Jobless: some cheer for Tyburn and Birmingham

Unemployment fell by 48 last month in Tyburn – that’s a drop of 0.5%.
The jobless figures fell in 39 of Birmingham’s 40 wards.
Only Yardley and Stetchford ward saw an increase in jobless numbers.
The figures for Birmingham have shown slight improvement in recent months.The claimant rate for the city is 12.4%.
Nottingham and Manchester have the highest claimant rate, at 12.9% – more than twice as high as the average figure for the UK.

CVGT 2010 winner Jak to dance in top West End Show

Jak Tuite, who became the youngest ever winner of Castle Vale’s Got Talent in 2010 when he was just eight years old, will be dancing on stage in a West End Show in London that starts today.
Jak, now aged ten, amazed the judges and audience in the CVGT show two years ago .
He went on to perform at Clothes Show Live at the NEC in Birmingham last December, where he was spotted by the producers of the West End Show.
For the full story in the Birmingham Mail, click here

Tyburn jobless: some local cheer

Unemployment dropped by 23 in Tyburn last month. The jobless figures fell in 27 of Birmingham’s 40 wards. Jobless figures across Birmingham fell, despite a slight rise in the UK as a whole.
35,172 men (15.7%) and 16,193 women (8.9%) in Birmingham are unemployed.

Castle Vale School: Strike days to be taken off summer holidays

Teachers and pupils at Castle Vale School will be made to work an extra three days before they can break up for the summer to make up for time they lost in March because of strike action.
Birmingham Schools finish for summer on Friday 20th July, but local authority education bosses have decided that Castle Vale School’s summer term will be extended to 3.15pm on Wednesday 25th July.
The controversial decision has been taken by Birmingham Council’s Cabinet in their final meeting before the local elections in May.
A Council spokesperson said: “Teachers are obliged to work 1265 hours per year. This year, their hours have been reduced to 1,258.5 because of the extra bank holiday for the Queen’s diamond jubilee. That is a very generous decision. But we cannot allow the pupils from one school to be given less teaching time than all of the other schools in the authority just because of some action by a small group of disgruntled teachers. We want to be fair to the pupils, and we hope that this decision sends out a fair but firm message.”
The extra three days will apply to all teachers at the school, regardless of whether they were involved in the strikes, says the Council.
The decision will be communicated to teachers and pupils at the school formally after they return from their Easter holidays.
Local authority spokesperson Flora Opil said: “We know that the majority of teachers at the school will welcome this decision.”

Castle Vale School: Investigation into Union rep still a sticking point, says NAS/UWT

Meetings between the NAS/UWT and the Local Education Authority will start again after the Easter holiday in the week beginning 16th April.
Today’s proposed strike action by teachers was called off yesterday afternoon.
Union officer Anne Brimacombe says that she is not happy with the investigation into the conduct of the NAS/UWT representative, and says that her members are prepared to take further action if they feel that he is victimised. The independent investigation into the union rep’s conduct has been commissioned by the school management.
But Anne Brimacombe says that in the latest talks which managed to avert today’s strike action they wanted to keep the focus on their original dispute, namely the adverse management practices, lack of support with disruptive behaviour and the staff re-organisation. “We wanted to keep the focus on making progress in the dispute,” she said, “but the investigation into our member is still a sticking point.”
The NAS/UWT says that support for union action is still strong amongst their members, and that union membership has increased since the action began.
The union is now submitting a report on the allegations of adverse management practices to the Local Education Authority. They are expecting responses from the Authority by 27th April.

Jobless figures get worse across Birmingham

Erdington (including Tyburn and Castle Vale) has the third highest jobless rate in the City, according to figures released this month. At 23.1% it is slightly better off than Ladywood (23.5%) and Hodge Hill (23.9%). Sutton Coldfield’s jobless figure is 8%, the lowest of the City’s ten constituencies. Unemployment rose last month across all ten constituencies.

 

Tyburn jobless: down by four

52,135 adults were jobless in Birmingham during February. The figures show a slight improvement compared with recent months. Twenty-five of the forty wards in Birmingham showed a drop in unemployment compared with January’s figures. Tyburn showed a tiny improvement. The number of people claiming jobless benefit in the ward has reduced by four. Tyburn’s claimant rate is 15.9% – that’s the tenth highest of the City’s forty wards.

West Mids Police look for private partners

West Midlands Police are looking for private companies to help them cope with their workload, following cutbacks to the force.
They want ‘suitably qualified’ organisations to free officers from duties which don’t need a serving police officer to carry out, such as guarding crime scenes and collecting CCTV.
Police officers and PCSOs will still be carrying out front line services, such as street patrols and arrests, said a spokesperson.
The contract being offered to private companies is worth £1.5 billion over ten years.

No joy for jobless

The number of people without jobs rose in 38 of Birmingham’s 40 wards last month. Harborne and Brandwood were the only wards in the City that saw a drop in jobless figures. Tyburn’s unemployment rate is 16%, almost three times above the national average.

(The seasonally adjusted Unemployment Benefit
Count (UBC) for the UK increased by 6,900 in
January. The Count now stands at 1,604,600.
The rate remained at 5.6%. source:BCC/ONS/NOMIS)

Jack Dromey rapped by Parliamentary Standards Committee

The Parliamentary Standards Committee have today published their report into the complaint against Jack Dromey for failing to register properly his financial interests. He omitted to tell Parliament that he was still being paid by the Unite trade union for six months after he had been elected as MP for Erdington. He was paid around £28,000 for the six months’ work with Unite between his election in May and October of the same year, with an extra £30,000 as a golden handshake; he also had the use of a company car.
During these six months from May to October 2010, he was in paid employment by a trade union at the same time as he was taking part in some relevant debates, says the report.
The Standards Committee, in a 54 page document summarising their investigation and findings, concluded that they regarded Mr Dromey’s breach of the rule book as serious, though they accepted that it had been unintentional and that he had apologised on a number of occasions since.
They accepted his written apology and concluded that he would not need to make an apology by a personal statement to the House of Commons.