In July NAVCA protested to Hazel Blears, Secretary of
State for Communities and Local Government, about the Single Group
Funding recommendations contained in the Commission on Integration
and Cohesion report (see
www.navca.org.uk/news/coisc.htm).
Hazel Blears has now announced £50m over three years to support
the work local authorities are doing in "bringing communities
together", see
www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/500395.
In her letter to Darra Singh, who chaired the Commission, Hazel
Blears says:
"We will also publish new
Cohesion Guidance for Funders, focused on how
existing funding streams - for example, support given to the
Third Sector - can be used to prioritise cohesion. I absolutely
agree with the Commission's suggestion that local councils and
their partners should stop and think twice about whether service
provision for one particular community is automatically the
right way forward, or whether it might be used to provide an
opportunity for building bridges.
You referred to this issue in your report as
'single group funding', although I worry that the terminology as
outlined might be misleading. We want to get across firstly that
these new funding criteria will be something for all organisations
to consider. Promoting integration and cohesion should apply to all
organisations not just the BME voluntary sector. And secondly that
we are primarily interested in the activities being funded rather
than the groups delivering them.
Clearly there is a balance to be struck, and
local authorities will know best how to judge when particular
groups in their area need to draw strength from resources within
their own community ('bonding'), and when they should be supported
to learn from and interact with other groups ('bridging'). New
migrant groups, for example, may find the support of other new
migrants essential to acclimatising to their life in the
UK. Women within particular communities may need
safe spaces to provide support for issues such as domestic violence
and healthcare. And organisations organised around one particular
identity may still provide activities for many communities and
groups.
These organisations have often been at the heart
of social change and, where the need remains, we would want to see
conditions that enable them to continue to support excluded and
marginalised communities to succeed. Our Cohesion Guidance for
Funders will therefore clarify how organisations working at local
level can best provide the bridging activities we want to
prioritise, and the criteria that funders need to consider if we
are to make progress in bringing people together for shared
activities rather than continuing to focus on their differences.
There is much good practice to draw on, with local authorities such
as Barking & Dagenham already making clear that funding will
only be awarded if it fits with their community cohesion
strategy".
NAVCA is pleased that Hazel Blears has
emphasised that the promotion of integration and cohesion is a
responsibility for all organisations and not just the BME sector.
We like the fact that she has challenged the language of 'single
group funding'. We are also relieved that she has recognised that
some community groups do need resources so that they can 'bond'.
She gives as examples new migrant groups and women who need safe
space to provide support on domestic violence.
However the Government has indicated that
it will issue a detailed response to the Commission's report in
January. We hope the opportunity will be used to emhasise the
positive role that groups representing specific communities can
have in building a more cohesive society.
See also Kevin Curley's article in the Guardian on 17 October 2007,
"
Minority and faith groups can help
cohesion"