Category Archives: Children’s Services

Parents facing ‘hollowed-out’ half-term of council activities

When Jason “It’s going to get worse before it gets better” Perry referred to the “hollowed-out council” that he took charge of last May, the Tory Mayor must have had in mind the borough’s library service, which has been run … Continue reading

Posted in Activities, Children's Services, Coulsdon, Croydon Council, GLL - Better, Leisure services, Libraries, Mayor Jason Perry, New Addington, Schools, South Norwood | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Perry to preside over record-breaking 15% Council Tax hike

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The borough with one of the biggest Council Tax bills in London has just been given permission to make those bills even bigger. Much bigger. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Croydon, under Tory Mayor Jason Perry, has been … Continue reading

Posted in Adult Social Care, Brick by Brick, Children's Services, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Improvement Board, Mayor Jason Perry, Section 114 notice, Tony McArdle | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Town Hall meetings halved as new Mayor dodges questioning

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Tonight’s cabinet meeting has on its agenda the borough’s underperforming schools, the Westfield failure, Council Tax Support and council rents… in all, 24 items need to be considered at a meeting where opposition councillors will barely be … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Centrale, Children's Services, Croydon Council, Education, Housing, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Report in the Public Interest, Schools, Section 114 notice, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Ombudsman finds council put 4-year-old at risk of gang crime

CROYDON IN CRISIS: In the latest adverse finding against Croydon Council, in a case that stretches back seven years, a young mother was ‘left to live in fear’ after she was subjected to threats at gun-point and her appeals to … Continue reading

Posted in Children's Services, Crime, Croydon Council | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Children’s Christmas activity clubs are open for bookings

The council has updated its directory of voluntary, faith and charity organisations staging holiday clubs over the Christmas period, offering activities and healthy hot meals for those youngsters who receive free school meals. The Department for Education has allocated £300,000 … Continue reading

Posted in Activities, Addiscombe East, Charity, Children's Services, Church and religions, Community associations, Croydon Council, Education, Health, Norbury, Park Hill and Whitgift, Purley, Sanderstead | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fostering service appeal goes to the movies with Childhood

Childhood, a brief, brilliant and beautiful short film, has been released by Croydon Council in a ground-breaking national collaboration with 55 other authorities across the country in an effort to recruit much-needed foster carers. There are more than 70,000 children … Continue reading

Posted in Children's Services, Cinema, Croydon Council, Education, Schools | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

#PennReport: Croydon has been let down by political leaders

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The report into the council’s financial collapse that has been withheld for nearly two years includes damning criticisms of some of the council’s most senior staff and political leaders. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Croydon’s dysfunctional council went … Continue reading

Posted in Alison Butler, Children's Services, Croydon Council, Guy van Dichele, Hazel Simmonds, Jacqueline Harris-Baker, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Lisa Taylor, Paul Scott, Report in the Public Interest, Richard Simpson, Section 114 notice, Shifa Mustafa, Simon Hall, The Penn Report, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Kids’ holiday club faces disaster as council withholds grants

With just days to go before the start of the summer holidays, the organiser of an established and council-approved children’s activities centre was told he would not receive any funding. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES The organiser of a kids’ summer … Continue reading

Posted in Children's Services, Croydon Council, Education, Paxton Academy, Thornton Heath, West Croydon | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Alderman criticises handing Heathfield to profit-making school

A private school that charges £81,000 per year for some of its pupils is accused of doing work on the ‘cheap’ with its proposals, including ugly 9-foot-high fencing around a listed Victorian building A Croydon alderman, and former cabinet member … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Education, Environment, Heathfield House, Planning, Property, Schools, Selsdon and Addington Village, SEND, Timothy Godfrey | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Ombudsman orders review of Croydon’s temporary housing

A cancer patient and her four children were ‘cooped up’ in a single room throughout the covid pandemic because council officials failed to check their own temporary accommodation policy Croydon Council has been forced to pay nearly £5,000 in compensation … Continue reading

Posted in Children's Services, Croydon Council, Housing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

SEND demand sees council education deficit grow to £22.5m

A report published today by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has discovered a £1.3bn ‘financial black hole at the centre of the special educational needs and disability system – and it is growing rapidly’ The deficit in Croydon Council’s DSG … Continue reading

Posted in Children's Services, Croydon Council, Education, Schools, SEND | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Mayor candidate Shawcross’s ‘new’ direction not so new at all

Any ‘clean break’ with the incompetence and graft of the past at Croydon Town Hall that is being offered by Labour Mayoral candidate Val Shawcross appears doomed by her own campaign’s deep-rooted connections with discredited Tony Newman and some of … Continue reading

Posted in 2022 council elections, 2022 Croydon Mayor election, Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, Alisa Flemming, Brick by Brick, Broad Green, Business, Callton Young, Children's Services, Chris Clark, Clive Fraser, Croydon Council, David Evans, Fairfield Halls, Fly tipping, Hamida Ali, Humayun Kabir, Karen Jewitt, Maddie Henson, Manju Shahul Hameed, Meals on Wheels, Planning, Refuse collection, Sarah Jones MP, Schools, Sean Fitzsimons, SEND, Sherwan Chowdhury, Steve Reed MP, Stuart Collins, Stuart King, Tony Newman, Val Shawcross, Veolia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sutton firm puts SEND children to back of lessons queue

Loss-making council company prioritises profit-generating clients over legal responsibilities for the education of some of the borough’s most vulnerable children. By CARL SHILTON Parents of Sutton children with SEND have been lied to by their local council, as it has … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Marian James, Schools, SEND, Sutton Council, Tim Crowley | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Council looks to second postponement of budget meeting

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Town Hall chiefs still trying to negotiate another multi-million-pound government bail-out, with time running out to issue 136,000 Council Tax notices. By STEVEN DOWNES The council is on the brink of crashing into bankruptcy, unable to set … Continue reading

Posted in Adult Social Care, Business, Children's Services, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Improvement Board, Katherine Kerswell, Richard Ennis, Tony McArdle | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Best Start centres under threat again from Flemming’s survey

Our council reporter, PEARL LEE, on the latest stitch-up survey being rushed through as a ruse to justify cuts to services for babies and toddlers Here comes another council “survey” where the information scraped from residents will be used to … Continue reading

Posted in Alisa Flemming, Children's Services, Croydon Council, Education, Health, Norbury Park, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Gove won’t ‘level up’ with an extra £1.50 per person per year

With the government’s settlement for local councils announced this week, our columnist ANDREW FISHER takes a look at what Michael Gove and his so-called ‘Levelling Up’ department is really offering “Billions more for councils to build back better” reads the … Continue reading

Posted in Adult Social Care, Andrew Fisher, Callton Young, Children's Services, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Val Shawcross | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

‘Magnificence of Croydon’: Town Hall video ignores the cuts

This video has been produced by Croydon Council to accompany a report from Croydon’s director of public health. In her first annual report since the covid-19 outbreak, Rachel Flowers praises Croydon residents, communities, schools and businesses for their continued strength … Continue reading

Posted in Adult Social Care, Children's Services, Community associations, Croydon Council, CVA, Katherine Kerswell, Leisure services, Rachel Flowers | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Council axes its annual grant to flagship Legacy Youth Zone

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Town Hall reporter KEN LEE on the latest casualty of the council’s financial mismanagement The Legacy Youth Zone, a flagship development of Tony Newman’s Labour council, built with £3.25million capital investment from the Town Hall, is to … Continue reading

Posted in Alisa Flemming, Business, Callton Young, Charity, Children's Services, Crime, Croydon Council, Knife crime, Steve Reed MP, Tony Newman, Youth Services | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Council recruitment drive offers £1.1m in wages across 8 jobs

CROYDON IN CRISIS: One year since the council declared itself bankrupt, CEO Katherine Kerswell is offering a slew of six-figure salaried executive positions for recruits to be ‘part of a new chapter’ and to ‘go on a journey’. By Town … Continue reading

Posted in Alison Knight, Children's Services, Croydon Council, David Padfield, Debbie Jones, Elaine Jackson, Katherine Kerswell, Richard Ennis, Section 114 notice | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Norbury Afterschool Club, Harlow Hall, term time Fridays

Posted in Activities, Education, Norbury, SEND | Tagged | Leave a comment

Tory austerity has been the cause of thousands of extra deaths

The Conservative Party’s ‘reckless’ and ‘ruthless’ policy over the last decade has seen life expectancy rates reversed and put 150 local authorities into deep financial difficulties Tory austerity over the last decade has been responsible for the deaths of tens … Continue reading

Posted in Adult Social Care, Children's Services, Croydon Council, Health, Property, Section 114 notice | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Child’s transplant delayed by council SEND decisions

As the Ofsted inspectors visit Fisher’s Folly this week, one family’s struggle to get the council to provide a decent standard of education for their son with SEND has forced them to write this open letter to the council leader … Continue reading

Posted in Children's Services, Croydon Council, Education, Health, Katherine Kerswell, Schools, SEND | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Midnight deadline to complete Ofsted’s SEND survey

By SARAH BOWELL It’s a big week for Croydon, and not just because of Thursday’s council governance referendum. For some families, the bigger news of this week is that Croydon’s SEND department is being visited for an Ofsted inspection. For … Continue reading

Posted in Children's Services, Croydon Council, Education, Health, SEND | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Government to pay £2.3m of borough’s asylum children’s costs

The Home Office will pay an additional £2.3million to Croydon this year to cover the rising costs to the borough of being a first stop in this country for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The cash-strapped borough last month threatened to copy … Continue reading

Posted in Children's Services, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Robert Ward | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Croydon warns Whitehall it will end taking child asylum-seekers

Just as the US-backed government in Afghanistan collapsed under assault from the Taliban, with potentially tens of thousands of people urgently seeking refuge outside their homeland, so Croydon Council has announced that it will refuse to take any more unaccompanied … Continue reading

Posted in Children's Services, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Improvement Board | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment