Conclusions and recommendations
Tackling the Causes of the Disturbances
1. Social
cohesion should be seen as a long term issue to be considered
by all agencies. It has been brought to prominence by the disturbances
in 2001 but it should not be seen predominantly as a law and order
issue. Social cohesion requires the securing of improvements in
the quality of life for all citizens and should be addressed in
all policies and services developed by public agencies. (Paragraph
13)
Local Services
2. Many
public agencies now have the remit to promote social cohesion
and are tasked with producing race equality strategies. Much more
clarity is required as to what the strategies should comprise.
It is unclear how they are supposed to be drawn up or implemented.
There is a danger that the range of initiatives will be poorly
coordinated and fragmented. Local authorities need to be given
overall responsibility to coordinate their initiatives. (Paragraph
20)
3. Councils need greater
incentives to promote social cohesion. The Government should revise
the Comprehensive Performance Assessment weightings to reflect
greater importance to social cohesion issues and to consider a
council's procedures for addressing them across all their operational
areas. Councils should also revise their corporate structure to
integrate social cohesion within their management structures and
oversight and scrutiny committees. (Paragraph 21)
4. Local authorities
and other public agencies need to develop a vision for the provision
of services which ensures that they serve different communities.
They need to choose carefully both the means of delivery and the
location for new facilities to ensure that they are accessible
to the various different communities in an area and do not pander
to sectarianism. Any decision on the funding of a new initiative
and the location of a new public facility needs to be tested to
ensure that it will promote social cohesion and avoid segregation.
(Paragraph 25)
5. All existing central
Government policies relating to the delivery of public services
should be reviewed to ensure that, as far as possible the kind
of public service duplication (and consequent institutionalised
segregation) that has occurred in parts of Northern Ireland is
avoided. All funding applications for new public facilities such
as schools, hospitals, leisure/community centres, etc, should
be closely scrutinised from a social cohesion standpoint. This
scrutiny should assess any potential factors that might inhibit
one or other group from using these facilities. The Comprehensive
Performance Assessments of local authorities should look for evidence
that they have ensured that all policy or funding decisions promote
social integration and avoid segregation. (Paragraph 26)
6. We agree that the
Government needs to develop more sophisticated measures to assess
whether councils are promoting social cohesion. These need to
be linked to Best Value Performance Indicators and the Comprehensive
Performance Assessment. However, we do accept that it will always
be necessary to ask local people about their views and believe
that these subjective measures should at least form part of the
assessment. (Paragraph 28)
7. Councils need to
work hard to create a climate in which people do not feel frightened
or threatened and feel they can talk. The experience from Oldham
underlines the importance for councils to promote open discussion
about difficult issues associated with race. (Paragraph 30)
8. Local authorities
need to take more seriously their relationship with the local
media. They should be encouraged to develop a communications group
among officers working on social cohesion to ensure that the
benefits of their projects are maximised in the media and that
any misinformation can be quickly countered. (Paragraph 36)
9. The media also
need to recognise their responsibilities and the benefits of promoting
social cohesion. The new Home Office guidance on media relations
should suggest that local authorities and other local agencies
use their advertising and promotional budgets to encourage the
local media to promote social cohesion by serving all local communities.
(Paragraph 37)
10. Local authorities
and other local agencies should agree a local concordat with local
media setting out how they will work together and a panel of representatives
from both organisations should be established to monitor the relationship.
The local media should take the initiative in establishing contact
with faith and ethnic minorities on a regular basis and ensure
that ethnic minority groups are represented in their workforce
so that they have a fuller understanding of community issues.
(Paragraph 38)
Regeneration Programmes
11. Neighbourhood
initiatives can be effective and avoid rivalries between communities
if they are part of a wider strategy which is widely understood
and subject to widespread consultation. However, they must be
part of a wider strategy. (Paragraph 46)
12. Councils should
consider grouping wards together to benefit from regeneration
funds and give greater priority to thematic programmes to avoid
the possible accusations that one ethnic group is benefiting.
The Government and the RDAs should set a spending balance between
area funds and district wide thematic spending. The guidance to
RDAs needs revising to emphasise their role in promoting social
cohesion and to set out a process for the agencies to consider
how their funding decisions can encourage it. (Paragraph
47)
13. The Committee
welcomes the publication by the Government of advice on area based
initiatives and community cohesion. It must ensure that the recommendations
are now fully implemented. Implementation will require a review
of its funding policies nationally to ensure that thematic programmes
are given greater priority. (Paragraph 48)
Education
14. Parental
choice can unfortunately increase segregation. The quality of
school provision is an important but not sole determinant of choice.
Some choices are motivated by ignorance and fear of other cultures
and LEAs and schools have to be prepared to adopt new techniques
to ensure that choices are better informed and not based on misconceptions
about whether that particular school is 'for them'. To achieve
greater social cohesion, improving the quality of schools becomes
even more important so that all schools are equally attractive.
(Paragraph 55)
15. The Committee
commends the work of the local authorities and the educational
staff in relation to the success of Oldham 6th Form College and
Oldham Further Education College, and recommends that a study
be undertaken to identify best practice for application to the
primary and secondary sectors. (Paragraph 56)
16. With a major school
rebuilding programme currently underway, real progress in tackling
segregation can be achieved if the sites are chosen carefully.
The Committee suggests that additional thought is needed for plans
to regenerate schools in urban areas so that full advantage is
taken of the opportunities to provide facilities serving all communities
in an area. (Paragraph 57)
17. The Department
for Education and Skills should commission a survey into the relative
performance of multi-cultural schools aimed at dispelling any
concerns that they perform any less well than mono-cultural or
single faith schools. It should facilitate and lead an open discussion
on the role that faith schools can play in tackling mono-cultural
neighbourhoods. (Paragraph 58)
18. It should be recognised
that in some circumstances there could be a conflict between parental
choice and social cohesion. The Committee recommends that the
Department should prepare revised guidelines for local authorities
regarding admissions policies for schools, focusing on strategies
for coping with problems arising from parental choice. Efforts
should be made to enable the relative performance of local schools
to be highlighted in a way that makes them attractive to all local
people regardless of their background. In this regard, all multi-cultural
schools should be seeking to make a virtue of the richness they
can offer to potential students. Councils should be encouraged
to inform parents about the advantages of their children attending
multi-cultural schools, in terms of exposure to other cultures
and a better standard of overall education. (Paragraph 59)
19. The Government
needs to prevent, and where necessary reverse, any tendency for
faith schools to become mono-cultural. Faith schools do not apparently
perceive themselves as having the potential to make a contribution
to achieving social cohesion. The DFES should provide additional
guidance to faith schools on how to address social cohesion both
in terms of their admissions policies and their curriculum. No
new faith schools should be approved unless they are committed
to promoting a multicultural agenda. (Paragraph 61)
20. Twinning initiatives
can help to bridge divides between communities, but they must
not be seen as one-off projects. The DFES and Local Education
Authorities must see them as part of core funding for schools
and put on a long term funding basis. They must be seen as the
first step to breaking down the barriers between the communities
and the eventual re-integration of school populations and not
necessarily as an end in themselves. (Paragraph 64)
21. There are opportunities
to incorporate in the curriculum concepts and ideas intended to
promote greater understanding and tolerance of other cultures.
This could be achieved by including such material as a natural
part of the class-work in schools, as demonstrated by the Leicester
experience. (Paragraph 66)
22. The Committee
recommends that the Department should use the work that has been
done in Leicester as a case study in order to determine how this
initiative can be taken forward in terms of embedding multi-culturalism
into the national curriculum. (Paragraph 67)
23. Ofsted's remit
needs to give added emphasis to issues of social cohesion. Social
cohesion should become a regular part of Ofsted inspections. It
should look at both the way social cohesion is addressed by education
authorities and also within schools. Ofsted inspection should
give greater consideration to the varying performances of pupils
from different ethnic and cultural groups. (Paragraph 70)
24. The Committee
recommends that the DFES should continue to work with Ofsted to
further develop the schools inspection and appraisal systems so
that greater recognition is given to the performance of multi-cultural
schools in representing the ethnic mix of their communities and
that good performance in this respect is rewarded in an appropriate
way. In particular, the DFES should consider whether specific
action is needed within schools to address instances where pupils
from one or other group are demonstrably under-performing in comparison
to the school population as a whole. (Paragraph 71)
Youth Provision
25. Providing
high quality youth services is a fundamental requirement for addressing
social cohesion. We urge the Government to put the provision by
local authorities of youth services on to a statutory basis to
ensure adequate standard and consistent provision. This needs
to be backed up by adequate funding from central Government. (Paragraph
76)
26. Other services,
particularly the fire stations can play an important role in promoting
social cohesion because they are not involved in law enforcement
nor are they associated with any particular cultural or ethnic
group. The Government should actively encourage greater work by
fire services in bridging divides between communities, particularly
among disaffected youth. (Paragraph 77)
The needs of vulnerable people
27. The
Committee was concerned that the needs of vulnerable groups (such
as, but not limited to, the elderly) could differ within some
ethnic communities for a wide variety of reasons including cultural
habits. If left unaddressed, such differences might result in
unnecessary hardship for those very people who were least able
to cope. The Committee recommends that government guidance to
the wider public service on social cohesion policy should seek
special recognition for the needs of vulnerable groups, especially
within the black and ethnic minority communities. (Paragraph 80)
The role of the Community and Voluntary Sectors
28. The
voluntary and community sector has an important role in working
with local communities to promote social cohesion but there is
a danger that they can increase segregation by working with only
one community. Local authorities need to develop a strategy which
identifies when it is appropriate to fund an organisation catering
for only one cultural group. Grant conditions should otherwise
require voluntary and community organisations to work across community
boundaries. Every effort should be made to ensure that community
centres cater for a range of cultural groups rather than separate
centres being provided for different groups. (Paragraph 88)
29. In many instances,
projects that have been initiated under short term arrangements
are simply too valuable to be left to the vagaries and uncertainties
of the kind of competition in which voluntary organisations are
required to participate in order to keep them going. If an activity
has been demonstrated to be beneficial to the development of social
cohesion in a neighbourhood and its continued existence would
be of benefit, then it should be considered for mainstream funding.
Short term project funding should be reviewed in relation to funding
streams that are intended to address the social cohesion agenda.
It is suggested that a formalised procedure should be established
to assess regularly the suitability of social cohesion projects
for mainstreaming. (Paragraph 89)
Central Government
30. If
social cohesion is of such importance to the Government, it deserves
explicit reference in strategy documents, particularly those such
as "the Northern Way" that address the needs of the
towns which suffered the disturbances. (Paragraph 94)
31. More work is needed
to formalise and clarify the lines of responsibility between the
Home Office and the ODPM. Clear leadership is required to direct
the programme. One single group should have authority over Government
Departments and agencies. The group should produce guidelines
to ensure that all new government policies support social cohesion
and that it is embedded into all policy development. All new Government
policies should be assessed to determine whether they maximise
every possible opportunity to improve community environments,
tackle deprivation, and promote understanding. (Paragraph 95)
32. The Committee
recommends that the Government rationalise and integrate the full
range of schemes presently available to local authorities and
voluntary bodies offered by several different departments and
funding organisations. The assessment should not lead to a reduction
in the overall funds available to local authorities and the voluntary
agencies but an enhancement of the ability of such organisations
to access them wherever possible, and to consolidation of schemes,
in order to make them easier to access. (Paragraph 99)
33. The Inter-departmental
Ministerial Group on Community Cohesion should reduce the overall
number of schemes and simplify the criteria involved, with a view
to cutting unnecessary expenditure of resources in completing
applications. The ultimate objective should be to ensure that
all available funds are drawn down and equitably distributed among
the applicant bodies. (Paragraph 100)
34. The Committee
further asks Ministers to recognise that the funding of schemes
designed to enhance social cohesion across a broad front will
be required to be sustained over the longer term and indeed in
certain specific instances may need to be increased. Government
should embed the need for social cohesion funding into national
expenditure planning. (Paragraph 101)
35. The Committee
commends the steps already taken by the Home Office and ODPM to
identify best practice in terms of those procedures and policies
that have been proven to be successful. The proven technique of
identifying examples of best practice and using them to assist
other organisations at an earlier stage in drawing up their social
cohesion strategies should be further developed. However, simply
disseminating information about what works is not enough. The
Government should initiate a programme of continuing assistance
in which organisations would be given feedback about their performance
delivery on a wide range of initiatives. (Paragraph 105)
36. The issues of
recruitment and subsequent training of staff are particularly
important if organisations are to gain the confidence of the public
and guidance; more practical assistance should be developed in
these areas. The Committee recommends that further work should
be undertaken regarding the mechanisms for identifying the lessons
learned which should encompass all government departments and
the wider public service. (Paragraph 106)
37. The Committee
recommends that arrangements should be put in place for any necessary
follow-up action that may be needed to ensure that acceptable
minimum standards of service are universally applied. (Paragraph
107)
38. The Committee
recommends that guidance to local authorities and other public
service employers should address the need to take appropriate
measures to ensure that their workforce reflects the ethnic composition
in the locality. The Committee further recommends that the training
of practitioners and other public servants whose role impacts
on social cohesion matters should be conducted to national standards
devised at central government level. (Paragraph 108)
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing,
Planning, Local Government and the Regions
39. The
Committee recommends that the original guidance for Local Strategic
Partnerships should be reviewed and up-dated to incorporate, among
other matters, specific references to the need to pursue targets
designed to promote social cohesion. (Paragraph 111)
40. The Committee
recommends that the ODPM, in conjunction with other relevant departments
and the local authorities, should review the present policies
on 'choice based letting'. The objective should be to create strategies
to mitigate or reverse the tendency for freedom of choice to lead
to greater segregation. This would best be achieved by making
integration in housing the most attractive option for householders.
Any choice-based lettings policy should include a strategy which
included encouragement for greater integration by offering support
to tenants moving into areas where they might be in a minority.
(Paragraph 118)
41. The Government
appears committed to ensuring the adequate provision of community
support in the areas benefiting from its Sustainable Communities
programme. These policies must ensure that housing schemes and
new facilities contribute to social cohesion by attracting and
integrating different communities. (Paragraph 120)
Home Office
42. The
Committee concluded that much could be achieved in restoring the
confidence of the public in the police service as a whole by focusing
on building trust between individuals within communities and the
local police officers that serve them. Whilst recognising the
inherent difficulties relating to operational imperatives and
the career development of individual officers, the development
and implementation of advanced practices in geographical policing
for local communities will make a real difference in overall relations
with the police. (Paragraph 130)
43. The Committee
welcomes the new commitment by many police forces to work with
local communities. The NCPE/ACPO guidance will help to spread
good practice. It is disappointing that these initiatives are
not receiving more support at a national level and that the emphasis
on promoting community cohesion in the previous National Policing
Plan has not been carried through to the latest version. It is
vital that this is reviewed so that a strong direction is given
to police forces to prioritise programmes which seek to achieve
greater social cohesion including geographical policing. The Committee
recommends that the Home Office should work with NCPE/ACPO to
give a high priority to bringing forward guidance and best practice
examples in the field of social cohesion. The commitment which
police officers make to local communities needs to be positively
valued when promotions are considered by senior management. (Paragraph
131)
44. There is greater
cooperation between the Home Office and the ODPM around policing
arrangements in neighbourhoods. This collaboration needs to be
formalised. The National Policing Plan needs to be subject to
wide discussion and renamed as a community safety plan. The partnership
arrangements between the police and local agencies and communities
needs to be reviewed. Local Strategic Partnerships need a stronger
remit to address policing issues. (Paragraph 132)
45. The Home Office
needs to develop a new set of targets which measure the benefits
of police forces making a long term commitment to communities,
rather than the simplistic crime reduction targets, and needs
to articulate clearly the role of the police service in delivering
Public Service Agreement 9, which aims to bring about measurable
improvements in race equality and community cohesion across a
range of performance indicators. (Paragraph 133)
46. The Committee
recommends that any review of Asylum policy by the Home Office
should incorporate an examination of those cases where the current
dispersal policy is alleged to have damaged local communities.
The lessons learned from such case studies should be used to inform
the further development of asylum policy. The Home Office's work
on social cohesion should be extended to providing advice to the
National Asylum Seekers Service with a clearly identified contact
point. Clear guidance should be provided to NASS on developing
relationships with local authorities and other service providers,
local communities and the voluntary sector and sufficient resources
should be provided. (Paragraph 137)
47. The Committee
welcomes the CRE's commitment to address actively the community
cohesion agenda. However, it seems that it is perceiving the entire
social cohesion agenda as a vehicle for pursuing its own strictly
equality-based objectives. The CRE should give greater emphasis
to promoting the wider goals of social cohesion for their own
sake rather than seeing them as part of its equality agenda. The
CRE should review the way it undertakes its statutory duty to
promote 'good race relations' in a more positive way so that it
encourages a greater understanding between different communities.
(Paragraph 142)
48. The Committee
recommends that if the Government decides to go ahead with the
single equality body, its contribution to achieving social cohesion
should be maximised. Promoting social cohesion should be incorporated
into the vision statement for the new organisation. (Paragraph
143)
Department of Health
49. The
Committee recommends that the Department of Health should undertake
a root and branch review of the provision of translation services
with a view to establishing a properly funded service that removes
the current disadvantage experienced by some members of the ethnic
minority communities. (Paragraph 149)
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