Failure at the top of Medway Council Cabinet

When a football manager loses vital games, no matter how well their team performed, they are

Over seeing failure - Cllr Rodney Chambers

sacked or have the decency to resign.

When a military commander is defeated heavily in battle, no matter what the odds were against them, they are replaced or have the good grace to die in battle.

When a minister screws up massively or a Party leader losses an election by a serious amount they are promoted side ways, replaced or resign.

Not so for the Medway Conservatives.

The ruling Medway Council have been in power for quite some time with quite a majority, which against the trend they increased in 2011. Yet despite this there have been some well documented clangers that have been dropped from a very high height.

The Medway Bus station over spend, the bridge to no where on the Isle or Grain, the budget that simply doesn’t add up, the Darley rail bridge enlargement, the Ofsted results, the Medway test failure, farcical consultation and privitisation of vital elderly care homes, roads in dire need of repair – the list is fairly expansive and I could go on.

Who has resigned their post as portfolio holder in this time?

Anyone?

No one.

There had been quite a substansive move by politicos and opposition parties to get Councillor Wicks to resign as portfolio holder of Children’s services after the debacle of the Medway test and the Child services that protect the most vulnerable in society were rated unsatisfactory by Ofsted showing that basic consultation and referals were up to twice that of the acceptable national average. Whether he was personally responsible or not is no longer relevant, he should have biten the bullet and resigned as public confedence in him was/is exceptionally low and that is not what you need in someone who is overseeing our children’s wellbeing. I use the past tense as last week he was rotated out and Cllr Mike O'Brien has taken his place but it took two years for this to happen and this farce should not have been allowed to continue publically for so long.

Then we turn to Councillor Jarrett the portfolio holder for finance. After this year's budget meeting with figures that did not add up, parking fees shown as incorrect, failure to come up with a financial plan to pay for Medway Tunnel other than to rob from the road repair funds he has shown that when it comes to financial wizardry he is less of a Gandalf and more of a Paul Daniels.

When you slot in the other mistakes and almost reckless spending on capital projects gone wrong like the bus station or the Hoo bridge at the expense of Sure start centres and elderly care you are forced to ask serious questions about his financial management. Yes he is doing a tough job with limited funds and I do not envy him in that respect but at the same time he is wielding the axe and purse like a drunk headsman on pay day and my daughter who is just shy of three can add up figures slightly more convincingly. Again public perception is that the Sherriff of Capstone is taxing the heart and soul out of Medway’s poorest to pay for Mayoral dinners, capital projects and regeneration when they want a more “back to basics” approach. Confidence is being lost.

Then you have the top of the structure. Councillor Chambers the Conservative and Council leader prosiding over them all. Again, he has not been personally responsible for the actions of his subordinates but he is where the buck must stop. Going back to the original examples, should a goal keeper play consistently poorly and concede goals left, right and centre it is the manager who will lose his post first. After the disasterous German invasion of Norway it was Chamberlain who stood down as Prime Minister not Carton de Wiart et.al as military officers. So why has Rodney Chambers still clung to his position? Should he not act and forcibly replace those who have failed so spectacularly as any good leader would do? Should he take the bullet himself or more likely cling to the map table to the bitter end moving phantom divisions whilst a Red (and Gold) steamroller relieve him of command at the next local election?
  No - the rumbling Conservative band wagon continues unabated here and the back slapping continues.

Letters to the editor on local child care.

My letter to the Medway Messenger that unfortunately didn't get published.

I would like to congratulate Councillor Mike O’Brien on hisappointment to portfolio holder for Children’s services but also to draw hisattention to this;

Due to funding cuts our local nursery is unable to take children under two years old. This is a bitter blow for my family as my wife has two months of maternity leave left and was preparing to go back to work with my son’s name down for the local nursery. We have two months to find a nearby nursery that will take him or my wife will have to give up work for at least a year cutting our already stretched household income virtually in half.

Many of my wife’s friends who, like us, were hoping their second child could go to the same local place as their first born are now faced with either giving up work or taking both children elsewhere, something that is not really an option for us.

The point is that both my wife and I have both worked our whole adult lives and paid all our taxes and now we find ourselves being persecuted for wanting to work. Had the Council really thought through this move before implementation and will they reverse it?

If not, it seems that they don’t care about hard working residents and will leave us contemplating which vital utility bill we have to live without.

Chris Sams,  Gillingham.

Medway Council "Failing to protect Children"

Sorry for the slow write up on this, hectic weekend of elderly care and hospital trip with little Ollie-bob, I only got around to reading Friday's report this morning!

Any way....

So, the Medway Town's safeguarding Child care has been rated as wholly unacceptable by Ofsted (read the report here). Councillor Wickes has apologised, as has the new(ish) Children's Director Barbara Peacock, for failing to... well here's what Cllr Wickes said:

I apologise for our failure to deliver the service our children and young people deserve.

There are many problems with cases being signed off and then being re-referred. According to Jenni Horn & Rebecca Hughes's article in the Medway Messenger (Council is failing to protect children dated 15-2-13) in 2011/2 32% of closed cases had to be re referred and so far this year 46% of cases have been re-referred which is almost twice the national figure of 24%!

One of the big problems is that the initial assessments of cases are not being done thoroughly and they have not been necessarily identifying the risks or problems faced by childrens. I don't want to jump onto a scare mongering band waggon but this is a similar situation that saw the death of Baby P a few years ago and the sacking of Sharon Shoesmith. We can be glad that nothing like this has happened in the Medway towns and hopefully this Ofsted report is the wake up call that was needed to rectify this.

Although it is easy to blame Councillor Wicks for this failing as the portfolio holder there are greater issues at foot as well and we should not be focused fully on this - though I will return to this momentarily.

I am heartened that the Council seem to be taking this exceptionally seriously with the Chief Executive that they are determined to improve and we've had in place an improvement programme for some time. Amongst the bad news budget, which I'll write about at a later time, Councillor Jarrett has found money to pump into this exceptionally lagging department with new systems coming in to release Social workers from paper work and back into field work as well as a new £1.4m electronic recording system. There is also a board of different departments and agencies getting together to advise and improve and assist - all good news.

However this does rather reek of being caught with your trousers down!

Ms Peacock has only been in post for some five months and with a record of improving Children services at Sandwell is definitely the right person to have on board. To some degree we should be looking at the previous head of department Rose Collinson, who was also in post during the Medway Test debacle and left post last summer. There also needs to be questions asked about the appointment of Duncan Clark who was assistant director of Child services on a 6 months contract. He was forced out of a job by Kingston Council because under his stewardship the safeguarding department's inadequate rating. Medway Council hired someone to such a vital post with a record of failure? 

So, what to do about Councillor Wicks? Well, it is a tough one. Opposition parties are calling for his head and although I do not believe all of the blame lies with him, this isn't the first time for a major failing to fall at his door. As I mentioned earlier there is the Medway test debacle which rocked the Medway towns a couple of years ago. He is portrayed as a bit of a well meaning bungler and whether that is the case or not the public have lost confidence in him as portfolio holder. If this was National Government he would have gone or been promoted sideways. It would go a long way in gaining trust with the public if he did stand down or was replaced so as to completely draw a line under the whole affair - new heads, new board and new direction bent on immediate improvement.

He won't go though... after the Medway test problem the Tory cabinet closed ranks and he held onto his position and this will no doubt happen again.

I do believe questions behind the scenes in Gunwarf need to be asked and much soul searching is needed as to how the service got in such a bad way as well as what can be done to rectify it.The Council have failed to protect one of the most vulnerable sections of our society and now real action needs to be taken to;
a) Make sure it doesn't happen again
b) Improve the situation drastically.

As I say, let us just be thankful that no one appears to have fallen to foul of this godawful mess and it was caught in time. Better this way than with a death on it's hands, better still if the Children's services wasn't in a shambles in the first place though!

My letter to my MP over Medway's failing schools

Dear Mr Chishti
       

         I am writing to you concerning the worrying situation of Medway's primary schools. As fifth worst in the country it is a very concerning state of affairs.

I am not writing this as a Libdem trying to score points or trouble, nor am I here to call for Councillor Wick's head. I am writing as a concerned dad whose little girl will be starting primary school at Woodlands road in the next year or so.

Although Woodlands is a good school and my wife and I have every intention of helpin and augmenting both of our children's education it is still concerning.

As you know education is like a race, if you stumble in the starting blocks you'll be constantly playing catch up. The early years are especially important.

I know that your counterpart in Chatham and Aylesford, Tracey Crouch, is looking to secure a meeting with the council on the matter, I'm just seeking reassurances that you will be doing the same thing. There are a lot of worried residents in Gillingham and Rainham as well as across the Medway towns that, like my wife and I, want the best for our children and do not want to be let down. We would really appreciate it if you could, similarly intervene and help sort this situation out for the benefit of the local children, be they already in the system or, like Sophie, about to enter into it.

Thank you for your time,

Yours faithfully

Chris Sams 

Councillor Jarrett's Waterloo

The Bus station is Jarrett's Waterloo

During last month's preamble and budget Statement Councillor Alan Jarrett, deputy leader of the Conservative group and the portfolio holder for Finance within the council stated that he was lied to about the costs involved in Medway's "Dynamic Water front Bus facility" by Medway Renaissance and that he was unaware, until it was too late, that the Council would have to pour more money into the project to complete it.

This move has been welcomed by some members of the Council who have said that it is about time that officers face the music as well as portfolio holders. The example of Cllr Wicks and the failed "Medway Test" fiasco in which he bore the brunt of the blame even though an equal if not greater share could have been passed down to his lead officer who had a significant part in the organising of the test.

However, for blame one must look to the top. After the fateful day in 1815, who was considered to have lost the Battle of Waterloo? Was it Marshall Ney for squandering the cavalry on a ridiculous charge against Maitland's infantry formations? Was it Marshall Grouchy for failing to march his 30,000 men to the sound of the guns and appearing on Wellington's flank? No... the blame fell squarely upon Napoleon Bonaparte himself and so must it fall upon Councillor Jarrett.

If he was not informed he is to blame for not finding out. He IS the head of finance in the council, should he not have taken a greater look, paid more of an interest in this project?
In fact, some of Medway Renaissance (which conveniently no longer exists) argued that he did know and was kept informed by regular meetings and emails.

I must apologise for this, regular readers will know that I normally site my sources of information but this time I am forced to use an anonymous source and ask my readers to trust me on the reliability of it. I cannot name my source but I trust them implicitly and they have no reason to lie so please - trust me as I trust them.

I have been reliably informed by a source that those on the planning committee  for the Bus station (including Councillor Jarrett) were informed that the glass sections would go from floor to ceiling and that each enclosed passenger area would have automatic doors. They were also told that it was going to go over budget.

Indeed, Brian Weddell former head of Medway Renaissance has argued that Medway Renaissance did a lot of  good work and was monitored by elected members quite closely and indeed;

The Question is, against this background, why would anyone on the Medway Renaissance team lie? It is worth noting that the team was disbanded in March 2011. It seems odd that questions over the building programme have come to light one year later as the accounts should have been settled by the end of the summer 2011.
(sited in the Letters page from Medway Messenger 9-3-12)

This is a very good question. Councillor Jarrett has said that he is considering legal action against the group but it has taken a year for this to come to light - why not when the bus station so spectacularly failed to launch?

Other problems with his recent budget is the claims that they are having to deal with the cuts from central Government that have occurred over the past two years. My question is;

Why has the council not seen this coming? After all we knew in 2009 that there was going to be a financial storm approaching and that money was going to be short. This was confirmed when the Coalition was formed in May 2010 and the "No more Money" note was found.
Surely the time to start making savings and looking at the future was then.

No, Medway Council, like the proverbial cricket failed to put anything away for the winter and carried on spending money hand over fist and have suddenly found themselves without the money to maintain services as they should be. In fact, with poor planning they have cost the Medway tax payer more money with the cockups over photocopiers, Woodlands School rebuild, contested fines over the dubious practises of the CCTV car, the list goes on.

This lack of foresight has cost us, the Medway residents and we should see something for it.

Councillor Jarrett may have done a fantastic job in the past but he has failed spectacularly over the bus station, spending and forecasting and like Napoleon he should be forced to stand down.

Medway to be home of a University Technical College.

I should admit that this is something I don't say very often but... Medway Council have done a good job.

I know, I surprised myself... I had to have a little lie down after I said it!

It seems that plans for a new University Technical College in the Brompton area are set to go through with support from the Baker Dearing trust. It will have 600 places and open to 14-19 year old students with specialities in Engineering and Construction, which makes sense bearing in mind the Engineering pedigree in Brompton.

Whilst offering traditional subjects like Maths, Science etc... and GCSE's the College will also provide proper vocational training in Engineering and Construction with some of the teachers being professionals from industry as well as traditional teachers. Post 16 they can either continue studies or be offered apprenticeship placements to continue their trades! This sort of education would be invaluable to youngsters especially as there is a growing shortage of Plumbers, electricians and Carpenters in the building trade and a tradesman can get quite a good wage.

Further to that the college would not set homework but instead pupils would have to be there 8.30 - 17.00 to simulate working hours and get them ready for actual working times.

Former education minister Lord Baker, who is a strong advocate of this sort of college and who coordinates the Baker-Dearing trust and who puts forward bids to the Ministry of Education, has visited Medway and met Cllr Les Wicks (portfolio holder for education) and said that a UTC in Medway would get "Strong support" for its proposal. This all sounds amazing and at the time of writing I can think of no draw backs to this project. It would give teenagers a trade and skills that will actually get them into a real job at the end of it and useful tools for later life and I think the Council should be fully supported in its endeavour as this is could be a really good thing for the teenagers in our education system and for a better Britain if the scheme catches on.

One of the ways to beat the recession is by construction and industry. Britain was once a global hub of construction of Cars, Aeroplanes and Ships and it could be again but the only way this can be done is with trained and engaged young folk who want to use skills to do so.

On a Local level, Medway is in serious need of regeneration. Everywhere you look the towns show signs of aging, decay and residents cannot afford house repairs as the small amount of sparks, chippies and plumbers can set their own prices as there is little competition.
A fresh infusion of young engineers and apprentices with the Coalition's tax breaks and encouragement for startup businesses will encourage more new businesses and skilled workers and therefore more competition driving prices down and perhaps the people of Medway can improve their homes and the civic facilities.

Another upcoming opportunity is IF Lodge hill and even Boris Island are constructed they're going to need skilled workers and artisans. If there is a large group of locals able to fill that gap and with local construction companies able to bid for contracts it can only mean greater prosperity for the Towns.


University can be a real waste of time and money. You can be better off not going.

There I've said it.

A lot of people will try to lead you to believe that University is the be all and end all of education and that if you go to University you are set for life.

A lot of Vocational degrees like Law, Medicine, Chemistry etc will indeed open doors and can be a building block for the future.

BUT if you're doing an arts degree you can forget it.

I've got a good solid 2.1 History degree and a post graduate in Social history specialising in German Military engagements 1939-45 with specific reference to the Luftwaffe (air force) its' structure, operations etc - For some reason I'm not Dan Snow.

I've work colleagues who have Oxbridge degrees that mean nothing too.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but employers are more picky about who they employ and degree holders are ten a penny and you should be aware that a degree does not guarantee an amazing future. The only thing University guarantees is debt.

Two quick disclaimers though;

1. University was an awesome experience and I had a lot of fun, met some really great people and friends (including my wife). I do think people should go.
2. Also - I know that critics of the Liberal Democrats and Coalition will say that the debt level has gone up because of our policies and I'd say - Yeah, you're right. I'd also point out that had I signed the pledge I would not have broken it and that now debt repayment is ALOT easier thanks to us.

New school would prepare pupils for the workplace, Jenni Horn,  Medway Messenger, 6-1-11

Councillors Wicks & Jarrett must resign


 Throughout History politicians and officials have taken responsibility for failure.

Councillor Jarrett

In 1809, the magistrate of Nagasaki, who had allowed the garrison fall from a thousand to a hundred committed Sepuku after HMS Phaeton shelled the defenceless port and demanded resupply.

Admiral Byngg faced up to his  court martial and execution for failure to relieve Minorca's Garrison from a French Naval assault.

Lord North resigned as Prime Minister after the surrender at Yorktown 1781 which effectively ended the American War of Independence.

However in Medway, it doesn't matter how big your failure is apparently. Councillor Wicks, portfolio holder for Children and Councillor Jarrett, portfolio holder for Finance have dropped pretty large clangers and in my opinion should resign their portfolios...



In the case of Councillor Jarrett, it is one I've addressed before. There are serious questions about the way money is spent by the Council in my post on Woodlands school where the council project went wildly over budget by almost double (though predicted as a 300% increase at the time!).

The New "Dynamic Bus"... I'm not going to re- wade into the whole bus station debate/debacle, that can wait until after I've read tomorrow's Kent Messenger and become incensed.

What I will say is that it cost Medway £7 million and was around £2.5 million over budget which is a 50% mark up.



Traditional Solution to Military failure.



Poor planning surrounds the Bus station, including neglecting to sort a contract with Arriva out so the biggest Bus company in Medway wasn't in fact going to be using the new Bus Station. This left the council to foot the bill for the company to move facilities costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

One of the schemes the Council wanted to bring in, and something that we the Liberal Democrats were right behind, was free bus transport for 11-18 year olds around the Medway towns on "Freedom passes." Medway council have given the kids 1/2 price fare for the week because they were short by £2.5m 's.
One of the criticisms of Government is that it has lost touch with young people and here we  have a measure that would have scored the Council points, maybe have motivated some people to travel & experience stuff being  cast aside because a whole project... No at least two whole projects have been poorly mishandled.

Also worth noting is his role in the Medway tunnel debacle too... Councillor Chambers and Jarrett both sat on the Rochester Bridge Trust when it was sold to Medway council for a solitary £1 and the deals were drawn up. Dodgy enough on its own but when you factor in the whole
"Never is a  long time" quote, when asked about when Tolls would come in and continued vagary around the subject.

For that you must look to the top, the portfolio holder and he, Councillor Jarrett, should think about putting his resignation into the pot. Something isn't being handled right or well by the Portfolio holder for Finance. Now is the time to step down.

Councillor Wicks is also a repeat offender. As the portfolio holder for Children's services he is also responsible for the Woodlands road cock up.

That and the poor planning of primary school mergers and closures in Medway, which, to be fair has been slightly misrepresented. New schools will not be needed in the Ridge Meadow area but in Chatham town centre. Even still it has been predicted that one in six children in Chatham will be without a school within three years! Can new schools be built in this time and be ready, and I mean REALLY ready not Chatham Bus Station ready? Probably not.... Cock up two.

The big news recently is the catalogue of mistakes in the Medway test (11+ exams) that took place at the end of September. Despite promises to parents and MP Rehman Chishti (Rainham and Gillingham) that no child will be disadvantaged parents are concerned about the affects will have.

Now exams are stressful enough without a lack of provisions, at one school only two pieces of fruit were provided per pupil for a whole school day! Delays were caused by poor sign posting, two members of staff trying to check in 200 pupils, in breaks they found not enough toilets were available!

Other problems included problems with an English exam going out without part of the question paper. When a pupil asked what he was supposed to do he was told to open the booklet and read the questions.
"There isn't a booklet..."
A quarter of an hour was then taken to find the missing questions.
One boy was so traumatized that "he looked so pale. He was shaking and sobbing in the car and we couldn't calm him down. By the time [his mother] got him home he literally just fell to the floor."

Now I know that Cllr Wicks was not present, nor was he completely to blame, in fact Rose Collinson, the director of Children's and adult services, shares the blame he is the figure head. To make matters worse it took 13 days for him to issue a statement of apology. He disappeared for this time, presumably to the party Conference in Manchester. This is the worst part of it, at least if he had turned up the Monday after the debacle and led the investigation and personally apologised etc then you could forgive any role in the disaster especially if solutions were found quickly - instead of just disappearing!

These two Councillors are responsible for several quite high profile disasters in recent Medway Political history and they should, as a matter of course, offer their resignations or Councillor Chambers should lead a cross party investigation into the actions of their departments. If this was National Government the Press and public would be beying for blood as they are for Chris Huhne and Liam Fox but as its only a local council many are ignorant of it.

I'm of course not suggesting that Councillors Wicks and Jarrett shouldn't commit Sepuku, it is far to messy, and firing Squads are now illegal in the Uk but resignation is definitely the way.

Then again they don't have too because of a lack of public knowledge, even when it comes to the next local election they both sit in relatively safe seats, (Jarrett in Lordswood) and Wicks in the Tory stronghold of Rainham! It us up to opposition parties like the Liberal Democrats and Labour to remind the voters in 2015 and try and remove them if they will not remove themselves.