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The winner of the first ever Entrepreneurial Barnet Competition, organised by Middlesex University, Barnet Council and Barnet and Southgate College, was announced last week. Rebecca Manning, Chief Executive of the Community Interest Company Happy to Be, was announced as the competition winner after a grand final pitch event on 8 March. 

The plans will see a transitional funding formula used for Barnet’s schools over the next two years to give schools more time to adjust budgets before the full implementation of a national funding formula in 2020/21. In 2018/19 the council has worked to develop funding arrangements which will see no school in Barnet receive less money per pupil than they did in 2017/18. The proposals were developed in consultation with Barnet’s Schools Forum, and were agreed by Barnet’s CELS committee when it met on 16 January.

A landlord has been fined over £3,000 for failing to have a licence for his House in Multiple Occupation (HMO). Manzoor Hussain, of Ferney Road, East Barnet, pleaded guilty at Willesden Magistrates’ Court on 22 March 2016 to failing without reasonable excuse to have a licence, and was fined £3,500, ordered to pay £2,446 in costs and pay a £120 victim surcharge. Since 2006, landlords of HMOs of three or more storeys with five or more tenants sharing amenities such as kitchens and bathrooms are required to hold a licence.

He takes over from the borough’s previous Mayor, Councillor David Longstaff. Councillor Salinger’s wife Kate, who is a former councillor for Coppetts Ward, will be his Mayoress. The Mayor has chosen Councillor Val Duschinsky, who represents Mill Hill Ward, to be his Deputy Mayor. The Worshipful the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Brian Salinger, is in his 31st year as a councillor in Barnet, having represented Friern Barnet ward and, after boundary changes, Oakleigh ward.

The theme for this year’s Fostering Fortnight, which runs from 8 – 21 May, is ‘Proud to Foster’. There are close to 64,000 children who live in foster families across the UK. In Barnet, there are 118 foster carers who care for around 190 of the children and young people. The Fostering Network estimates that fostering services will need to recruit a further 5,900 foster families in England over the coming year, underlining the importance of encouraging more people to consider becoming a foster carer.

Girisha Gunaratna of Ranmoor Gardens, Harrow, was recently found guilty at Willesden Magistrates’ Court and requested to pay £19,506.90 for failing to licence and manage 59A and 61A The Burroughs, Hendon. This follows last month’s prosecution by Barnet Council of three landlords for failing to obtain a licence for an HMO.

The new services which were launched on 3 July aim to bring down rates of HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unplanned pregnancies and to make services more accessible and simpler to use by residents.

The annual ceremony was held on Sunday 29 January in the Rickett Quadrangle at Middlesex University’s campus in The Burroughs, Hendon. The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day was ‘how can life go on’? The theme asks people to think about what happens after genocide, and to consider our own responsibilities in the wake of such a crime.

The Barnet Children Practice Academy (BCPA) will provide a clearly structured way for the council’s social workers and other family services staff to develop with additional training - helping to foster best practice, and ensure the best possible outcomes for the families they support. The new academy will provide ongoing training and mentoring to social workers and staff of all levels.

Residents have until the 18 April to make sure that they have their say in the important elections being held in the borough on 5 May.   The Underhill Ward by-election, Mayor of London, Barnet and Camden Constituency London Assembly Member and London-wide Assembly Member elections will all take place on 5 May with all the results expected to be declared on 6 May once the counts have been completed.