Haringey Council is the worst in London: it’s official
Posted by Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, at 15:06, Wed 16 December 2009:
Dear Neighbour,
Haringey Council has been rated the worst council in London and one of the worst in all of England by the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA). As a long time resident and campaigner against Haringey Council’s failings, I must say I’m none too surprised! You can watch me comment about these findings on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMMLIl_uo2k
It is so dispiriting to continually find out how poorly Haringey Council performs - particularly as we pay such high Council Tax. High tax, poor services – that’s the worst of all worlds.
Most damningly, even now – after all the reports, inquiries and promises of change – Haringey’s children services are still not up to scratch. The review found that children's safeguarding is “inadequate” and there has been only “limited progress in addressing these weaknesses”.
The answer to all this? Well one answer is coming our way next May – when the council elections give us a chance to end Labour's reign after 40 years.
You can keep up with the latest news on my campaigning and that of my Liberal Democrat councillor colleagues, led by Robert Gorrie, at www.lynnefeatherstone.org Please do also get in touch if you’d like to help in any way.
Kind regards,
Lynne MP for Hornsey & Wood Green (Lib Dem) (020) 8340 5459 lynne@lynnefeatherstone.org
Comments
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Posted by Nick Wright, 17:19, Wed 16 December 2009: (Is this post abusive?) #
Lynne,
It is a good idea to give the document reference when quoting sources like the CAA, then we can see for ourselves how bad things are. I've taken the trouble to look up the relevant audit letter the hard way, and find that the picture is mixed and not at all as dark as you paint it. "It [Haringey] delivers good value for money and has good financial standing." is one quote you don't mention. I feel the adverse publicity about the children's service has made H an easy target for the CAA. In the previous year, the borough was doing well, improving and rated 3 star. The awful children's performance is holding back praise for continuing improvements in other areas. I have voted for you before, but if you engage in selective quotation of this kind I won't be doing so again. It does no-one any good to unfairly slag off the place your constituents take the trouble to live in.
Nick Wright
Posted by Lynne Featherstone, 12:26, Thu 17 December 2009: (Is this post abusive?) #
Hi Nick
Thanks for feedback - always appreciated - even when critical.
But it's not just the Children's Services - being rated the worst in London is pretty damning and whilst there were areas where the Council wasn't failing - the improvements such as they are tend to be slower improvements than other boroughs in London. If you take our education standards - we are improving - but not as much as almost any other borough in London.
When you say that Haringey got 3 stars the year before - that has now been undermined because OFSTED have said that they gave Haringey 3 stars based on false information supplied by the Council in order to get a higher than deserved rating - so the 3 stars was discredited.
In fact -I am so fed up with inspections not being able to be reliable (and I blame OFSTED as much as Haringey nearly in this - if they were fooled by Haringey it wasn't much of an inspection) that I raised the issue of 'who inspects the inspectors' in the House on the floor of the COmmons to ask for a debate on this issue. We need inspections to be robust, independent and accurate.
However - I take issue with your comment that I am unfairly 'slagging off' Haringey. I deal with the Council day in day out - with between 3 - 500 contacts a day - much of which is about problems with the way Haringey does things. I get endless complaints about Haringey not listening, not responding, not responding to points raised, losing documents, acting unfairly, being rude - and that is just the daily grind of small problems.
Yes - it's a challenging borough - but it's not the only one in London.
So - when the ratings agency finds them to be the worst in London - I think it is appropriate to make sure those people who have a vote next May know that is the rating they got.
I am very pleased you voted for me lat time - and I work very hard to hopefully get your vote next time - but 40 years of Labour has created (and this is something ratings probably don't pick up) a culture of accepting low performance and a can't do environment.
But thanks for engaging - much appreciated. Best Lynne