Notes of Meeting held on Wednesday 15^th November, 2006 at the
Government Office for the Northwest
Piccadilly Plaza
Manchester

PLEASE NOTE THAT CERTAIN ITEMS ON THIS AGENDA (marked as CHR) WERE DISCUSSED UNDER THE Chatham House rule which means that they are non-attributable. Please Respect the RULE.

Present:

Revd Peter Brain (Christian), Revd Martyn Newman (Christian), Barry Levene (Jew), A K Sinha (Hindu),, Suresh Mehta (Jain), Ishwer Tailer (Hindu), Muhammad Junejo Muslim), Helen Boothroyd (Christian), Revd David Emison (Christian), David Arnold (Jew), Louis Rappaport (Jew) Abdul Hamid Qureshi (Muslim), Pauline Sampson (Bahai), Peter Forster (Christian), Joghinder Bhopal (Sikh), Khalid Anis (Muslim)

In attendance:

John Devine (Churches Officer for the NorthWest), Martin Miller (Manchester Diocese), Keith Barnes, Director of Government Office for the Northwest (GONW), Evelyn Asante Mensah & Elaine Howard from GONW, Marie McLaughlin from Regional Offender Management Service (ROMS), Alison Madsen (GONW - Admin support for Churches' Officer)

1. Welcome from the Chair & Tribute to Dr Ajit Kumar

The Chair welcomed people to the meeting. John Devine was then asked to pay tribute to Dr Ajit Kumar who had recently passed away.

Dr Kumar had been an active member of the Merseyside Hindu community, working for his community since his retirement from the medical profession. He had been a stalwart of interfaith relations. Most recently he had organised the celebration of Diwali in the Roman Catholic Conference Centre in Liverpool. He had also been involved in the organisation of another major event, his daughter's wedding which had been celebrated both here and in India.

Members present agreed to send a message to Dr Kumar's wife.

The meeting then briefly stood in silent remembrance of Dr Kumar.

2. Welcome from and Overview of the GONW (CHR)

Keith Barnes, the Regional Director, welcomed members to Government Office and introduced his colleagues, Evelyn Asante Mensah & Elaine Howard. He welcomed the establishment of the Northwest Forum of Faiths. He felt that a meeting of this sort was overdue as Government sought to work in partnership with faith communities, based on recognition of their asset base in communities and their ability to network with the 'hard-to-reach'. Keith had previous positive experience of this as Chief executive of Thurrock council; the faith communities there had been very helpful in addressing local needs.

Keith wanted to address to particular issues:

A. Where is government policy going?
The Government has woken up to the importance of the social agenda:
· The highlighting of the word community in the name of a department of state (Department for Communities & Local Government exemplifies this).
· It has also established the Office for the Third Sector within the Cabinet office.
· The Local Government White Paper focuses on concepts of empowerment.

However, it is recognised that money does not always follow intent and it is not clear that the ongoing development of community involvement will be fully resourced.

B. Where does GONW fit in?

GONW is the regional arm of 10 Departments of State. Civil Servants work there delivering the agenda of Central Government on issues such as crime, transport & planning. The National Offender Management Service's regional arm and the North West Public Health Group are co-located with GONW. GONW works closely with the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) in each area. They used to run lots of programmes directly and distribute funding but that role has changed; they are now Whitehall's eyes and ears.

Evelyn Asante-Mensah outlined her work. She is seconded to GONW from the voluntary & community sector as an adviser on equality, diversity & cohesion. She is working both in-house with GONW staff and with LSPs.

Elaine Howard also explained her role within the Community Cohesion Team. She particularly wanted to discuss three issues:

· Local Area Agreements (LAAs) which are now in Round 3. Local communities should be tied in to the LAA process and Local authorities should be challenged if that is not happening.
· Voluntary Sector Infrastructure is not very robust. How do we strengthen Northwest Voluntary infrastructure?
· In the situation of heightened terror alert, how do we maintain cohesion and protect communities (an event is being held on December 7^th to look at these issues)

Questions & Comments from Forum Members (responses are shown in italics)

I. The language of partnership changes at a fantastic pace. We have gone from Community Empowerment, through the Single programme to Safer Stronger Communities blocks of LAAs in 4 years. This creates a problem for those trying to engage.

II. It is regional Infrastructure which is weak. Sub-regional infrastructure is more robust and has the ChangeUp programme. Maybe a programme is necessary at regional level.

III. Community Cohesion is still not very well understood; often very worthwhile basic community development projects are badged as cohesion projects.

IV. There is a need to promote confidence within local communities.

V. There needs to be a recognition that it is difficult to identify 'stretch-targets for the sort of work the voluntary & community sector does and to measure them.

VI. How does it feel for GONW that the Voluntary & Community sector is now being asked to deliver what was previously seen as the role of Government.

VII. We need to be careful because it can feel as though the Government thinks that the faith sector has all the answers.

There can be a problem for 'professionals' and their communication but most do recognise that Government does not have the answers to some profound issues. There is sympathy with the difficulty in establishing measures for the work of the Sector; how do you measure an increase in trust for example?

VIII. It is wholly appropriate to be having this discussion because it is a spiritual concept; shared values will give cohesiveness and it would be useful if those values could be incorporated into citizenship concepts.

IX. Grassroots workers must participate in decision-making processes.

X. It is important that the Faith Communities work out for themselves what they want to do and are not simply tied to someone else's agenda. Would GONW staff come out and spend a day with the faith communities?

Consideration of these things goes to the heart of what a 'good society' is.

The Chair thanked Keith Evelyn and Elaine for their contribution.

3. Business Meeting

Apologies

· Stephen Lowe. It was noted that Stephen had withdrawn from the Forum because of his appointment to a national role for the Church of England. His position will now be taken by David Gillett.
· Kelsang Sangkyong

Minutes of meeting of 17^th July 2006

An amendment to the minutes was needed; the addition of the opening bracket after Muhammad Junejo's name. With this correction the Minutes were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair

Matters Arising

There were no matters arising

National & Regional Update by John Devine

· The establishment of the Department of Communities and Local Government brings together the faith functions which previously had been split between the Home Office and the ODPM. There is an associated body called the Faith Communities Consultative Council (FCCC). John sits on this body. In fact, he is the only non-London based person on it.

· Resilience issues (Emergency preparedness, & response) and Faith Representatives - In the event of a flu pandemic should faith leaders receive key worker status. The FCCC has established a working party to produce a report on this. There is a Northwest Resilience Team. Faith is recognised as an important element of emergency planning.

· 50/50 Vision - (this is the North West Forum on Ageing). There needs to be a faith rep to replace John

· Office of the Immigration Commissioner - This regulates the activities of those offering immigration advice. John would like to organise an event around this topic.

· Web Site & Admin- John recognises that the web site needs updating. He has now some replacement admin support from Alison Madsen.

4. Regional Offender Management Service

Marie McLaughlin, Regional Strategy Manager presented the work of the regional arm (ROMS) of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS).

In the Northwest there are about 11 000 people in custody at any one time (new prison build could soon push this up to 12 000). Most of these people are from the Northwest. In addition about 38 000 offenders are supervised in the community.

NOMS seeks to protect the public and reduce re-offending by linking the work of the probation and prisons services (and involving other partners). It places the offender at the heart of the system ensuring that there is continuity in the treatment of offenders (one case manager for example).

In the past money was given directly to the probation service and the prisons service. However, those services are now open to market contest. ROMS has been given the money and can now commission delivery from the public, private and voluntary & community sectors.

NOMS must engage in partnership working (50% of public spending on offenders actually comes from other Government departments). It also wants to build alliances with other groups such as employers.

The faith sector is a key partner. The faith communities are already engaged in a number of projects working with offenders:

· CROP project in Cumbria (Helen Boothroyd distributed a paper on the CROP project)
· Blackburn Diocese Grassroots Project
· Manchester Community Chaplaincy project
· 'Circles of Support' working with high risk offenders

ROMS would like to highlight this involvement to other agencies. Faith can have the 'Carlsberg effect'; reaching the parts that other agencies can't.

'Clinks' is an organisation which seeks to strengthen the role of the voluntary and community sector in partnerships with the prisons and probation service. It is holding a conference in London called 'Believing we can', highlighting the role of faith communities. It will focus on:
· sharing experience & knowledge
· showcasing the existing projects
· highlighting the 'hard to reach' element

Questions & Comments from Forum Members (the time allowed only one brief comment)

I. The Independent Advisory Group for the police has bee told that re-offending rates are rising constantly. There is no reform in prison and our communities are not good at accepting people back from prison.

John Devine thanked Marie for her presentation. He pointed out that it is up to the faith communities to respond to these approaches from public bodies.

5. CLOSE OF MEETING

Vote of Thanks - The Chair thanked GONW for their hospitality and all the staff for their input.

Expenses - Members were reminded that those who have personal expenditure associated with the Forum can claim expenses. Please refer to John Devine.

Next Meeting - March 20^th 2007