Blueprint for borough to foster community togetherness

Judith Griffin, chief executive of NHS Blackburn with Darwen, Professor Ted Cantle, Chief Supt. Andy Rhodes and Graham Burgess. Front with the report: Daljit Kaur from iCoCo.

click to enlarge

A blueprint for Blackburn with Darwen to follow to foster community togetherness in the borough has been unveiled.

A report by the Institute of Community Cohesion (iCoCo) lays out recommendations for the borough to follow to further strengthen community spirit and overcome the challenges it found.

It was produced by a team headed by Professor Ted Cantle, one of Britain’s leading experts on the issue and is another step in a major cohesion initiative in the Blackburn with Darwen.

Dozens of people from community groups, faith groups, neighbourhood boards, partnership agencies, businesses came to the conference at Ewood Park to listen to Professor Cantle speak about his report and its findings. Chief executive Graham Burgess also addressed the audience about how the Council and its Local Strategic Partners such as the police, NHS Blackburn with Darwen and Blackburn College intend to build on the report and build an ambitious programme to overcome the challenges the borough faces.

iCoCo undertook an exhaustive look at community cohesion issues in the area and produced a series of recommendations.

The report praised Blackburn with Darwen for the borough's strong and long established record of promoting community cohesion of which it can be proud. It says the issue is a priority for the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP).

The LSP is the borough's largest and most influential partnership body. It's an overarching partnership body for the whole borough. It's made up of representatives from the Council, other public sector organisations (like the health and police services), business, and the voluntary, community and faith sectors.

Examples of the borough’s good work include 100 Voices cohesion campaign launched in December 2006, the Belonging campaign and the Neighbourhood Voices meetings across the five borough neighbourhoods.

While the report says that having separate communities in Blackburn with Darwen is a significant problem, it believes the Council and its partners are well equipped to deal with it.

Graham Burgess, chief executive of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: “We welcome this report and the analysis of iCoCo. We understand that we face significant challenges such as separation in education and the workplace. But, as the report says, we have a strong track record and are well equipped to meet these challenges head on.

“We wanted to be open and honest about these issues and get a discussion going as that is the only way to tackle them.

“The report is the first step in addressing the problems we face. Fostering a sense of togetherness between people in the borough is a priority for the Council and its partners. For example, although the report does not recommend it, we are committed to carrying on the independent steering group and will appoint a new chair external from the Council and the Local Strategic Partnership.”

Prof. Cantle said: “The Local Strategic Partnership is aware of this and wants to address it.

“The borough has already done a lot of work it can rightly be proud of. This report is the first step to refresh that, which is very heartening.

“Community cohesion is not just about ethnicity and faith. There are other differences like disability, age and geography that create problems.”

The report was the result of a six-month project. iCoCo set up a group of 12 to 15 people including people from the voluntary sector, business leaders and council and LSP representatives.

As well as holding monthly meetings, the group spoke to people on the street, faith groups, business and schools to shape its recommendations.

The full iCoCo report has now been published, and was considered by the Council's Executive Board on the 9th July.

Use this link to read the full report.