Download This Publication
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
RUNNYMEDE Based on Proceedings of the Runnymede Conference of October 2002 held at the Barbican Conference Centre, London Developing Community Cohesion Understanding the Issues, Delivering Solutions Developing Community Cohesion Understanding the Issues, Delivering Solutions Contents Foreword 1 Runnymede and the Community Cohesion Debate 4 Promoting Community Cohesion John Denham (speaking at the Building Cohesive Communities conference) Community Cohesion: Conference Presentations 6 Conference Introduction: Bringing the Metaphor to Life Bhikhu Parekh 8 Policing a Multi-Ethnic Society Ian Blair 14 Facing the Challenges of Community Cohesion Beverley Hughes 16 Words,Wounds and the Power of the Media Gary Younge 20 Progress in Bradford on Community Cohesion Sharmila Gandhi Community Cohesion: Mini–plenaries & Policy Formulation Groups 23 1: Culture, Media and Sport featuring contributions from: Naseem Khan & Jennifer Edwards Nick Carter & Samir Shah Rakesh Chandar-Nair & Malcolm Tungatt 31 2: Health Linda Harris and Val Barker 33 3: Neighbourhood Renewal, Community Facilitation and Social Cohesion Chris Browne and Karl Oxford 37 4: Community Safety, Rehabilitation and Reintegration Martin Davis and Mike Nellis 38 5: (a)Employment Michelynn Laflèche (b)Education Robin Richardson Afterword 49 Summing Up the Conference Day Bhikhu Parekh 50 Bibliography Runnymede’s Developing Community Cohesion Conference October 2002 i Sponsored by the Community Cohesion Unit of the Home Office About Runnymede Our mandate is to promote a successful multi-ethnic Britain – a Britain where citizens and communities feel valued, enjoy equal opportunities to develop their talents, lead fulfilling lives and accept collective responsibility, all in the spirit of civic friendship, shared identity and a common sense of belonging.We act as a bridge-builder between various minority ethnic communities and policy-makers.We believe that the way ahead lies in building effective partnerships and we are continually developing these with the voluntary sector, the government, local authorities and companies in the UK and Europe.We stimulate debate and suggest forward- looking strategies in areas of public policy such as education, the criminal justice system, employment and citizenship. Acknowledgements Runnymede would like to thank all those who contributed to making this conference such a successful event: speakers, workshop presenters and moderators, active participants and engaged audiences. Special thanks go to the Home Office’s Community Cohesion Unit for their support, in helping to mount the October conference which marked the second anniversary of the publication of the Parekh Report, and for helping to finance the production of this Conference Special. Vic McLaren, principal organiser of the conference, had been seconded to Runnymede from the Home Office as a Policy Adviser in 2002/3. Assembling these conference proceedings was one of the last activities Vic completed before returning to the Civil Service, and we would like to thank him for his energetic organising of and input to a year of Community Cohesion for Runnymede, as described in the Conference Foreword. The views represented in this publication, with the exception of the Runnymede editorial, are of necessity personal – whether they are those of an organisation or an individual – and may not represent either Government’s or Runnymede’s policy positions. However, they do represent deeply held convictions about the best ways to promote community cohesion within a modern, multi-ethnic society. All conference photos were taken by Rod Leon First published in Great Britain in 2003 by The Runnymede Trust, Suite 106,The London Fruit and Wool Exchange, Brushfield Street, London E1 6EP [www.runnymedetrust.org] Copyright © 2003 The Runnymede Trust and individual authors ISBN: 0 9538164 4 3 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book. Printed and bound in Great Britain by St Richards Press Ltd, Leigh Road, Chichester,West Sussex PO19 2TU. ii Runnymede’s Developing Community Cohesion Conference October 2002 Foreword Runnymede and the Community Cohesion Debate The Runnymede Trust has been a big player in the undertake its work, whilst Clarke and Ritchie had had to community cohesion debate over the past 18 months, respond to the immediate and pressing concerns of their despite its relatively small size. Runnymede has attempted localities, and Ted Cantle’s independent review team and to position itself as a ‘critical friend’ of government, and the inter-ministerial group had only three months in to work on issues of particular contemporary concern. which to try to distil some common themes and to During 2002 – following the previous summer’s identify lessons. ‘disturbances’, it could be argued that community On the whole, the various reports did a creditable job cohesion was one of the Government’s principal concerns in a very short period of time, providing a plausible – it was certainly one of the Home Office’s most pressing analysis of the causes of the disturbances: considerations. • lack of civic identity Runnymede had a particular stake in the issue of • fragmentation of communities social and community cohesion, for, back in the autumn • disengagement of young people from decision- of 2000, the Trust had published the Report of the making Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain • weak political and community leadership (CFMEB), a commission chaired by Lord Parekh, who • high levels of unemployment gave his name to the report.The report is still relevant • activities of extremist groups today, over two and a half years since its initial • disparity in police responses publication.The CFMEB report was wide-ranging in the • irresponsible press coverage scope of its recommendations, but also extremely The Government responded to all of this with prescient in anticipating and articulating a number of commendable urgency.The Denham Report provided concerns which arose in the wake of disturbances in that rare commodity, a concise overview of all Bradford, Burnley and Oldham. In the report, there is an government policies having a bearing on cohesion. John influential chapter (Ch.4) which stresses the importance Denham, the then minister for cohesion, made clear he of linking cohesion closely with issues around difference wanted all of the issues tackled quickly.A dedicated unit and equality. established in the Home Office during spring 2002 has The CFMEB report had a difficult birth. Newspapers been, and continues to be, both productive and receptive such as the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph seized on one to external ideas and participation. particular chapter (a chapter which cast a critical eye over Runnymede has been supportive of the Community conventional accounts of British history) and seriously Cohesion Unit, and fully endorsed the decision to make misquoted, or misinterpreted, one solitary paragraph, to ‘community cohesion’ a defined aim of central and local suggest to its readership that the Commissioners felt the government. But as a critical friend would, it also took an term ‘British’ was racist.There then followed examples of early opportunity to raise a number of concerns: lazy journalism, where reporters from other newspapers First, Runnymede felt a need to draw attention to the took their lead from the Telegraph, without bothering to lack of definition in the Denham and Cantle reports go back to the primary source, and so, in consequence, regarding the term ‘ community cohesion’.Was this the authors of the report were called upon to defend simply a new term for ‘race relations’, rather in the same views they did not actually hold, and the report itself way that ‘urban regeneration’ had metamorphosed into became political hot property. ‘neighbourhood renewal’, or ‘poverty’ into ‘social This digression is necessary because it may explain exclusion’? On the face of it, the term appeared to why, amongst the welter of reports and recommenda- conflate separate concerns about public order (the initial tions which emerged in the run-up to Christmas of 2001, focus of government concern) with issues around social no references to the Parekh Report were to be found. connectedness and social capital, along with matters of While the Denham, Cantle, Ouseley, Clarke, and Ritchie social and racial equality. reports were all important in their own way, none was so Second, questions were raised about the carefully crafted, and with such a strong national focus, as recommendation made by the Cantle Team,but endorsed the Parekh Report. This was understandable, for the by ministers, for a national debate on the subject. For Commission had had two long years in which to Runnymede, the questions this raised were: Runnymede’s Developing Community Cohesion Conference October 2002 1 How was this debate to be conducted? chapter by Lord Parekh on the issue of common Who would be consulted? belonging, which Runnymede perceives as central to the When would the process be completed? community cohesion debate. And (finally) how would government know when Then in October 2002, to coincide with the second to signal closure? anniversary of the Parekh Report, and with funding Most of those questions have an