September Monthly Report

Morningside Community Centre

I was pleased to open the new Morningside Community Centre off Cresset Way.

The community centre is a modern, multi-purpose facility built by Sanctuary Housing, and will be host to a wide range of social, leisure and educational activities for all ages.

A focal point for the local community, the centre will be home to a variety of youth activities, adult learning opportunities and community development programmes, including being the base for the popular Morningside youth club.

Hackney Marsh Partnership, a local community development organisation, is taking on the management and development of the centre. It already manages Kingsmead and Gascoyne community centres.

The Partnership has set up a steering group of local people from Morningside estate to help develop the centre and its activities. It will also be available for local people to hire for events.

To contact the centre for more details please call 020 8525 6962.

Parliamentary Business

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill

An accurate electoral register is vital not just to enable people to exercise their right to vote; it is also used for credit reference checks and to select juries.

The Electoral Registration and Administration Bill, which passed its House of Commons stages this week, speeds up the move to individual voter registration. This will mean that one householder will no longer be able to put all members of that household on the register. Each voter will have to register themselves.

When Northern Ireland moved to individual registration there was an 11 per cent fall in the number of registered voters.

The current bill removes the monitoring and safeguards which had previously been in place to ensure that the accuracy of the register is maintained.

I supported an amendment to the bill which called for a change to the law to enable electors who are in the queue to enter a polling station at the close of poll to be allowed to vote.

In the elections in 2010, over 200 people were prevented from voting in six Hackney polling stations, including five in Hackney South and Shoreditch.

The polling stations affected were the Ann Tayler children's centre, which experienced some of the worst problems, St John the Baptist primary school in Hoxton, Comet day nursery, and Our Lady and St Joseph primary school in De Beauvoir. There were unexpected queues and the polling stations closed promptly at 10pm. Only those issued with a valid ballot paper by 10pm were entitled to vote.

A change in the law would ensure that this did not happen in future elections.

The Government refused to accept the amendment ant the law remains the same as it was in 2010.

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

This bill introduces a range of measures including the Green Investment Bank and changes to employment law.

I am pleased that we are finally going to see the introduction of the Green Investment Bank. I am very supportive of the principle of this bank as it is designed to support green industries. The bank will be able to lend to businesses that are providing or developing green solutions to help tackle climate change.

The Government is also proposing changes to employment law.

The Government proposals will make it easier for employers to sack staff and will reduce job security. This is not what business wants and it does not help economic growth.

The bill also abolishes the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission. These will combine to become the Competition Market Authority.

Regional Pay

There was an opposition day debate on regional pay this month. Opposition day debates are available to all political parties who do not form the Government to initiate a debate on a subject of their choosing.

The Government has proposed the abolition of pay review bodies which are independent bodies with relevant experts which assess appropriate pay levels for the public sector. The Government is considering replacing these bodies with regional and local pay bargaining arrangements.

There is a real danger that the effect of these proposals would be to increase pay inequality between region and local area. With areas particularly hard hit by the recession having lower pay rates.

Educational attainment in Black and Ethnic minority communities

I spoke in a debate about the steady year-on-year improvement in Hackney for all pupils since 2005.

In 2009 and 2010 Hackney pupils achieved higher than the national average at GCSE. I pointed out that there has been steady improvement for girls and boys of both Caribbean heritage and Turkish, Kurdish and Cypriot heritage.

However there still remains a worrying gap in attainment for these groups at GCSE compared to all other pupils. For Turkish, Kurdish and Cypriot girls and boys there is a 14 per cent gap in attainment.

The Department of Education has stopped collecting data on attainment by ethnic group. In the debate I called for these to be re-instated. Differentials in attainment cannot be tackled if we don't know they exist.

Free school meals

I raised the issue about unequal treatment of students aged 16-18. Students who attend sixth forms based in schools, free schools, city academies, and university technical colleges who meet the criteria receive free school meals. However eligible 16-18 year olds who attend sixth form colleges or community colleges do not receive free school meals.

I spoke in the debate and pointed out the importance of free school meals for young people in full-time education. Teachers and head teachers often tell me the difference a good meal, at breakfast and lunch, makes to achievement.

In Hackney students aged 16 to 18 at the university technical college based on the Hackney Community College campus would qualify for free school meals if they meet the criteria. But on the same campus students of the same age, possibly studying for the same qualification, at Hackney community college would not qualify.

Other matters

Plain packaging of tobacco products

The Government will be publishing a consultation exploring options to reduce promotional packaging for cigarettes and tobacco products later in 2012. This is part of a five year tobacco control plan. More information can be found at the Department of Health website, www.dh.gov.uk

GCSE reforms

This month, plans to reform the exams in secondary schools were leaked to the press. Plans involve the scrapping of GCSEs and a return to O-Levels and CSEs.

My colleague the Shadow Education Secretary, Stephen Twigg MP, tabled an urgent question to the Education Secretary to answer to MPs on whether the press reports were true.

An urgent question can be tabled to immediately summon a Minister to Parliament to be held to account. Whilst Mr Gove was not specific about proposals he did confirm that he was looking at reforming the current exam system.

It is important for our schools to provide the best education for our children.

However I am concerned about the prospect of a return to a two tier system of qualifications which this risks. I raised this in a debate in Parliament.

Former Education Secretary, Kenneth Baker, has referred to the old CSEs as not being worth the paper they were printed on.

Having a set of qualifications which neither universities nor employers value will do nothing to help young people in Hackney get into work or achieve their ambitions.

Fair access to professional careers

Former MP Alan Milburn who was appointed by the Government to be independent reviewer on social mobility and child poverty published a progress report in May on fair access to professional careers.

This report focused on the role of the professions including medicine, law, journalism and media, parliament and the civil service.

Despite some improvements over the last two years the report found that the professions still employ mostly people who are privately educated. It also found that they recruited mainly from only 19 of the UK's universities.

It also concluded that whilst internships are useful to give young people work experience, these need to be paid. Unpaid, or expenses-only, internships favoured the better off. There is also still a culture of who knows who - so children of lawyers access the law as a profession more easily than young people who are not as well connected.

The who knows who culture particularly discriminates against young people in Hackney. I have been working with sixth forms in Hackney, and organising events for young people to try and help them get those contacts.

Regulation of childminders

The Government has now announced proposals to reform child care with details possibly published in the autumn.

I recently met Hackney childminders who are very concerned about unofficial proposals that have been published by Elizabeth Truss MP. I will be raising my concerns directly with ministers. I have secured a debate on the issue on the 6 July.

Hackney Issues

Olympic Update

London Legacy Development Company

The Olympic Park Legacy company has been reorganised and relaunched as the London Legacy Development Company. The new company takes over responsibility for the Olympic legacy of homes, jobs and long term future of the park and its venues, once the games are over.

The Olympic legacy area has been divided into five neighbourhoods, the one in Hackney will be called East Wick, following a public competition to name the areas.

There will be consultation with local people over the plans as these are developed. I will be meeting the senior board members and paid officials over the next month. I will work with Hackney councillors to ensure that Hackney gets the legacy Hackney deserves.

A day in the park

The London Legacy Development Corporation has launched a competition 'A Day in the Park' which is giving away 10,000 Paralympics tickets to Londoners. A day in the park interactive roadshow will be in Hackney on 9 July at Hackney Town Hall and Ridley Road Market on 14 July.

There are also tickets for the opening ceremony of the Paralympic games on 29 August 2012 available for residents in the 6 Olympic boroughs. The tickets will be made available to community champions, nominated by local residents. To find out more and to enter go to www.adayinthepark.co.uk.

The London 2012 Festival

The 21 June was the start of the London 2012 Festival. This is a 12 week celebration, taking place across the UK and brings together 25,000 artists. Most of the events are free with over 10 million free tickets available.

There will be events going on in Hackney too; the Big Dance 2012 is bringing together schools, colleges and independent dance groups across Hackney for a dance extravaganza.

Events in Hackney include dance workshops at the Geffrye Museum on 7 July.

There will also be comedy events in the Hackney Empire as well as a performance of 100% London. To find out more visit http://festival.london2012.com/festival.

Shoreditch summit

In May I held a summit for local Shoreditch community organisations to get together and find out more about each other.

Each community organisation gave a two minute presentation about themselves and they then had an opportunity to chat together informally.

I was interested to note that groups which are close neighbours did not know of each other's existence.

I am pleased that this summit has already resulted in local groups getting together to collaborate on projects.

Next steps

I am holding an event for young people in Hackney called "Next Steps". The aim of the event is to give young people the chance to hear from a range of professional people about how they got where they are today.

hope that this event and future events that I am planning will inspire young people to be able to fulfil their dreams and aspirations, whatever these might be.

At the event, there will be workshops and discussion groups to give practical advice and support on the young people's "next steps" whether this is in higher education or into work.

If you are a working person or business owner and are interested in working with Hackney sixth formers to help them develop their skills please contact me on 0207 219 5325 or please email me at meghilliermp@parliament.uk.

Orchard primary school

I recently visited Orchard primary school and met their school council. I am pleased that the school council has been shortlisted for the House of Common's Speaker's School Council awards.

Shopfront awards

I was pleased this month to help promote our local high streets when Malcolm Starbrook, editor of the Hackney Gazette and I handed certificates to winners of the shopfront award scheme.

When we judged the scheme we were particularly impressed with the friendly and helpful staff in Mare Street shops.

The winners were Argun Printers and Snappy Snaps who jointly won the shop with the most helpful and friendly staff. The shop with the best window display was Primark. The most accessible shop was Boots in the Narroway. We also awarded Siva's Clarence Road convenience store a special award for both being a good local community shop and for the tremendous efforts he made to re-open after his shop was ransacked during the riots last year.