Agenda item
TO RECEIVE WRITTEN QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC
The questions which have been received from members of the public for this Council meeting are set out in the attached report. A maximum period of 20 minutes is allocated to this agenda item.
Minutes:
The following questions and in each case supplementary questions were put and were responded to by the Mayor or relevant Executive Member:-
6.4 Question from Lisa Stepanovic
Who is the governing body of a school accountable to?
Who monitors the head teachers attendance and how is it scrutinised?
Response by Mayor John Biggs
The answer to that is quite technical. For community schools maintained by the local authority the governing body is responsible for the conduct and decision making of the school. The Council can intervene in certain circumstances if there is a cause for concern. However, ultimately the school is accountable to Department for Education and the Secretary of State.
I think this highlights that with the education reforms, in the old days the local authority would have significant powers of intervention and involvement and nowadays it doesn’t. So the only place you can go in the end is the Secretary of State and I don’t find that satisfactory. That doesn’t mean that a government can’t change the law and create a far greater degree of independence (this was done by both Labour and Conservative Governments, a greater extent by the Conservatives). But it does create a potential vacuum if people are unhappy. I’m very happy in my role as Mayor and for Councillors to be involved in meetings and they have been. But we don’t have a formal responsibility for managing the school.
The head teacher is accountable to the governing body and any absence will be reported to the chair of the governing body.
Supplementary question from Lisa Stepanovic
Does the Council think it’s acceptable that children who are described as the most vulnerable young people in the UK are able to view the horrific articles online referring to a teacher and supposed role-model as a racist killer? Whether he is or he isn’t, is irrelevant. It harms their mental health and that is something I am bothered by. Does the Council feel it’s acceptable that when those same children question the articles online that it is trivialised in such a way that it shows no regard for Mr Shiblu Rahman or the family he left behind?
Children told me that they were not allowed to challenge this. I was told I couldn’t challenge it and I was also told the community had no right to challenge this. I was told this by the chair of governors and also the head teacher. I was bullied and I resigned from the very project I created and also from the governing body. Surely this kind of disregard for our community and emotional neglect for the vulnerable students at Ian Mikardo high school had no place in Tower Hamlets. This is neglect. I believe it is a safeguarding issue. It is divisive and to silence and shut down young people from the community who raise these concerns, I believe, has the potential to encourage extremism, further divide and hate.
Mayor John Biggs response to the supplementary question:
I am very happy to sit down with you again – I know you sat down with one or more Councillors already. I am very happy to ensure you have a meeting with Debbie Jones, the Council’s Director of Children’s Services to discuss your concerns. Any safeguarding concern needs to be really and properly investigated and dealt with by the local authority. Safeguarding is one of the areas where the local authority still has a very important statutory role, so if there are concerns in that area they need to be thoroughly investigated. I agree with you that if young people with impressionable minds are reading stuff on the internet, then the way that is managed by the school is a matter of legitimate concern and, as I said in my earlier answer, is properly a matter to be investigated by the head teacher and the governors. If that isn’t properly dealt with it becomes an issue within our community.
6.5 Question from Bethan Lant
The Refugees Welcome in Tower Hamlets Campaign is looking forward to the day when our borough is able to welcome Syrian refugees – as has happened on a small scale in 5 other London boroughs, including Islington (which is resettling 10 families) and Camden (which is resettling 24 families). We want to thank the Mayor for his continued support on this issue and for meeting with us to discuss it late last year.
Our group also wants to support the council to make refugee resettlement a success in the borough, providing the best welcome possible. So, can the Mayor provide an update on the progress being made towards resettling Syrian refugees in Tower Hamlets under the government’s Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme? Is he able to tell us how many families the Council is currently planning to welcome to Tower Hamlets?
Response by Mayor John Biggs
As you know, I and the Council are committed, unanimously, to supporting Syrian refugees. This has proved to be a horrendously bureaucratic, long and drawn out process of being able to receive refugees in our Borough. I commend your campaign. I find it bizarre that with the Borough’s proud history of welcoming refugees it is so difficult to receive refugees nowadays. We are currently liaising with the Home Office about the scheme. Planning works are already underway. We have already received two unaccompanied asylum seeking children from Syria. The budgets – and this is common to most inner-London authorities – are providing for, I think, three families to be received into the Borough. I find it almost embarrassing to say that. Because of the negotiations with the departments in government and the financial assurances required and the amounts of money the Government is making available, I think they are predominantly dispersing Syrian refugees to other, lower cost parts of the country. So it is partly about bureaucracy, partly about the cost of housing. I recently attended one of many Iftar events, where it was suggested there was an appetite for greater community financial support for this initiative and I would welcome that. That is indicative of a tradition in the East End of people being generous. I know we are a generous community.
Supplementary question from Bethan Lant
I would say that three families seems a pitifully small amount. It does sound ridiculous, as you say, that that seems to be the maximum when we have such a large migrant community in the Borough and so many resources that could welcome people here. I commend the fact that we’ve taken two unaccompanied minors recently and I hope we’ll extend a welcome to more unaccompanied minors, knowing how vulnerable and how much in need those young people are. I hope we have your assurance that you will try to increase those numbers if there is any opportunity to do so?
Mayor John Biggs response to the supplementary question:
I would agree with that. I have a newspaper report in front of me that tells me that more than one third of local councils in the country are refusing to accept any Syrian refugees. On the other hand, Gloucestershire and Kent have accepted several hundred refugees. Lancashire has offered space for up to 600 refugees as well. It depends on household sizes of course, but yes, I want us to help and do more and I hope we’ll be able to do that.
6.7 Question from Eileen Short
Will the Council follow the example of Camden and Islington Councils and write directly to its tenants and leaseholders to inform them of the Housing and Planning Act, invite them to a forum to discuss this, and ask local housing associations to do the same; and what measures is it taking to work with other Councils in resisting the Act?
Response by Councillor Sirajul Islam (Statutory Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Housing Management & Performance)
(For transparency, I would like to declare that I am a Council tenant. Though I do not have a disclosable pecuniary interest, this matter does impact directly on me and my family.)
We are taking the threat presented by the Housing and Planning Act very seriously. Indeed, you will know that during the parliamentary process for the bill we have made multiple representations to Government and support our MPs in opposing the bill. We are also debating this subject later on the agenda, as there is a related motion. Sadly the implementation of the Act is having a significant impact on the Borough and as a Council we are doing all we can to protect residents from the worst of it. We recently launched the housing strategy consultation which seeks to address the impact of the Housing and Planning Act 2016. Consultation is underway and residents are engaging in the process. We have a duty to make residents aware of the impact of the Act and this is why we have already published an article in East End Life, Our East End, multiple Council website articles and press statements recently in the Tower Hamlets Homes newsletter as well. The Council debated and supported a motion on 20th January 2016 which called on the Mayor and all Councillors to actively campaign to highlight the disastrous consequences of the Bill. As a result the Mayor and Lead Members, myself and Rachel Blake, have attended quite a few meetings organised by ‘Kill the Bill’, namely on the Cranbrook, Collingwood, and Ocean estates, outside Albert Jacob House and most recently last week in the Tramshed. In essence we are doing quite a lot and engaging with your campaign as well. I applaud the work you are doing on council housing; it is important and something we are all committed to doing as much as possible to support.
Supplementary question from Eileen Short
Does the Council agree that the Act is unfair and destructive and unworkable; that residents need more information and a chance to discuss it at meetings or forums; and that it is the Council’s responsibility to play an active role in making that happen?
Councillor Sirajul Islamresponse to the supplementary question:
Yes to all of that. When I spoke at the Cranbrook meeting I believe I spoke very passionately about this issue, that I felt it was more about social cleansing and the impact it would have on council tenants.
In terms of providing more information, of course. The Council has done quite a lot (I have already read out the list to you) and we are happy to do more. Regarding meetings and forums, again myself and Rachel have attended quite a lot of meetings. You have arranged and kindly invited us to meetings and we will be happy to attend further meetings
Questions 6.1-6.3 and 6.6 were not put due to the absence of the questioners.
Written responses would be provided to the questions. (Note: The written responses are included in Appendix ‘A’ to these minutes.)
Supporting documents: