A forum for open discussion on communities and local government policy.

Commission on Integration and Cohesion

You still have the chance to tell us what you think!

Welcome to the Commission on Integration and Cohesion’s forum! Thanks for visiting us. We hope you will use this forum to share your ideas and opinions with us.

The Commission on Integration and Cohesion is a team of people asked by the Government to come up with practical ideas on how people from different backgrounds might get on better. Our focus is on what can be done locally – for example, by councils, schools, places of worship, charities – to bring people together, working, relaxing and interacting as a single community. There are four weeks to go before we have to decide what to recommend to the Government in our report. This is your last chance to tell us what you think we should be saying: the forum will close on 16 May 2007. We’re looking forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions!

We’ve asked lots of organisations what they think community cohesion is all about, but we want to know what it means to you. Do you think people from different backgrounds get on well in your local area? What do you think are the barriers to good relations in your neighbourhood? What should be done to bring people together so that they feel part of the community?

In short, our question for you is:

If you were in charge for a day, what would you do to help people from different backgrounds in your neighbourhood get on better?

The Commission on Integration and Cohesion - Our Shared Future

Posted by James Hayes on 25/06/2007 - 10:06

The Commission on Integration and Cohesion would like to thank you for your participation in this discussion forum; we found your views both interesting and informative. The Commission on Integration and Cohesion's final report, Our Shared Future was published on 14th June and puts forward a wide-ranging set of recommendations for practical action to address cohesion and integration issues at a local level, along with suggestions for a national framework to support these.

The report acknowledged the level of interest on the discussion forum in faith schools and included an Annex of recommendations to the DfES on the duty to promote cohesion. We have noted that there is a wide range of perspectives on the role of faith schools in building community cohesion. Many people have told us that they are a barrier to integration and cohesion but at the other end of the spectrum, other people, particularly those from faith communities have told us faith schools are vital to helping their young people develop as strong and confident British citizens.

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Question closed

Posted by James Hayes on 18/05/2007 - 16:06

The Commission on Integration and Cohesion Forum has now closed. On behalf of the Commission I would like to thank you all for the overwhelming number of posts we have recived over the last few weeks. Your views have given the Commission a lot to think about and we hope that you will look out for the launch of the Commission's final report in June 2007 which will contain practical approaches and recommendations to help build integration and cohesion in local communities.

Transforming religious/faith communities

Posted by steve hill on 17/05/2007 - 23:18

Of course sectarianism is divisive. However, people have to relate to each other where they are. Religious identity is important for many i.e. denomination. However, for others it is more important that matters of faith are taken account rather than the institution e.g. post modern Christianity. This has both an individual and corporate dimension.

Faith and religious groups must have a role in civic society sharing and working together and with others on issues of common concern. However, the 'new' politics can cross the old and some current divides (of religion and others) by focusing on ideas, wider aims to benefit society. So it is not crucial that religious schools etc are done away with. It is more a matter how they are transformed to engage with the wider community.

Religion in schools

Posted by MuDelta on 17/05/2007 - 17:30

• The current curriculum subject of ‘Religious Education’ should be reformed into a more inclusive subject of ‘Beliefs and Values Education’ as part of the national curriculum.

• The law should be changed to replace the requirement on state-funded schools to hold daily acts of worship with a requirement to hold inclusive assemblies and guidance under a new law should emphasise the promotion of shared values.

• In strategies designed to promote greater social cohesion and integration, care should be taken that ‘communities’ defined by religion or other attribute are not always the units of choice for policy-makers. Communities defined by location may be more useful as units of choice.
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• There should be no more faith schools created and existing ones should be phased out. Likewise, publicly funded social and medical care should be provided in an inclusive secular way, not divide people up by religion.

• Where local projects are organised to encourage dialogue between people of different beliefs, those whose beliefs are not religious should be included – ‘inter-faith’, lazily assumed to include everyone, in fact does not.

Developing community cohesion

Posted by susan rolfe on 17/05/2007 - 15:30

The voluntary committee of the Oldbury Court Community association in Fishponds (Bristol) is struggling to keep the hall open for the benefit of the community.
We need support from Bristol City Council to find the funds to keep the hall open as the community is welcoming lots of 'new' families from many different ethnic groups.
We have heard Ruth Kelly's speech of May 15th. we support the spirit of the speech wholeheartedly and we need to know how to take this work forward in order to support community cohesion, families in the 30% most deprived category and celebrate diversity.
In Bristol there are many needy areas but the Oldbury Court area does not trigger grants or neighbourhood renewal funding.

One day to go!

Posted by James Hayes on 17/05/2007 - 11:47

Thank you for your extremely informative comments and suggestions. The forum will be closing on Friday 18th May so you have 24 hours left to get your points of view in to the Commission, we want to hear what you have to say!

Thanks again,

James

Getting to Know One Another

Posted by jread on 15/05/2007 - 12:52

There is no single easy fix but facilitating social interaction in localities must be a significant part of the jig-saw. People sharing food and entertainment tend to relax and share themselves. Laughter between people is a great leveller and can bring human understanding with it. Let them organise it themselves.

Getting to Know One Another!

Posted by Ismail Abu Haneef on 15/05/2007 - 09:24

If I were in charge for a day, I would make that the "Getting to Know One Another Day".

Being a Muslim, I feel sick to my stomach by the ignorance, misinformation and scaremongering regarding my faith and my community. This also applies to many other faith and ethnic groups.

For many of us, faith is a bedrock within our lives. My daily prayers take me away from the woes of the world and act as a constant reminder of my miniscule place in the universe. Islam gives me peace, acting as a guide for my life, encouraging good conduct and character, as well shaping me to be respectful and tolerance of all.

The only way I can really make others understand this is to share my life with them; maybe only for a day, and maybe with only one of "them". Maybe then they will appreciate that I mean no harm, that I am not a risk, that I genuinely am tolerant, that I am not a misogynist, that I work hard at home and work, and that I love my family. Most importantly, it will show a stranger to my way of life that I am a lot like them, and we have more in common than in opposition.

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two changes

Posted by wheeler.wallbank on 14/05/2007 - 18:59

Two key changes are required. Firstly to replace the teaching of RE in schools with philosophy. This gives all children the tools and ability to analyse any propaganda, religious or otherwise, being showered on them.
Secondly, remove religion from public life. For example, no charities should be classified as such and enjoy the tax advantages of charitable status just because they are active in a religious way.

Integration and Cohesion

Posted by liveinhope on 14/05/2007 - 17:58

In charge for a day? Why a day? Was this restriction imposed so that suggestions for an essential fundamental change in our education system can be ignored?
A local shopkeeper of Asian origin told me that multiculturalism is all rubbish, that political correctness has done a great deal of harm, and that immigrants to this country should integrate.
The only action which will enable people of different backgrounds to integrate is to educate children from local communities together. By their very nature, faith schools are divisive and discriminatory. Children learn that their religion is the God-given one and only, and that 'outsiders' are the 'other'.
Ruth Kelly has said that 'parents have a right to choose'. Do they have the right to choose not to educate their children? Parents have a right and may see it as a duty to bring up their children in their own faith, but that is certainly not a logical reason for the State to fund such a choice. Furthermore, cultural differences, some of which are outside the law of this country, are reinforced.
In March it was announced that pupils from low-income homes will be offered free travel to schools between two and six miles away, but the limit will be up to 15 miles in the case of faith schools. Why is the State funding such discrimination?
Comparative religion should be taught in schools as a part of learning about the world, and to help understanding, but the shared values must be emphasized. History would be impossible to teach without discussing the impact of religion.
Faith schools exist for historical reasons. We should learn from history and grow up to become a secular State. Phase out faith schools and remove the bishops from the House of Lords. [Let them stand for election if they wish !]
Only in this way will we accept one another as equal and human.