Community Cohesion at local level

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Community Cohesion at local level addressing
the needs of Muslim communities Active
Citizenship in Public Service Bradford Council 3
March 2008 Qudrat Shah
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Why engage with Communities
Communities play a vital role in building
community cohesion by Acting as agents of
change Through the application of values that
underpin good citizenship Developed
organisational structures and communications
channels Communities have needs that Government
needs to respond to Tailoring public policy
and services to respect differences Preventing
discrimination on the grounds of religion or
belief Countering extremism e.g. Anti-Semitism
and Islamaphobia
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What are our aims?

• Increase communities contribution to active
  citizenship
• Promote community cohesion
• Act as agents of change within communities
• Work with communities in addressing
  radicalisation and extremism
• Develop role of communities in wider social
  action and regeneration
• Embed effective consultation and engagement with
  communities

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Political Context

• Political attitudes towards active citizenship
  has changed over the last few years.
• There is cross party support for enhancing role
  of communities in our national life
• Particular interest in
• Supporting service delivery
• Building stronger communities
• Supporting active citizenship

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The Local Government White paper

• The offer
• A stronger role for local authorities to lead
  their communities, shape
• their areas and bring local public services
  together
• More opportunity for authorities to innovate and
  respond to local needs
• Stronger focus on active citizenship and
  community priorities
• In exchange for
• More bottom-up accountability
• Stronger local authority leadership
• Better and more efficient services
• Tougher intervention when things go wrong

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Councils Responsibility
  The Council acts as place shapers and
strategic leaders whose job it is to champion
the interests of local people and promote active
citizenship in the District.   The Council has a
responsibility for service delivery and are
moving towards being enablers, with effective
commissioning seen as crucial  
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Key policy challenges
Promoting citizenship recognising links with
the values expressed by communities and concepts
of shared national identity, Community cohesion
managing tensions between communities. Building
strong and resilient communities Service
provision tailor services to deliver on the
Governments agenda in local communities Inequalit
ies and discrimination responding to
experiences of communities Extremism addressing
radicalisation and preventing violent extremism
within communities and preventing extremism
directed towards Muslim communities
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Ongoing and Future work
Local level Support role of faith communities
in local public partnerships Provide guidance
for partnerships on faith in the community
National faith links reinvigorating this
process Mainstreaming The Local Government
White Paper the role of interfaith forums in
cohesion
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Ongoing and Future work
National level Review of the third sector
comprehensive spending review Working with
faith based groups inform, develop and influence
policy Encouraging and developing
partnerships Better understanding of
communities faith, culture and ethnicity
Developing an interfaith strategy
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What next.

• The Vision In 5 years time
• A new look for local government more confident,
  more proactive, more innovative, more in tune
  with their communities.
• A new relationship
• between central and local government
• between local partners
• between citizens and local government
• Empowers citizens and communities
• Stronger and more visible leadership
• Fewer top down indicators, a new performance
  framework
• New tools

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For further information please contact Qudrat
Shah (Head of Equalities) or Rizwan Rehman
(Project Manager) Bradford Met District Council
Equalities Service 4th Floor, Jacobs Well,
Bradford, BD1 5RW Tel [phone] Email qudrat
.shah_at_bradford.gov.uk or rizwan.rehman_at_bradford.g
ov.uk