Building cohesive and resilient communities in Lancashire

Summary

The Lancashire Community Cohesion Partnership (LCCP) recently won Beacon status under the theme of ‘Cohesive and resilient communities’. The LCCP was established to provide leadership and direction on cohesion issues.

Key learnings for other councils

• Building cohesive and resilient communities across three tiers of local government requires a strategic approach and great flexibility.
• Using joint working across a range of partnerships will strengthen cohesion work.
• Elected member support for cohesion is vital.

Background

Lancashire as a county is highly diverse in terms of its environment, economies and people. This is both one of the strongest assets and greatest challenges. The joint partnership also faces challenges of operating within a three-tier area and with unitary partners, from public bodies and other organisations. It is innovative given the complexity of these issues, and the way it has been formed.

Who is involved?

The LCCP contains 17 partner organisations:

• 14 district councils, including two unitaries
• Lancashire County Council
• Lancashire Constabulary
• Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service.

The following authorities are involved across Lancashire:

• Blackpool Borough Council (unitary)
• Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council (unitary)
• Burnley Borough Council
• Chorley Borough Council
• Fylde Borough Council
• Hyndburn Borough Council
• Lancaster City Council
• Pendle Borough Council
• Preston City Council
• Ribble Valley Borough Council
• Rossendale Borough Council
• South Ribble Council
• West Lancashire District Council
• Wyre Borough Council.

The LCCP is governed by the pan-Lancashire strategic Lancashire Chief Executive Group and the Lancashire Leaders Group – elected members.

The problems and how we tackled them

Community cohesion is complex and the issues differ from district to district across the county. However, the LCCP has successfully developed a strategic approach to supporting communities to be cohesive and resilient.

Each local strategic partnership (LSP) has either a community cohesion action plan or includes actions to promote cohesion in its neighbourhood management plans.

Each partner organisation has identified community cohesion as a priority. Building cohesive and resilient communities is most effectively achieved through strong joint working – using knowledge, experience and resources more effectively.

This has been tackled in a number of ways. Community cohesion is incorporated into the Lancashire Local Area Agreement (LAA) through national indicator (NI) 1. This is the percentage of people who believe that people from different backgrounds get on well together in their area. Districts have established their own targets based on local circumstances.

The establishment of the LCCP has provided strategic leadership and direction to ensure an impact on the ground. The partnership has enabled common themes or areas where joint action can add value to be identified and then taken forward. The partnership’s action plan will support the measurement of NI 1. 

Elected member support for cohesion is very strong. Members know how important an issue it is and act as champions. A chief officer and or senior officer and members Leadership Programme on community cohesion has and continues to be rolled out over three years from regional efficiency and improvement partnership (REIP) money.

What we did

Here is a detailed account of what was carried out with the LCCP.

What we did to enforce cohesive and resilient communities in Lancashire

Outcomes and impact

The partnership continues to share good practice on cohesion locally, regionally and nationally. It is a single voice for Lancashire responding to Government Office North West (GONW) and central government consultation and guidance.

This has resulted in some significant and transformational work being delivered throughout the county. This includes an agreed vision, objectives and an action plan focused on activities that add value to and complement work going on at a local level.

The work of the partnership continues to highlight further areas for improvement. It also enables a faster response to changing priorities in the area in relation to cohesion.

What could we have done better?

Following the disturbances in 2001, cohesion was addressed robustly in East Lancashire. However, there was not a consistent approach across Lancashire as a whole.

In 2006, the Lancashire Chief Executive Group agreed to work jointly throughout the whole of Lancashire on cohesion. The LCCP also report to the Lancashire Leaders Group which informs the elected members throughout the districts of Lancashire.

The LCCP recognised the need to support elected members and senior officers on cohesion developments nationally and locally. It provided a platform to develop their cohesion skills as part of its action plan. A leadership programme was developed and launched in November 2008. It will be rolled out over the next three years using REIP funds.

For smaller districts, often with limited resources, tackling cohesion issues can be a daunting task. Being able to ‘tap into’ work that has been or is being undertaken can help districts better tackle these issues. The establishment of the LCCP and the cohesion ‘one-stop shop’ website and or List of Offers Forum are mechanisms for this.

Next steps

The LCCP intends to focus on mapping communities using a more intelligence-led approach. This will involve analysing intelligence gathered from the Place Survey and other methods. In addition, indicators to support NI 1 – the percentage of people believing that people from different back grounds get on well together in their area – will be developed.

The partnership intends to improve its cohesion ‘one-stop shop’ and the ‘Cohesion Good Practice Digest’, and expand the List of Offers Forum.

The LCCP Action Plan will be refreshed with the help of the Institute of Community Cohesion (ICoCo). This involves planning the focus of the coming year to reflect the changing challenges of our communities. This will take into consideration national and international events, the recession and the concerns of the white working class – from a socio economic perspective.

The partnership will be linking more directly with other county strategic bodies including:

• The Contest Board
• Children's Trusts
• Lancashire Resilience Forum
• Lancashire Hate Crime Incident Group and LSPs.

Further information

Pam Smith, Cohesion Policy Officer
Policy Unit
Lancashire County Council
telephone: 01772 530591
email: pam.smith@lancashire.gov.uk

Useful links

Lancashire Community Cohesion – on the Lancashire County Council website

Page published July 2009.