Select Committee on Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Written Evidence


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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