Memorandum by The London Borough of Barnet
(SOC 65)
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to make
a submission to your Inquiry into Community Cohesion.
As London's second-largest Borough in terms
of population, Barnet is incredibly diverse with nearly 26% of
the population from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities.
We are multi-faith, all major faith communities are represented,
and multi-lingual with over 140 languages spoken by the Borough's
schoolchildren. This diversity has provided, and will continue
to provide, challenges. As a multicultural community for many
decades, we have longstanding successes in this area based on
many different factors:
We have strong political leadership in terms
of community cohesion with a Cabinet Member for Human Resources,
Equalities and Social Inclusion who chairs a strategic Cabinet
Committee for Equalities and Social Inclusion that monitors processes
such as Equalities Audits of services and the implementation of
Barnet's Equalities Standard. We have an Equalities Team who lead
on community cohesion in the borough.
We believe totally in community involvement
in delivering community cohesion. Our work is grounded in consultation
with our communities and other agencies including work by our
Civic Forum such as the formation of a Celebrating Diversity Action
Team and other forums facilitated by the Barnet Voluntary Services
Council. The key point is to know your communities and work with
them to create a good working partnership. This takes time. In
Barnet work goes back over many years and has continued through
successive and different political administrations.
Partnership working is key and we have worked
hard to forge links between ourselves and other statutory, voluntary
and community organisations through our Local Strategic Partnership
(LSP), and our Compact with the Voluntary and Community Sector.
The Chair of our LSP is a Director of the Brent Cross Shopping
Centre and this partnership undoubtedly helps us to engage with
all our communities. The shopping centre is the venue for some
of our community events, for example the Rangoli World Record
Attempt, and more recently the shopping centre hosted the Anne
Frank Exhibition to coincide with our event to mark Holocaust
Memorial Day. Our arrangements for this day included the development
of a Barnet Statement of Commitment and the launching of a Children
of the Holocaust Memorial Project. More information on the Rangoli
Project, is attached in appendix 1.
Working with children from a very young age
is of paramount importance. We place great emphasis on providing
resources for the classroom such as the Anti Racism Teaching Pack
and Competition featured in our Beacon bid. We also involve parents
and elders from different communities in the education of young
people through initiatives such as the intergenerational project.
We have attached a copy of our Beacon information pack and the
CD rom shows video footage of this year's intergenerational project—Journeys
of our Lifetime—which was performed at our Multicultural
Community Day.
Our Multicultural Community Day is held annually
in May and this year had over 800 residents attending from different
communities all over the borough. We also have what we believe
is a unique event in our Multicultural Resources Exhibition which
is a showcase for resources available for use in schools, libraries,
youth centres etc. This has been running for sixteen years and
has become a national event attracting over 80 exhibitors and
1,200 visitors from all over the country and abroad.
We respond to any possible problems quickly,
for example our advice to staff and schools after the events of
11 September and a more recent example responding to racial harassment
targeted at the Somali community on one of our housing estates,
(see appendix 2). We believe this demonstrates how community leadership
can help maintain good community relations. Our expertise is also
recognised internationally. For example we are currently advising
Soderhamn, a town in Northern Sweden, on community cohesion practice.
The local council has concerns over far right activity in the
town, especially targeted at young people and has launched an
education project to respond to this. We are providing advice
to that project with officers from Sweden visiting Barnet and
a member of our Equalities Team providing training in Sweden to
local government officers, politicians, church leaders and staff
based in schools.
We believe we have good practice to offer in
the area of community cohesion, but we are not complacent. We
are committed to making our borough a better place to live for
all of our diverse communities and are striving for continuous
improvements.
If you would like any further information please
do not hesitate to contact me.
Anne Lippitt
Director of Economic and Community Development
APPENDIX 1
EXAMPLE OF A COMMUNITY PROJECT IN PARTNERSHIP
WITH THE BUSINESS SECTOR
RANGOLI PROJECT
During autumn 2002, Barnet Council worked with
schools and the community on a rangoli project that included an
education programme and a celebratory event at Brent Cross Shopping
Centre. At Brent Cross, the Guinness World record for the largest
rangoli was achieved.
Rangoli is an Indian artform that uses coloured
rice powder and other materials to make floor patterns and is
particularly used at Diwali time. In the schools project, an artist
went into Mill Hill County and Henrietta Barnett schools where
students learnt about the techniques and history of rangoli. Their
work was exhibited at Brent Cross and at various libraries in
the borough.
The event at Brent Cross involved rangoli artists
from the local Indian community, school students and volunteers.
The massive design that filled over 100 square metres took three
days to make. There was also a mini festival with dancing, dhol
drumming, mendhi and fashion. Though the project was council led,
there was a sense of ownership from the Indian community, many
of whom came to Brent Cross to admire the work and to feel the
pride that bringing an Indian artform to such a public space brought
to them. The shopping centre want another event this year and
are looking into also celebrating Eid later in the year.
APPENDIX 2
EXAMPLE OF SWIFT RESPONSE TO REPORT OF RACIAL
HARASSMENT
Earlier in the year the borough saw community
cohesion and partnership working in action as we responded to
complaints of racial harassment from Somali women on the Dollis
Valley Estate.
A meeting was arranged in a safe location where
the women could explain the situation to the police and a wide
range of council officers. After hearing the women's concerns
we immediately arranged for a series of responses including:
— the safer communities team published
a phone card with a list of emergency numbers, including the council
out-of-hours number (the out of hours team was briefed on the
issue);
— local schools were asked to warn
pupils about racial harassment (the alleged perpetrators were
schoolchildren);
— the Lead Member for Housing, and
Environmental Health, the Lead Member for Human Resources, Equalities
and Social Inclusion and the three Ward Councillors (two Conservative
plus one Labour) took a proactive role and wrote to all residents
of the estate appealing for responsible behaviour, warning them
the council and police would take such offences very seriously
and reminding council tenants that their leases forbade harassment;
— the mobile CCTV unit visited the
estate regularly and patrols by the Street Enforcement Service
were increased.
— the Youth Service put in place a
holiday activity scheme for young people that was specifically
targeted at possible perpetrators. In addition another youth worker
established a support network for the women using the local youth
centre as a base.
In setting up the above the council recognised
that these were short-term responses. However, the reaction from
the Somali community has been positive and representatives from
community organisations have told us that they now feel supported.
Work continues on more long-term developments, especially as part
of the regeneration process currently being planned for the estate.
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