Citizenship and Civic Engagement in the 21St Century
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HOUSE OF LORDS Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Engagement Report of Session 2017–19 The Ties that Bind: Citizenship and Civic Engagement in the 21st Century Ordered to be printed 28 March 2018 and published 18 April 2018 Published by the Authority of the House of Lords HL Paper 118 Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Engagement The Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Engagement was appointed by the House of Lords on 29 June 2017 with the remit “to consider citizenship and civic engagement”. Membership The Members of the Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Engagement were: Baroness Barker Baroness Newlove Lord Blunkett Baroness Pitkeathley Baroness Eaton (appointed 6 November 2017) Baroness Redfern Lord Harries of Pentregarth Lord Rowe-Beddoe Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Chairman) Baroness Stedman-Scott (resigned October 2017) Baroness Lister of Burtersett Lord Verjee Baroness Morris of Yardley Declarations of interests See Appendix 1. A full list of Members’ interests can be found in the Register of Lords’ Interests: http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/standards-and-interests/register-of-lords- interests Publications All publications of the Committee are available at: https://www.parliament.uk/citizenship-civic-engagement Parliament Live Live coverage of debates and public sessions of the Committee’s meetings are available at: http://www.parliamentlive.tv Further information Further information about the House of Lords and its Committees, including guidance to witnesses, details of current inquiries and forthcoming meetings is available at: http://www.parliament.uk/business/lords Committee staff The staff who worked for this Committee were Michael Collon (Clerk), Tim Stacey (Policy Analyst) and Joanne Watson and Robert Cocks (Committee Assistants). Contact details All correspondence should be addressed to the Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Engagement, Committee Office, House of Lords, London SW1A 0PW. Telephone 020 7219 6075. Email [email protected] CONTENTS Page Summary 4 Chapter 1: Introduction 7 The civic journey 9 The Government’s Integrated Communities Strategy Green Paper 11 The devolved administrations 13 A note on terminology 13 And finally … 14 Chapter 2: Values—the red lines 15 Civic Values 15 Naming our Values 16 What do we value? 18 Valuing cross-Government co-ordination 20 Shared British Values and counter-extremism 21 The role of faith schools 23 Chapter 3: Education—the key building block 27 The Importance of Citizenship 27 A short history of citizenship education 28 Character education 29 The decline of the subject 30 Citizenship GCSE 31 Improving the status of the subject 32 Are there sufficient trained teachers? 34 Understanding the subject 37 Box 1: Good practice in citizenship education 40 Thinking for the long term 40 Chapter 4: The National Citizen Service—increasing the impact 44 Universality 45 A broader concept for citizenship 48 The place of the National Citizen Service within the citizenship journey 50 Chapter 5: Civil Society—the glue that binds us together 54 Volunteering 54 What do the statistics tell us? 54 Figure 1: Average daily minutes provided for volunteering, by age category and gender, UK, 2000 and 2015 54 Figure 2: Change in volunteering participation rates, by equivalised household income band and by age, 2012/13 to 2015/16 55 Figure 3: Average daily minutes of volunteering provided by gender and equivalised household income band, UK, 2015 56 Ensuring volunteers are thanked 56 Miscommunication in the Social Security system 57 Finding places to meet 58 How employers can help 60 The specific challenges of disability 61 Retirement 61 The Government’s approach to the voluntary sector 62 Improving the commissioning process 63 Chapter 6: Democratic Engagement—improving connectivity 66 A new culture 66 Figure 4: Turnout at a General Election 1918–2017 67 The importance of registering to vote 68 Identity and registering to vote 70 A role for universities, colleges and schools 70 Engaging with Government (at any level) and Parliament 71 How Government listens 72 How the Government talks to you 75 How citizens and Government collaborate 76 Box 2: Example of engagement and consultation 77 Support for disabled citizens 79 Votes at 16 79 Chapter 7: Integration through participation 82 Introduction 82 Some figures 83 The Casey Review 84 The Disadvantaged 85 Box 3: Key findings of the Social Mobility Report 2017 85 The Controlling Migration Fund 87 Older people and disabled people 88 Integration projects—an overseas experience 88 The role of sport, the arts and music 89 Reaching out past the gatekeepers 90 Integration of women 91 Discrimination against Muslim women 91 Patriarchy, misogyny and forced marriages 92 Steps in the right direction 94 Diversity amongst charity trustees 94 PREVENT 95 Box 4: Successful operation of Prevent 97 Chapter 8: English—the common thread 99 Introduction 99 The scale of the problem 100 Table 1: English spoken by two minority communities in March 2011 101 English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) 102 Box 5: Profile of adult ESOL learners in 2012–13 103 Problems accessing ESOL classes 104 Combining ESOL with citizenship learning 105 Providing funding for ESOL 106 Box 6: Government ESOL funding 2009–2016 107 Box 7: Findings of research by Refugee Action 109 Translation and interpretation 110 A new strategy for English Language in England 112 Chapter 9: Naturalisation—facilitating inclusion 113 Introduction 113 What is “good character”? 113 Proving a knowledge of English 114 Improving the Citizenship Test: Life in the UK 115 Box 8: “Life in the UK”: some criticisms 116 Box 9: Views on the Life in the UK Test from research by Dr Leah Bassel 117 The citizenship ceremony 118 The high cost of naturalisation 119 Acquisition of citizenship by registration 120 Summary of conclusions and recommendations 123 Appendix 1: List of Members and declarations of interest 130 Appendix 2: List of witnesses 132 Appendix 3: Call for evidence and web forum 146 Appendix 4: Terms of reference 149 Appendix 5: Note of visit to Westminster City Hall 151 Appendix 6: Note of visit to Clacton-on-Sea 154 Appendix 7: Note of visit to Sheffield 158 Appendix 8: Meeting with young people 164 Appendix 9: Acronyms and abbreviations 167 Evidence is published online at https://www.parliament.uk/citizenship- civic-engagement and available for inspection at the Parliamentary Archives (020 7129 3074). Q in footnotes refers to a question in oral evidence. 4 CITIZENSHIP AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY SUMMARY The creation of a country in which every one of its citizens feels secure, engaged and fulfilled must be a primary objective of a successful modern democratic nation. This would be a country in which everyone feels that they belong, and to which everyone feels they can contribute. Individuals do not learn about governmental and judicial institutions of the United Kingdom through osmosis. The values which underpin our society, which have been tested in recent years by a variety of economic and societal developments, are not self-evident. They need to be learned and understood. Another important step is to understand that the demand for individual rights cannot be divorced from the need for individual responsibility. Finally, whether older or younger, disabled or non-disabled, long established or recently arrived, marginalised or secure, every one of us who together make up the tangled skein of British society has a story to tell and a contribution to make. To try and untangle this complex and sensitive web we have looked at the issue of citizenship and civic engagement through the prism of the civic journey each one of us who lives in Britain will undertake. We have found much that is encouraging, showing British society engaged harmoniously together despite the waves of change that are inexorably rolling over us. But inevitably there are areas where we are less successful. We have tried to identify the barriers which are preventing people from feeling part of our society or contributing to it, together with the steps which must be taken to remove those barriers. So we argue for focusing resources, for reinforcing success rather than reinventing the wheel, and for adopting and seeing through long term strategies. This then is our story. Our first conclusion is that, while a variety of faiths, beliefs and customs can enrich our society, and respect for the values of others is a high priority, respect for the law must come first. There is no place for rules or customs whose effect is to demean or marginalise people or groups—equality before the law is a cornerstone of our society. This is why the rule of law, together with a commitment to democracy, individual liberty and respect for the inherent worth and autonomy of all people, are the shared values of British citizenship from which everything else proceeds. These are “red lines” which have to be defended. As cornerstones these values need to be promoted in their own right rather than simply as an adjunct of counter-extremism policy. We argue that the process we have called the “civic journey” should be a smooth transition in which central and local government provide individuals with a framework for benefiting from and contributing to society, and assist them in overcoming the barriers to engagement. Instead we have found that citizenship education, which should be the first great opportunity for instilling and developing our values, encouraging social cohesion, and creating active citizens has been neglected. Often it is subsumed into individual development which, whilst undoubtedly important, is not the same as learning about the political and social structure of the country, how it is governed, how laws are made and how they are enforced by an independent judiciary. Nor does it offer an opportunity of practising civic engagement in schools, local communities and beyond.