Hometown struggles

The contrasts within the north-west London borough of Brent’s major district, Wembley, are immediately striking. The area is synonymous to outsiders, domestic and worldwide, with the £1bn national stadium of the same name, which reopened six years ago. But while televised events from the venue showcase the glamorous undertakings of Olympians, millionaire footballers and top musicians, the reality of life in the town itself is altogether different.

On a gloomy December lunchtime, the short five-minute walk from the town’s station to the council’s offices provides a beleaguered scene – an elderly woman is begging on the street and, although regeneration projects are under way, the high street has a dilapidated feel.

Arrival at the council’s rundown offices – a good decade past their best – does little to brighten the mood. But, overlooking the town from her fourth-floor office, the local director of children’s services Krutika Pau is keen to accentuate the positives of the area.

Abundance of aspiration
Top of the list, she says, is the fact that although many families are poor – one in three children are in poverty – there is an abundance of aspiration.

Indeed, 91 per cent of Brent students continue their education after year 11, significantly more than the national average for England of 85 per cent. It is Pau’s challenge, she says, to enable young people to meet and exceed these high expectations.

Born in East Africa, Pau was raised in India from the age of two, and moved with her family to Brent when she was 10. She likens her start in life to that of many children living in the borough today, the number of which has increased significantly in the past decade as a result of migration and a burgeoning presence of large families.

According to the latest census data, there has been a 37.7 per cent increase in the under-four population since 2001, and a 12.1 per cent rise in the number of five- to 19-year-olds over the same period.

Against a backdrop of public sector cuts, the bulging population is representing a serious challenge for children’s services. School places remain at a premium despite the fact the authority has managed to secure £93m over the past four years to expand provision.

Last year the authority was able to offer a place to every child that applied on time, something Pau holds up as a “remarkable achievement”.

But the real pressure is on in-year admissions. “We have so many families continually coming through the system,” she says. “There is demand on a daily basis – hundreds of children.”

Education is a huge personal focus for Pau. She cites her own experience as the first person in her family to go to university as an example of how education can change lives. ?

“I’m a Brent girl and education has transformed my own life,” she says. “My teachers really inspired me to do well. I can see what a good quality education can do to somebody’s life. That’s what drives me and gives me passion to work in children’s services and in this borough.”

But school places are not the only issue raised by the growing population. Pau fears that the government’s welfare reforms risk plunging thousands more children into poverty.

“Our population is rising and the area is becoming more deprived,” she says. “When the welfare benefit changes kick in, I think it will have a significant impact on the local population. Part of the challenge is how we respond to that.”

Analysis by the Department for Work and Pensions indicates that more families in Brent will be affected by the benefits cap than Birmingham, Manchester and Bradford combined.

“Poverty affects all areas of children’s lives – it increases domestic violence and that leads to other difficulties in the lives of families,” she says. “We have a significant number of larger families in the borough. These families will have to make some very stark choices about where they are able to live and where their children are able to attend school.”

Welfare benefits cap
The welfare benefits cap will affect 2,500 households in Brent, with a knock-on effect on approximately 6,000 children. Some of these families will be forced to move out of the capital, a situation Pau says the council is trying to mitigate.

“Many families may move away from Brent, but some, while they may not be able to afford to live in the borough, may stay, which will lead to overcrowding because families want to retain links with the local community,” she explains. “We are already picking that up anecdotally through schools. At this stage it is very difficult to predict the individual decisions that families facing this difficulty will actually make.”

“We are doing everything we can to try to avoid these families becoming homeless. We work with tenants and landlords to help renegotiate rents and we provide private tenants with advice on their options.

“But with overstretched budgets and an oversubscribed council housing waiting list, the reality is there will be cases where residents will have to move out of the borough because there are no other options. As with many London authorities, we have contracts for provision of accommodation outside the borough and are looking at securing properties