Charity slams Hackney council staff: rude, lazy, unhelpful

I haven't checked out any of this but it looks pretty damning: http://piliontrust.blogspot.com/2010/08/borough-of-hackney.html

Pilion is a charity that works with Islington Council and seems to have recently won more funding from it.

The author of the Pilion charity's blog clearly hasn't had a happy time dealing with Hackney. He or she says: "Over the past two months my teams have been trying to support and advocate for a number of vulnerable people. I mean a young man with mental health and learning difficulties who is fleeing two youth gangs that want to kill him; A young 20 year old woman, fleeing domestic violence and pregnant; An old age pensioner who is illiterate and is being evicted by the Council for rent arrears, when her pension and benefits pay directly to the Council's Housing benefit department."

The author says Pilion staff had dealt with the Housing Department, Mental Health Team, East London NHS, The Homerton and Learning Disabilities saying: "All staff in all departments have similarities in so much as they are rude, abrupt, refuse to give information and are lazy unthinking, uncaring brainless fodder."

The blog posting also complains that managers were not interested in dealing with the complaints and politicians were no better: "All turn a blind eye and don't want to look at the problems being caused by the Public Servants they employ."

Hopefully this was just a bad day. If not then all Hackney residents should beware of lingering in the borough too long: "as all you will find are brain dead "Job Lotters" sucking the life blood out of those who cannot get out."

Other news - The Daily Mail reports that Hackney Council is on the verge of signing a deal with the US for use of London Fields Lido for the Olympics. The Mail said: "A source said: ‘The US team toured London and were surprised by the lack of quality pools. ‘Right away they recognised London Fields as best for training and were very keen. The British tried to get involved but it looks like they’re too late."

20-year backlash for recession unemployed... and other happy news

Don't stick with your next new job!

Hackney resident and Undercover Economist Tim Harford (a recent biog) says a study of "those hurled into unemployment by mass layoffs in the 1982 US recession... discovered horrendously long-lasting effects."

He said that a recession-proof career path is only for the lucky ones: The (1982) recession itself – one often compared with today’s downturn – was savage, but it was over in less than two years. Yet von Wachter and his colleagues discovered that those who lost their jobs had incomes about 20 per cent lower than would otherwise be expected, even two decades later.

Hackney has 761 police officers.

This is nearly 200 more than neighbouring Waltham Forest (562) and seems to make the difference between rising and falling crime (although crime looks more likely to rise in Hackney).

According to the Guardian: Because Waltham Forest is classed as outer London, the borough currently has just 562 police officers, compared to 768 in neighbouring Newham, 761 in Hackney and 778 in Tower Hamlets – this is despite similar populations and crime profiles.

Reported crime rose in Waltham Forest by 3.9 per cent last year, an extra 1,012 crimes, compared to a drop in reported crime in Newham, Hackney and Tower Hamlets.

Mental Health in Schools

A piece in Nursing Times describes mental health project in Hackney that encourages pupils at special schools and pupil referral units to use mental health services. Over half of those dealt with have been referred but never used these services.

A case study describes how one pupil's disruptive behaviour in class was related to not being able to see his coat.

One key observation is that over half the SMHT (school mental health team) caseload is made up of young people and families who had previously been referred to the child and family consultation service but not engaged with it.

Who lives in Queensbridge Quarter?

A piece in Building.co.uk interviews an 87-year-old resident Betty Spinks... “Not like any other council house I’ve been to. The place looks so tidy"
Not like the old days: “It was the worst estate in England. You’d see rats in the gutters, cockroaches everywhere, and you couldn’t step out your front door at night. Here I feel safe.”