Last Tuesday I chaired our Corporate Parenting Board. As councillors we are responsible for children placed in the care of the state and there is no more important a role that we are asked to fulfil.
As a council we have responsibility for 336 children in care including 51 unaccompanied children seeking asylum and additionally 373 care leavers.
We heard feedback from our looked after children on how we can provide the opportunities and experiences they need.
Top of the list was a request to shadow councillors for work experience. My first day to be shadowed is already lined up and we are going to role out a programme on this as soon as we can.
Your Labour administration will prioritise the wellbeing of our children in care. We want to boost our number of foster carers and this week we are proposing increasing the funding available for foster families. We are also keen to examine housing for care leavers to ensure it is of suitable quality.
A stain on our city is the disappearance of 136 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from a hotel in Hove in 2021 and 2022.
Last Friday, the Family Court confirmed what the Labour group has said all along: unaccompanied asylum-seeking children put by the Home Office into hotels, are children in need and the legal responsibility of local authorities who are now left to pick up the pieces of this Home Office safeguarding disaster.
We are desperately worried about those children that remain missing, including 23 children under 18 years old. We will of course continue to co-operate with Sussex Police and national police efforts to find these children.
If the Home Office continues to reserve the right to use dangerous and scandal-hit hotels to house children in our area, we will work with local authorities across the country to challenge this to prevent further children suffering harm.
One of the first acts of our administration was to put the Home Office on notice that to continue with this reckless practice is unlawful and we are actively considering bringing a legal challenge in the High Court.
On Sunday I was honoured to lay a wreath at the Chattri memorial to honour the service and sacrifice of the injured Indian soldiers who were brought to the Royal Pavilion during World War One for medical care.
As a child, my Dad often told me of these Indian soldiers: hundreds were nursed back to health but some sadly died. Fifty-three were cremated at the site of the Chattri and others buried elsewhere in our region.
Particularly poignant is the story of two elderly men that I sat close to during the service: the grandsons of Manta Singh and Captain Henderson. Manta Singh saved the life of his British officer, Captain Henderson, on the Western Front, to be shot in the left leg while doing so. Manta was hospitalised in Brighton where he died of his wounds and was cremated on the Chattri site.
Watching his grandson, Jaimal Singh, clutching the hand of Captain Henderson’s grandson on Sunday as they laid a wreath together was deeply moving. A shared history and a common purpose. The families have stayed great friends and Jaimal’s father, Assa, fought the Nazis in North Africa and Italy.
Brighton has a unique and multi-cultural history and nowhere was this more on show than at Sunday’s service. Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, atheists and more all gathered to honour those who gave their today for our tomorrow. Our shared history must be respected, our shared present cherished and our shared future, nurtured.
Last week saw huge national political developments. Boris Johnson, a self-serving coward to the end, resigned from Parliament following the report from the Privileges Committee. Notice how fickle his commitment to Parliamentary Sovereignty when Parliament refuses to bend to his will?
The Tory party is ripping itself to shreds. Thirteen years of failure, instability and internal psychodrama. Britain deserves a General Election now.
In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon’s arrest understandably sent shockwaves. Polling suggests that Labour is reconnecting with Scotland and offering our Scottish communities the hope we all so desperately need.
Here at home, Caroline Lucas has announced she will not re-stand in Brighton Pavilion. I have great respect for Caroline and believe she’s made a huge contribution to our national politics. I know she’ll continue to play a role in public life and wish her well.
But whether the Green Party can retain the seat remains to be seen. We are the only national Party that can green our economy at the scale needed.
Caroline has commanded a significant personal vote but we won the popular vote in Brighton Pavilion in the local elections last month.
Residents may decide they want a seat at the table – and not on the sidelines – of the next Labour Government.
Councillor Bella Sankey is the Labour leader of Brighton and Hove City Council.
