Pray for bankrupt Birmingham
Birmingham City Council has announced that it is bankrupt, and all new spending will stop, with the exception of money protecting vulnerable people and legal services. Following the bankruptcy announcement, Birmingham’s faith leaders raised a ‘Call to Prayer for Birmingham’ outside the council house between 6.00 and 6.45 pm on Friday 8 September. Currently, the council's outgoings and legal liabilities are more than it can afford, and Bishop Desmond Jaddoo is calling all faith leaders to come together in prayer and to offer what help they can in this time of need. Bishop Jaddoo said, ‘We've noticed that at times like this, the poor, the vulnerable, families who are struggling with the cost of living, our children will feel the impact this is going to have. It's going to exacerbate pre-existing hardships along with cuts in services. We are in this together, and we've got to come together to deal with this collectively.’
Church’s statement over RAAC school closures
As families navigate the start of school, the Church of England has released a statement following news that 156 schools are at risk of collapsing because a type of concrete known as 'RAAC' was used in their construction. 52 buildings could suddenly collapse, and action was immediately taken to make them safe by propping up the concrete. The other 104 are scrambling to put safety measures in place and stay open. Schools with RAAC and no safety measures prepared must close, with pupils relocated to temporary facilities or pandemic-style online learning reintroduced. The CofE education office, which is in contact with government ministers and the Department for Education on this matter, is ensuring that dioceses are aware of the situation where it affects their schools. It says, ‘We are in close communication with them about any needed mitigations or contingency measures.’ See also
A generation of children’s mental health
Shelter states that two-thirds of families living in temporary accommodation (TA) have been there for over a year; some families have lived in TA for more than ten years. TA is usually overcrowded and of very poor quality. Children share beds with siblings or parents, with little to no space for belongings. Youngsters have no room to play safely or even learn to walk. Older children have no privacy, nowhere to do homework or have friends over. Parents struggle to feed their children nourishing meals without suitable cooking facilities, relying on expensive, unhealthy takeaways or what they can heat up with a kettle or a microwave if they have one. Children attend school tired, or late, or hungry; many travel long distances from their TA. Families are cut off from support networks. Families live in limbo. They move frequently. Uncertainty and insecurity hang over them. Their children’s mental health suffers.
Escaped criminal: prisons scandal
Khalife, a former soldier who was on remand at HMP Wandsworth, a category B prison rather than a high-security prison, escaped by clinging to the bottom of a delivery van. Professor Ian Acheson, a former prison governor and head of security at HMP Wandsworth, called it a ‘catastrophic system failure that actually starts with the allocation of Khalife to Wandsworth’. He said: “It’s pretty odd because what you would expect in terms of the allocation process is that somebody who was charged with terrorist offences under the Official Secrets Act, who’s an alleged fake bomb maker and is collecting information of use to terrorists, all of that package would lead you - I think reasonably - to conclude that this person is a flight risk, is an escape risk. The place that he should have ended up in, by all estimations, is Belmarsh prison. Wandsworth is filthy and infested with vermin; 44% of staff are off sick, and morale is awful.’
