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New Communities
New Communities Project
The two-year New Communities Project, funded by the Big Lottery and Breckland Council, has now been completed. The project assessed the needs and aspirations of the new communities in the local area, especially how essential services are accessed. Data were gathered from key service providers and employers in the area and from members of the new communities about their experiences when they first arrived in the UK.
The data gathered did tend to reflect the findings of research carried out nationally and the particular concerns in Dereham and the surrounding area fell into two main areas.
Language Barriers
• INTRAN was oversubscribed and had difficulty meeting requests for services promptly. Some organisations did not subscribe to an interpretation/translation service and if a private service was used, the cost was often passed on to the customer.
• It was difficult to get people to attend English classes regularly and some did not qualify for the funding, so had to bear the cost themselves. The funding for free ESOL classes had been reduced and became means tested from August 2007.
Cultural Barriers
• There was a reliance on informal networks to obtain information and the Mid Norfolk Association was not widely known. Incorrect information was being given out and there was poor promotion of services in places frequented by members of the new communities. Both the local population and some members of the new communities were, in some cases, unwilling to integrate and there was a poor understanding of migrant workers and new communities. There was no single focal point for new migrants to seek advice.
• There was a risk of marginalisation as ignorance of English law and the language barriers led to inadvertent criminalisation. People were open to exploitation and social problems existed due to low pay etc. Local clubs/societies/organisations were not active in seeking participation from members of the new communities.
It was recognised by the partnership that the demand for advice was high, so the project, supported by generous sponsorship by Barclays, funded three pilot advice surgeries offering legal, financial, debt and benefit advice from professional advisors in local businesses and the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, using qualified interpreters. Sessions were held at the offices of the Mid Norfolk Association, the local Portuguese club and in a café in Dereham run by a Portuguese family.
The final phase of the project was to draw up an action plan and produce a report detailing the findings, conclusions and recommendations put forward. The action plan sets out a number of initiatives which could be undertaken to improve the experience of migrants living and working in Dereham and the surrounding area.
• Local service providers to provide electronic literature in different languages and continue working with the Mid Norfolk Association in raising its profile which, along with the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, provide central points of contact for people to seek advice.
• The partnership to continue to hold advice surgeries with professionally qualified interpreters at a central location, as per the pilot project.
• The local GMB union representative and adult education providers to hold funded ESOL classes operating from the premises of the MNA or other suitable venues.
• INTRAN the Norfolk-wide multi-agency interpretation and translation partnership available to statutory organisations, to work on a pilot project for the extension of its services to private businesses, possibly by setting up an ‘umbrella’ arrangement which would fund the INTRAN service subscription with a number of subsidiary private business partners.
• Work with the Mid Norfolk Association to fund a programme of presentations to local community organisations such as the Rotary Club, the Lions and Parish Councils etc about the many positive aspects of migration and the barriers people experience, giving practical ideas on how groups could be come active in promoting integration and in tackling the problems highlighted in the research.
Funding for the action plan was sought over the last six months of the project but due to the high demand on funding bodies at that time, the partnership has been unsuccessful to date.
The analysis of the findings has shown there is a need for public and private sector organisations to ensure that policies and practice are inclusive and meets the needs of all communities. A number of recommendations were put forward by the partnership to a wide range of local and regional bodies. They are grouped into six areas, focusing on the key issues raised in the report.
Structure: Local authorities should work through their existing local partnerships to identify existing and emerging local issues and co-ordinate responses.
Information: The lack of basic local information should be addressed, and it should be available to anyone coming into contact with migrants. There should be more awareness of the countries whose citizens are entitled to services and regular advice surgeries should be considered.
Data: Local authorities and their partners should work together to pool and analyse national and local intelligence, and administrative data and it should be available to all sectors.
Language: English language provision must be tailored to meet the needs of migrants and the impact of the decision to reduce free access to ESOL should be monitored. A greater employer contribution should be encouraged.
Communication: Front-line staff must be able to communicate with migrants, who often have limited English and a variety of services must be available to ensure an accurate and adequate service. Individual organisations should give particular consideration to the provision of materials, having staff or volunteers with skills in the relevant languages and access to professionally qualified interpretation and translation services.
Cohesion and integration: all public and private sector organisations should be encouraged to promote clear messages that emphasise the contribution of migrants to the economy and culture of the area, and the positive relationships should be built with the local editors of the media and enforcement agencies.
A conference to present the findings of the project and the final report was held at Aldiss Park in January 2009. All participants and other interested groups and organisations were in attendance, along with a representative from the Big Lottery. Positive interest has been shown from a number of organisations and it is hoped the initiatives in the action plan can be carried forward as partnership micro-projects over the coming years.
As co-ordinator of the project, I have had a very interesting and enjoyable 2˝ years with the Dereham Area Partnership. My thanks go to George Hayes and David Ovenden for their help and support during the project, along with the partnership Board of Directors and the members at the various meetings and presentations. I would also like to thank all the members of the project steering group, whose support was invaluable to me in pushing the project forward. I look forward to working with the partnership, albeit in a voluntary capacity, in any future ventures.
Linda Whiteley
New Communities Project Co-ordinator
Linda completed her project successfully for which we would like to thank her for all her hard work.
Linda has since left the organisation due to lack of sufficient funding to continue the project.
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