Our response to the Government’s Integrated Communities Strategy
11 June 2018
On the 5th of June 2018, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) closed the consultation on its new Integrated Communities Strategy.
Our response
We continue to make the case that community youth organisations are a vital part of creating strong and cohesive communities. We strongly believe that youth work delivers benefits not just for young people, but for the family, friends, and community around them. That’s one of the reasons we think that community youth organisations should be supported and funded, sustainably and for the long-term.
About the strategy
The strategy lays out the department’s plan for building strong integrated communities in the places where people live, work, learn, and socialise. The strategy identifies eight key focus areas:
- Strengthening leadership
- Supporting new migrants and resident communities
- Education and young people
- Boosting English language
- Places and community
- Increasing economic opportunity
- Rights and freedoms
- Measuring success
In the area of education and young people, the ministry has set the goal of making sure all children and young people are prepared for life in modern Britain and have the opportunity for meaningful social mixing with those from different backgrounds. They have identified the following key actions:
- Work with local admission authorities in the Integration Areas to help ensure the intake of schools are more representative of the wider area
- Strengthen expectations on integration for new free schools
- Promote mixing and twinning arrangements between schools in areas of high segregation
- Support teachers to promote British values across the curriculum
- Work with Ofsted to ensure that there is strong coverage of schools’ promotion of fundamental British values and integration within its new inspection arrangements
- Ensure a high standard of safeguarding in all education settings
- Work with the National Citizen Service to increase young people’s mixing in areas of high segregation, and stimulate other innovative approaches to promoting meaningful social mixing
