Racially Motivated Crime
Report of the disturbances of Summer 2001
Title: Community Cohesion
Author: The Independent Review Team chaired by Ted Cantle
Publisher: Home Office
Publication date: 11 December 2001
Number of pages: 80
The Community Cohesion Review Team was set up in the aftermath of the disorder that took place in Bradford, Burnley and Oldham in the Summer of 2001. Their first task was to report on the disorder, identifying the key themes or practices which were evident in areas which had experienced disorder, and making recommendations for action to improve community cohesion, cutting across a wide range of local and national agencies.
The team was specifically asked to seek the views of local people in the areas affected and make recommendations to Ministers on what changes in policy and practice might be necessary to improve community cohesion and prevent further trouble. The team was less concerned with the circumstances of each area but wanted to focus on what went right as well as what went wrong. They visited Oldham, Bradford, Burnley and also Southall, Birmingham and Leicester.
A number of recurrent elements contributing to a deeply fractured community were identified:
Ignorance about each other’s communities had grown into fear. This was exploited by extremist groups determined to undermine community harmony and foster divisions
Frustration had been borne out of poverty and deprivation. Opportunities were seen as far from equal
Failure to communicate and a lack of honest and robust debate meant that people tended to ‘tiptoe around’ the sensitive issues of race, religion and culture
Lack of a clear and consistent message from principal political and community leaders at a local level
Little attempt to develop clear values which focus on what it means to be a citizen of a multi-racial Britain
The plethora of initiatives and programmes to tackle the needs of many disadvantaged and disaffected groups seemed rather to ensure divisiveness and a perception of unfairness
In response to this the team’s main recommendations are:
A meaningful concept of ‘citizenship’ in which the responsibilities of citizenship are clearly established
The setting up of a national debate, heavily influenced by younger people, to discuss in an open and honest way the issues preventing community cohesion and develop a permanent infrastructure to give young people a bigger voice and stake in society
Develop clear values of what it means to be a citizen of a modern multi-racial Britain and use them to provide a more coherent approach to education, housing, regeneration, employment and other programmes
Each local area needs to prepare a local community cohesion plan which will combat fear and ignorance of different communities
The promotion of cross-cultural contact between different communities to foster understanding and respect and develop a programme of ‘myth busting’
A new Community Cohesion Task Force needs to be established to oversee the implementation of this work
Also published on the same date (and available from the same location) was the first report of the inter-Ministerial Public Order and Community Cohesion team, which sets out the following actions:
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Community Cohesion is made an explicit aim of Government, so that investment in schools, housing and neighbourhood renewal considers this goal
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A debate is initiated at national and local level on the core values on which citizenship of modern, multi-racial, Britain is based
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Community Cohesion action plans should be drawn up for Bradford, Oldham and Burnley by April 2002
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Community Support Teams should be developed to support local leadership in places where their contribution is needed
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The Regional Co-ordinator posts within Government Offices to remain to help build a longer-term approach to the capacity building that began with the community facilitators
Last update: 08/09/03