Canal27ways

Category: Blog

  • Extraordinary Council Meeting

    Extraordinary Council Meeting

    This was the meeting calling for resignations and self condemnation of pretty much everybody

    I previewed the meeting last week.

    The clash came to pass last night in the council chamber. Labour won. They had the votes.

    Most of the speakers were attacking Labour and a picture was painted of a Council Executive who were inward looking and lacking in curiosity.

    That narrative didn’t meet much challenge.

    My regret is that I’m still not actually sure how Trafford’s Executive were unaware that the issues highlighted in Ofsted’s opening paragraph had come about. I was hoping Children’s scrutiny the previous evening would have extracted something approaching a definitive answer. It would require some ‘first principle’ questioning.

    • How the ‘front door’ is monitored,
    • how failings would come to light,
    • how they are reported up the line

    All we have is the Ofsted verdict

    Since the previous inspection in 2022, when services in Trafford were judged as requires improvement to be good, leaders have been ineffective in recognising, prioritising and making improvements to some service shortfalls. Practice with children in care and for some care-experienced young people has improved, but there has been a serious deterioration in service areas, such as front door response.
    This has left some children at risk of harm.

    Leadership Culture

    I don’t think we’ll ever get a comprehensive answer to whether the culture set by Trafford’s political leadership played a part.

    The members of the Executive very much set themselves apart from the wider body of councillors. They don’t ask questions of wider councillors. They may have friendship groups to confide in, but it doesn’t seem to be a core value to be interested in the ward councillor’s perspective. This being the case, it hardly seems incongruous if there has been a lack of curiosity in terms of performance.

    There seems to be a culture of mutual comforting and reassurance amongst the cabinet. Consensus is reinforced. It would cause gross offense to demur.

    It is literally true that executive members challenging the consensus is now always in the past tense.

    This bias towards consensus permeates the council’s values

    I’ve never been a huge fan of Trafford’s ‘People Plan‘. Its EPIC Values have always seemed a little passively introverted to me, I’d like them to be more challenging, more focused on improvement.

    EPIC Values

    I almost think we hard-wired this failing into the culture. Still doesn’t explain everything, but I suggest that there are issues still to be solved beyond a simple change of personnel.

    The council meeting was interesting, we did get to hear the occasional line that set my alarms ringing;

    • “We’ve already dealt with”,
    • “Changes are in progress”,
    • “We’re going to be open, we don’t need to have a formal arrangement”

    We’ll have to see whether the Executive changes. I think one interesting consensus, certainly across the opposition parties, but I think into Labour backbenches was dissatisfaction with the scrutiny function. I hope that will be picked up.

    Link to Archived Video of the Proceedings on Youtube

    Overall, I think it was a worthwhile meeting. I don’t think resignations at this stage are a good idea, so I was happy with the way the votes went. It would be nice to think they take a broad view to some of the system failures that have taken place in my view, rather than the fault of a few individuals. And I’d really like the leaders to look in the mirror, have their behaviours contributed?

  • Council gets to lock horns over Children’s Service Failings

    Council gets to lock horns over Children’s Service Failings

    Previewing a big week for Trafford Council with Children’s Scrutiny on Tuesday and a full council on Wednesday.

    August is usually a quiet month for councillors, but two critical inspections have created a political crisis, and the Conservatives weren’t going to let this go without another vote of no confidence in Labour’s leader, Tom Ross.

    Conservative Motion

    It’s nearly 2500 words. That’s huge for a motion – 4 pages long.

    Link to the full Conservative Motion

    If you can’t face 2500 words, the motion can be split into two halves.

    First Half – What has happened

    The conservative motion opens with the historically correct reminder that in 2015 Trafford’s children’s services were judged to be ‘Good’ whilst under Conservative control.

    It goes on to say that subsequent reviews marked a decline (under Labour control) culminating in the current review.

    It criticises Trafford’s leadership (Labour’s) for not being on top of performance shortfalls throughout this time.

    Second Half – What is to be done about it

    The Conservatives say the council should:

    • Record its profound concern and apologise to children and families
    • Thank its frontline officers and foster carers
    • Recognise the record as representing a serious failure of governance and accountability
    • Declare a loss of confidence in its political leadership
    • Call on the leader (Tom Ross)to resign
    • Call on the Council Executive to recognise its part in this and look to restoring confidence in political oversight
    • Establish an independently chaired Children’s Services Improvement and Assurance Board
    • Require the administration to publish an improvement plan with regular reports to children’s scrutiny
    • Require a specific report into failings in the ‘front door’ to children’s services and the failures in oversight.
    • Look for commonalities in the preparation for each of the negative Ofsted reports
    • Receive a further report at full council as to progress
    • Affirm that it’s about day to day standards not just for Ofsted

    Thoughts on the motion

    This is a better motion than we’re used to from the Conservatives and I suspect they’ve had some help. It gets a little bit messy towards the end by being too prescriptive, but overall it does what the Conservatives want it to do.

    Labour’s response

    I really expected Labour to take a position that the Conservatives had rushed to produce a purely political motion when the seriousness of the situation called for a measured approach that had already begun. I expected them to simply vote against this motion. Instead, they’ve made amendments.

    Labour Amendments to Conservative Motion

    I’m really surprised how much of the Conservative Motion survives amendment. It leaves a lot of the tale intact.

    Additional Points inserted by Labour’s Amendment

    The narrative history in the first half of the motion is tweaked to include a number of mitigating factors.

    • The budget for Children’s Services was reduced by the Conservatives after the ‘Good’ Ofsted
    • Within the latest ‘Inadequate’ Ofsted there some recognition of improvements in specific areas, notably report writing and support for children subject to protection plans
    • There had been a 60% increase in demand in the past 12 months
    • Ofsted recognised corporate and political commitment to children and that there had been additional investment
    • The ‘Expert Advisor’ being sent in by the Dept for Education as a consequence of the ‘Inadequate judgement’ will have a positive diagnostic input

    The above points are quite reasonable inclusions. It leaves the basic narrative intact. However, one of the smallest amendments in that first section is perhaps the most controversial.

    In 2026, Ofsted again found that leaders did not fully understand the scale of serious problems until inspectors arrived and did not possess a wholly accurate self-assessment of service quality and impact.

    is amended to

    In 2026, Ofsted again found that service leaders did not fully understand the scale of serious problems until inspectors arrived and did not possess a wholly accurate self-assessment of service quality and impact.

    The Ofsted report does not distinguish between service leaders, corporate leaders or political leaders. I really don’t like this particular amendment, leaders should stand with their teams, not washing their hands of them. I’m not impressed at all by this amendment and perhaps it highlights bigger issues.

    Amendments to the 2nd half of the Conservative motion

    They add some new measures

    • Recognise the record as representing a serious failure of governance and accountability
      (is softened)

    The amendment deletes the paragraphs criticising the council leadership and executive.

    It adds some new measures

    • Seek support from an independent improvement partner through a local authority that demonstrated outstanding practice in Children’s Services
    • Bring tangible and practical improvements to partnership working in Trafford including partners in health and Greater Manchester Police.
    • Calls on all partners in Trafford to recognise the challenge and allocate and identify dedicated and consistent resources to Trafford and the new Improvement Board.

    Labour has the numbers, if its councillors turn up

    This will be one of those meetings that will have the strongest of three-line-whips. It used to always be impressed on new councillors that there may come a time when councillors are expected to fly home early for important votes. It actually did happen famously about thirty years ago with regard to Greater Manchester’s Public Transport Authority when the votes across the councils of GM were almost in balance.

    I think we’re slightly softer these days, but it’s hard to see how an executive member could stay in post if they miss Wednesday’s vote.

    Had I still been a councillor, I would have supported the Labour Leadership and voted for their amendments. I would have blamed the leadership for their lack of openness. I would have told them in the corridor they’d brought this on themselves, but I would still have voted for them. I’m glad to be out of it.

    It needs stating

    There needs to be changes in how Labour’s leadership in Trafford operates. They’ve been found wanting.

    Scrutiny

    Scrutiny of Trafford’s approach to the Ofsted verdict is actually the day before council. Sadly, it’s just a verbal presentation. Whilst it will be worth watching on Youtube, its hard to see how much input scrutiny is going to be allowed to make. I hope I’m wrong.

  • Just to be different!

    Just to be different!

    Good News!

    LabourList, the independent platform for Labour supporters, published its roundup of positive news this morning.

    Despite the challenging times for Labour, the update is surprisingly encouraging.

    The LabourList summary highlights several promising initiatives that show why having a Labour Government matters:

    • Proposals to protect unmarried couples by ensuring access to shared property and inheritance rights, addressing the current lack of financial safeguards when relationships end, which often leaves vulnerable individuals—especially survivors of domestic abuse—at risk.
    • Plans to double the maximum duration of closure orders for dodgy high street shops.
    • Measures requiring tech companies to automatically block nude images on children’s smartphones and tablets by default.
    • A £20 million investment enabling high street opticians to refer patients directly to NHS hospital eye services.

    And it doesn’t stop there.

    This morning the government announced a £4.5 billion plan to expand walking, wheeling and cycling, aiming to build 5,000 new active‑travel routes, install 10,000 safer crossings, and shift more everyday journeys—especially school runs—away from cars.

    • Delivering this will save households money, including up to £1,700 per year if a second car is replaced with active travel for short trips
    • Improve public health, potentially freeing up 1.7 million GP appointments and reducing 4.4 million sick days annually
    • Cut carbon emissions and reduce congestion
    • Boost local economies through healthier, more connected communities.

    Locally, the emphasis on walkability fits very well with Stretford’s resurgence and indeed Urmston’s long term prosperity. Urban centres are increasingly the biggest gainers from trends towards local provision.

    So, in this vein, last night’s Planning Committee welcomed the application for Grub’s open food hall application in Stretford. The assumption was very much on a walkable destination.

    And lastly, keeping up the positive news, I was delighted to see that our hospital trust MFT, which runs most of our hospital facilities in Trafford and Manchester including Trafford General, Manchester Royal Infirmary and Wythenshawe Hospital amongst others has in the words of Manchester Evening News surged up the rankings.

    I have a personal reason for taking particular pleasure in MFT’s improved performance having served as a governor of the trust for the past three years. So I know how hard everyone within the trust has worked to achieve this. Big congratulations to everyone xxx

    (It looks like I am soon to submit to a major procedure in the hands of the trust, so I need to be nice haha)

    Featured Image: “Can you guess which house the Manchester City fans live in?” by Dunk 🐝, CC BY 2.0 gently cropped

  • Putting Trafford Together Again: Election Insights

    Putting Trafford Together Again: Election Insights

    The recent local election results have reshaped Trafford’s political landscape. Voter turnout increased significantly from last time, reflecting the strength of the message voters were sending. The Green Party has emerged as the most popular in Trafford, but the electoral map suggests an upcoming period of no overall control. It is unlikely that this situation will reverse in the near future.

    From Wikipedia: Trafford UK ward map 2026 – 2026 Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council election – Wikipedia

    Several incumbents were unseated by new challengers, signalling a clear demand for change. The extent to which this reflects a desire for a change in government, or a shift within Trafford itself remains to be seen. What is certain is that it was never an endorsement to continue as before.

    Sadly, I think Tom Ross, the leader of Trafford’s Labour Group has given himself too little time to reflect on changes that could improve the party’s local fortune. He’s made minimal change to an executive that too often takes a back seat to both the leader and to senior officers. He’s got to be prepared to show the door to those underperforming and not wait for the electorate to do the job for him, particularly since the electorate have just demonstrated that they will often take out the better members of his team.

    The loss of two good cabinet members has forced a minimal change on Tom and I do welcome the promotions of Keleigh Glenton and Barry Winstanley to the executive. I just think Tom should have made deeper changes. We have been hopeless at communicating on the most basic universal services that the public judges us by.

    The Labour Party has lost the art of talking to and listening to people. How often do our lead members go out in front of residents to explain the state of their roads or why bins are not emptied etc? Their answer to everything is to tell us report, but there’s no engagement on the question as to how it’s allowed to happen in the first place. Too often it feels like we’re dealing with a pencil monitor. You need the right chit or you won’t make progress. If we do the right thing, jump through the right hoops to report and it’s still not done, then you can go to your ward councillor, but they never get an answer as to why it’s allowed to happen in the first place.

    There’s genuine opportunities to improve the relationship with voters, but it won’t be done via short form videos on TikTok and Instagram. It requires lead members who genuinely look like they take responsibility for their service areas, are willing to go out and engage with the public, take some flak, show some empathy and follow up.

    Labour’s on course to lose control of Trafford Council next year. It has a choice to just carry on as it is doing and blame it all on Labour’s national leadership or it can start properly communicating and explaining how it’s meeting various challenges.

    Featured image created by Gemini AI: https://gemini.google.com/share/84281c664184

  • One week to go

    One week to go

    There’s an election going on. Who’d know it?

    It’s a daily conversation on the media. We’re told it’s going to be a defining moment. Yet in Trafford, speaking for myself, in Lostock and Barton ward, it doesn’t feel to have caught alight.

    I know the Labour team here have been working hard, I’ve even delivered a couple of leaflet rounds myself, but where’s the buzz? And ok, I’d like to think we’ve worked hard as Labour for the ward, but we know that Brand-Labour is not at peak popularity, so why is it so quiet?

    I’ve seen a few Green Party posters and garden stakes, so there’s some activity out there and they’re on record as saying they’re targeting Longford ward. I received a national leaflet from their party, but nothing local.

    I know Reform voters will be an element in this election. Reform have been the big winners in council by-elections this past 12 months. However, those by-election wins were not achieved under the radar. They employed the exact same methods that the established parties apply. We all saw them pile into Gorton and Denton. Yes, I know they have their own TV station and are skilled in social media, so they’re not without election resources that are being applied in Lostock and Barton, but there’s still no substitute for knocking on doors. I think Reform will be delighted to get to 250 votes here.

    The Conservative Party in Trafford is an enigma. They remain the natural challenge to Labour in Lostock and Barton, but they’re flailing. The centre ground abandoned, I see no evidence of a strategy to capture the agenda beyond riding the occasional wave of discontent.

    Making up the five parties, we have the Forward with Timperley Party standing as Lib Dems here. I’m being rude, but they really do need take an interest in life outside Timperley. If anybody here has received engagement from the Lib Dems, I’ll take that back.

    I think the energy of an election can be a good thing that enables the repair of a party to begin, but where is that energy? The demographics of Trafford still have favourable segments for Labour, the so called Urban progressives and those with young families, for example. So, it will retain a good portion of its vote. At the same time, those segments moving away from Labour are spreading themselves thinly across too many alternatives. There’s a sense that Labour are braced for a trap-door to open, but watching their opponents fight over the lever. I don’t know how it will pan out but my feeling is that the lever will be barely pulled.

    Most of the postal votes are already in I think, so for many the election is over. But where was the debate, where was the challenge?

    Elections are a time to scrutinise.

    I want to celebrate Labour’s family hubs, the sure start centres of today, but I want the party to be challenged on whether they’re reaching every family that needs them.

    We’ve seen a lot of road patching in the last couple of months, are we extracting value for money? Are the patches going to last? Are they sufficient quality? Other parties should give their alternative approaches.

    Labour at least has a manifesto. I have not been able to find a manifesto from any of the other parties standing here in Lostock and Barton. Isn’t that appalling!

    I want to know how other parties propose how to address Trafford’s continuing budget deficit. Trafford’s Conservatives have put together a video at least touching upon the issue, even if their identified waste had no connection to the budget.

    Despite the absence of contesting programs, the one thing I will guarantee is that all parties that don’t lose all their seats, will see the election as ringing endorsement of every approach each party adopts for the next 12 months.

    Lastly, despite my criticism of each and every party, the greatest culpability probably lies with ourselves. We don’t have to allow this state of affairs. We’ve never had greater ability to hold hustings and publicise them. We have allowed ourselves to be passive observers of an election when it’s our only chance to hold our borough’s leadership to account. It doesn’t have to be like this.

    Prediction Votes

    Most Votes across Trafford Labour Party
    2ndGreen Party
    3rdConservative Party
    4thReform Party
    5thLiberal Democratic Party

    I’m not going to predict seats. There’s some close ones, so it’ll be interesting nonetheless.

    Photo by Tom Fisk from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/vehicles-racing-on-a-racetrack-12646461/

  • Sciencing Health

    Sciencing Health

    Delivering world-class research and innovation that improves people’s lives is a core objective of our hospital trust.

    We know that research-active hospitals deliver better care with lower mortality rates and provide a better experience for patients.

    Major clinical breakthroughs – from developing the world’s first bedside genetic test to prevent permanent deafness in newborns, to delivering world-first treatments for Hunter Syndrome – have taken place within our hospital trust.

    As a Governor appointed by the council sit on our Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, I have the privilege of attending governor development days to familiarise various aspects of work in the hospital trust. This week’s development day was a doozy.

    The morning talk was a series of presentations, the afternoon we had the chance to see the research going on at Wythenshawe.

    Some projects are cutting edge technology and others are really about reaching deep into communities to raise awareness and encourage people to come forward.

    We heard about developments in identifying harmful micro-organisms in lungs. In Intensive Care there is a need to quickly identify which anti-microbial drugs will work and which anti-microbial drugs will not work (because the bugs are resistant to the anti-microbial). One way of identifying the best anti-microbial drug is by looking at the DNA of the bug using DNA spectrometry. This can give much quicker results than traditional methods. The speeds in obtaining these results is improving as is the portability of the equipment. They’re using handheld devices when it used to require a machine the size of a fridge.

    Higher prevalence of a chronic kidney disease within Afro-Caribbean communities is known to be associated with a gene that a minority of people carry, but there remains reticence in coming forward. We heard from outreach nurses that were raising awareness as well as trying to build a cohort of people to track.

    It’s a feature of these types of work that they need volunteer participants. Sometimes participation brings its own rewards, e.g. access to cutting edge drugs or treatments for rare conditions. However, often participation is purely a selfless act.

    It was very much a consistent complaint that Wythenshawe’s chronic car parking shortages do have a particular impact. The example given was that volunteer participants do not want to spend 30 mins looking for somewhere to park their car.

    There’s obviously ambitious development plans for Wythenshawe Hospital, but they’re not going to come to fruition quickly. We’re going to have to return to this issue. I think my inclination is to reserve more parking for the research function. I don’t think we’re talking a huge amount of car parking, but obviously it would have an impact on others.

    Photo by Pavel Danilyuk: https://www.pexels.com/photo/medical-practitioners-doing-a-research-8442280/