British National Party Public Services News Bulletin w/c August 20th, 2007
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1. ETHNIC MINORITY FIRMS CHALLENGE STRAW
IN HIGH COURT OVER LEGAL AID

Many of those legal firms affected by this reform scrounge taxpayers’ money by offering their services to illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2121707,00.html

Jack Straw will face his first court challenge as lord chancellor next week when the Law Society, the Commission for Racial Equality and ethnic minority lawyers go to the high court to try to halt the government's controversial shake-up of legal aid. They argue that the changes, due to be phased in over the next two years, could force ethnic minority-owned law firms out of business and threaten access to justice for the communities they serve. The reforms, to a blueprint drawn up by government troubleshooter Lord Carter of Coles, aim to restrict the right to provide legal aid services to a smaller number of bigger firms. The government expects the model to be more efficient and produce savings for the public purse. But the judicial review application to be heard next week could force Mr Straw to put the reforms on hold while a full race impact assessment is carried out to find out if the changes discriminate against ethnic minority law firms and their clients. Legal aid lawyers vehemently oppose the reforms, which will initially replace hourly charges with fixed fees - producing, they say, at least a 10% reduction on already low pay rates - before moving to a system of price-competitive tendering by firms for the work. Their case has been boosted by an independent report by Otterburn Legal Consulting - commissioned by the Legal Services Commission (LSC), which administers legal aid - which warned of the "highly fragile" financial position of many legal aid defence firms and urged the commission to delay the fee cuts. The high court challenge, brought by the Black Solicitors' Network and the Society of Asian Lawyers, alleges that the government and the LSC failed to carry out an adequate racial impact assessment of the reforms as a whole. The two organisations are backed by the Commission for Racial Equality and the Law Society. A second case, mounted by the Law Society, argues that one part of the new legal aid package - the establishment of panels of lawyers to handle "very high cost cases", including drugs, terrorism and fraud cases in the crown courts - risks discriminating against ethnic minority firms, which tend to be smaller. That case was due to be heard next week as well but has now been put on hold pending the outcome of the first challenge. Sailesh Mehta of the Society of Asian Lawyers said: "In cities like London a staggeringly high percentage, something like 44%, of small firms that do criminal legal aid work are black and ethnic minority-controlled. "Therefore the effect of getting rid of the smaller firms will be to get rid of the vast majority of black and ethnic minority-controlled firms doing criminal legal aid work. The very large firms are almost exclusively white Anglo-Saxon-controlled. "Our concern is that if the smaller firms that tend to be dotted fairly widely apart and tend to be a support to and supported by black and ethnic minority communities go, then these communities' access to justice is affected." A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "It would be inappropriate to comment at this time."

2. REPORT SAYS SURE START IS FAILING ETHNIC MINORITIES

There are a lot of deprived native Britons but there is no plan to help them.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/story/0,,2122713,00.html

The government's Sure Start programme has proved a "very serious policy failure" and a "substantial wasted opportunity" for deprived black and ethnic minority families, according to a report out today. The study, Sure Start and Black and Minority Ethnic Populations, is part of a government evaluation. It identifies "serious failings" in the way local Sure Start programmes work with minority groups. The time needed to create links with some minority communities had made some Sure Start groups give up trying, according to the evaluation, led by Gary Craig, professor of social justice at the University of Hull. Opportunities to use Sure Start, which provides one-stop services for children under six and their families in deprived communities, as a means of promoting social cohesion at a time of increased local tension between differing ethnic groups have been wasted, the study concludes. The report, based on a two-year study, is the latest in a series of evaluations to criticise the programme. It is Labour's most expensive investment in social policy and currently undergoing a big expansion. Last December, a report by the National Audit Office found fewer than a third of Sure Start children's centres were reaching out to the neediest families they were intended to target, with most failing to identify the most disadvantaged families in their area and offer them support. In September 2005, the first major evaluation of the £3bn programme conducted by researchers at Birkbeck College found no overall improvement in areas targeted by the initiative. The government has defended the scheme overall pointing out that many of its benefits are long-term, and extending it from deprived areas to a planned 3,500 Sure Start children's centres across the country. Today's report highlights problems including a failure of local Sure Start programmes to take on board national guidance for working with minorities, and the fact that evaluations have not properly examined how the scheme works with ethnic minority families. The national evaluation team at Birkbeck used over-general ethnic categories - white, black and Asian - which did not allow for examination of the differing experiences of the many minority groups in Sure Start areas, says the study. It adds: "Most Sure Start local programmes failed to develop a sustained and strategic approach to working with ethnic minorities. Good practice existed in some projects but it tended to be isolated examples and this experience was not widely shared thoughout the programme." The programme has no particular targeting on the needs of the most deprived children, such as those of travellers or of Bangladeshi or refugee groups. Professor Craig said: "Given what we know about the very high levels of deprivation among the children of some minority families, and with the government's emphasis on the need to strengthen links between members of differing ethnic groups at local level, the Sure Start programme represents a substantial wasted opportunity, and a very serious policy and practice failure. "The good work of a relatively few local programmmes should not obscure the fact that the dimension of ethnicity has largely been missing from national government guidance, from the work of national and local evaluations and the work of most local programmes." The children's minister, Beverley Hughes, defended the programme. "These studies show the benefits for children and families of having different agencies working together under one roof. Parents also value having a safe and comfortable environment where they can meet other parents and their children can benefit from opportunities to play and socialise." But she added: "There is still more we need to do - especially in terms of using effective outreach to engage with the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children and that is why we have introduced a new requirement for every centre to run a home visiting and outreach programme for the parents of all new babies."

3. YOUNG-OFFENDER STATISTICS TO BE REVISED AS CRIME RATE WORSENS

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=1083232007

The SNP government announced yesterday that it was changing the way it collates information on young criminals - just as new figures showed the number of persistent young offenders was going up. Fergus Ewing, the minister for community safety, said he was asking officials to replace the current statistics with more accurate and responsive information on young offenders. But Mr Ewing was accused of being "soft on crime" by Labour, which claimed the minister was reducing the Executive's targets, not reducing crime. The previous Lib-Lab Executive set a target in 2002 of reducing persistent young offenders by 10 per cent by March 2006 and by another 10 per cent by March 2008. The 2006 target was missed and yesterday's rise, up 3 per cent on 2005-6 to 1,429, showed that the 2008 target was unlikely to be met either.

4. ACT NOW TO AVERT SHELTERED HOUSING CRISIS

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/11/nold111.xml

Up to 1.5 million elderly people could be homeless by 2020 if the Government fails to address the UK's housing shortage, a sheltered housing group said yesterday. Essential Role of Sheltered Housing (ERoSH) said the Government needed urgently to address the shortage of suitable properties for older people. It said the number of people over retirement age in Britain would rise to around 22 million by 2020, potentially creating a huge housing deficit. It added that research had found that two thirds of people said they would choose sheltered housing over any other form of housing when they were older because of the security, support and independence it offered. More than 750,000 people currently live in sheltered housing. Despite assumptions that people will stay in their own homes as they age, ERoSH warned that the figure was likely to rise. The group is launching a campaign - "I lead a sheltered life" - to raise awareness of the role of sheltered housing and highlight the need for suitable accommodation for future generations of elderly people. Michele Hollywood, the group's chairman, said: ""We will shortly have more people aged over 55 than under 16 and the current housing levels are not sustainable for the future. Unless the need for more appropriate housing is addressed promptly, older people will most certainly suffer the consequences."

5. BROWN GETS POLITICAL WITH CIVIL SERVICE

http://www.sundayexpress.co.uk/posts/view/12792/Brown-gets-political-with-civil-service

Gordon Brown’s pledge to bring back trust in politics was exposed as a sham last night after his new Ministerial Code left civil ­servants more politicised than ever before. It lifts the ban on civil servants from attending party political events for the first time. Now impartial civil servants will be able to attend Labour’s party conference this autumn to advise and support Mr Brown and other Cabinet ministers. He has also virtually written the Queen out of the new code, removing all but one reference to the head of state in the document. Outrageously he has scrapped the obligation for ministers to consult the Queen before making official visits abroad. A phrase telling them it is “discourteous to The Queen” not to attend Privy Council has also been deleted. The changes prompted claims that Mr Brown, along with Justice Secretary Jack Straw, has a secret republican agenda. The new code, the bible of conduct for all Government ministers, was slipped out on the Cabinet Office website on Tuesday, while attention was focused on the Prime Minister’s launch of his blueprint for constitutional reform aimed at restoring trust in ­politics. Mr Brown spoke of the code as “outdated and unwieldy” yet he failed to mention in his statement to Parliament that his new code was being published that very day on a Government website. In his foreword to the code, Mr Brown boasts that he has “strengthened core principles” and says: “I believe it is vital we are open and transparent.” He has made much of his determination to end the breakdown of trust between politicians and voters under the Blair government. His first act as Prime Minister was to revoke the “orders in council” that allowed special advisers and other political appointees, such as former spindoctor Alastair Campbell, to give orders to civil servants – seen as a signal that the civil service was once again to act independently of its political masters. Yet missing from the new code is a key paragraph that stated: “Ministers should not ask civil servants to attend, or take part in, party conferences or meetings of policy or subject groups of any of the Parliamentary parties.” The code also confirms that Mr Brown has given himself new powers to block any investigations into breaches of the code. Other sections have been tightened to clamp down on Ministers from speaking to opinion pollsters or even academics; and new restrictions on former Ministers’ access to government papers has been introduced. Francis Maude, Shadow Cabinet Office Secretary, said: “After Gordon Brown’s talk this week about restoring trust, it’s disappointing to discover that his first move has been to start politicising the civil service by stealth. “Gordon Brown needs to understand that an impartial civil service and a transparent style of government are the foundations of rebuilding confidence in politics.”

6. BALLS WANTS SCHOOLS TO BE WORLD CLASS IN DECADE

Since Labour came to power the quality of education worsened even when spending increased. There is no reason to believe things will improve.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/11/nschool111.xml

Ed Balls, the new Schools Secretary, paved the way for sweeping reforms in education yesterday by announcing a review of children's policy for the next 10 years. Parents, teachers, universities and pupils will be consulted as part of plans to draw up a 10-year plan for children. "Our task in the next decade is for our education system to become world class," Mr Balls told the Commons. Gordon Brown will take a leading role through a new National Council for Educational Excellence, which he will co-chair with Mr Balls. It will include business leaders, universities and teachers' representatives to advise on policies to help achieve "world-class" standards. There will be an inquiry into the way children are taught maths amid concern that too many youngsters leave school unable to add up properly. Mr Balls also announced an extra £150 million for "personalisation" - giving pupils work that matches their individual abilities and progress, the approach that has dominated comprehensive schools. The programme of building Tony Blair's flagship academies will be accelerated but they will be brought back into the local authority fold and be forced to follow the national curriculum in the basics. A key part of strategy will be the greater involvement of universities. Mr Balls said all 3,400 secondary schools in England should have a business and university partner.

7. COURT INTEPRETER COST CONCERNS

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/south_of_scotland/6946522.stm

A sheriff has called for foreign nationals who do not show up for court dates to be held responsible for paying the price of their interpreters. Kevin Drummond said he was frustrated at the cost of providing a service for people who failed to turn up. He spoke out after a warrant was issued for the arrest of a Polish man who did not appear at Selkirk Sheriff Court. An interpreter had been booked and travelled from Edinburgh to attend his case at a cost of £200. The woman sat through two hours of court business until 49-year-old Slawomir Bobski's case was called. He has been accused of assaulting his partner at their home in Melrose, on 29 April. When it was evident he was not in attendance, a warrant was issued and the female interpreter was told she was free to leave without her services being required. Sheriff Drummond, who also administers justice at courts in Duns and Jedburgh, said he was unhappy about the situation. "The sheriff clerk organises interpreters at the public expense and then the customer does not even turn up," he said. "I am considering making an order that will mean the customer is liable for the interpretation costs if there is not a good explanation for an absence." The Scottish Courts Service has spent more than £1m on interpreters' fees for non-English speakers since it began keeping separate records of this cost in June 2003.