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Cohesive Communities Strategy

Everyone Different, Everyone Matters

2018-2023

Image: Piece Hall Welcome Weekend, ‘VisitCalderdale’

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CONTENTS

What kind of Calderdale do we want to be?

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Page 5

Why is Cohesion and Integration Important?

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Page 6-7

What does it Currently Look Like in Calderdale?

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Page 8-9

Achieving Our Objectives

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Page 16

Leading the Agenda

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Page 17

Making Progress

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Page 18

The Challenge04

Page 10-11

Objectives and Guiding Principles

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Page 12-13

Our Approach06

Page 15

VISION 2024

Building strong, cohesive and integrated communities?

Everyone Different, Everyone Matters

“Community Cohesion is what must happen in all communities to enable different groups of people to get on well together. A key contributor to community cohesion is integration which is what must happen to enable new residents and existing residents to adjust to one another.”

Dept. for Communities and Local Government 2008

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What kind of Calderdale do we want to be?

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Calderdale as a borough came into existence in 1974; in 2024 we’ll be celebrating our 50th birthday. We are working towards a vision for 2024, re-energising Calderdale as an enterprising, talented, resilient and kind place to live, work or visit.

This Strategy will help us achieve that, and also takes into account the council’s priorities to grow the economy, reduce inequalities, build a sustainable future and to be the best Borough in the North.

Calderdale is a place of beautiful landscapes with a proud industrial past. As a borough we are diverse, creative and generous of our time (1).

Most people in Calderdale know their neighbours, live in one area for a long time and feel a strong sense of belonging.(2) Many people have friendships and support networks around them (2a) and believe people in their neighbourhoods get along.

We want Calderdale to be a place where everyone feels they have a stake. A place where people feel safe and that they belong, a place where they are not subject to discrimination or harassment because of who they are and how they identify themselves, and a place where everyone has the opportunity to achieve, thrive and take up opportunities.

Recognising that dance is inclusive and connects the hearing and deaf community, supported by the Indian Dance Company, women from different communities came together in unity to share and perform dance routines.

Case StudyDANCE NEEDS NO WORDS

Calderdale is a place of beautiful landscapes with many historic buildings and cultural sitesThe valley of the sheep - schep deneShibden Hall was the home of Anne Lister, also known as Gentleman Jack, and the Lister Family for over 300 years

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Image: Shibden Hall, ‘Calderdale Council’

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Why is Cohesion and Integration important?

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Community cohesion and integration lies at the heart of what makes a community feel strong and safe. Building good relations between and within different communities and neighbourhoods and reducing poverty and addressing inequality are necessary steps towards improving people’s quality of life and giving them the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

At a place based level, a range of factors work against community cohesion and integration: labour market challenges including low skill/low wage economies; the relationship between ill health and unequal economic growth; poor housing, transport and employment connectivity and the influence of attitudes and low aspirations. This is both affected by, and impacts upon, cohesion and integration.

The Internet connects us to people thousands of miles away and has made information more accessible. Technology influences our lives and wider society in many ways; how we vote; what we watch and listen to; relationships we form and opinions that we hold. In the main, technology has a positive influence on our lives, but there are occasions where it can be divisive and its impact immediate and widespread.

There are also changes in our population due to immigration and local birth rates. In a landscape of austerity and a global economic downturn the pace and scale of immigration has been questioned by some.

The Casey Review, commissioned by Government in 2015, asserts that as the diversity of the nation has increased, people from ethnic minority groups have become both more dispersed and in some cases more concentrated and segregated.

Taken together, high concentrations of particular ethnic groups in residential areas and in schools, increases the likelihood of children growing up without ever mixing or making friends with people from different backgrounds, limiting life opportunities and undermining attempts for an inclusive and growing economy.

Where people live separate lives this can limit access to jobs, create distrust and fear of other people and undermine people’s sense of belonging to an area.

The Casey Review found inequalities and divisions appear to be worsening in some more isolated communities, where segregation, deprivation and social exclusion are combining in a downward spiral, often impacting more significantly on women.

Poverty is bad for cohesion and integration, and bad for growth, a key factor in creating a more cohesive borough. This is partly because poverty weakens the ‘consumption engine’ - the amount of money people have to spend on goods and services in the economy. Even more critically, unequal countries have lower levels of social mobility and are failing to take full advantage of their most prized asset- people.

To drive up innovation, creativity and productivity we need a dynamic, socially mobile labour market built around an effective and inclusive education and skills system. The young people in our most disadvantaged areas will, in future, make up a greater proportion of the local workforce.

Whether it’s young people entering the labour market for the first time, unemployed people seeking work or under-employed workers whose skills are not being utilised, an inclusive growth agenda seeks to enable people to fulfil their own potential, and in doing so the potential of the economy and the communities that they are a part of.

Poverty can also generate a vicious cycle whereby people are not motivated to have high aspirations, and to invest in their own education, skills and careers if they perceive their job prospects to be a low-paid, ‘dead-end’ job, or worse still, no job at all. This reinforces segregation and makes integration less likely.

Supported by funding from the Governments Controlling Migration Fund, and supported by Halifax Opportunities Trust, women came together in support of the Macmillan Coffee morning movement to raise awareness and money for a cause common to people from all backgrounds. Community cooking groups have been springing up all over Calderdale, some linked to the Jo Cox Great Get Together and some are groups from Sowerby Bridge, Illingworth and Park wards learning cooking skills from each other supported by the Council’s Neighbourhood Teams cooking Victoria sponge to curry and chapattis.

Case StudyCommunity cooking groups

The continued separation of communities in day to day life, in particular during a period of austerity, enables extremists from the far right and ‘Daesh/Al Quaeda’ type ideologies to fuel fear and distrust, exploit difficult circumstances some people find themselves in, with sometimes tragic consequences.

Social cohesion and equality are not things we can take for granted; they require careful tending, commitment and bravery from us all.

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The towns and villages that make up Calderdale are diverse and complex communities, with people having commitments and connections to their neighbourhood but often also to others further afield who share their way of life, background or faith.

One of Calderdale’s greatest assets is this diversity. Halifax, Todmorden and Elland are home to sizeable minority ethnic communities and the Calder Valley is home to one of the largest lesbian and gay communities in the country. Such diversity is becoming increasingly important in developing the whole cultural, social and economic vibrancy of the borough.

Inequality is also a feature of Calderdale and the fiscal costs of poverty are huge - poverty is not just a cost to individuals; it is also a drain on public resources. JRF research estimates that the annual cost of poverty to the public purse is £78 billion. We also know that for every out-of-work claimant that moves into a job paid at the Living Wage, the government gains on average £6,900.

However, work no longer assures a route out of poverty - more than half of people living in poverty in the UK are in a working household. The bottom end of the labour market often becomes a trap for people, stuck in low-paid, insecure jobs that offer no prospects for progression - four fifths of those that enter low-paid work remain

low paid 10 years later. This undermines attempts to create a cohesive and integrated borough, undermines people’s aspirations and breeds resentment.

Where people choose to live and go to school is influenced by many factors: income, feelings of safety and security, and confidence, can all contribute. Limited housing stock and reduced house building further limits choices of neighbourhood and can reinforce communities living in isolation from one another. The Council’s Local Plan includes significant house building to meet local demand. The mix of housing and the balance of Affordable Homes, with appropriate infrastructure will present fresh opportunities to grow new, cohesive and resilient communities.

What have we done so far?In Calderdale, traditionally, the Council has worked hard to develop and sustain effective cohesion and engagement partnerships with key local organisations and the wider community, with a strong focus on community based initiatives, we are looking to underpin this approach with a stronger emphasis on reducing inequality, poverty, improved health and growing an inclusive economy. We have however, in recent years, delivered and supported a number of positive and successful projects and shared our learning with partners and others.

Specific projects have been designed to bring people from different backgrounds together and promote understanding:

� Holocaust Memorial Day, Refugee Week, Interfaith Week, the Jo Cox Great Get Together events and Hate Crime Week have been used to celebrate commonality and raise awareness.

� Park and Warley and the North Halifax Community Awards have been used to recognise and celebrate community contributions alongside awards and celebrations run by partner organisations.

� A Prevent Plan and early intervention activity is in place to minimise the risk of extremism and undermine attempts to divide communities

� Calderdale Interfaith Council is being used as a mechanism to engage with faith communities, and those of no faith, and develops the leadership skills of faith leaders, including young people and women.

� Engagement with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is being strengthened with increased dialogue and a stronger local voice

� The mechanisms for engagement with the Black and Ethnic Minority (BME) and white working class communities have been strengthened through investment in place based neighbourhood management.

What does it currently look like in Calderdale?

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Muslim women came together to plan an event, inviting non-Muslims to get involved in a local celebration event. The women, who were learning to speak English, delivered presentations of how & why Muslims celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad pbuh. The group also wanted to reach out, use their new English skills and make new friends, to integrate into the wider community.

Case StudyCOMMUNITY INTEGRATION

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It remains however, that compared to other areas in West Yorkshire, fewer people in Calderdale say they feel that people from different backgrounds get on well together.(3)

We are mindful that migration, Brexit and international incidents may further harden opinion against certain groups of people; Calderdale is not immune to these national and international events.

Many communities across the country feel disconnected and do not feel the benefits of economic growth. Some local people feel that other areas or people of different backgrounds have an unfair advantage when it comes to housing, grants, fair treatment, jobs and services. This sense of unfairness, underpinned by the recent years of austerity, can breed bad feeling and resentment.(5)

Overall, Calderdale is a place where the risk of segregation and people living divided lives in unequal circumstances is real. This can impact on our schools and workplaces as well as our communities. In 2016 the think tank group, ‘Policy Exchange’ analysed the 2011 Census data and produced a list of the best and worst places in the country from the point of view of integration. Halifax was ranked as the 7th least integrated place in the index based on figures including whether residents held UK passports, the ethnic mix of households, schools data and employment status.

The Challenge04

West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Your Views Survey Analysis Jan-Mar 2018

When asked Do people from different backgrounds get on well together in your local area?

Just over half of Calderdale respondents (51.4%) said they felt that people did get on well together in their local area (defined as a 15 minute walk from their home).This figure was the second lowest when compared against neighbouring West Yorkshire authorities and below the West Yorkshire figure of 54.5%.

A small proportion of Calderdale residents felt that people did not get on well together, 10.1% (compared to the West Yorkshire figure of 12.0%), with over a third, 38.5% of Calderdale respondents (the highest proportion when compared with our neighbours and the West Yorkshire figure of 33.5%) saying they were unsure.

We know that Halifax has a young population and over 21% of 0-15 year olds (over 8000 children and young people) live in income deprived households. 10 Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) in Park ward are in the most deprived 20% in the UK, 8 of these in the most deprived 10%. The impact of migration has also been greatest in these areas. (6) It is also evident that an increasing share of our younger workforce will come from some of our most deprived neighbourhoods, as in Calderdale overall, the population is ageing.

We have active extremist groups and individuals in Calderdale and have seen literature, stickers and social media reflecting this. We have seen local activism which seeks to build on people’s fears and misconceptions and feelings of unfairness, this has manifested itself in demonstrations, graffiti, social media activity and leafleting. We also have divisions amongst our ethnic minority communities who are themselves diverse and not a single homogenous group. Community cohesion is complex and ever changing and because of the changing nature of our communities.

Ultimately, strong local communities with people who are actively involved in civic and community life will be communities where people have a higher level of personal and collective responsibility, wellbeing and resilience. A place where everyone feels safe and economically included, a kind, more compassionate place is likely to be more resilient to extremist narratives.

A Community where age isn’t a barrier and everyone interacts“

Image: Reservoir Gate, Faces & Places Photography

51.4%felt people did get on

10.1%felt people did not get on

38.5%were unsure

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The Council’s emerging Vision 2024 coupled with our ambition to ‘Be the Best Borough in the North’ will be supported by and realised this through growing the economy, reducing inequality, and building a sustainable future.

To achieve these aspirations we need to address cohesion and integration; harness the talent of all our communities, and create conditions in terms of growth, housing, public services, health and a local environment which create a good quality of life for all.

Our vision is a Calderdale where ‘everyone different everyone matters’ is felt whoever you are, wherever you live and whenever you come into contact with services.

We use the phrase Everyone Different, Everyone Matters to describe these aspirations and our overall objectives are to create a place where:

� There is a widespread acknowledgement that everyone has a place in Calderdale and a valuable social, economic and cultural contribution to make

� We share a sense of responsibility for the place we live and the people around us

� People from all backgrounds have (and feel they have) similar opportunities and equal access to sustainable employment, training and support.

� We have a strong focus on what people

have in common, whether you are new to the area or have roots and long standing connections here.

� There are strong and positive

relationships between people from different backgrounds in our workplaces, our schools and in our neighbourhoods.

� We challenge intolerance and extremism

in all its forms, however it manifests, promoting respect, kindness and compassion.

A number of principles underpin our approach to trying to build an integrated and cohesive community:

� Fairness and equality - closing the gaps in health, education, sustainable employment and the environment experienced by different communities which can lead to resentment, whilst ensuring a successful and growing local economy benefits everyone

� Rights and responsibilities - everyone has the right to be treated fairly and with respect by other people and public

Our objectives and guiding principles

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Everyone Different, Everyone Matters “

authorities and equally everyone holds a personal responsibility as a citizen of Calderdale

� Listening and promoting understanding - ensuring we have mechanisms to hear peoples thoughts and views, and promote positive and constructive dialogue on difficult issues in safe spaces

� Working together in partnership in

pursuit of integration, inclusion, equality and cohesion - with all agencies’ and sectors’ contributions valued equally.

Community cohesion and integration lies at the heart of what makes a strong and safe community“

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Incredible Edible “Growing a place that is kind and welcoming”“

Calderdale takes an integrated approach to cohesion in line with the views of communities that this should not be manufactured or ‘false’.(6) Our consultation and community engagement indicates that people’s sense of belonging and feelings of ‘fairness’ should be a priority.

It is clear that one approach alone will not create the conditions required for a cohesive and integrated Calderdale.

Whilst not underestimating the importance of bringing people together, building bridges and creating social relationships, it is important that we recognise the part inequality, poverty and economic exclusion plays in undermining cohesion.

To this end we will commit to some key priorities;

� A Good Start in Life: Ensure our early years, education and skills system is fit for purpose: supporting children and carers/families to be ready for school and ensure that children and young people continue to make progress, making sure that we are equipping young people with the education, attributes, good health and skills that they will need to succeed in work.

� Address Poverty and Poor Health: Develop our strategies to address poverty, poor health and disadvantage, in particular child poverty, supporting people to break the cycle of poverty and poor health; enabling and empowering people to make informed choices and take advantage of the help and opportunities available to them.

� Be a Borough of Opportunity: An inclusive Growth Strategy to ensure a vibrant and growing economy has a positive impact on all areas and communities in Calderdale, ensuring all our communities, including our most disadvantaged communities benefit from growth and sustainable and well paid employment opportunities

� A Connected Borough: We will continue to build the infrastructure required to ensure Calderdale enables people to be connected: through our Digital strategy; our transport system; addressing loneliness and isolation; building on a sense of place and belonging in neighbourhoods.

� Build Good Relations; Continue to invest in our neighbourhoods, and in our voluntary, community and faith sector to build relationships building and sustaining a kind and resilient borough, increasing social mixing where people live, go to school and work and increasing people’s sense of belonging.

Our Approach 2018-2023

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Image: Todmorden June 2018, ‘VisitCalderdale’

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Our Action Plan has been developed based on consultation with communities and partner organisations and will grow as the Poverty and Inclusive Growth Strategies develop and the Active Calderdale programme becomes a reality, with a collaborative approach to delivery, monitoring and accountability.Recognising our existing priorities, local challenges and listening to our partners and local communities we will focus our actions initially on a ten point plan to address the following:

1. Establish common values and a sense of belonging

2. Address inequality, particularly in employment and skills

3. Promote volunteering and taking part in community life

4. Increase mixing and integration across school communities

5. Tackle extremism in all its forms

6. Promote English language learning and use

7. Promote inclusive and integrated active lifestyles

8. Empower marginalised women

Achieving our Objectives

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9. Promote activities, events and places that enable people to make new friends and build good relations with others in the borough, particularly for young people

10. Improve the environment in which people live, ensuring people feel safe and proud of their neighbourhood with increased housing choices

Community cohesion and integration is best achieved through; addressing inequality, raising aspirations and skills; dialogue and mutual understanding; social interactions between different groups, faiths, cultures and ages, encouraged and facilitated by strong community leadership.

We know we can’t do this alone; we need to work with our partners and communities to be successful.

Leading the Agenda

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As a leader� We will engage a range of partners to

build an inclusive and positive vision for Calderdale.

As a Council� We will mainstream our approach to

cohesion and integration across the organisation, identifying opportunities to improve community cohesion and integration in how we do business across all of our services and roles including: planning and housing strategy; town centre development; public spaces; education; health; skills development and economic growth.

As an employer � We will promote equality and good

relations across our work force: we are proud to be recognised as a Stonewall Diversity Champion, a Mindful Employer, A Disability Confident Employer and an Inclusive Employer and will continue to invest in our apprenticeship programme.

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Making progress?

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We know that different communities, neighbourhoods and localities in Calderdale will face different challenges in continuing to build cohesive, resilient, integrated communities. Local knowledge and intelligence is crucial to understanding how well we are doing in Calderdale.

We know that cohesion and integration are exceptionally difficult to measure; however, we will monitor and evaluate success in a number of ways:

� Improve school readiness and continue to close the gap in educational achievement at Key Stage 4 between children and young people claiming Free School Meals, and those not and between different genders and ethnic groups.

� Increasing equality of access to well-paid and sustainable employment opportunities and narrowing the gap in median wages between areas/wards.

� Evaluate progression and destination data of young people post 16.

� Increase the number of good and outstanding schools in Calderdale.

� Increased opportunities for integration within post 16 provision and support collaboration between schools to bring young people together.

� An increase in affordable housing across Calderdale.

� Hate crime and Anti-Social Behaviour monitoring via West Yorkshire Police data collated by the Community Safety Partnership.

� Participation in the Active Calderdale programme, with increased take up of healthy lifestyle choices from BAME groups and other disadvantaged groups.

� Results of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s public perception survey asking residents if they feel people from different backgrounds get on well in their neighbourhood (Calderdale wide) and satisfaction with the local area.

� A bi-annual resident talkback survey seeking views on cohesion and integration.

� Monitoring of projects funded to contribute to this strategy.

� Feedback from ward councillors, community workers and voluntary, community and faith organisations active in neighbourhoods.

� An annual public report detailing progress will be produced assessing progress.

References 1 Third Sector Survey, Just under 27% of

adult population volunteers (2nd highest in Yorkshire region)

2/2a Talkback survey 20173 PCC Survey end of year 20164 PCC Survey end of year 20165 APPG report 2017, Talkback survey 20176 ONS statistics, LMP Migration Yorkshire

Reports used/referred to On line The Casey Reviewwww.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/575973/The_Casey_Review_Report.pdf

The APPG Report on Social Integrationhttp://www.socialintegrationappg.org.uk/

Migration Yorkshire http://www.migrationyorkshire.org.uk/?page=statistics

Calderdale Council Data Workshttps://dataworks.calderdale.gov.uk/dataset

With thanks to the Joseph Rowntree Foundationwww.jrf.org

The Governments 2017 Race Auditwww.gov.uk

Image: ‘Joolze Dymond’

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