Children and Families in Brent

Children and Families are the largest single section of the Brent Council budget , and our manifesto promises that:

A Labour Council will: -

· Increase the number of school places to meet the increasing demand and modernise our schools, using Building Schools for the Future and Primary Capital and Modernisation funds.
· Carry out an audit of schools to identify capacity and review geographical and faith schools demand. We regret the unnecessary delay by the current administration over building the new ARK School, which has caused numerous families needless anxiety.
· Build the planned new primary school in south Kilburn and a new secondary school in the south of the Borough.
· Tackle the under-performance in schools and ensure that every child regardless of socio-economic background is able to achieve his or her full potential. We will encourage homework clubs, study centres and mentoring projects.
· Ensure every child is prepared for school by providing language support and help for pupils who have fled from civil disorder
· Ensure every school has an effective anti-bullying policy countering all forms of prejudice
· Improve the quality of careers information and guidance for every Brent child and their parents to make curriculum choices for 14 – 16 year olds, making sure they have access to academic and skills programmes best suited to prepare them for further and higher education, training and jobs.
· Protect Surestart and increase family access to all 21 children’s centres for health, early learning and other services.
· Ensure that two and three year olds benefit from the free nursery education now on offer.
· Continue to follow best guidance on safeguarding children, including adequate resourcing, better community links and family intervention programmes where needed. We will promote cross party responsibility and consensus in Brent, especially for Child Protection and for corporate parenting of Looked after Children, an initiative we have started.
· Conduct an audit of facilities and projects for children and young people and we will make sure that every neighbourhood has safe places to play and adequate recreation and sports opportunities which are fully publicised. We will listen to young people and voluntary groups about the quality of activities and make improvements as appropriate
· Improve the accountability of schools for their budgets to safeguard against abuses. This is likely to include closer inspection by local authority officers and more transparent publication of the details of school budgets and the relationships of decision makers
· Ensure that schools offer a range of cultural activities, such as theatre visits, residential trips and places of worship showcasing different cultural traditions, which postcode disadvantaged children can get free, using the additional government pupil fund.
· Bid for a Free School Meal pilot, which the government is rolling out, to ensure that every child has a quality healthy daily meal, reducing obesity and helping concentration and learning.