Harrow Council chief executive Michael Lockwood has been confirmed as the first director general of the new Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Major reforms to the IPCC – including its renaming as the IOPC – were announced by Prime Minister Theresa May during her time as Home Secretary.
The IOPC will have new powers, helping it to become more effective and more decisive in addressing public concerns, including to initiate its own investigations without relying on a force to record and refer a particular case for investigation, and to determine appeals and recommend remedies.
Michael Lockwood’s crown appointment means he will be the single executive head of the organisation when the IPCC officially becomes the IOPC in January 2018, replacing the current commission.
He will ultimately bear responsibility for all decisions made in the IOPC’s investigations and appeals, including the investigation of the most serious and sensitive allegations involving the police.
Michael Lockwood said, “It’s an honour to be appointed as the first director general for the IOPC.
“This is an important time for the organisation, as the IPCC transitions to the IOPC. I look forward to working with the dedicated staff there as we reshape the organisation to ensure the police disciplinary and complaints system is as effective and as clear as possible.”
We wish Mr Lockwood well and trust that the new police watchdog under his leadership would gain the confidence of all communities.
If internally appointed, council corporate director Tom Whiting could be appointed as new chief executive of the council when Mr Lockwood moves on.

The public outcry about the serious crimes in Harrow, including fatal knife crimes, more is certain parts of the borough, reflects badly on the effectiveness of the Harrow council and police in addressing the crimes.
According to the police figures, there were 177 knife crimes in Harrow in 2016. Street-level crimes and anti-social behaviour in August 2017 from the Home Office included 86 violent crimes. London mayor takes knife crime in Harrow ‘extremely seriously’.
A damning crime-specific  petition (see below)* signed by 256 residents was presented by a representative of a group of business owners and residents of Northolt Road, South Harrow at the council meeting last September.
It is not the Harrow’s position on the league table of crimes in London or the publicity that ‘Harrow is one of the safest borough’ or the routine political statements  but it is the nature and frequency of the serious crimes like (1), (2) which impact the fear of crime.
Many believe that a lack of visible police officers and there being nowhere for young people to go in Harrow are reasons for a rise in violent crime in the borough.
Sad that the arrangements which helpfully held the local police to account in Harrow on matters such as the deployment of the police officers and crime prevention, deteriorated and were eventually replaced by talk-shop structures under the previous London mayor watch.
On the question of the failure to positively engage young people through meaningful activities, the Harrow council has a lot to answer, like the appropriateness of its youth services and the missed opportunities to engage youth.
For example, we reported that the £400k Controlling Migration Fund to Harrow, has been unwisely used on teaching English language rather than on dealing with increased anti-social behaviour that includes random flytipping, stabbings and trafficking.

*
”We as a group of business owners and residents on Northolt Road in South Harrow, want to express our anger, our frustration and dismay as we are struggling to run our business, protect our customers and ensure our safety, throughout the daytime in business hours and the night.
Drug dealers and gangs regularly come round and openly sell drugs and get involved in fights. This has terrorised the regular customers, local residents and ourselves. Urinating, vandalising cars and creating fear all round.
We have called the police, local Council and even invited the local MP to witness all these atrocities, happening in broad daylight. As such we have only seen in war-torn countries on television.
We have provided solid evidence of this shocking atrocity to the authorities and we haven’t seen any change to the situation. As a civil group of business owners who pay the business tax, we want to get along with our daily business and thrive, in safety. Provided by the services we pay for.
Normality has to return and we want our customers and local residents to be able to go about their daily lives unhindered.”

 

In the hate crime awareness week running till 21st October, Harrow council news release informs, “Joint partnership and work between the council, schools, youth groups, police, community leaders and the voluntary sector has helped build the strong community relations we have today”.
But nationally the number of hate crimes in England and Wales has increased by 29%, according to Home Office statistics.
There were 80,393 recorded offences in 2016-17, compared with 62,518 in 2015-16, the largest increase since the Home Office began recording figures, with a spike in hate crime around the time of the EU referendum. Race hate crime rose to 62,685 (78%) in 2016-17.
This ongoing crime situation is mostly because the focus is on dealing with the crime rather than addressing why things are as they are.
Also, in profiling hate crimes, the authorities, including in Harrow, call for more hate crimes to be reported but many are not reported due to low confidence of the victims or potential victims because of the lack of any positive outcomes in most cases. For example, only 39 per cent of British Jews feel confident that antisemitic hate crimes against them would be prosecuted, 52 per cent believe that the CPS is doing too little to fight anti-Semitism.
Statistical evidence indicates, that only few reported hate crimes are taken up by the Crown Prosecution Service because of the lack of clear and substantial evidence. These crimes are difficult to prosecute because of the high burden prosecutors face when proving that the defendant’s bias indeed motivated the crime.
What happens in macro must happen in micro!
It is very concerning that public money is being wasted in superficially acknowledging  the hate crimes without really addressing these: for example by dealing with the upsurge of far right extremism, far right media and politicians which cause  random race/ religion hate crimes, especially since the Tory racist overtone at the last London mayor election and EU referendum scaremongering by others.

Harrow GP surgeries to offer high quality services which meet users demands, manage expectations and be responsive to meet the needs of the different communities in Harrow, finds the Healthwatch Harrow, commissioned by the Harrow council ‘to gain an understanding of patients and service users experience of GP services within the borough’.
Healthwatch research report recommends that surgeries address patients’ frustrations as many lack awareness of the health care services or how to access these or how to complain about their GP.
What we know and understand reinforces the research findings in many ways.
Adding to what the research has found, there is the performance related tick-box culture more to meet the inspection criteria for favourable CQC findings in a competitive health market.
In some cases, the management of a practice requires improvement (a failing category) because of the implications of the senior partner(s) running more than one practices or preoccupied with securing more resources. Their infrequent presence at the practice results in the lack of managerial direction and supervision which gives rise to the issues linked to what the research has found ‘busy phone lines, poor communication and the attitude of some surgery staff’. In such practices, it is not really possible for patients to seek second opinion from the senior partner(s) who remotely manage the surgery and whose availability at the surgery is not even known.
Despite the CQC guidelines, many practices in Harrow still lack public display of basic information such as the CQC inspection judgement or the improvement action plan or how to complain about the GP practice’s care and service or to gain access to other useful information and services.
Where some information is available, it is not easy for all the population groups to access it. For example, considering the patient age groups and their varied computer literacy levels, it is unlikely for many to access electronic information or write reviews on the surgery website to alert about weaknesses in running the surgeries.
It is unbelievable that when such a valuable research report was presented to the Harrow council’s Health and Social Care Scrutiny Sub-Committee on 3 July 2017, it was simply ‘noted’!! Would the council tell the total cost of the research?
We also note that the NHS England, Care Quality Commission and Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group are struggling to seek improvements in GP practices, especially as some in Harrow are growing into mini hospitals with active search for resources and diminishing personal touch with the patients.
We find the Harrow Healthwatch report helpful but what is more important is how the commissioning and monitoring authorities build on these pointers and rigorously monitor GP services and effectively work towards improving health care and services for Harrow residents.

Camrose primary school in Edgware has received award for excellence in teaching assistants from the education consultancy Optimus Education, a part of the commercial education services provider Prospects.
In awarding for the best practice with teacher assistants (TA), Optimus Director of Education Andrew Thraves said: “During my visit, I was very struck with the thoughtful approach the school was taking to helping TAs be as effective as possible.”
Camrose headteacher Sharon Crick said: “This award reflects the commitment we, as a school have, in ensuring all members of the Camrose team are skilled and effective in their roles.”
The school has almost as many TAs as teachers and have multiple duties, including in lesson/ outside lesson academic support, pastoral support and running school clubs, explains Mrs T Chapman, deputy headteacher.
The school was last inspected in 2013 and was graded as good by Ofsted. The inspectors described  the school as an average-sized primary school where the large majority of the pupils come from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds – largest group of White heritage but not White British and pupils of Asian heritage formed the second largest group.
The school’s expected combined standards in reading, writing and mathematics in 2017 are 52.5% compared with 61% national.
Considering the school characteristics, performance and the support it could do with, it can only be good that the school enables and deploys the teaching assistants so effectively.
All this sits well with the school’s very balanced approach to its work and the context within which it operates: for example, regarding the highly controversial Prevent Duty, enforced on schools in 2015, the school states:
“At Camrose, we recognise that safeguarding and creating a safeguarding culture is the responsibility of everyone who works here. As a school we recognise that safeguarding against radicalisation is no different from safeguarding against any other vulnerability.”

Councillor Paul Osborn, newly elected leader of the opposition Tory group on the council, has sensibly appointed shadow portfolio holders.

One big change is that Cllr Hall, highly controversial previous leader of the Tory group who stepped down following our call ‘Time for Cllr Hall to step down’, is not even a shadow portfolio holder. Cllr Hall held the Environment/ shadow environment portfolios since 2006.
Another mature move is to give Cllr Hall’s previously held Environment portfolio to Cllr Ashton, who has been a candidate at the Tory group leadership elections and was kept away from the shadow positions under Cllr Hall’s leadership, for personal reasons.

The avoidable Grenfell disaster has alerted how easy it is for the authorities to become less connected with all those they should be caring and supporting.
Harrow council’s Community Safety, Violence Vulnerability and Exploitation Strategy 2017–2020 highlights a number of socio-cultural problems to deal with without sharply focusing on why things are as they are, so that the issues could be really addressed with inbuilt measurable success criteria.
The main opposition group on the council (Con) could suggest only some superficial amendments, again in dealing with the effects rather than addressing the cause.
Harrow has a population of 247,130 people with significant pockets of deprivation mainly around the centre, the south and east of the borough, and least deprived areas being in the north and west of the borough.
The government austerity measures have hardened the deprivation in the wards like Roxbourne, Greenhill, Marlborough and Wealdstone which also has the highest level of employment and income deprivations in the borough.
According to the 2015 Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), 12,083 Harrow residents are experiencing employment and 30,733 income deprivations, including those who would like to work but are unable to do so due to unemployment.
Unemployment figures are highest in Greenhill, Wealdstone and Roxbourne wards mostly in the areas with higher levels of social housing.
Within Harrow, the highest proportions of the population without qualifications or with low level qualifications are in Kenton East, Edgware, Roxbourne and Roxeth.
In terms of child poverty, 17% children are living in poverty in Harrow before housing costs, and this rises to 27% after housing costs. By the time they reach GCSE-age, there is a 28% gap between children receiving free school meals (FSM) and non FSM in terms of the number achieving at least 5 A*-C GCSE grades – narrowing the gap has remained a long standing challenge for the council.
There has been an upward trend in incidents of Anti-Social Behaviour since summer 2016 with Harrow recording an 8.2% increase compared to the previous 12 month period, which currently ranks Harrow at 27th out of 33 boroughs within London. Locations in the borough that have seen a considerable rise include Queensbury, Stanmore Park and Belmont but more so around the Harrow Town Centre (99 so far this year).
There is an increase in the number of victims of knife crime within the borough and young people convicted of weapons offences has also risen.  In 2016/17, 36 young people were convicted of possession of an offensive weapon, compared to 28 young people in the previous year.
Knife crime incidents in young people have increased by 29%, from 281 offences in April 2015 to 362 incidents between April 2016 to March 2017.
The upward trend of knife related incidents in the borough also gives rise to increased level of the fear of the knife crimes.
Harrow stabbing: Residents says ‘police cuts’ and ‘lack of things to do’ to blame for rise in violent crime
It would be interesting to see how the Grenfell experience helps in addressing a ‘two kingdoms’ situation in Harrow!

Contrary to the local Labour wishes, Labour National Executive Committee has declared Harrow East, one of the 46 marginal target parliamentary seats, as an all-women shortlist seat, practically eliminating a strong local contender like the London Assembly member Navin Shah to stand against the sitting MP Mr Blackman.
Mr Shah who impressively slashed Bob Blackman majority from 4,757 in 2015 to 1,757 at the last general election, had only few weeks to campaign with limited party support  as the bulk of Labour resources were invested in the other constituency, Harrow West.
The Labour tried the same elimination process in Harrow East before and their female candidate badly lost against Bob Blackman at the 2015 general election, giving rise to the rumours that someone is giving a helping hand to Mr Blackman by implications.
Mr Shah poses significant challenge to Mr Blackman like he previously  defeated Mr Blackman at the London Assembly election.
There is also serious criticism that why the Labour do not use safe seats to achieve the party’s goal of at least fifty percent of its MPs being female.
Labour’s candidate selection is likely to begin after their Conference on Sunday. Unlike recent selections in which shortlists were decided by an NEC-appointed panel, now local members will control the process.
One local candidate talked about is the Queensbury ward councillor Kiran Ramchandani (photo) who could fit Harrow East mould well  because of her backing for certain communities, matching Mr Blackman’s divisive strategy for votes!

Further to our report ‘New waste disposal plans’ in July,  the Harrow council has decided that all Harrow residents be required to produce proof of identification that they lived in the borough in order to dispose of household waste free of charge.
The ID to be presented on entry could be a Council Tax Bill, a Bank Statement, an Electric, Gas or Water Bill or a Driving licence.
‘There would be enough staff at the site to minimise any inconvenience or delays that the identification procedures could cause’ said a council staff.
Other changes from 13 November include a charge of £20 to non-residents using the Harrow Re-use and Recycling Centre (HRRC) at the Forward Drive per visit.
Harrow residents will be prevented from disposing of non-household waste free of charge, including building waste resulting from construction or demolition works and home renovation works.
The Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems (ANPR) will be used at the site to help control and restrict unauthorised usage.
Regarding no free of charge disposal of the waste from the home renovation works that has serious implications for the residents who carry out DIY activities, we were assured that the HRRC staff would be able to recognise which waste is coming from a builder or resident and helpfully deal with individual situations.
The council says that these measures are to reduce the number of vehicles visiting the site and traffic congestion as well as significantly reducing the amount of residual tonnage disposed of at the site and further reduce the amount of trade and business waste that is deposited at the site.

Harrow East Tony MP Bob Blackman (photo) often uses Hive situations to stir up community emotions – particularly in the significantly Asian populated Edgware and Queensbury wards – for political gains.
This time, he raised superficial concerns about Hive and accused Harrow council for inaction at the Commons on 7 September, claiming breaches of the planning permission, negative impact of professional football played at the stadium and the sale of the site to ‘private companies’ – ‘Harrow council sold the site to Football First Ltd for about £2 million in March 2017’, Mr Blackman informed.
Hive at Camrose Ave, Edgware Harrow is a community facility offering both artificial and natural grass football pitches for hire at competitive rates. Barnet FC is the main user of the stadium and plays its professional games since it left Underhill in Barnet in 2013.
Harrow council in its brief in August 2013 pointed out, “The site benefits from planning permission which was implemented in 2008 (Tory administration). The use of the site for sports purposes is consistent with the Local Plan and the planning permission. The use of sports pitches (including the first team pitch in the stadium) is accordingly lawful.”
In responding to Mr Blackman’s concerns, Tory MP Marcus Jones Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State said, “As I understand it, the current home of Barnet Football Club, the Hive, has abided by all the conditions that the English Football League required of them,”
“The English Football League ratified Barnet’s move to the new home at the Hive, and I understand that the team continues to abide by the conditions required by the Football League” he added.
On planning matters, Mr Jones rebuked Mr Blackman, reminding him that any local opposition or support “will not necessarily result in the local planning authority refusing or granting planning permission; rather the decision maker will determine what weight to give to any material considerations.”
Regarding the disposal of public assets, Mr Jones explained that the Local Government Act 1972 gives councils the power to dispose of land “in any manner they wish, including by selling their freehold interest, granting a lease or assigning any unexpired term on a lease and granting easements.”
Mr Blackman sought confirmation that the Secretary of State has not given approval for the sale of this asset (Hive) outside the general rules that apply to the sale of public assets.
“I asked my officials whether any application was made to the Secretary of State in this case and I was informed this afternoon that no such application was made” the Under-Secretary of State replied.