COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENT News Release (104) issued by The Government News Network
on 12 May 2008
Communities
Secretary Hazel Blears 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.
Hazel Blears 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
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/governmentresponsecoic.
News Releases: http://www.communities.gov.uk/newsroom