Agenda item
Community Cohesion Challenge Session
- Meeting of Overview & Scrutiny Committee, Thursday, 20th July, 2017 6.30 p.m. (Item 7.3)
- View the background to item 7.3
Minutes:
The Committee received a report from Councillor Mustaquim (Scrutiny Lead, Governance 2016/17) on the Scrutiny Challenge Session on Community Cohesion that was held on 12th April 2017. He provided an overview of the report that had been produced and outlined its six recommendations, which are aimed at further enhancing cohesion outcomes for Tower Hamlets.
The questions and comments from Members on the report may be summarised as follows:
The Committee:
Noted that:
- the review had specifically considered the definition of community cohesion; national reviews related to cohesion; the key findings from the Casey Review and to establish to what extent those findings were prevalent in Tower Hamlets by considering and comparing factual and statistical evidence; the Council’s approach to grants and the associated impact on improving cohesion outcomes; reviewing language as driver of cohesion, including a consideration of the effectiveness of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision; the impact of the Councils policies on cohesion such as the school admissions, housing and planning policies; a consideration of the social and economic data and trends and the consequential impact on the gentrification of Tower Hamlets; the context of the Equalities Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equalities Duty on the Council to foster good relations between people and the Council’s leadership role on cohesion;
- the report reflected the discussion from a two hour challenge session and recognised the limited amount of time that was available to cover such a wide ranging topic as cohesion. The report therefore focused on those particular aspects of cohesion that the challenge session had considered were important for Tower Hamlets. Also it was noted that a recommendation had been made to consider setting up a taskforce that would look at cohesion in more detail to address this;
- the report also highlighted that the Council is leading on best practice in this area e.g. Tower Hamlets role and involvement with London Councils to help develop the future approaches is noted and recognised;
- the report had also recognised the range and scale of projects being undertaken by the Council, addressing cohesion in Tower hamlets and made recommendations which aimed to further enhance cohesion outcomes for Tower Hamlets e.g. sports, arts and music could play a larger role in promoting community cohesion; and
- the findings from the challenge session discussion, which had included qualitative evidence and Councillors practical experience in the field, which had been supplemented by additional secondary sources. These had included a review of population statistics and trends; ward data; as well as consideration of the impact of legislation and findings from national reviews;
- a detailed action plan will be produced to implement the recommendations and that during the action planning stage the key risks, implications and mitigating actions will be identified and agreed.
Actions
The Chair Moved and it was:-
RESOLVED
To:
- Agree the report and the recommendations;
- Authorise the Divisional Director of Strategy, Policy and Partnership to amend the draft report before submission to Cabinet, after consultation with the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee;
- Agree that the Action Plan should consider how the Council’s sports, arts and music offer might to play a larger role in promoting community cohesion; and
- Ask that officers circulate the information about the Tension Monitoring Group to the Members of the Committee.
Supporting documents:
- A More Cohesive Borough A Scrutiny Challenge Report, item 7.3 PDF 98 KB
- Appendix 1 A More Cohesive Borough Report v0.7_130717_Final, item 7.3 PDF 433 KB