Communities Secretary has today published new
guidance encouraging local authorities to better map their
communities and the people that live there as part of efforts to
monitor tensions and promote more cohesive and integrated
communities.
The
guidance for Local Authorities Community Cohesion Contingency
Planning and Tension Monitoring is a part of the government's
commitment to provide local areas with the support they need to
respond to their own particular cohesion challenges.
The
guidance is not a reflection of unrest in the UK. Latest data
from the Citizenship Survey shows that 81% of people feel that
individuals from different backgrounds get on well together in
their local area and that 83% agree that people in their local
area respect ethnic differences. The guidance is an
acknowledgement that tension monitoring plays an important role
in helping those involved in promoting cohesion locally, to
recognise, name, manage and resolve conflicts that may arise in
the process of community change.
The
guidance focuses on what councils could do to both prevent and
respond to local issues. It seeks to encourage local authorities
to be aware of who is living in their area, how they interact and
get on. The guidance
aims to encourage councils to track and monitor local
trends, and be alert to potential tension 'hot spots' and work
with a range of people to agree actions to manage
tensions.
The
guidance stresses the importance of early intervention in
preventing community based conflicts that can lead to problems
with integration, and general cohesion within communities. The
guidance focuses on the importance of better planning
including:
*
better use of local data - including better sharing of info and
feedback from police, neighbourhood wardens and community
workers.
Figures on employment, investment in the area and levels of
political extremism can all point to changing attitudes.
*
Community responses - councils should look to bring together all
key players the community - from local government
agencies, the police, community and faith groups - who can come
together to address issues should they arise and who will then
keep a watchful eye on tension levels across the community on an
ongoing basis.
And
also encourages authorities to think about possible
'triggers'
and
take action by:
*
monitoring racist, religious and other criminal incidents
closely, looking at where and when they occur and then taking
action to resolve tensions that may follow.
*
countering rumours and scaremongering with myth busting info
setting out the facts.
*
working with local media to ensure that reporting of local issues
is balanced and does not exacerbate tensions.
*
working closely with young people in the community from all
different faith and cultural groups
*
developing greater awareness that increased globalisation means
international issues can play out at local level with the
potential to threaten cohesion.
said:
"The
overwhelming majority of people in this country live successfully
side by side but we cannot take this for granted.
Challenges to cohesion do exist - this might be between
different ethnic or faith groups or new migrants and longer term
residents - but things can be done to address problems at the
earliest opportunity and stop things escalating.
"We
have made #50m available to local authorities to support them in
responding to these specific challenges and placed a much greater
focus on integration - including an end to automatic translation
and more emphasis on English language learning, a move away from
the funding of single groups and strengthening of our shared
values."
Notes
to editors
This
press notice applies to England
1.
The guidance for Local Authorities can be found at the
following
link:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/cohesionplanning
2.
The Government's Response to the Commission on Integration and
Cohesion www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/governmentresponsecoic.
