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Category Archives: Children’s Services
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 Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, Alisa Flemming, Brick by Brick, Broad Green, Callton Young, Clive Fraser, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Karen Jewitt, Labour, Maddie Henson, Manju Shahul Hameed, Sean Fitzsimons, South Norwood, Steve Reed OBE, Stuart Collins, STUART KING, Tony Newman, Val Shawcross
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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
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 Council Tax, Croydon Council, Department for Levelling Up, Hamida Ali, Improvement Board, Katherine Kerswell, Labour, Michael Gove, Tony McArdle
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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
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 Andrew Fisher, Conservative, Council Tax, Council Tax Support, Croydon, Croydon Council, Department for Levelling Up, DLUHC, Housing and Communities, MHCLG, Michael Gove, Tory
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‘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
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
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 Brick by Brick, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, David Padfield, Debbie Jones, Elaine Jackson, Katherine Kerswell, London Borough of Croydon, Richard Ennis, South Norwood
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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
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
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 Croydon, Croydon Council, Ofsted, Sarah Bowell, SEND
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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
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
Flemming forced to drop plan to close two children’s centres
The council has been forced to back down from cost-cutting proposals, including closures, that will have impacted thousands of the borough’s children and the families. The council wanted to reduce its spend on its Best Start Children’s Centres by £1million … Continue reading
Ofsted discover ‘worrying signs’ of cuts on children’s services
Inspectors from Ofsted have warned that some of the borough’s most vulnerable children may be put at greater risk as a consequence of cuts and redundancies caused by the council’s financial collapse. Ofsted inspectors last month carried out their latest … Continue reading
Volunteer self-funds kids’ summer club after council delays
EXCLUSIVE by SANJANA IDNANI A community volunteer in West Croydon has been left thousands of pounds out of pocket because of delays by the council in handing over a promised government grant towards the costs of running a children’s summer … Continue reading
Summer’s lunch and activity clubs available for children
Thousands of Croydon children who qualify for free school meals can sign up for free activity clubs offering healthy meals over the summer holidays. Open to children aged from five to 16, Croydon’s programme is on offer at more than … Continue reading
Posted in Children's Services, Croydon Council, Schools
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Council, free school meals, summer activity clubs
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£50m shortfall in Home Office payments for asylum children
The council says that the government has underpaid it by around £50million, money which it says is owed for taking care of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who arrive in the UK in Croydon. The council claims that over the past decade … Continue reading
£1m cuts to children’s centres aimed at south of borough
CROYDON COMMENTARY: The cash-strapped council waited until the week after the London elections and local by-elections to reveal its latest plans for swingeing cuts to children’s services. PAUL WADDELL, right, says residents ought not allow this to happen without a … Continue reading
Ali and Kerswell are summoned to Parliamentary inquiry
CROYDON IN CRISIS: ‘There is much that the council needs to do to become a properly functioning local authority’ says panel’s report to government, as it recommends more cuts to Croydon’s Adult Social Care and Children’s Services. By STEVEN DOWNES … Continue reading
Posted in Adult Social Care, Children's Services, Chris Buss, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Hamida Ali, Improvement Board, Katherine Kerswell, Section 114 notice, Tony McArdle
Tagged Chris Buss, Clive Betts MP, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Improvement Panel, Katherine Kerswell, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, MHCLG, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, S114, Section 114, Tony McArdle
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Council Tax-payers pay for politicians’ game of cat-and-mouse
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The bankrupt borough is kept waiting for its bail-out, as cabinet reports reveal that council overspending has continued to soar. By WALTER CRONXITE, political editor Just when you thought things could not get any worse, Croydon Council’s … Continue reading
Posted in Adult Social Care, Children's Services, Chris Buss, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Improvement Board, Katherine Kerswell, Patsy Cummings, Paul Scott, Section 114 notice, TfL, Tony McArdle, Tony Newman, Transport
Tagged Chris Buss, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Hamida Ali, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, S114, Section 114, Tory
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£2,400 per day – the high cost of council’s ‘improvement’ panel
The annual cost of having Croydon officials’ work checked by Whitehall-appointed experts comes to ‘three-quarters of a Negrini’, as KEN LEE reports The Improvement Panel imposed on Croydon by the Tory government to check that the cash-strapped council is running … Continue reading
Posted in Adult Social Care, Brick by Brick, Children's Services, Croydon Council, Improvement Board, Jo Negrini, Section 114 notice, Tony McArdle, Tony Newman
Tagged Brick by Brick, Croydon, Croydon Council, Improvement Panel, Jo Negrini, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Margaret Lee, Phil Brookes, S114, Section 114, Tony McArdle, Tony Newman
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‘Joseph Heller could use Croydon as a sequel to Catch 22’
CROYDON COMMENTARY: The row between the Labour council and Tory government over the possible costs of staging a mayoral referendum has got loyal reader IAN KIERANS crunching some numbers Is it really £1million additional costs to stage a referendum over … Continue reading
Council ‘too quick to pass the buck’ over child abuse claims
Local Government Ombudsman orders Croydon to conduct an audit of child sexual abuse cases going back three years, after the authority’s response to a draft report ‘suggests wider systemic issues’ Croydon’s children’s services department may have “systemic” errors, according to … Continue reading
