Policy Updates & Briefing

The Queen's Speech 2008(3rd Dec 08)

The Queen's Speech 2008 has outlined 14 Bills for the coming year in Parliament. As well as dealing with the current economic downturn, the focus of the new session of Parliamentary business will be welfare reform and crime reduction. The Bills include:
• Banking Bill
• Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill
• Welfare Reform Bill
• Policing and Crime Bill
• Coroners & Justice Bill
• Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Bill
• Equality Bill
• Child Poverty Bill
• Health Bill
• Children, Skills and Learning Bill
• Marine and Coastal Access Bill
• Political Parties and Elections Bill
• Business Rates Supplement Bill
• Saving Gateway Accounts Bill


Economic Inactivity and Worklessness in Lambeth

The Borough of Lambeth suffers from higher levels of economic inactivity and worklessness. London's employment rate hovers around 69% and the working age benefit claim rate at 14.7%. In Lambeth employment rates are at 66.7% (July 06 – June 07), the working age benefit claim rate in May 2007 was 17.2 % (18.0% May 2006) which is higher than the London average (but has shown some reduction within a 12 month period).

Lambeth Startegic Partnership; Lambeth First, has put together its Employment and Skills Plan with the intention of bringing into a single action plan, the main activities in Lambeth focused on getting people back into work, its target being achievement of a 70% employment rate by 2012.

The Employment and Skills Board remain the custodians of the Employment and Skills Plan to tackle economic inactivity and worklessness, and will oversee the strategic development, delivery and monitoring of the activities to achieve the priorities defined by the Lambeth First Executive.

Lambeth Economic Development Strategy 2007-2012 – Employment and Skills Objectives

The Strategic objective 2 of the current Lambeth economic development strategy focuses on the following;

1. Promotion of a city strategy model of employment service provision – linking employers across the South London subregion with streamlined and co-ordinated employment services and appropriate, relevant training.
2. Support more people into work –Working with partners to significantly increase the numbers of people entering employment through employer partnerships and local job-search support programmes.
3. Remove barriers to employment for disadvantaged groups - Ensuring that the London Development Agency’s Childcare Affordability Programme has maximum impact in Lambeth in order to reduce the affordability gap and improve pathways to employment for parents. Work with employers on effective equal opportunities, with initiatives such as “Diversity Works” and tackle issues such as race and racial discrimination. Establish a local Task Force in January 2008 to take responsibility for issues relating to labour market achievements for the most disadvantaged, including disabled people, young people and women.
4. Improve in-work support and Workforce Development - Significantly increase the number of Apprenticeships and Train to Gain options in Lambeth within 18 months from October 2007.
5. A new University leadership model - Develop a model to strengthen the school-to-university pipeline to enable more Lambeth residents to enter higher education and promote Lambeth as a learning borough.
6. Increase adult learning through neighbourhood centres - Open up the world of learning, careers and employment.

BNRRN is running an Engagement Project in Lambeth which has involved linking local organisations and initiatives with Lambeth Strategic Partnership priorities. BNRRN is supporting and working in partnership with three organisations (Hyde Plus, Nile Community Organisation and Kurdish Cultural Centre) in their activities around the worklessness and economic activity agenda, and the activities include Employment partnerships, pathways to employment and Training. The local organisations include


“Fair Rules for Strong Communities”
The Prime Minister has set out the Government’s ‘fair rules’ agenda (Dec 08), outlining a wide range of policy initiatives designed to support strong communities.
The “Fair Rules for Strong Communities” contains a comprehensive series of reforms covering welfare, crime and policing, children and young people, business rules, immigration and communities. It is aimed at bringing people together and steering the country through the global economic downturn.

Under Welfare reform the government plans
• A new ‘one strike’ rule for benefit cheats.
• A tiered system for those claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA).
• A requirement that from October 2010 lone parents with a youngest child aged seven or over will no longer be entitled to Income Support solely on the grounds of being a lone parent.
• Piloting Voice Risk Analysis technology to help assess whether a benefit claimant is providing misleading information.

Crime and policing
• A tougher community payback scheme.
• A new Victims Commissioner to give victims and witnesses a stronger voice in the justice system, protecting their interests and ensuring fair treatment
• Steps to support people who do the right thing, including a £5m Community Crime Fighters programme to train 3,600 members of the public who are already active in their communities and want to do more to make them safer
• Ensuring that public sector workers and other authority figures are empowered and supported in upholding fair rules.

Children and young people
• Supporting young people to play by the rules by increasing funding for out of school community facilities and activities
• More Family Intervention Projects
• A joined-up ‘Youth Crime Action Plan’ to deal with that small minority of young people who break the rules.

Businesses and town centres
• Reclassifying lap dancing clubs as ‘sex establishments’ to allow councils to take into account a wider range of local concerns
• Considering proposals to create a new code for alcohol retailers
• Working with local authorities to make it easier for local people to register their concerns about irresponsible and illegal alcohol sales
• Ensuring that local communities and their authorities have sufficient powers to prevent the
• A new push to ensure that credit card companies treat customers fairly in these difficult economic times.
Immigration
• A new requirement that from April 2009, migrants contribute directly towards a new fund that will help local service providers deal with the short-term pressures of migration
• Reforms to the immigration system, including a new selective points-based system to ensure Britain attracts economic migrants who have the skills our economy needs – and no more
• Enforcing strict penalties against immigrants or their employers if they break the rules.

Empowerment
• Ensuring people have a fair say in determining the rules by placing duties on all local authorities to promote democratic understanding and participation and respond to petitions, and extending the recently introduced ‘duty to involve’ to a wider range of agencies in local communities
• Enhancing the ability of community representatives to hold councils to account, ensuring swift and fair redress for poor services
• Giving people a greater say over their local police, including the introduction of directly elected policing representatives.

The plans around empowernment suggest that on the part of councils, an active 'reaching out' to local communities including BAMER groups, is expected. BAMER communitites will be able to take advantage of enhanced and supported democratic conditions fostered by governments plans around empowerment to engage in more effective dialogue with statutory bodies about the needs of the community. Empowerment plans will also enable stronger and better relationships to be built with local Police.

Further information available at
http://www.number10.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/fair-rules-for-strong-communities.pdf



Responses to the Cohesion Guidance for Funders Consultation

Communities and Local Government (CLG) consulted on the draft ‘Cohesion
Guidance for Funders’, from February to May 2008. CLG has now produced a summary of the ninety-eight responses received from the consultation.

The responses reflected the fact that the ‘Cohesion Guidance for Funders’, proved to be a controversial document particularly for the voluntary and community sector in its recommendations on the subject of “single group funding”.

Of the 98 responses received, two thirds were from the third sector. Half of the total number of responses came from third sector organisations supporting a specific client group with a large proportion of those groups were defined by ethnicity.

A Cross-section of Responses •
The consultation revealed limited support for the proposed guidance for funders.

• They wanted the guidance should apply to mainstream groups as to single groups, and for the emphasis on decisions being based on the local context.

• Many respondents were critical of the tone of the guidance which they considered appeared to: promote cohesion at the expense of equality, misrepresent single groups and reinforce negative stereotypes, make selective use of the evidence base and case studies, rely on theories and concepts perceived to be flawed or poorly explained, be inconsistent and incompatible with other relevant government policies, the legislative framework and Compact Codes, and challenge the independence of the third sector.

• Some respondents felt that single groups still had a role to play particularly as the society was still quite a way off from the ‘mainstreaming’ ideal.

• Many organisations said that the guidance could be used by funders to justify cutting funding to single groups, reducing access to services and thereby increasing inequality and hampering cohesion. And some felt that funders were already using the draft guidance to justify cutting funding to single groups.

• There was concern about monitoring its application and ensuring accountability and transparency around all funding decisions

• While some funders were confident that they had the right information and resources to enable them to make effective decisions, most third sector respondents thought that they did not. It was felt that funders lacked understanding of local community needs and capacity.

• Some respondents felt that the government was on a level challenging the sector’s independence.

The consultation responses contained over a hundred good practice examples of projects balancing bridging activity with meeting diverse needs.

Further information available from
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/cohesionfundersconsultation


'Cultural Metropolis – The Mayor's Priorities for Culture 2009-2012'
The Mayor of London has outlined his plans to enhance Londoners' experience of arts and culture in the capital.
London's cultural and creative sector’s contribution to the economy is very significant. In 2002 the creative industries added £21 billion to London's output and by 2005, 12 per cent of all London workers - 554,000 people - were creatively employed. Over 15 million overseas tourists come to London each year - five million more than go to Paris or New York - together with ten million domestic visitors and 150 million day trippers. Seven out of ten say that London’s cultural offer influenced their decision to visit.
The Key Priorities contained in the plan are:

Maintaining London’s position as a world centre of cultural excellence
Under this theme the mayor plan highlights the key cultural assets of London which include theatres and museums and the industries that surround these, the over 200 festivals staged in London each year; specifying that for London to keep their top position on the world stage, these would need to be maintained with a good level of public funding despite the current financial climate.
A new £1.4 million LDA fund, the ‘2012 London Cultural Skills Fund’ will be introduced to provide grants of up to £50,000 for not-for-profit arts and cultural organisations in London to build their capacity and capitalise on the opportunities presented by the Olympics. The fund will be administered by Arts Council England’s London office.
Also mention is the £175,000 grant given by the LDA towards a new home for the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton, which will form part of the wider regeneration plans in this important historic area.

World-class culture for 2012 and beyond
In the plan culture is noted as ‘playing a major part in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games’. The Mayors plan highlights the ‘Cultural Olympiad’, (which consists of the opening, closing and medal ceremonies, as well as ten major cultural projects, all of which are to be delivered in the run-up to 2012 by LOCOG, in collaboration with major cultural institutions), as providing an opportunity for arts and cultural organisations, and the creative industries, to respond to the Olympic values and develop the themes of excellence and youth engagement in their work. The Cultural Olympiad was launched on 26 September 2008 with the nationwide events programme ‘Open Weekend’.
£40 million has been earmarked by LOCOG and its partners for the ten main Cultural Olympiad projects and plans are being made to bring in more through sponsorship.
For London, the Games will create an opportunity to celebrate the cities identity and to explore the relationship with the rest of the world and so to that effect, the GLA is planning to collaborate on major new partnership events across the city each year including ‘The Story of London’, a pan-London season of events to be held in June 2009, which will celebrate the past, present and future of London and its many communities.
To help coordinate activities up to and during the Games, the GLA have begun to develop a grid tool to map events in London.
In 2012 a world-class Olympic Park (which will be the largest urban park in Europe in 150 years) will be created. The creative team, based at the Olympic Delivery Authority, will coordinate the design and public art strategy for the site, and develop ideas for visitor attractions with input from different agencies including the Mayor’s Office. GLA will also help shape the Legacy Masterplan for the site.

Strengthen arts and music education for young people
The Mayor has launched a youth strategy in which music will play a key role in engaging young people in positive activities. GLA also supports the government’s 'Find Your Talent' initiative in Tower Hamlets, as well as efforts to spread the lessons of this to other boroughs. GLA aims to nurture the next generation of great artists and musicians, as well as the audiences of the future with the ultimate objective of encouraging a culture of popular participation in the arts at all levels.

To tackle the problem of the lack of affordable instruments which Is a major barrier for youth, GLA has initiated with Time Out magazine a musical instrument amnesty called ‘No Strings Attached’, inviting all Londoners to pledge their old musical instruments. These will be redistributed to music education providers in London.
The Mayor will also be looking at other disciplines that face similar challenges, such as dance, drawing and craft, the teaching of classics, and new media and digital technology.

Increase access and participation
The mayor’s aim under this theme is to enable greater access to enjoy and contribute to the rich mix of culture on offer in London through strategies for lowering of tickets, free screening, strategies for removing and reducing physical and sensory barriers that reduce access for disabled and older people as well as those with very young children. the idea of a culture Pass is being explored. Also considered are the problems of transportation example cost, congestion and parking. The issue of public safety is also considered.
There is also a focus on improving local cultural services and the London Cultural Improvement Group is mentioned in its role of bringing together 32 boroughs plus regional agencies and has initiated a series of reviews on local cultural services.
Improve provision in outer boroughs
This focus is to make cultural provision 60 per cent of Londoners who live in the outer boroughs who experience limited provision because London’s cultural institutions and events are mostly in the centre of London.
The plan speaks of the need to challenge the perception that there is enough support for culture in the suburbs. in light of this GLA plans to review the extent of cultural provision in London and call on national funders to re-examine their current levels of support.

The GLA currently funds a number of major public events in the city, but want to ensure this benefits as many Londoners as possible. To this effect the GLA has given funding to the London Jazz Festival so that organisers can hold events in outer London boroughs for the first time. The Mayor is also looking at how the annual Mayor’s Thames Festival can be extended outwards along the river in 2009 to enable even more people to participate.

Develop pathways for new talent
This priority speaks about the need to recruit talented people to the cultural and creative sectors. It picks up on the issue of discrimination and its wider social-economic factors. Though there is a focus of discrimination against non-whites. White people from working-class, low-income backgrounds face many of the same barriers as non-white people in the sector.
Under this priority, the Mayor has begun to discuss with relevant agencies and organisations how we can assist the professional development of recruits to the sector, through support networks, and the facilitation of bursaries and skills training.

Create a lively public realm
The GLA will continue to run an events programme aiming at making London an exciting and friendly place for people to visit. The Mayor has pledged his support for the main religious and cultural celebrations that take place in Trafalgar Square. We will also continue to back culturally significant events in the rest of the city, such as the Notting Hill Carnival in Kensington, the London Mela in Ealing and the Carnaval Del Pueblo in Peckham. Bugetary pressures are mentioned as resulting in a need for some changes and to pursue the angle of working better with local boroughs and to coordinate a city‑wide approach, especially in the run-up to 2012.
The increasing number of events held in Trafalgar Square and the pressures on its physical infrastructure means that the GLA will be undertaking a review of the events programme for the square to ensure that only the highest quality cultural and community events take place there. Where possible, we will work with organisations to move certain events to other central locations.


Support grassroots culture
This priority speaks about funding and support to the thousands of small voluntary and community organisations including independent clubs and societies, arts and music venues, choirs, bands, markets, festivals, studios and artists’ networks (a significant proportion of BAMER groups fall into this category and will therefore have expectations around this priority and will need to keenly watch out for developments).

The Mayors office proposes, working with the regional funding agencies to minimise the effects and provide support and advice to these grassrppt voluntary and community organisations, and work to find ways to reduce the red tape that hampers the activities of many smaller organisations.

Where appropriate, the Mayor will balance the considerations of important new transport developments with London’s arts and cultural landscape and seek to find a workable compromise. For example, the legendary Astoria Theatre will now be re-sited by developers to make way for the new Crossrail line.

Promote London
The focus under this priority is tourism and what brings tourists to London amidst the tougher global tourism market competition, the The Mayor’s Tourism Action Plan for London will be published in 2009 and will set out the opportunities and challenges facing London in the coming years. The GLA will be working with ‘Visit London’ to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the 2012 Olympic Games with an estimated tourist spend between 2-3 billion pounds. The GLA will also seek to attract major sporting and cultural events to make full use of the Olympic venues. The GLA Is also working to establish a coherent look and feel for London during the Games period, and will work with partners to develop quality public events, the use of interactive technology for navigation, appropriate signage, volunteer helpers and language services, and distinctive, eye-catching street dressing.

Develop targeted support for the creative industries
Commercial creative industries comes under this priority. The Industries make a large contribution to London’s economy and the GLA plans to work with the London Development Authority to maintain and strengthen London’s position as a centre for creativity and business. The Mayor will take steps to ensure that creative businesses have access to high quality advice and support so that they can plan effectively particularly for the anticipated downturn, which will create a reduced exchange rate for London’s creative goods and services.

In October the Mayor hosted a film industry summit jointly with Film London also announcing new, streamlined regulations to make it easier to shoot films in London through more effective management of road closures. He also awarded an extra £100,000 to the London Borough Film Fund Challenge, a scheme that gives young people training to make their first short film and thereby gain a foothold in the sector. In the future, the mayor will look at ways to cut red tape for film-makers, disseminate advice on environmentally-friendly film production and explore the state of independent cinemas in London, also engaging with other creative industry sectors, such as publishing, live music, design and architecture, to understand the particular challenges they face and the type of support we can provide.
The previous administration initiated the ‘Kulture to Couture’ scheme, which promoted emerging Black British fashion designers and the present Mayor Is hoping to expand this scheme to include people from all backgrounds and to bring it closer to the fashion industry through a stronger association with London Fashion Week. Work is planned with the creative industrial sectors to deliver the GLA’s will be collaborating with leading figures in publishing and literacy and public reading projects as part of the annual World Book Day.

International promotion is important for many creative businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises and through the LDA the Mayor will continue to assess the need for support for major international festivals.

Champion the role of culture in the built environment
London’s unique built environment is the focus of this last priority. It consists of layer upon layer of different architectural styles that reach back into antiquity and forward to the contemporary.

Raise the profile of the heritage sector in London and get more Londoners interested, particularly in the smaller venues and community-led organisations outside the centre.

GLA will work with organisations like English Heritage, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Heritage of London Trust and MLA London to champion the importance of built and cultural heritage in London and discuss with key agencies about the needs of the West End Theatres – some of the finest and most important heritage sites in London – and the particular challenges they face in terms of modernisation.

The report spoke of its recognition of the new needs created by London’s growing population and opportunities for exciting new architecture. The Mayor’s report, Planning for a Better London, published in July 2008, outlined his spatial strategy for the city and made reference to the importance of culture.

Improve government support for culture in London's Cultural Metropolis
It has the highest concentration of arts and cultural organisations, and its creative and cultural industries make the largest contribution of any region to the national economy

Despite the major contribution London makes to the UK’s cultural life and economy, it still does not receive the level of funding required from central government to meet the increasing needs and the growth of its population.

GLA has been given statutory responsibility for ensuring that the capital acts as a gateway to encourage visitors to visit other parts of our country. Improving London’s services and infrastructure is therefore in the wider UK interest. To this effect the Mayors office will make the case to central government for a fairer share for the capital. We need a funding level that enables us to maintain important national institutions in the centre, but also ensures high-quality, local facilities and cultural programmes for the majority of Londoners. Under-funding London, has a negative impact on people living in the outer boroughs in particular and although the capital receives the lion’s share of government support, most of this money is required to fund the major national institutions in the centre. The GLA is also looking to improve London’s relationships with other parts of the UK particularly as the whole country gears up for the 2012 Games. It will for an instance, develop plans for a cultural season in London in 2011 which will explore and celebrate contemporary Britain, working collaboratively with other regions and create partnerships between cultural institutions.


The Mayor's Priorities for Culture 2009-2012' is available online (www.london.gov.uk), or as a pdf from the GLA press office (email communitydesk@london.gov.uk). If you would like to feed back any comments on this document, please send them to culturalstrategy@london.gov.uk by Friday 30 January 2009.

Responses will feed into the development of a more detailed Culture Strategy, which is a statutory requirement of the Greater London Authority Act 1999. The Culture Strategy will set out our new priorities, draw on research to identify areas in need of improvement and outline our policies. A draft strategy will go out for public consultation in 2009.