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Community Cohesion and the National Association of Muslim Police Conference

Date of speech	16 March 2009
Event summary	National Association of Muslim Police Conference

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Transcript of the speech as delivered.

Thanks Reham. Aslam-a-lakum (peace be upon you) everyone. It's a pleasure to be here at the 2nd annual National Association of Muslim Police conference on 'working towards community cohesion'. I know a lot a lot of hard work goes into putting on a event like this and I'd like to congratulate Zaheer and his team, in particular Yousef who I understand has put a great deal into today's event.

I'm here today to talk to you in my capacity as the Minister for cohesion and about the Government's vision for cohesive communities. Police services are a critical element in the development of more cohesive communities: active, empowered and resilient. And I know that police services up and down the country have done great work in working closely with their partners in local authorities and other agencies to engage with communities, to deal with challenges to cohesion and to show leadership on key issues. 

In the short time I have I want to set out some of the work that central Government is delivering to support you locally, working in your communities.

But first I'd like to pay tribute to NAMP and some of your achievements in 2008.

In particular the female conference in November last year which I think Vernon spoke about earlier. Muslim women are at the centre of our communities - they are the mothers, wives, daughters and girlfriends whom we often rely on. They can be a positive influence on those around them and often bring a unique viewpoint to issues. And they do like to make their views known!

Nationally we have we have established the National Muslim Women's Advisory Group to provide advice to myself and the Secretary of State on a range of issues - which they do with vigour. We have also established the Young Muslim's Advisory. They are a very active group and will, I am sure, produce many politicians of the future. 

Both of these groups give government a platform through which it can engage more directly with Muslim women and young people from across all communities on issues like cohesion and Prevent.

I've also been impressed with NAMP's work mentoring young people. This is exactly the sort of initiative that I hope can be developed further because it helps ensure police services are anchored in their communities - and, with luck, will encourage more young Muslims to consider a career in the police service. 

I look forward to continuing to hear about your work, including your core business: to support, develop and recruitment of Muslim officers and staff. Policing in Britain has always been based on the consent of communities. In order to maintain that consent, police services need to operate in an open and transparent way and - importantly - need to be reflective of the communities that they serve.

But turning to my priorities as Minister for cohesion I would like to start by recognising the enormous progress that is being made on cohesion issues. Compared with the 1950's and '60s, equality between individuals, and good relations between communities, is much better.

However, you, more than most, will also know that diversity can bring tensions - particularly as the new pressures brought about by and the economic downturn are felt in our neighbourhoods. We know that these pressures are exploited by extremist rhetoric, whether that's from radical Al-Qaida-inspired terrorist groups or the Far Right parties.

Building cohesion is fundamentally about answering, on the face of it, a simple question: how do we live together - in all our diversity, with our different backgrounds and beliefs? We are more different from one another, and at the same time more interdependent and interconnected.

If our society is to work for the benefit of all, we need help and support to overcome our fears and doubts about people who are different from ourselves, so that we can trust one another. This is about finding that we share common values, such as a shared sense of belonging to a particular place.

But that simple question encompasses a set of rather more challenging issues for you as police, of which partnership which other service provides like local authorities, the NHS, schools, must be the key.

We want a society that is at ease with itself, that is confident, and one that is united within its diversity. We want a society in which we continue to respect difference, but at the same time to ensure a sense of security and solidarity.

We can't achieve this, unless we continue to work together.

And we certainly can't achieve it if prejudice is accepted in any form. Another key focus for me is on preventing hate crime before it happens. We fulfil this role by supporting grassroots community projects which try to understand the causes of hate crime and minimise and prevent its effect. Much of our work is focused on young people who are both the main victims and perpetrators of hate crime of which Islamophobia is one element.

One of the Government's core principles for cohesion is the focus on the 'local': and this is one of the key points I want to emphasise today. Vernon talked earlier about how the Policing Green Paper will look to matching local problems to policing priorities.

And in terms of cohesion of a similar principle applies, in that cohesion between existing groups, while being driven by national events and changes, is experienced, for the most part, at the local level.

The global changes that shape our lives are also often best met with local solutions. In tough economic times, it is even more important and relevant than ever, to talk about difficult issues such as Prevent. An issue that people care about deeply.

We have to talk about cohesion and Prevent in a balanced way, acknowledging the benefits and the challenges: and in a clear straightforward way, that makes sense to people.

We need a new kind of partnership, to bridge the gap between national leadership and local action.  We need to see the police service with Whitehall, councils, and their local partners working together, sharing information, sharing expertise.  This idea underpins the Government's response to the Commission on Integration and Cohesion report: and I believe we have already made good progress translating that response into practical action.

Let me just reiterate that the Government has confirmed £34m of funding over the next 3 years for local projects in the areas where cohesion poses the biggest challenges.

But more than just funding we have we have developed a cohesion delivery framework of guidance and are working with the Institute for Community Cohesion to develop a single website for examples of good practice.

As well as that, we have also initiated Specialist Cohesion Teams. We are currently evaluating these two pilots, though they have clearly been a success, and will be announcing how we will use the teams to tackle cohesion issues in the future.

I think we're heading in the right direction, and have got the basic framework in place to help communities everywhere continue to grow those links of common purpose. We are working with the National Policing Improvement Agency to develop guidance on what more neighbourhood policing can do to support cohesion.

The police play a central role in this agenda and not just because you deal with disturbances, hate crime and other expression of community tensions. You also, though neighbourhood policing, gather intelligence about what is happening in communities and make the links and work with people who can help prevent community tensions from escalating. And in the related agendas of equalities - where their leadership is critical - and in difficult and challenging agendas like preventing violent extremism.

This will reflect that the Police's role in building cohesion, is not limited to tackling negative situations, but also in positive preventative work.

Financial Crisis

I want to make a few points about about cohesion and the global financial crisis.

Without beating about the bush, there are tougher times on the horizon. Lots of people are worried about their jobs and homes. Budgets will be tight. For this Government, there's no more important priority than helping people through the tough times.

But this doesn't mean cohesion no longer matters. On the contrary, in difficult economic circumstances you can go one of two ways. On the one hand, you could get people worried about access to public services and jobs. At the worst this could create competition between different groups that could corrode local cohesion. No-one wants to see that.

On the other hand, strong, cohesive communities could be best placed to ride out the worst of the downturn. Places where people band together - united by community spirit - and secure in their support for each other - will have an advantage.

So the financial crisis is not an excuse to stop thinking about cohesion, but to take it to the next level.  Budgets are likely to be constrained so the answer cannot be to throw money at the challenge.  But then it never was. This is a challenge that calls for local ingenuity, flexibility, working across public bodies, sharing resources and expertise, forging links with charities, community and voluntary groups.

My message to Police, local authorities and their partners is clear: no-one can afford to leave this to chance.  But you won't be alone. The Government is also adapting its approach to cohesion to make sure we get it right at this crucial point.

The Government will be keeping closely in touch with those places that have put ways to measure local tensions in place, and encouraging those that have not to follow suit - so that there is a clear and authoritative picture of the difference that the financial crisis is making to cohesion on the ground.

The Government is ready to be creative about its support for those places facing new challenges as a result of the downturn - for example, we might consider asking the specialist cohesion teams to get involved.

And as we look to allocating the next set of local budgets, we will make sure that the money is going to those places where it will make the most difference, taking into account the effects of the downturn.

I want, if I may, to finish off with some challenges to you here and the wider community you serve.

You in NAMP need to continue the work toward establishing a truly representative and reflective police service and I'm sure with support and partnerships across local services, together with initiatives like the work to develop ambassadors, I'm sure you will.

You also need to work with colleagues in my Department to help embed Prevent in all your local communities. Again, I would echo Vernon's point that Prevent, despite what Panorama says, is not and has never been a vehicle to spy on communities.

And to the Muslim community as whole I would urge some understanding about the difficult balance the police have to strike on a regular basis when dealing with sensitive issues like cohesion or indeed Prevent.

In conclusion, our work on building cohesion is not done by any means. There are challenges ahead, but only by recognising them will we deal with them and move forward with confidence. Only by working together on this will we build cohesive and resilient communities. And only by recognising what we have in common rather than what divides us, will we map out our shared futures.

Thank you for listening and I wish you the best in the year ahead.