Below is the Press Release from the Save Our Nurseries Tower Hamlets, outlining the successful call at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, asking the monitoring officer to take the matter to a Full Council meeting, as the decision contravenes policy. The call in was signed by myself and four other councillors, Cllr Shah Ameen (Whitechapel), Cllr Ruhul Amin (Shadwell), Cllr Tarik Khan (St. Peters) and Cllr Gabriela Salva Macallan (St. Peters).
For immediate release: Wednesday 17 October
Press release: Save Our Nurseries Tower Hamlets – Overview and Scrutiny has referred back the Mayor’s decision to close Mary Sambrook, John Smith, and Overland day nurseries
For more information contact Nirupama Naidu, 07590695337
Email: [email protected]
Last night the Overview & Scrutiny Committee of Tower Hamlets Council considered a call in, signed by five Labour councillors, of the Executive Mayor’s decision to close our Local Authority Day Nurseries: John Smith, Mary Sambrook (which is now closed) and Overland which has a specialist hearing unit.
Ten members of the committee voted for this decision to be referred back (just one councillor voted against (Labour)).
The Committee took the view that the closure decision was not in line with the Council’s budget (which had agreed to continue to provide the LADN service by outsourcing provision) and should therefore be considered by full Council.
The Committee also believed that the closure was, on the same basis, in contradiction to the council’s policy framework and should therefore be considered at full Council.
The meeting started with comments that suggested members of the committee supportive of the day nurseries, had been intimidated prior to the meeting. A point of order about the use of party whips in communication with members of the committee was made by Puru Miah (Mile End), and Councillor Marc Frances (Bow East) raised questions about a communication which had been sent around to members by an officer warning members against ‘predetermination’. He pointed out later that this was not legally applicable in the case of O&S (which does not make decisions but scrutinises them).
Councillor Shah Ameen (Whitechapel) spoke passionately against the way Mary Sambrook stopped accepting children before a decision was made, and explained how important the nurseries are to those in his ward.
Councillor Gabriela Salva Macallan pointed out that the council had failed to listen to the staff proposals for ways that the nurseries could run more efficiently, and also found issue with ‘the cabinet papers which stated that “schools and voluntary providers had been approached” when no voluntary providers had been approached.’
Councillor Marc Francis later reiterated this, stating that he had received a confirmation that there had been no conversations with voluntary providers.
Gabriela Salva Macallan raised concerns about the alternative provision being provided for deaf children, stating ‘a huge amount of work will need to go into Children’s House to bring it up to the same standard for deaf children.’ ‘Some of children maybe able to be placed but we are losing a service for vulnerable under two year olds.’
The proposed nursery school Children’s house only takes children from 2 years old, and the LADNs take children from 6 months and have waiting lists of over 100 children.
Dr Rice spoke in support of the concerns raised about process, but raised again the key issue of equalities – the overflowing equality benefits of keeping 100 parents in employment.
Christine McInnes (Divisional Director, Education and Partnership, Children’s) spoke angrily in defence of the closure plans that her department is pushing through. She stated that ‘this is a subsidy for a small number of families’. She also attempted to claim that conversations had take place with voluntary providers, and then seemed to back down, admitting that these were ‘informal’. As she continued to speak over her allotted time she had to be reprimanded by the Chair Councillor Abdal Ullah, who said as a senior officer stating it was rude to the public and she should know better.
Councillor Andrew Wood expressed shock that voluntary sector provision was not looked into.
In response to questions Danny Hassell again failed to acknowledge the difference between nurseries schools and day nurseries, and went on to attack the evidence provided by UNISON regarding emails sent to Children’s Centre staff encouraging them to get parents to fill out the public consultation negatively against the Local Authority Day Nurseries. Hassell dismissed the UNISON report as ‘unsubstantiated rumour’ and claimed he ‘hadn’t seen any whistle blowing’! UNISON is the UK’s largest union and the concerns reported by them to the Council have been substantiated and evidenced in full. The full UNISON report can be read in the Cabinet papers, Wednesday, 26 September 2018, Item 6.2 – Further Consultation Response, https://democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/documents/b28171/Item%206.2%20-%20Further%20consultation%20response%2026th-Sep-2018%2018.00%20Cabinet.pdf?T=9
Hassell claimed that the council would have to raise costs to £45/hour to parents to make the nurseries cost effective, effectively proving through these absurd figures that no proper modelling had been done! He also attempted to avoid questions from Marc Francis regarding the false choice given in the public consultation. Asked to ‘confirm that they don’t actually need to be made as savings from the Early Years service’… ‘let me know why you offered a false choice on the public consultation’ Hassell said ‘as far as I know we don’t have the option to use a different budget, it would have to be decided at Council’
Before the vote Councillor Marc Francis stated: ‘That was the worst public consultation I’ve seen since Haringey which was struck off by the Supreme Court’ [referring to the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Mosley v. Haringey] ‘This service financially has been run into the ground… We are re-running the decision made in 2014. It’s been a game to keep us entertained…to get through elections.’ He finished: ‘This is saying that council officers can do anything they like… It is really important that decisions are not made in that back room way’
The result of the vote was almost unanimous. Ten members of the committee voted for this decision to be referred back (just one councillor voted against).
The closure decision will now be considered by the Council’s Legal Officer and by the Monitoring Officer. If the officers believe the closure decision contravenes the Council’s policy framework, the closure decision will be considered by full Council. Should this happen, the full Council will have three options:
-decide that the closure decision is in accordance with the policy framework and should stand;
-decide that the closure decision is not in line with the policy framework and amend the policy framework to accommodate it;
-refer the decision to the Executive Mayor to reconsider.
If the officers advise that the closure decision does not contravene the policy framework, the closure decision will be referred to the Mayor for reconsideration.
The experience has highlighted one of the failings of the executive mayor system by showing how little power the community and councillors have to over-rule the Mayor’s decisions.
Five Labour councillors made the call in, despite pressure from cabinet members and the Mayor not to sign it. They were: Cllr Puru Miah (Mile End), Cllr Shah Ameen (Whitechapel), Cllr Ruhul Amin (Shadwell), Cllr Tarik Khan (St. Peters) and Cllr Gabriela Salva Macallan (St. Peters)
Save Our Nurseries thanks these brave councillors, standing up for their communities and not allowing this bad decision to escape the scrutiny it deserves.
Save Our Nurseries!
Note: Please watch the recording of the meeting here for precise quotes, the call back regarding the LADNs was the first item on the agenda:
https://towerhamlets.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/379531
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