Agenda item

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director, Corporate & Policy which provided an advanced interim summary of progress of the Cohesion Working Topic Working Group, with an indication of an emerging series of recommendations on how best Halton should discharge its duties in respect of Community Cohesion.  The report also sought the views of Members on further issues which may need to be considered to complete the review.

In addition, the Board discussed the following points:-

·        That the final report should contain a summary and the recommendations be set out at the beginning of the report;

·        The complexity of community cohesion and the range of inter related matters was discussed and noted;

·        The potential role of Parish Council’s to further develop community cohesion was noted; and

·        The positive impact that building on existing links within smaller communities could have on community cohesion was noted.

RESOLVED: That

(1)                     the following key recommendations be noted and actioned:-

i)                    the “Vision Story” developed during the scrutiny process be adopted as the community cohesion statement for Halton and form part of the overall corporate equalities statement used in service planning;

ii)                  the Equality Impact Assessments be extended in scope, in line with LGA guidance, to cover the potential community cohesion impacts of all council policies and programmes.  This should be carried out as part of the established service planning process;

iii)                an Officer Working Group be established, as a sub-group of the Corporate Equalities Group, to specifically look at the needs of new migrants in the Borough and to monitor the joint delivery of services to them;

iv)                the Officer Working Group above report back to the Board on a regular basis;

v)                  the cohesion implications of council activities be monitored and reported to the various Policy and Performance Boards as part of the normal service planning monitoring process.  In addition a data set of cohesion indicators should be set up and populated.  These should form an annual progress report on cohesion, which would be monitored by the Employment, Learning & Skills PPB;

vi)                the Corporate Services PPB be alerted to emerging concerns about perceived barriers to accessing services.  These include opening hours, disabled access, transport, difficult locations, information and communication, bureaucracy, quality of response and perceived attitudes to certain client groups.  Corporate Services PPB may wish to consider whether it is worthy of further investigation or scrutiny;

vii)              that the Council and its partners be informed of the results of this scrutiny topic and recognise that anti-social behaviour has profound implications for cohesion in Halton.  It is one of its defining issues.  The anti-social behaviour scrutiny topic team and Halton’s Community Safety Team should take note of the impact of their work on community cohesion and be aware that this will form part of the cohesion monitoring system in Halton; and

viii)            inter-generational myths and conflicts were identified as a key defining feature of cohesion in Halton.  It is recommended that the appropriate teams within the Children’s Services and Health and Communities Directorates collaborate on joining up activity to specifically address inter-generational issues within Halton.