8 March (Part 1) - Superwoman meets Bexley’s Supreme Controller
Why is having a
Head of Professional Standards and Quality Assurance with an MBE looking
after Bexley’s lamentable children’s services suddenly so important to Bexley
council? Cabinet member Katie Perrior
couldn’t resist
bragging about it at this week’s council meeting either.
I’ve been a cynic about MBEs ever since I was instructed to name a worthy
recipient of a gong after initially saying I had no one on my staff who merited
one. I decided to do a bit of research on this MBE holder but became sidetracked.
I found an MBE holder who is the Development Manager at a Safeguarding
Children’s Board and advisor to MAPPA (Multi-Agency
Public Protection Arrangements) for the Ministry of Justice. A Justice of the Peace too.
She holds positions at the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and the Local
Government Association and been a non-executive
director of an NHS Care Trust. Then the research led me closer to home.
She has been a Bexley school governor, on the board of a nearby children’s hospice, is
a recipient of a Bexley Civic Award, worked for Bexley Voluntary Services and
has lived in Welling for a very long time. She even worked for Bexley council
for a while. But she isn’t
Barbara Travanion, chair of Bexley’s Safeguarding Children’s Board or Lucie Heyes MBE
the quality Assurance Manager for Children’s Services taken on by Bexley council to rescue their failed children’s services.
You can probably discover her name by Googling some of the employing
organisations to find the common factor. I started out with little more than the
initials MBE, Bexley and ‘children’s services’ to go on.
I’ve been in contact with a man who might know a little more. He told me
something interesting, though unfortunately I have drawn a total blank on the
subject on the web. I was told that the lady was passed by Conservative Central
Office as suitable MP material. How would she ever find the time?
Maybe
she felt the same because I have no evidence that the matter was ever taken
any further; instead, if my contact is correct, she set her sights a little
lower by applying to become a councillor in Bexley in May 2014.
That required passing a selection process too and that of course would be
chaired by you know who, Bexley’s very own dictator. What happened? Well
according to my informant she was rejected in favour of a councillor’s wife.
As UKIP has noted, choosing spouses to be councillors is a good way of ensuring
total loyalty to ‘she who must be obeyed’.
If anyone knows where I can see a copy of David Cameron’s 2009 approved list I
would be most grateful.