Thursday 20 September 2012

Lively Brent Council conference expected tomorrow

People are getting in touch with disbelief about the latest turn of events in Brent and asking what's the suspension of Clive Heaphy. I don't know what the specific allegation is but gross misconduct has to be pretty serious. Things such as racism, sexism, misuse of IT systems, major breaches of confidentiality would all be covered but it could be something quite technical. Remember these are only allegations and the council has a duty to investigate to see if they have any basis. Suspension is a neutral act while an investigation takes place and doesn't imply guilt. The same applies in the case of teachers and headteachers.

Meanwhile the Brent Executive and Senior Officers and Managers have a conference tomorrow which was arranged long ago. It should be interesting. Any flies on the wall should get in touch!

4 comments:

Martin Francis said...

Apparently it was very low key, if not a little boring!

Anonymous said...

The two Executive Directors who did not sign the letter in support of outgoing Chief Executive, Gareth Daniel are Fiona Ledden (Legal and now holding the Chief Executive fort) and Clve Heaphy (Finance and now suspended). Is there some link to Clive's departure?

Clive Heaphy brought in a former colleague to head the HR function. She is also a dog trainer and Brent is paying her several hundreds of pounds per day for her services. This individual has, in turn, brought in several of her own former colleagues (lots of links with Ofsted) to work in HR and has instructed existing HR staff not to discuss how many hundreds of pounds each one is being paid on a daily basis for their services.

In the meantime, the incumbent Director of HR has been suspended pending investigation - a step that was instigated by Clive Heaphy - no one knows why.

The news of the appointment of the external interim Chief Executive has emerged with almost indecent haste after the departure of the previous incumbent. Are the people of Brent being told the entire story of Gareth Daniel's departure? Was it all in train weeks in advance of the announcement?

Why is Brent money continuing to be wasted, unscrutinised, on expensive consultants who happen to be former colleagues of current incumbents?

Is there any connection in all of this or is it the usual Brent chaos?

Martin Francis said...

I have received a comment on this post which makes a number of claims about events within the council. I am awaiting corroboration before publishing.

Anonymous said...

Clive Heaphy worked at OFSTED as interim finance director when the CEO of OFSTED was .......Christine Gilbert.
No-one has mentioned this but it is in the public domain