Rough Sleeper Street Count 2024

 

Picture is from around 11.45pm last night of 2 teams about to leave the Council offices in Dockside to go out and count rough sleepers in Newham. At least 4 other teams had already left for the midnight start. Today was a national annual count day of rough sleepers across the UK (I think - or maybe only England).  The data is used to inform the Government and partners about the scale of the problem. It is no secret that the numbers of rough sleepers have been rising since Covid. 

The data from the national council is also confidential until released by the ministry. 

The numbers today (the count was between 12 Midnight and 3AM) will probably be lower because of the recent cold weather, which has trigged the London Mayor SWEP (severe weather emergency provision). Newham Council has been funded for a number of emergency beds located in a local community centre.

As well as the national count, Newham does a bi-monthly count, to assess how successful its own Government funded internal programme is in reducing numbers of people sleeping rough in the borough. In Newham the Count volunteers are made up of Council officers, stakeholders, volunteers and Councillors (as well as myself, Cllr Wilson & Cllr Lofthouse). 

I went with Aidan who is a Newham officer who works in a Government funded team to support long term rough sleepers and to help them get off the streets. A difficult but at times rewarding job. We were joined by another Newham Council colleague, Cllr Shaban Mohammed.

We went to a part of Newham that I had been to a number of times and I was pleased that we "only" came across 2 rough sleepers on a pavement next to a busy road (but 2 too many of course). The temperature was just above freezing. They only had a light duvet covering them. Aidan spoke to them and took some details. They had apparently refused the SWEP centre earlier today but agreed to speak to a follow team of outreach workers, who will be visiting people who had been found from 5AM this morning. 

After we had visited all the sites,  I drove back to Newham Dockside building and we passed on details to the Newham Council organising team led by its amazing manager, Ajitha Sajeev BEM (Front centre of main photo). 

UNISON Special Labour Link National Forum 2021 Motion 8: Charity Contracts - Race to the Bottom

 

This is the motion and my speech from last Saturday's (3.7.21) UNISON Special Labour Link National Forum meeting.  I moved this Greater London motion 8 about the Volunteer sector and the race to the bottom with regard to staff terms and conditions - and what we can do about it as a Labour movement.

Many thanks to Jordon Creed from London Voluntary Organisations branch who sent this motion to London Labour Link, who supported it and sent it to our National Forum on behalf of all London Labour Link Members. 

I am fairly confident (touch wood) that this is a campaign we can win. Not only is this National Labour Link policy but at a meeting last week of London Regional Council officers and Regional Management team, everyone was very supportive and it feeds into our existing campaigning on UNISON Ethnical Care contract and the response to Covid. 

I also last week spoke virtually at Kilburn and Finchley branch Labour Party and my UNISON branch executive about the campaign and I am more than willing to speak to any other Labour movement meetings. 

Motion 8. Charity Contracts: Race to the Bottom

Forum believes that we need to ensure across London there is no race to the bottom in terms of pay, holiday, sickness when charities bid for contracts.

Forum calls upon the National Committee to call upon Labour councils and representatives, including the Mayor of London, to commit to not giving contracts to any providers that do not pay the living wage and use zero hour contracts and give their employees only statutory sick pay.

Forum believes local authorities and the Greater London Authority should have terms and conditions of employment which are clearly specified and protected in agreements when competitive tending takes place.

Forum believes this will also improve the quality of the service as contracts will be awarded on the basis of quality not just the lower cost and support collective bargaining in the community sector workplaces across London.

Greater London Region

Moving motion 8

Chair, Forum, John Gray, Greater London Regional delegate moving motion 8 “Charity Contracts: Race to the bottom”

Forum, this motion is London centric but I am sure the issue of a “race to the bottom” in the Charity and voluntary sector applies to all regions and nations.

I don’t need to tell anyone here about the simple, day in, day out, misery of all workers, who have to exist on a minimum wage, insecure employment and no employer sick pay.

And of course it’s not just about the workers and their families, who are our members, as vital as that is, it’s also about the residents and clients who receive these services. Who don’t want overworked and stressed carers, who have to work 60 hours a week to pay the bills.

The question is what as a Union and a Labour link do we do about it? What do we do about it? Passing motions for motions sake never achieved anything. So let’s think things through. 

Firstly, let’s not be forgetting that while charities get funding from various sources including the NHS, the commissioning of services by local government is key.

While we want services to be provided in-house whenever possible and I note that by doing so, it would in fact at a stroke mean that in most, not all Councils, the objectives of this motion would be obtained. So defending public services from future outsourcing and campaigning to bring back services in house is a given.

But in the meanwhile, we need to press all our levers, industrial and political, to campaign for all councils and Mayors to insist that all their commissioned services, pay at least the real living wage, ban imposed zero hour contracts and pay proper sick pay.

Now we cannot ignore that there are legal and funding difficulties, after 10 years of austerity local authority funding has been cut by up to 50%.

But let us work with councils to take on the rouge employers who threaten them with legal action if they impose such conditions. Many employers want to stop this race to the bottom, they want a level playing field, in order to provide better services. We need to work with these employers and target those who will not.

Forum, passing this motion should also be just a beginning, we want more for our members. As well as a real living wage we want a living pension provision, we want to sustain decent terms and conditions by also demanding trade union recognition and sectorial pay bargaining.

Forum, while we will not win every battle, this issue, is one that I think the Labour movement family can win. Let us act as a united Labour movement family, by campaigning as a union, work with progressive labour councils and employers and then by doing so - win real benefits for our members, not least, putting money in their pockets and purses of our members, which to me is why the labour movement was formed.

Forum, please support this motion, I move"

I was very happy that 99% of delegates supported this motion. 

Vote for London: Vote for Sadiq (and Unmesh): Vote for Labour

It was great to pick up yesterday Labour GLA election leaflets with an East London focus (at long last!). I have dropped off leaflets and road groups (list of addresses to be targeted) to the West Ham and Forest Gate North ward organisers and been delivering to my allocated road groups. Out tomorrow door knocking and phone banking. 

UNISON and Labour Unions phone bank with David Lammy MP

 Picture collage from last night's "dialogue" phone bank organised by Labour Unions and Greater London UNISON Labour Link. 

David Lammy MP gave us a quick briefing beforehand on how important it is that we have a Labour Mayor & Assembly in London to protect Londoners against some of the excesses of Tory Government misrule. 

He spoke very movingly about why he is such a passionate UNISON member mainly because of the support the union gave to his Mum when she had serious employment issues. 

David also made a valid point that while many of us (Labour Party activists) prefer to campaign by knocking on doors rather than ringing people, you probably end up speaking to more people by phone than "on the knocker". 

I could only spend 45 minutes last night on the actual phone bank but did manage to gain 7 contacts which is probably more than I would have gathered if I had been knocking on doors. 

(I am pleased that I now have "Sadiq Khan for Mayor" leaflets which I will be delivering over the bank holiday weekend)  

Thank you from Murad Qureshi AM

"An experienced candidate, who can stand-up for East London". Congratulations to UNISON Nominee, Murad Qureshi, for gaining a CLP nomination and being on the ballot paper for City & East.

The role of a London Assembly member is to represent their constituents and hold the Mayor to account. To do this effectively you have to be experienced, honest, organised and competent. Murad has these attributes. Below is his latest flyer.

    "Thank you the nomination.

As a sitting Assembly Member, l can get on with the job of standing up for City and East London straight away, for example through constituent work and scrutinising the Mayor. All this while making the case for more public resources for this very large and diverse constituency. Recent examples of scrutinising the Mayor include how he wasted council tax monies when he brought the water cannons and his denial of how money laundering in London is affecting the housing market. Constituent work include representing  Londoners against a huge development casting a shade over their homes and getting the Mayor to tackle underground tube noises for residents before the 24 hour service on the tube is running. Critically London’s population explosion will be greatly felt in City & East and it will need the infrastructure to cope. This case needs to be made now before a new Mayor comes in and as a sitting AM l am well placed to argue for transport infrastructural investment on the roads to the buses, a lot more housing initiatives for East Enders to be housed, protecting & defending public services like the Police & Fire Service - and making sure all this doesn’t adversely impact on peoples quality of life like breathing polluted air. To do this, l will work with our colleagues in local government in all three Labour held boroughs and the City of London; the wider labour movement like the Unions and Co-op Party; party members from all the CLPs and take a strategic approach to the issues important to all of us. MURAD QURESHI AM