The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (often abbreviated to RBKC), is a vibrant, ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse area lying to the west of central London. The borough was created in 1965 from the two former boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea. Kensington's Royal Borough status was inherited by this new borough. It is an urban area and was named in the 2001 census as the most densely populated local authority in the United Kingdom, with a population currently estimated at 165,000. There are over one hundred languages spoken in borough schools. The borough has a population mix of newly arrived asylum seekers, migrants and refugees, who have settled in the area as well as many settled communities with generations of families living close by and, residents having a strong attachment to their local neighbourhood.
RBKC borders the three London boroughs of the City of Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham and Brent. It is an area of diverse socio-economic, geographic and political stratification where extremes of poverty and disadvantage are juxtaposed with those of affluence and wealth. It has the largest number of high-earners (over 60,000) of any administrative region in the country - 16.6% and the highest number of workers in the financial sector, with the lowest number working in the retail sector. Located in the heart of modern London, RBKC contains a substantial number of city centre facilities such as major museums and universities, department stores like Harrods, and embassies. It also contains many of the most exclusive residential districts in London.
The borough is defined by its central London location and proximity to key transport routes. Economically, it is dominated by a strong service sector which draws many people from across London, who travel to work in Kensington and Chelsea everyday. It also has a highly transient population. Recent findings from the 2001 census show that 19% of the population within the borough had a different address in the previous year compared to an inner London average of 17.5%1 This transience has a fundamental impact upon advice needs in the borough given that residential changes are likely to trigger off advice needs in social welfare matters.
As of October 2004, statistics released by the Office for National Statistics indicated that life expectancy at birth for females in Kensington and Chelsea was 84.8 years in 2001-2003, the highest in the United Kingdom. Male life expectancy at birth for the same period was 79.8 years, third highest in the UK. The figures for Kensington and Chelsea during 1991-1993 were significantly lower: 73.0 years for males (ranking 301st in the nation) and 80.0 for females (ranking 129th).
There is a lack of adequate state secondary school provision in the borough which means that many children attend schools out of the borough in Hammersmith and Fulham, Wandsworth and Westminster. Recent evidence shows that school exclusions in the borough are still a problem. In 2002-2003 there were 277 exclusions from primary and secondary schools in the Royal Borough. This represents an increase of 53% compared with the 2001-2002 academic year when there were 181 exclusions. Of these nearly a quarter (24%) involved pupils attending schools in the Golborne and St Charles wards.
Pupils from Black Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds still continue to be over-represented amongst the exclusion figures in the borough. Recent figures available show that in 2002-2003 BME children accounted for 72% of all pupils excluded from schools in Kensington and Chelsea. In primary schools, pupils from BME backgrounds accounted for 66% of exclusions while in secondary schools they represented 74% of exclusions2 yet overall they account for less than 20% of the total school population. A disproportionate number of excluded pupils also have a special educational need (SEN). During the academic year 2001-2002 over 90% of pupils excluded from primary school had a special need while in secondary schools, 44% of pupils excluded were statemented as having special needs. 3
Residents' average incomes are the highest outside the City of London. As an example of the perceived affluence, some 40% of properties are in Council Tax bands G and H. Yet nearly 20% of households in the borough live in social housing and over 70% are in receipt of housing benefit. In particular areas of the borough, such as Golborne and St Charles, unemployment is twice the average for the borough at around 10%. 4
REP KC is located in North Kensington, which lies to the north of Notting Hill and south of Kensal Green. It has the postcode W10. The name North Kensington has undergone periods in and out of fashion. The wards of St. Charles, where REP KC is based, along with Golborne are the two most deprived wards within the Kensington and Chelsea and among the ten per cent most deprived wards in England. 5
The area originally was called Notting Dale to distinguish it from Notting Hill, which lay at the south end of Ladbroke Grove, the area's main thoroughfare. Large mansions were built along Ladbroke Grove in the late nineteenth century and the area re-branded itself as 'North Kensington'. The large houses were split up and sub-divided beginning in the 1920s, and by the 1950s the area was a slum. The name North Kensington began to have a bad reputation.
1 RBKC Census, 2002 - Migration
2 Exclusions 2001-2002, RBK&C, December 2002
3 Exclusions 2002-2003, RBK&C, December 2003
4 2001 Census
5 Index of Multiple Deprivation 2000, DLTR 2000
Related Topics
The future of the Tabernacle Community Centre, Notting Hill