Harrow Conservative administration largely shows disregard for some people, so it looks!

Harrow Council’s Conservative administration is facing mounting outrage after yet another wave of damning rulings from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO), the courts, and regulators.
Critics say the council has shown a long-standing disregard for some of its most vulnerable residents – from disabled children and adults to struggling families in unsuitable housing.
The failures are not new. Since at least the mid-2000s, Harrow’s Conservative administration has been repeatedly found guilty of maladministration, unlawful decision-making, and outright neglect of duty. High-profile cases included unlawful cuts to adult care services in 2007 and compensation orders over botched school mergers in 2009.
Fast-forward to today, and the pattern has only worsened.
In August 2025, the LGO found Harrow Council had forced a registered blind man and his family to endure avoidable years in unsuitable housing, awarding them over £6,000 in compensation.
In July 2025, the Ombudsman ruled the council failed to follow procedure over a disabled child’s respite care, despite repeated reminders.
In April 2025, Ofsted rated the council’s children’s services “inadequate,” prompting the Department for Education to slap Harrow with an official improvement notice.
In June 2023, Harrow Council was compelled by a court to provide suitable housing for a family with a severely disabled child who had been in unsuitable temporary accommodation for almost a year.
Between 2023 and 2024, case after case revealed missed special educational needs provision, delays to legally required education plans, botched care assessments, and unsafe housing conditions, including 3,500 uninspected homes with outstanding electrical safety risks.
The administration that gives a sense of being more on the right has often responded defensively, portraying its governance as part of a broader ‘reassurance that Harrow belongs in Britain’ – but residents say this rhetoric masks systemic neglect and calculated disregard for those without political power.
Local campaigners argue the council’s priorities are clear: political messaging first, people last. Vulnerable residents are left waiting months, even years, for the services and support they are legally entitled to. Families are routinely offered token compensation while systemic failures go unaddressed.
As one critic put it, ‘What happens in macro, happens in micro’ – Harrow council Conservative administration reflects its party that seems more interested in political positioning nearing Reform UK than in caring for ordinary people.
With watchdogs continuing to expose failure after failure, pressure is growing for accountability. But so far, Harrow’s Conservative administration appears more concerned with damage control than genuine reform.

 “Palestinian statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people” – a Harrow MP

“As a longstanding supporter of a Palestinian state, I believe that Palestinian statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people”, states Gareth Thomas, MP for the Harrow West, the less divisive part of what feels like Harrow’s two political kingdoms.
“I welcome that the UK is on a pathway to recognise the State of Palestine in September, unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agrees to a ceasefire, and commits to a long-term, sustainable peace, including allowing the UN to restart the supply of aid and making clear there will be no annexations in the West Bank”, he said.
He writes that like so many people in Harrow, he is “deeply horrified by the near-daily reports of Israeli attacks on civilians – including women and children – attempting to access food, water, and healthcare. I utterly condemn the killing of civilians trying to meet their most basic needs”.
He supports additional UK measures to alleviate the humanitarian situation, including air drops of humanitarian supplies alongside Jordan, and evacuating children from Gaza and into British hospitals.
Regarding the permanent forced displacement, Mr Thomas said it “violates international humanitarian law and must never be permitted”.
“Proposals to force the entire population of Gaza into Rafah, effectively imprisoning them, represent a cruel and unacceptable vision. I condemn these plans unequivocally”.
He also supports sanctions “against violent settlers, the suspension of trade negotiations with the Israeli Government, and the sanctioning of far-right Israeli ministers who have incited violence”.
He concluded: “The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. I will continue to support efforts to work with our international partners to address the catastrophic situation in Gaza, for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, for the immediate release of hostages, and for a surge of aid to Gazans in desperate need”.

Hall ‘doesn’t understand crime & policing in the UK’!

Badly defeated at the last London mayor election, Harrow Tory councillor, also a Tory-placed member at the London Assembly, Cllr Hall politicises the closure of some police front desks in London.
After a plenary meeting in City Hall that discussed the closure of police front counters, she aired, “Sadiq Khan makes these decisions, but he will not come and answer questions for us. Sadiq Khan is a disgrace. Sadiq Khan is a disgrace”  her typical hateful line, and from the Reform UK, of course.
While face to face reporting of crime to the police is ideal, pinning the closure of some front counters on Sir Sadiq Khan obviously confirms Cllr Hall’s long personal campaign against the third time London mayor.
A powerful YouTube channel, Maximilien Robespierre* analytically explains that Cllr Hall has a little knowledge of crime and policing in the UK (this also became obvious during her nasty London Mayor campaign that was apparently like ‘striping down a car engine’, her teenage training).
They point out that as the Metropolitan Police in London face a £260 million shortfall, they’re looking for ways to save money, and one way is to close front counters, with a potential saving of about £7m.
“Why would they do such a thing, because isn’t it really important to have these front counters open? Yes, but only 5% of crimes reported in Britain are now actually reported at these counters. The rest are by phone or by online platforms. Therefore, it doesn’t make economic sense for the Met to hope to keep a lot of these front counters open”.
Was it not the tightness of the budget that 65 police stations along with 10 fire stations were closed when Boris Johnson was the mayor?
About the mayor’s attendance to the meeting, Sir Sadiq Khan has a lot of duties and don’t have to attend every meeting, they explain.
Regarding the rise of certain crimes in London, it’s important that we look at the causes of those crimes; in many cases, it’s related to poverty – so this is not something that the Mayor can fix or has very little power over fixing, argues the channel.
“But the Conservatives are just looking for anything they can latch on to this and say, it’s Sadiq Khan’s fault, and Sadiq Khan needs to go” they said.
* Maximilien Robespierre

Under improvement notice “inadequate” Harrow children’s services, and cabinet ‘failure’ to address key issues

Harrow council opposition (Labour) is seriously “disappointed and concerned” with the council administration’s failure to address key issues, leading to Children’s Services being downgraded to “inadequate” by Ofsted this year.
Councillor David Perry at a recent Harrow Council’s Cabinet meeting questioned both Cllr Hitesh Karia, responsible for children’s services, and the leader of the council, Cllr Paul Osborn, on their administration’s role in the downgrading, which led to an improvement notice being issued to the council by the Department for Education in a rare and serious intervention.
Cllr Perry focused on a “service redesign and restructure” in 2023 that stripped vital resources and staff members out of the department as a potential cause of the downgrade and expressed concerns that a similar service redesign outlined in July’s cabinet report would lead to “another drop in performance.”
Harrow Council proposed a £1.5m cut to the department in February 2023, but the exact amount of cut has not been disclosed.
Cllr Karia stated that he “stands by” the decisions made by that Conservative-run administration in 2023 to redesign the department, despite the ensuing “Inadequate” rating.
Cllr Perry remains concerned the lessons that led to this failure of Harrow’s children and young people, particularly care leavers, have not been learned.
“For the Portfolio Holder to claim that he ‘stands by’ the decision to implement a service redesign that, in my opinion, directly led to this inadequate rating, indicates that they have failed to learn from their mistakes”.
He questioned the commitment of the council administration to address resident concerns over this downgrading when it stands by service adjustments which he believes to have directly contributed to this “inadequate” rating.
Cllr Karia who is very handsomely paid but fails to understand the seriousness of the council being under improvement notice and that the children’s services need sustainable improvements and resources, should resign from the post.

Headstone Manor Park, a winner!

Headstone Manor Park, along with seven other Harrow parks, is on the Green Flag Award winners list for 2025.
A total of 2,250 parks and green spaces across the UK have reached the high standards required to receive a coveted Green Flag Award in 2025 – more than ever recorded before.
For example, in the inner-city London, 39 parks have been awarded in Hackney, 28 in Southwark,  24 in Lambeth, 23 in Ealing  and 14 Tower Hamlets.
Headstone Manor Park feels more like a public park because this recent development has been imaginatively designed to sit well within the local social context.

(play – click Settings at bottom right – Quality – 1080HD for more enjoyable viewing)

Harrow council administration playing down “inadequate” children’s services

Very serious matter that the Secretary of State has appointed an Adviser to provide advice to the Harrow Council, where the Council will work with the Adviser until some such time that the Secretary of State is satisfied that this is no longer required.
Normally, the appointment of the Improvement Adviser is when the ability to improve is less sure.
The Department for Education has issued the Improvement Notice to the Harrow council, following the Harrow’s children’s services being overall judged to be inadequate by Ofsted early this year.
It is of further concern how the council administration is trying to water down the gravity of the “inadequate” ruling in their reports to the councillors, public and media as well as a sloppy script for the portfolio-holder Cllr Hitesh Karia who should have resigned by now.
It is not a five minutes fix, drawing a rapid ‘action plan’ for the ‘inadequacy’ and propagating that the Ofsted judgement was only about the ‘standalone’ care for the Leavers.
The plan needs a wider ownership and the children’s services require a long-term process to improve its culture and ethos, the apparent inadequacy of which resulted in the inadequate care for the Leavers in the first place.
Well embedded procedures and practices are needed to sustain the required changes in the organisation and practice of the service, seemingly the undercurrent of the Ofsted report and the reason for the DfE Improvement Notice.
Care and concern for the vulnerable has not been a strength of the Harrow council Conservative administrations, which now gives a sense of being on the right.
In 2007, re adult care services to those with “critical” needs, the High Court ruled the council decision was unlawful because the council had not fully considered the need to eliminate discrimination against disabled people and promote equality of opportunity between disabled people and others.
In 2024, inadequate judgement on Adult Social Care.  
Given that the Harrow Council spends a significant portion of its budget, two-thirds (66%) or £135 million out of £203 million, on supporting vulnerable, including children, but still needs an Improvement Adviser to put things right, there is a big question about the value for public money.
Shadow Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services & Education, Cllr Stephen Hickman, said of the downgrading:
“After many years of “Good” ratings under Labour administrations, the recent inspections show that our public services are not in safe hands under the Conservatives.
Due to their failure to support care leavers, the Conservative-run Council have been handed an improvement notice by the Department for Education, calling for them to ensure the ‘ongoing corporate, political and financial prioritisation of children’s services.’ Over the next twelve months, I and Harrow Labour will be scrutinising their progress on this closely.”

Physician Associate role redefined: shouldn’t diagnose patients – implications for Harrow

An independent review by Prof Gillian Leng says that the Physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs), who assist doctors in GP surgeries and hospitals, should be known as “assistants” to avoid confusing patients.
Physician associates and anaesthesia associates (AAs) were introduced into the NHS in the early 2000s to ease doctors’ workload (but the PAs were more widely deployed by some).
As their numbers grew, concerns were raised about the safety of the roles, the lack of clarity around their responsibilities and the impact they had on junior medics’ work and training.
The British Medical Association has said PAs and AAs were being asked to do tasks they were not meant to do, and the lines with doctors were getting blurred.
The review recommends physician associates should be renamed “physician assistants” to reflect their supportive role in medical teams, not see new patients in primary or emergency care or make a diagnosis and should have at least two years’ hospital experience before working in a GP surgery or mental health trust.
‘Physician Associates’ in Harrow work in various healthcare settings, including many general practices and hospitals, supporting doctors in providing patient care. They can be found at locations like Belmont Health Centre and within the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust.
‘Physician Associates’ are in much demand in Harrow and the vacancies have been advertised, for example, (in January 2025) by Health Alliance Primary care network (a group of 7 GP Practices) to recruit experienced or newly qualified Physician Associate.