, let alone the public.

It’s being eight years since Northamptonshire County Council has held a meeting to genuinely ask the public what they think of the budget proposals affecting their local services and spending their council tax money. After only fourteen people attended a meeting in Kettering, the then Tory leadership axed consultation as a waste of money.

In the 2013/14 budget consultation there were public sessions in advance of budget scrutiny workshops for Councillors on the key thematic areas of the budget. These continued in subsequent years but not this year. For the first time, there is no opportunity for the public to make their voice heard about the council’s budget plans.

There are other ways local people can express their views of course, but the process of having budget consultation meetings is about inclusion, engagement and above all transparency. The failure of Northamptonshire County Council to have any consultation events with the public is evidence that the “carry on regardless” attitude is still present with council tax payers treated as non-stakeholders event though they are paying for the services. Also, as consumers of those services, they are in a key position to challenge in a way that provides insight into how services might be more effectively run. There are positive reasons why challenge provides better services, better decision making and more valued services.

However, above all, the public should have a right to comment about local services as it is morally the correct thing to do. This has been raised by the Labour group with senior officers. When commissioners came to discuss the budget with the Labour group I questioned whether there would be consultation meetings and was assured that, consultation meetings would take place. Labour’s Cllr Mick Scrimshaw as Chair of the new over-arching Overview and Scrutiny Committee has sought that there is at least one meeting that the public will be allowed to address on 23^rd January. This meeting will take place at the end of the scrutiny process, where the committees response will be finalised, and there will be a recap on the individual meetings councillors will have had. Although Labour are not in control of the Council they have recognised and acted on this glaring omission. It’s unsurprising that the Tory administration don’t see the need for people to have their say. Acting, as usual, for the few not the many.

Make the workers pay

It’s all about managing resources. Something that Northamptonshire County Council have been struggling with for quite some time. Decisions about the problems it has faced have been impeded by the lack of transparency and the failure to involve both councillors and the public in understanding issues and proposed solutions. I have written more about this here. One of NCC’s many areas of mismanagement concerns decisions about the council workforce. Over the last few weeks it has emerged that 2015 seems to have been a critical year for Northamptonshire County Council. The Chief Finance Officer had written to the Council's political leadership stating an intention of issuing a section 114 notice effectively declaring the Council bankrupt. 

In 2015, with the whole country in the midst of the fifth year of austerity, within the Northamptonshire bubble the section 114 was never implemented. This was despite all of the then cabinet, including the current leader of the authority, Cllr Matt Golby, being aware of the statutory duty of the Chief Finance Officer to invoke it. Whilst the council didn’t go bankrupt, the butterfly-effect of its decisions fell heavy on the rest of Council resources. As a consequence, cuts to budgets had a dramatic impact on users of the county council’s services. It had an even starker impact on staff working for the county council. It was at this time that deliberate decisions were taken to make all staff pay for the privilege of working for the authority. The county council needed the dosh but, with an election looming, was unwilling to increase council tax and cut services dramatically.  So the staff had to make the sacrifice which included being taken out of nationally negotiated pay terms and conditions. This meant that if they could switch job to one in Bedford, Leicester, Rugby or Market Harborough they instantly had a better deal than any on offer in Northampton. Other changes included not paying staff for the first day they were off sick which had a bigger impact on part-time staff than anyone else. The way this was implemented was also brutal, with staff being effectively sacked and re hired on the new terms and conditions. 

The effects of this on the council’s ability to undertake its responsibilities to look after vulnerable people cannot be overstated. It is now extremely difficult to recruit for essential roles, such as social workers and some of the strategies designed to convert agency workers to being on the council’s books have massively backfired. Half of the social workers recruited by Northants County Council last year have already left. So, massive expenditure by NCC has failed to deliver the kind of services vulnerable local people deserve and have paid Council taxes for. The concept of conservative financial competence is dead in the water in Northamptonshire. 

A better  way of delivering essential public services is possible but honesty in local government governance is required for this to happen. It is possible to have properly funded and responsibly managed  local government but this needs to start with transparency about how the council will balance its books and openness about where any axe to services will fall. Only by doing this can we understand the funding gap from central government. Over a month after the second section 114 notice was published we’re still no clearer about this.

Openess and Transparency - Doing Democracy Well

It seems like Northamptonshire County Council has been facing stick forever. After the recent Judicial review victory by Library campaigners, it’s worth stating that the stick seems well justified. Most criticisms have focussed on the the deterioration in services but there have also been failures in the organisational culture, as anyone whose had any kind of engagement with the Council may have noticed. As an opposition councillor it is extremely hard to influence budget decisions and this is why my immediate focus will be on the organisational culture.

Here’s some statements made by others about this.

In the Local Government Authority (LGA) Peer Review;

“Decisions taken by the Cabinet need greater transparency. Council members and scrutiny chairs need access to more information. There was a desire expressed from some cabinet members for greater discussion and challenge across portfolios. However, where challenge has been provided, for example from the Audit Committee, that has not been welcomed.”

(Financial Peer Review - Northamptonshire County Council, Dates: 12th – 14th September 2017, Feedback Report)

Max Caller (the Government appointed Commissioner) in his report stated,

“the approach adopted made it very difficult for any backbench councillor to establish what was going on and the absence of effective controls made the job of budget management an exercise”. (2.12)

“Even if there was a concern about the publishing of confidential information, most authorities have protocols and practices which make it possible for key information to be shared and protect the authority. To refuse it outright is just wrong.” (3.82)

“challenge and criticism was to be discouraged as senior members and officers knew best.”

“The council did not respond well, or in many cases even react, to external and internal criticism. Individual councillors appear to have been denied answers to questions that were entirely legitimate to ask and scrutiny arrangements were constrained by what was felt the executive would allow. When external agencies reported adverse findings these were not reported with an analysis of the issues and either a justification or an action led response to a relevant decision taking body. At its most extreme, the two KPMG ISA 260 reports, stating an adverse opinion on Value For Money matters were just reported to the Audit Committee without comment and the unprecedented KPMG Advisory Notice issued under the 2014 Act was reported to full council without any officer covering report giving advice on what the response was recommended to be.”

Since my first Council meeting, on 1^st August, I’ve noticed a distinct shift in dealing with the public in County Council meetings. I’ve regularly attended Council meetings, as a member of the public, often registering to speak. Even when not registered to speak, as a member of the public I was able to sit in the public gallery and watch proceedings. But, since 1^st August, members of the public who haven’t registered to speak at least two days before the Council meeting, are ushered into a side room where they can only view one camera angle from the Council chamber and thus unable to see all the speakers. This additional resource comes without council papers (which were previously available) but with a security guard. 

The creation of this distance from the public shows the Council failing in it’s requirement for transparency at the very time that it is most needed. Without transparency, there is less likely to be confidence in the decisions taken by the administration. It also indicates the Council’s wish for distance between decision making and the community. The Chair of the Council has on at least two occasions stated that members of the public who heckle in public would not be given the right to speak at Council again.

At a time when communities, families and staff are promised swingeing cuts and massive job losses, the Council’s Chairman requires decorum to continue above all else. This approach denies the reality of the pain being felt in the County. It denies the passion that local people have about their public services and denies the life and death nature of some of the decisions being taken in the Council. Hearing the views of members of the public who often give a context to how decisions made or about to be made would impact on their communities, is an important element in local democracy. But we are now seeing an erosion to these rights. The three minute limit is often reduced to two, which makes it more difficult to make a point.

Prior to February of this year Council meetings were webcast, so anyone across the world could see what was happening and the decisions being taken. But the contract was allowed to run out and because most meetings happen during the day it’s now impossible for the majority of the public to view what goes on. More evidence that the Council wants decisions taken out of sight and out of mind of the public.

So, whilst the people of Northampton can still express their views directly to the Council it is no longer possible to sit in the public gallery unless you have registered to speak (remember to register two days in advance).  And for those who choose to speak they would like you be polite, stick to your two minutes and go away and don’t expect anyone not able to be present to hear what you have to say.  Yet another example of the dysfunctional organisational culture at the heart of this Conservative administration.

County Council Cuts

Northampton communities are getting to grips with the shock and awe cost saving ideas from Northamptonshire County Council. After twelve years of Conservative control and over seven years of Tory and Lib Dem government austerity, council services that have survived are already cut to the bone.

There is understandable outrage about the effect these new proposals will have on library services but other proposed cuts will also have a sizeable impact on local communities.

One of the cuts that hasn't had a lot of exposure, is the proposed 42% reduction to the Trading Standards budget. Trading Standards staff play a vital role in protecting the public and their work covers a wide area:

• Fraud (such things as rogue trading)
• Age-restricted sales
• Animal Health and Welfare
• Consumer &  Business Advice
• Environmental Controls
• Consumer Product Safety
• Fair Trading (including weights and measures, descriptions, pricing, consumer credit, etc.)
• Food, Health and Agricultural Standards
• Licensing and Registration

Their recent successes in Northamptonshire include:

• getting compensation for a bride who had her wedding day ruined by a catering firm that included nuts in her wedding cake, despite her telling them that she had a nut allergy. You can read more here. 

• Prosecuting shopkeepers who sold cigarettes to underage children. You can read more here. 

• Taking dangerous skin creams off the shelves of shops. You can read more here. 

• Taking a trader to court who sold an un-roadworthy and dangerous car to a local teenager. They also supported the young person taking the trader to court to get their money back. You can read more here.

The details about the cuts are in the Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) here. 

The EqIA gives a lot of detail about how older people and people with disabilities will be particularly adversely affected. This is a service which has protecting the public at it's heart. After the Grenfell tragedy, the mood of local people is to be more and more critical of the decades of deregulation and cost cutting that can link back to hazards, risks and health concerns. In addition to this, cost cutting will lead to an increase in sales of illegal tobacco and product testing is likely to reduce by over 50%. 

Northamptonshire’s investment in the skills and equipment to provide a local product testing service generated income to a cash-strapped council. It now seems that investment will be collateral damage in the cuts to a service which is vital to the well-being of Northamptonshire people.

So what can be done?

Please sign my petition against all Council budget cuts here.

Please support my campaign to become the prospective parliamentary Labour candidate for Northampton North. If you are a member of the Labour Party, let me know that you are supporting my campaign. If you are not a member of the Labour Party, join us here.

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Public Sector Pay Cap

Lorna Smith from UNISON Northants County Branch and Anjona Roy outside the Guildhall after lobbying a Conservative MP for Northampton on the public sector pay cap

Yesterday I went with Lorna Smith from UNISON Northants County Branch to lobby one of our MP's about the Public sector pay cap. The argument was made to us that that if the pay cap was lifted there would be less money to deliver local services. We said that this made public sector workers have an unfair burden of delivering local public services. We also pointed out the extreme financial pressure families of public sector workers are under after years of pay restraint.

If you want to find out how much impact the pay cap has had on you, there's a really handy tool you can use developed by our colleagues in PSC here. Try it out. You'll surprise yourself.

More Money on Services Needed by People in Northampton

Nick Spoors of the Chronicle and Echo has set up a petition calling on the government for a fairer allocation scheme to better reflect today’s population growth and levels of deprivation in Northamptonshire. You can see it here.

He highlights Surrey as better funded.  You may remember they benefitted from a sweetheart deal from the government to persuade their Tory controlled County Council not to hold a referendum to increase Council Tax.  Jeremy Corbyn confronted Prime Minister Theresa May in February with leaked text messages involving the leader of Surrey County Council that appeared to show negotiations over a deal. Read more about it here.

Northamptonshire has been underfunded according to a number of commentators for decades, so it’s interesting to explore why so many Tory council leaders and Tory MP’s are suddenly drawing attention to it now. Whilst in control the Conservative administration in the County and the Borough has successively failed to put up Council tax to pay for services, essentially awarding themselves less and less income to manage delivering essential public services. Despite Labour calls to press government for more cash for our increasing needs and increasing population, Tory Councillors have failed to act over a number of years. Instead they have sought miraculous panacea-like solutions that they have invested hand over fist into. One of the latest of these was an online portal on which they spent £1 million pounds but which has just been abandoned after just 5 years. 

The Tory County Council administration has failed to increase income either by raising Council Tax or asking Government for a better settlement, nor has it managed finances well. The investment of £54 million on new offices was something that even Tory controlled Daventry District Council pleaded with the county not to go ahead with. The building remains 30% empty. All of this while axing 30% of the council's spending on vital services.

For a number of years I have attended and spoken at County Council budget- setting meetings arguing about the human cost of cuts. Austerity, from the coalition government’s time to the present day, has been critiqued as a damaging response to our economic situation by the majority of academics in the field. The fact that it has no economic justification exposes its true purpose; it is an ideological attack on working people. 

Last month, a number of senior Tory politicians sought to change tack and, after all these years, requested more from government. Local MP Michael Ellis, as of 14th September, is yet to state his position.

Is Northamptonshire underfunded? Yes.

Should local people be asking for more investment into the area? Yes, but we want it so that all areas get fair funding with well managed, well funded services so that all those in our community that need support get it. If you want to do something practical towards this, yes sign the petition, but also join those of us in the Labour party campaigning for a better more hopeful tomorrow. For a government which rejects austerity in favour of building public services and funding them in a way that works for all of us.

If you agree with these views, please support my campaign to become the Labour Prospective Parliamentary candidate for Northampton North. Get in touch and let me know that you are supporting me.

You've got to do this NOW!

Some numbers are just too big.

Numbers like £77 million are too big.

Then something dreadful happens and the number changes to £84 million. Then if you scope in that £84 million pounds is to be taken out of Northamptonshire County Council services over just 12 months with a plan to outsource of nearly all council services, it simply is too much.

This comes on top of over £226 million cuts since 2010 and further planned cuts over the following four years.

In December 2015, the County Council proposed it budget for the next financial year factoring in £77 million of cuts. Challenging and cutting services deeper than the bone. In January new cuts were announced bringing the total to £84 million. The additional cut has brought about a situation that even in Scrutiny meetings (which are controlled by the same political party as those proposing the cuts) hear from senior officers that there simply isn’t anything more to cut.

I notice that when invited to County Hall staff are no longer allowed to offer tea of coffee to guests and when in meetings convened by the County Council agendas are shared one between three. As idiosyncratic as this may be, it is nothing compared to the really serious questions about the future of the County Council and the services they provide to local people.

It seems like the administration has high hopes for the outsourcing of the functions of the County Council. These were announced in 2014 but no business plans have been shared so really, how is it going to work? An interim Chief Executive of the Well Being Community Interest Company departed in December after six months after fronting a whole series of consultation and business development meetings with a whole range of partners over the County.

The Government have shown some mercy with an additional £1.7 million but juxtaposed the other immense numbers it is simply a drop in the ocean.

Local people have come together with a new campaign called Save Northants Services.

So if you care about local services - Act NOW. 

The budget will be agreed on Thursday at a Cabinet meeting. Make sure you get you voice heard.

Members of the public can request to speak for 3 minutes at the meeting, by contacting Barbel Gale; email:  bgale@northamptonshire.gov.uk or phone 01604 367730.

Please request the opportunity to speak also ask for a copy of the reports for agenda items 5 and 6, which are not yet published on the website.

Please note that a request to speak to the Cabinet meeting next Thursday has to be submitted before 12.00 noon  next Tuesday (16th).

Save Northants Services is encouraging as many people to register to speak as possible. Please let us know if you submit a request. Thanks

#telltheirsories #ifyoucanttelltheirname part 2

A development yesterday late afternoon as the county Council released this over twitter

 

Although they have released a timetable for disclosure it now seems that it's now six children that have died :-(

 

Given the protracted period of the disclosure that will take place the earliest of which seems to be the end of October, you have to wonder if this total of dead children will rise before the learning takes place.

#telltheirstories #ifyoucanttelltheirname

 

Northamptonshire County Council has had it's third successive "inadequate" grading published. Whilst it's been badged as inadequate, five children have died in County Council care and despite this no serious case review has been published. The last two of the children who died did so during the second "inadequate" Ofsted inspection.

 

Here is the only news story that has been published about the deaths. Published in March there has been no update on this.

 

Council staff tell me that they are concerned about the situation with many qualified staff leaving and being replaced with unqualified staff and agency staff.

 

The Chief Executive of Northamptonshire County Council, Paul Blantern wrote to the children's social care staff on Friday stating:

 

"...Ofsted have commented positively in their report on many aspects of the work that we are doing:

· We are better at engaging and listening to the voice of the child

· We have strong leadership, both politically and corporately

· There is a vigorous recruitment plan in place, with a commitment to filling vacancies

· Our children’s homes are either good or excellent

· Our decisions on whether or not a child should be in care is appropriate

So while we know we are inadequate – and indeed, that was the rating we were expecting - I believe we now have everything in place to start making real improvements.

This is against a background of ongoing challenges in terms of demand on the service. Since the release of the Child Protection inspection report we have had a significant increase in the number of children that we need to provide a service to.

Since March, there has been a 30% increase in referrals to children’s social care, the number of children on child protection plans has increased by 17% and the number of looked after children has increased steadily. The number of children identified as ‘in need’ has increased from 4500 to 5300 – an almost 20% increase."

 

Given the concerns about understaffing  and an over-zealousness to snatch something positive from the from the third inadequate rating in a row it really makes you question whether the reality of the task at hand has hit home.

 

Heather Smith, Deputy Leader of the County Council, emphatically assures us that the issue had never been about money. The Liberal Democrat leader urges for extra funds out of the budgets from other Council Services to tackle the situation.

 

Closer scrutiny of the new Children's Social Care Structure shows a high proportion of Senior Practitioner vacancies and those which are vacant occupied by a high proportion of agency staff (some of whom earn over £36 per hour) and some teams having proportions of newly qualified social workers of over 60%. During budget negotiation, terms and conditions for Northamptonshire County Council staff were altered, making conditions of service in the authority some of the worst in the Country. Whereas every other authority has been recruiting on nationally negotiated pay, terms and conditions, Northamptonshire County Council has been recruiting with the equivalent of  one hand tied behind their back with a set of working conditions that no other authority have. Prospective staff with be right to view offers of employment suspiciously. Other directives have been issued to staff which state that there will be times when they will not be able to complete activity as required by professional standards in their contracted time and this will have to be undertaken outside their contracted hours. Essentially working for free. Is this really the way to get the best people to pull the service out of this hole?

 

Thirteen years ago in the same authority a child went missing in Council care (Sarah Benford) and there was nationwide publicity about this.
 

Now that five children have died and it seems that no one wants to know. I've been in contact with three different press representatives over the course of today and it does seem that those five children are dead and forgotten. With the clamour for no increases in Council Tax it really does seem that the children simply don't matter. Is this because we don't care any more about this. Or is it that whilst they remain faceless and nameless it's OK not to care. Whilst the serious case reviews are not published ... that's the way it'll stay.

Over the weekend I suggested that people who did care and wanted to show that they care could perhaps make a statement ... perhaps through twitter using the hashtag

#telltheirstories #ifyoucanttelltheirname

Talking about immigration doesn’t make you a racist. Being racist makes you a racist.

I talk about immigration much of the time. I’ve just heard a Labour PPC on the news stating the key reason Labour lost the General  election in 2010 was as a result of perceptions about immigration policy.

Labour lost that election because over a long period of time they had made a number of wrong judgement calls, had leaders that saw themselves above the jurisdiction of international law and had back bencher's and cabinet members who’s egos just couldn’t help themselves from sticking the boot in at totally inopportune moments such as the day before an election.  

It’s inconceivable that a political grouping can be in power for three terms and not make mistakes but quite frankly these aren’t the apologies that Labour needs to be making.

People in this country are more concerned about whether they have enough money to pay the bills at the end of the month than anything else. They are concerns about pay, concerned about job security, concerned about youth unemployment way above their concern about immigration. It’s only those on the level of Anders Brevik who still believe that immigration is the reason for the economic crisis and recession that we find ourselves in. The arguments people actually want to hear are the arguments which lead to solutions to economic stability.  Further tinkering with immigration simply will not deliver this. In a month that saw immigration advice providers deluged by concerned clients desperately trying to get their settlement visa applications in before a July deadline when income thresholds to bring in spouses rocket from £5,000 to £27,500. This puts the right to family life for people who choose to marry non-EU migrants well out of the reach of those on average salaries.  The Con-Dem immigration zealousness has already damaged the stability of British Universities with the restriction of foreign students, is Labour seriously wanting to head in this direction.

Have discussion about immigration but look at the human stories of the impact decision have on peoples ability to enjoy basic human rights.  Look at the impact on economic recovery and check out that a policy isn’t being implemented that will further damage a shaky, fragile economy to pander to people who just don’t like a lot of “them” here.  Look at more fundamental solutions to problems. If school leavers cannot access employment, what is being done to make them more able and more skilled? Was axing Education Maintenance Allowance and increasing University fees really that bright an idea?

Human Rights and Equality Disappointments - The need to get off our knees

Finding myself at this time of year unusually outside the space of electoral politics, I have had time to focus a little harder on the other things around me. This afternoon the shocking revelation of the failure of the criminal justice system to obtain a single conviction for sixty people living in Kettering being kept in near slavery-like conditions leaves many of us with all too many questions. Many of these people were trafficked from their homes. Speaking earlier on in the year to a police officer involved in the investigation, it seems it was through investigating the theft of charity bags in the with second hand clothing that had alerted the police to the conditions that these workers were living and working in appalling physical abuse, threats and harassment. More than 20 of the workers were crammed into a three-bedroom terraced house with a single toilet that did not work.
This situation continued for four years with no one coming forward to the police or to report the situation to any other agency. There are various parties that share the blame for this including the Gang Master Licensing Authority that issued the license to the employers, the multi-million pound supermarkets that bought the produce. It is situations like this that highlight the real need for advice that reaches the individuals in greatest need. However, with drastic reforms and cuts to legal advice, one can’t help feeling that things are just going to get worse. Check out the campaigns on this here and here. This all comes together with the Government Equality Office releasing a consultation paper earlier this month, clearly stating that they wish the Equality and Human Rights Commission to cease funding their legal grants programme from 2012. They seem to think that this in the future could be funded by legal aid regardless of the fact that legal aid will not fund tribunal representation. With respondents generally only really motivated to settle cases as the tribunal date approaches, any respondent that is aware that the claimant in their case is supported by legal aid is likely to play hard ball to the end, increasing the number of tribunals that taken place and increase in the costs of justice for all of us. Perhaps the icing on the cake was the newly released proposals for equality regulations. These have been re-issues after initially being issued at the start of the year (hummm ... like that did take more resources at a time when I thought we are all mean to be tightening our belts) and significantly waters down the obligations on public bodies to demonstrate that they are doing all they can to elimination discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and promote good relations and just to make sure that we are on a generally uphill struggle the Equality and Human Rights Commission is having 55% of its budget cut. In such circumstances it is all too easy to not fight back when it comes to the bad news. However with decisions being changed nationally and locally all the time with the right kind of pressure at the right time, it’s all the more reason to hope and make ourselves heard. Join me and fight against the EHRC cuts by signing this.

Cuts and the recession

The cuts are the big news at the minute with the reality of what will go finally emerging. In the County and the the Borough.

This is the first set of budgets that I have seen that have clear evidence that there has a least been an attempt to equality impact assess either through referencing in reports or through full publication like the County Council. However, these documents have clearly been carried out in some haste with some having completely inadequate data sets to inform them. Some of them are very poor pieces of work with others not recognising the leverage that small amounts of investment can have particularly in the voluntary and community sector. Investment of a few thousand for the County Council can assist levering in tens, even hundreds of thousands from other sources for some organisations in this sector. All this at a time when there is in addition to these local cuts decisions, national cuts decisions that are a complete assault on the vulnerable in our communities. This is a must see for all. The disabled women presenting in the film highlights the focus from some in the voluntary and community sector "picking the carcass of the welfare state". It is reference to the hours, often days of time trying to apply for a plethora tenders and contracts to see some future after 31st March rather than putting the kind of energy that is needed to challenge the cuts. All too true. The cuts locally are difficult to see as much of them are hidden in debris of enormity of the cuts. For instance, in the £2,772,000 cut known as SC016 the complete axing of all advice work in the County lies. This will in particular hit Cleggs alarm clock Britain. It is those who have always worked for a living who perhaps now find themselves in hard times through redundancy, ill-heath or bereavement that will feel this the most as the services that have previously guided these people in need through an unfamiliar and complex welfare system disappear.

The recession and the cuts that exacerbate them are about inequality. Figures released last week show only one in five under 24 year olds are in work with an increasing proportion never having experienced work in the last two years. Over 50% of Black under 24 year olds unemployed, our nation is failing an entire generation. Since the Fawcett Society's attempted challenge on the governments budget the case for the gender equality implictions of the cut carries on growing.

So what is the answer? the only one that I can think of is about resistance. There are many ways of doing this, talking planning objecting but overall making the job of implementing cuts as hard as possible. The demonstration on 26th March should be a highlight of the campaign. Why don't you commit to going along too.

In the fast lane with a whole load of crashes around

I was presenting a statement signed by about a dozen Black and minority ethnic groups and 80 individuals at the Northampton Borough Council Overview and Scrutiny Panel tonight. The statement was developed by Voice 4 Change with input from NREC and Council for Ethnic Minorities. The first shocking thing about the experience was the paucity of Councillors in attendance. Although the weather was dire it was traversable and clearly myself and several other members of the public had made the trip out. Having elected Councillors the least that they can do it to actually turn up and represent you or in this case listen to you.
The statement was not news. It was basically the articulation of the frustration that many Black groups have had with not achieving any resource from Northampton Borough Council. The Council’s position is that the applications made by the Black and minority ethnic organisations were simply not robust enough to get through the scoring framework. One could argue a very similar argument used by 21 Oxbridge Colleges here.
The other big news is about the cuts released by the County Council so far but so far very little detail exists on what this means for specific communities. It’s all very well stating that bus route subsidies will have to be re-negotiated but to look at this effectively with an equalities eye, it is really important to identify which ones we are actually talking about and which communities that they actually serve. In the mean time things that were seen as important for vulnerable members of the community now seem to be put on hold

Getting the change we need

It certainly has been eventful since the election in May and still can't quite work out what's going to change next. News comes this morning of proposals to cut milk for children. Something that takes many of us back decades in terms of campaigning against cuts in public services.

In Northamptonshire, first proposals about cuts in transport to over 16's with learning difficulties and then news that the County Council is reconsidering it's decision following Special Need Involving Parents (SNIP) higlighted the potential of the decision being discrimination against young people with disabilities and their carers.

It does seem for those of us that want to challenge the reduction in spending on public services we do need to know who are friends are and how to work together with others so we do not get services picked off one by one. Certainly the strategy of using Equality Impact Assessment maybe one that will disappear as legislation changes.

So all the more welcome are plans for a one day workshop hosted by Northampton Quakers under the banner of Turning the Tide. The workshop seeks to bring together active campaigners from a variety of organisations to share information and resources for effective campaigning.

It will be held on Saturday 13th November between 10am and 4pm at the Freinds Meeting House, Wellington Street, Northampton NN1 3AS (opposite Marks and Spencers side entrance). To register for the limited spaces at this event, contact Julia Bush on julia.bush@northampton.ac.uk.

neigbourhoods and renewal - Council priorities or not?

With the continual revolution both in the County Council and the Borough Council, the new dynamic seems to be the unilateral decision by the County Council to at short notice ditch multi-agency neighbourhood renewal arrangements. With the County taking that stance with the alleged deletion of all the neighbourhood manager posts in the County. Again allegedly, the Police (in the middle of their own negotiations on their own re-structure) have stated that if the County don't want to play ball then neither will they. For voluntary sector agencies there are concerns as to what will happen to infrastucture (support) organisations. A County Council cabinet report suggests that there is an expectation that local District and Borough Councils will pick up the resourcing of support organisations.

So when car crashes like this take place one has to ask, "where's the learning in this". The learning is things don't change if statutory agencies can really improve their image by appearing to care about the County's most disadvantaged communities and then feel that it's totally acceptable to leave the most vulnerable communities in our County in the lurch because they want to take quick (presumably budget saving) decisions. There really isn't any point in being two-faced with the communities that need the most help.

The other surprising thing is the inability or lack of concern of the Borough to prevent this hiding to nothing. Honestly, I really don't know which it is ... but if things could be changed ... I think that can be changed. You just have to want it.