Become a Newham Covid-19 Health Champion

Become a Covid-19 Health Champion

Newham Council are really pleased to launch the Covid-19 Health Champions network, a new initiative that will empower thousands of Newham residents to remain up to date on the latest advice, so that they can be kept informed and help their family, friends and other community members to make sense of the latest facts, evidence and guidance about the virus. By disseminating clear information, residents can make informed choices about what’s best for them and their families.

Covid-19 Health Champions can be anyone in the community. They might be the person that everyone knows and trusts, or someone less visible who wants to help in whatever way they can.
To sign up visit the Council’s website here 

Or register by phone by calling 020 3373 2777

If you have any questions please contact the Covid-19 Health Champions team via email on covidhealthchampions@newham.gov.uk

We are translating all the materials into different languages including Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Chinese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Lithuanian and Portuguese. If there are any other languages that you think would be useful to have the materials translated too, please do let us know.

Putting Newham Residents at the Heart of Everything We Do.

Protecting Public Health in the Stratford Centre - Special Newham Council Cabinet meeting 27.3.20

On Friday evening we held a special virtual Cabinet meeting under the Council's urgency rules in order to agree to ask the Courts to close Stratford Shopping centre between 8pm and 5am.

This was chaired by our Executive Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz.

It followed Government advice (and financial support) to protect all rough sleepers by offering suitable alternative accommodation.

We had to have a quorum of 3 cabinet members (Mayor, myself and Cllr Julianne Marriott) physically present since the Government have not yet been able to change these legal requirements. As you can see we exercised self distancing but it would be better to hold all such meetings virtually.

Cabinet member for Adult Services, Cllr Zulfiqar Ali, presented the report from his home online.

However, other Cabinet, Executive and Scrutiny Chairs were able to Skype into the meeting to ask questions on the report to ourselves and our chief officers present, which  included our Chief Executive, Monitoring officer, Director of Adult Social services and Director of Public Health (in person and online).

There was a robust but constructive debate on the report which resulted in unanimous support for the call to close the centre overnight to save lives. Only the vote of the 3 Cabinet members actually physically present were legally valid.

On Saturday morning the Court agreed to issue the order and the Stratford Centre was closed. We were able to house around 30 rough sleepers on Saturday and 15 last night. Without being complacent in the slightest, I cycled around the Stratford Centre early this evening and I only saw one rough sleeper. No doubt there was more.

Many, many thanks to the Newham Council & homeless charity outreach officers and all our  voluntary sector colleagues for their superb work and commitment to protecting our most vulnerable. 

Tackling Rough Sleeping at Newham Stepping Stones

Today I went on a visit with Cllr Zulfiqar Ali and Cllr Shaban Mohammed to our newly opened Newham temporary assessment centre for Rough Sleepers. The centre is called "Stepping Stones" and is staffed 24/7 and can house up to 20 people and another 5 when it gets very cold.

It is basic but clean, warm, dry and much safer than the streets. Food is donated by a number of local stores and charity foodbanks. Local Charities are also arranging for hairdressers to attend while specialist housing, medical & advocacy services are being brought in.

Some of the residents were previously sleeping in tents at Stratford. We spoke to Council officers, centre staff (ThamesReach) and to residents. All of whom were positive about the centre.

"Stepping Stones" is a temporary fix and not a solution to Rough Sleeping but will make a big difference. Already it has achieved 4 positive "move on's" in the last 2 weeks of rough sleepers being brought from the street to the centre to other more suitable accommodation.

We need a permanent assessment centre in Newham. In the Newham Council budget consultation for the next 3 years there will be proposals for such a centre and appropriate specialist support for it. 

ReviveFM 94.0 - Poverty in Newham (and what the Council is doing about it)

Yesterday, in between campaigning for the European elections, Newham Council Cabinet lead for Finance, Cllr Terry Paul and myself were interviewed live on Community Radio, ReviveFM 94, which is based in Forest Gate, Newham.

Our interviewer was our Council Cabinet Colleague, Cllr Shaban Mohammed, who was assisted by local researcher, Armond Dean.

We discussed poverty in Newham and what the Council is doing to tackle it. We have the lowest average income in London, 28 000 families on our Council House waiting list and over 5000 families who are homeless. We have 50% more children living in temporary accommodation in our borough than in the entire north of England!

Since May last year a new Labour administration led by directly elected Executive Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz, has introduced anti poverty measures such as paying all our workers a London Living wage (with pay rises of up to £100 per week/£5000 per year); reducing Council tax for the poorest by 50%; building 1000 Council Homes at Council rents; ensuring that 50% of new developers homes charge a social rent; spending £120 million on improvements to our Council Housing stock: stop the privatisation of our Council services; introduce Community Wealth Building and tackle violence against our young people.

We did point out that while we can (and have and will do more) do many progressive things as a local authority to counter poverty in our borough, we need a change of our national Government and the election of one prepared to truly eliminate it.

Many thanks to Cllr Mohammed for organising and leading the discussion. Next Thursday he will have Newham Council Cabinet lead for Sustainable Transport and Parking, Cllr Zulfiqar Ali.