ITEM CA15
THE CABINET – 18 SEPTEMBER 2007
COMMISSION ON INTEGRATION AND COHESION
Report by Head of Partnership Working & Corporate Strategies Manager
Introduction
1. The purpose of this report is to consider the recommendations of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion’s final report “Our Shared Future” and how the County Council might respond.
2. The Commission was announced by the Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government on 24 August 2006 as a fixed term advisory body. It was charged with considering how local areas can make the most of the benefits delivered by increasing diversity and how they can respond to the tensions it can sometimes cause. The aim being to develop practical approaches that build communities’ own capacity to prevent problems, including those caused by segregation and the dissemination of extremist ideologies. The Commission is one of a number of Government initiatives around cohesion and improving community relations. The disturbances in towns such as Oldham and Bradford and the events in London on 7 July 2005 have informed the thrust of this agenda.
3. The Commission’s final report, “Our Shared Future”, was published on 14 June 2007. The Department for Communities & Local Government is expected to make a full response in the Autumn. It is likely to reference the recommendations in future rounds of Local Area Agreements.
4. In addition, the IDeA has recently released “New European Migration”, a good practice guide for local authorities which provides parallel guidance on addressing issues relating to this growing segment of the population.
Main Conclusions of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion’s Final Report
5. The Commission has defined cohesion and integration as follows:
"Cohesion is principally the process that must happen in all communities to ensure different groups of people get on well together; while integration is principally the process that ensures new residents and existing residents adapt to one another”.
6. The report’s proposals embody four key principles that the Commission believes underpin this new understanding of integration and cohesion:
1. The sense of shared futures – an emphasis on articulating what binds communities together rather than what differences divide them. 2. An emphasis on a new model of rights and responsibilities – one that makes clear both a sense of citizenship at national and local level, and the obligations that go along with membership of a community, both for individuals and groups. 3. An ethics of hospitality – a new emphasis on mutual respect and civility that recognises mutual respect is fundamental to issues of integration and cohesion. 4. A commitment to equality that sits alongside the need to deliver visible social justice, to prioritise transparency and fairness, and build trust in the institutions that arbitrate between groups.
7. The Commission has made the following conclusions regarding what a ‘shared future’ can look like. In their view, an integrated and cohesive community is one where:
· There is a clearly defined and widely shared sense of the contribution of different individuals and different communities to a future vision for a neighbourhood, city, region or country. · There is a strong sense of an individual’s rights and responsibilities when living in a particular place – people know what everyone expects of them, and what they can expect in turn. · Those from different backgrounds have similar life opportunities, access to services and treatment. · There is a strong sense of trust in institutions locally to act fairly in arbitrating between different interests and for their role and justifications to be subject to public scrutiny. · There is a strong recognition of the contribution of both those who have newly arrived and those who already have deep attachments to a particular place, with a focus on what they have in common. · There are strong and positive relationships between people from different backgrounds in the workplace, in schools and other institutions within neighbourhoods.
Recommendations of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion’s Final Report
8. The report sets out fifty-seven recommendations, the majority of which relate to the role of local government. If accepted into Government policy, these will significantly impact on how local authorities manage their integration and cohesion activities. For example, one of the recommendations is that the Audit Commission should ensure that locally determined integration and cohesion measures are clearly incorporated into the Comprehensive Area Assessment regime.
9. A summary of the main points of the recommendations relating to local authorities is given below. The recommendations envisage that local government will be expected to:
(a) Adopt the new definition of integration and cohesion, and set out their vision of the ‘shared future’ for their area within a cohesion and integration policy. (b) Map their communities and use this as one way to identify tensions and opportunities. (c) Mainstream integration and cohesion within Sustainable Community Strategies, Local Strategic Partnership management and wider service delivery, particularly for youth provision. (d) Formalise partnerships with voluntary and community sector and faith communities to suit local LSP structures, through local service level agreements or contracts. (e) Develop local area indicators of integration and cohesion and monitor performance on cohesion. (f) Have clear workforce strategies in place relating to targeted recruitment to ensure a representative workforce and recognising the need for flexible working. (g) Recognise the joint responsibility of employers to deal with integration and cohesion issues arising from growing number of migrant workers. (h) Endorse the proposals that political parties should consider how their candidates can better reflect the communities they serve. (i) Consider how to strengthen citizenship ceremonies and improve citizenship education. (j) Include a strategic approach to community capacity-building in the Sustainable Community Strategy and Local Area Agreement, with recognition of its role in delivering good public services and local governance. (k) Maintain a communication plan to keep all communities abreast of changes and reasons for them. Consider how best to engage local media in local structures. (l) Ensure that impact assessments on regeneration policy include assessment of the impact of the policy on cohesion and integration.
The County Council’s Engagement and Response
10. Oxfordshire County Council is well placed to respond to the ‘Our Shared Future’ agenda and is already working towards many of the Commission’s recommendations. There are several key areas which will contribute to our activity.
Strategic Planning and Partnership Working.
11. The Sustainable Communities Strategy is currently under development and includes a discussion of issues around equality and diversity and vulnerable groups in the evidence base. Work is underway to ensure that the final strategy clearly shows how a vision of cohesion and integration has been incorporated and to describe the approach to local capacity building.
12. The next round of Local Area Agreements will also consider issues around cohesion and integration, and how this fits with LAA priorities and PSA targets. The County Council’s Corporate Plan also states how the Council has been proactive in supporting partnership working to improve the sustainability, resilience and cohesion of local communities. This is a basis for further commitments by the Council to integration and cohesion. As a community leader the council is working with other local agencies to ensure that there is joined-up local practice on these issues.
13. The private sector is also actively involved on the Oxfordshire Partnership Board, and the local media is represented by the editor of the Oxford Times. Building on these links the Council will continue to develop a clear communication strategy around the community cohesion and integration agenda.
14. The Council is currently undertaking a review of consultation arrangements. This will include articulation of how we respond to the needs of ‘harder to reach’ groups.
Equality and Social Inclusion
15. The County Council has a consistent approach to our statutory duties on equality and has involved local people and staff in devising our equality priorities. The actions set out in our statutory race, disability and gender equality schemes help to ensure fairness for all in the provision of and access to services in order to address the needs of all sections of the community. The Commission’s recommendations will inform the development of the Council’s revised race equality scheme this year.
16. The Council’s equality impact assessments provide a tested and proven framework for services to address the needs of all sections of the community. This ensures that equality issues are mainstreamed and focused on outcomes that reduce evidenced areas of disadvantage or deprivation.
17. We also take our responsibilities as a local employer seriously. We are continually reviewing and improving our recruitment and retention practices to ensure that we appropriately reflect the diversity of the communities we serve.
Evidence Based Policy Making and Performance Management
18. Oxfordshire County Council has a substantial capacity to harness national and local information held by the Oxfordshire Data Observatory, as well as service level intelligence. This is already being used to inform the Sustainable Community Strategy and considerable use has been made of the ‘Oxfordshire in Detail’ reports (2005) which mapped key social exclusion information across the county. This ongoing analysis links closely to the recommendation to map local areas and communities.
19. Existing commitments to include equality measures in performance monitoring provide a good basis for developing local indicators of cohesion and integration. The County Council’s corporate performance management framework is based on the balanced scorecard. This provides a framework for measuring our performance in relation to four key perspectives:
· Customers - how we are doing in delivering our key priorities for our customers. · Finance - how we are managing our finances. · People - how we are developing our people to deliver excellent services in the future. · Processes - how we are developing our processes to improve efficiency and effectiveness and deliver value for money.
20. The focus on customers will increasingly include a thorough understanding of how our policies and services can contribute to community cohesion and integration. Individual service areas naturally include equality issues as part of their performance measures and would be well placed to consider issues relating to cohesion and integration.
RECOMMENDATIONS
21. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to note the summary of the recommendations in the Commission on Integration and Cohesion’s report and endorse the County Council’s approach to addressing the issues raised.
PAUL JAMES Head of Partnership Working
ADRIAN HARPER-SMITH Corporate Strategies Manager
Background papers: Nil.
Contact Officer: Adrian Harper-Smith, Corporate Strategies Manager, Tel: (01865) 810179.
September 2007
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