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Community Cohesion

Community cohesion is at the heart of safe and strong communities and local councils have a key role in promoting cohesion as part of their community leadership and ‘place shaping’ roles to create places where people can thrive.

What is Community Cohesion? 

The previous government adopted a new definition in 2007: 

 

“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.

 

Our vision of an integrated and cohesive community is based on three foundations:

1. People from different backgrounds having similar life opportunities
2. People knowing their rights and responsibilities
3. People trusting one another and trusting local institutions to act fairly.

 

And three key ways of living together:

 

 

At its simplest, cohesion is about making an area a good place to live, in which people share a common vision and everyone feels welcome. In these areas, community tensions are reduced because different groups interact and trust each other and inequalities are being tackled.

 

Community Cohesion is a complex and broad subject and means different things in different areas. It is not exclusively linked to race issues. It encompasses various issues including race equality, faith, gender, age, economic disadvantage, class difference and rural issues.

 

However, these issues do not in themselves mean a community will lack cohesion.  It depends on how the different dynamics are managed and reducing the likelihood of community tensions

 

Community Cohesion has strong links with equalities, social exclusion and social inclusion. Improving quality of life for those most at risk will help strengthen community cohesion:

 

• Social Exclusion: “Social Exclusion occurs when people or places suffer from a series of often multiple problems including: unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime environments, rural isolation, poor health and family breakdown” (Cabinet Office, Social Exclusion Unit)

 

• Social Inclusion: “Social Inclusion is the term given to policies and procedures, through which the problems causing social exclusion are tackled. Social Inclusion is not simply a remedy; it is also about preventing the circumstances that lead to exclusion.” (Cabinet Office, Social Exclusion Unit)

 

• Community Cohesion: “Community cohesion is about recognising the impact of change and responding to it. It is about people within communities coming together to interact and participate with one another. Community Cohesion is principally the process that must happen in all communities to ensure different groups of people get on well together” (Commission on Integration and Community Cohesion 2007).

 

• Equality: Access and Opportunities for All.

Measuring community cohesion

As commmunity cohesion is a complex and broad subject, delivery is dependent on the wider public sector, private sector, voluntary and community groups and communities themselves.

 

Our performance on community cohesion was measured by the previous government through a set of National Indicators, which monitored delivery of 30 Public Sector Agreements (PSA) setting out the public sector priorities for 2008-2011. 

 

PSA 21 stated the Government’s priority to “Build more cohesive, empowered and active communities” and required

all local authorities to meet three targets from the National Indicator Set by developing communities:

• that maximise the benefits of diversity rather than fear it
• where individuals are empowered to make a difference both to their own lives and to the communities and wider environment in which they live
• where individuals are enabled to live active and fulfilled lives

 

The 3 National Indicators for cohesion were:

• NI1: Percentage of people who believe people from different backgrounds get on well together in their local area
• NI2: Percentage of people who feel that they belong to their neighbourhood
• NI4: Percentage of people who feel they can influence decisions in their locality

 

A Place Survey was introduced to measure these indicators, amongst others, and was to take place every 2 years at both a district and county level. The first Place Survey was carried out in autumn 2008, and the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) published the results in June 2009. Please click on the link to download the results. 

 

In addition to the three perception indicators for cohesion above, there are many other indicators that support strong and cohesive communities such as:

 

• NI6: Participation in regular volunteering
• NI7: Environment for a thriving third sector
• NI3: Civic participation in the local area
• NI140: Fair treatment by local services

 

The comprehensive area assessment, which same into effect from April 2009, also judged how successfully partners work together to achieve shared objectives and outcomes, including creating cohesive communities.

New Performance Framework

The autumn spending review 2010 saw the abolition of public service agreements across government and the axing of the place survey.

 

For April 2011, the National Indicator Set will be replaced by a single, comprehensive list of all the data the DCLG  expects local government to provide to central government.

 

We await details.  

 

 

 

 

Contact

Tel: 01304 872314
E-mail: policy@dover.gov.uk

 

 

 

 

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