Community Cohesion Strategy

The way we will work

The Barking and Dagenham Partnership recognises the council's unique position in terms of leadership, informed by national legislation, policies and protocols.

However, the clear understanding within the Barking and Dagenham Partnership is that all stakeholders have equal and shared responsibility for actively leading in the delivery of this strategy.

We know that we can do anything we want, however with limited resources we can not do everything. In listening to our community we will use the information given to us to achieve the aims of this strategy.

We will work with our residents in partnership to strengthen our ties, to reduce misunderstandings and to explode myths, and we will do this because our community has asked us to and because we want to.

We will shape the borough into a place where everyone can look forward to a future where Fairness, Respect, Safety and Togetherness are shared values and a shared experience.

The Barking and Dagenham Partnership has wide representation from statutory, voluntary and community sectors and is organised into subgroups which reflect key areas of work in the Local Area Agreement.

The work and development of the Partnership is overseen by the Public Service Board. The implementation of this strategy will be monitored, and the achievement of its objectives will be ensured by the Inclusion sub-group.

There are clear links between the delivery of excellent services and community cohesion: we aim to achieve cohesion through customer-focused services. This means that we will:

Involve residents in developing our decisions and our priorities, and in planning and delivering services locally
Improve the way we consult and engage with residents over our service delivery
Be open and honest about our services
Listen to what residents have to say and respond

There is a strong link between good customer relations and happy staff: for this reason the Barking and Dagenham Partnership commits to including community cohesion within staff development programmes.

The Council, in collaboration with Barking and Dagenham Partnership members, has designed a bespoke community cohesion training and development programme using expert advisers (Cohesion Matters).

This programme has been developed in order that a common and shared language can be developed and used in the various organisations and community groups.

The delivery of the strategy will be guided by the following principles:

a) Leadership and commitment

Continuous leadership by the Barking and Dagenham Partnership
Leaders make a public commitment to achieve the strategy's vision and aims
Widening representation of the community on the Barking and Dagenham Partnership through a range of interactive and proactive engagement methods
A bottom-up approach
Supporting Barking and Dagenham Partnership members in their community leadership, engagement and cohesion roles

b) Delivering on our vision and values

Continuing wide-ranging consultation and engagement
Keeping the vision and aims manageable and deliverable
Ensuring the Barking and Dagenham Partnership understands, is involved in and delivers on the community cohesion agenda

c) Planning and delivering the action plan

Following best practice in project and risk management
Developing a shared, in-depth analysis of the area
Conducting an annual review of the action plan activities and targets to ensure they continue to be appropriate, relevant and challenging
Identifying the resources to deliver

Contact

Heather Wills

Head of Community Services, Libraries and Heritage

Civic Centre

Rainham Road North

Dagenham

RM10 7BN

Tel: 020 8227 2786

Fax: 020 8227 2241

Textphone: 020 8227 2462

Email: heather.wills@lbbd.gov.uk|