Background to Migration in Boston

Transcription

1 Background to Migration in Boston During the last five years the population dynamics of our local community have rapidly transformed and the Borough of Boston is home to many different communities. Many have found a good life here the relaxed pace of life, the quality of the local environment and cheaper house prices. New communities have been created. The migration of workers into South Lincolnshire has been part of the economic cycle of the area for many centuries but more recently with the increased need for manpower available 24hours a day 7 days a week and the low unemployment in the area (1.6% against a national average of 5%) we have become an attractive area for Eastern European migrants. Boston Borough Council recognised the impact of such a rapid inward flow of visitors early in 2004 and responded positively in developing a community cohesion strategy, a vision of a community where people felt respected and valued. This strategy was reviewed in 2006 and is currently being revised to take account of the recent report from the Commission on Integration and Cohesion. The revised strategy will be considered for approval by the Borough Council at its Cabinet Meeting in December 2007 and by Boston Area Partnership (LSP) in January A Local Approach The Council recognises that to resolve the inevitable conflicts and tensions within the community brought about by a rapid change in population demography we need to tackle the issues at a local level. This is echoed in the Commission s report which encourages authorities to look at individual neighbourhoods and communities where a more tailor made solution at a local level will be more effective. The local authority is taking a leading role within the Community and is working in partnership with the voluntary sector, police, health, education and private housing associations to tackle some of the issues and promote a cohesive community. This has involved taking an innovative approach at a local level where the activities of all agencies working within the community are co-ordinated together to achieve results at a grass root level. Some of the projects we are working on involve getting people more involved in their communities, tackling community tensions and exclusion, improving access to services and information and helping our community to feel a sense of pride in Boston. Community Cohesion is one of the corporate priorities for the Council and as such responsibility for the strategic direction is owned at the highest possible

2 level. We have restructured within our organisation and established a role at Corporate Management level, a Head of Community Development post that for the first time pulls together Community Cohesion, Community Development, Customer Services and Community Safety. Community Cohesion is also one of the main priorities for the Corporate Management Board as a whole led by the Chief Executive and is reflected within the Community Strategy, Local Area Masterplan and the Council s Corporate Plan. The current Community Cohesion Strategy was approved in 2005 and despite a further Best Value Review which highlights a number of actions in 2006 the Strategy has not been revised and updated. The situation has changed drastically over the last few years with a large influx of economic migrants from the accession A8 and A2 Countries, and increasing demands on all service providers. We have also taken a step back and reviewed the way in which we have traditionally dealt with Community Cohesion both within Boston Borough Council, and also with our partners. A review of the Equality and Diversity Theme group has also identified that despite some examples of good work, the group lacked the capacity to implement significant change. This has resulted in a new approach which involves closer working with our key partners: Equality and Diversity Theme Group to become an advisory group to the Boston Area Partnership. Community Cohesion Delivery Group implemented Closer links with the County Community Cohesion Group Close working with Institute of Community Cohesion specifically looking at Communications Work with the IDeA on communication and myth busting LGA Advisory group attendance Neighbourhood Renewal Advisor work in conjunction with South Holland District Council What successes have we had? We are a small local council but despite a lack of resources, by working in partnership we are starting to see some real successes, even though we recognise we still have much to do. We have been leading the way in some areas and have been talking to both central and local government about the response at a local level and informing government of the challenges we are facing. We worked with South Holland District Council which conducted a study on migrant workers within our area which has given us a better insight into the problems faced by employers, new migrants to our community and our

3 indigenous population. The results of this work also involved the development of the first web site for migrant workers. We have taken an active role in welcoming new arrivals to our town and have developed a welcome to Boston CD which was published in 2006 working in partnership with a number of agencies. This information is also on our website We have taken the lead in tackling the many myths that abound and originally produced a myth busting leaflet in This has subsequently been revised and is the basis for the Lincolnshire County Myth Busting leaflet which all agencies now use to educate and promote the benefits of inward migration to our economy and dispel the myths. We have in partnership with the Police adopted the True Vision scheme which encourages people to report racially motivated abuse or assaults. It is vital that we are aware of any tensions so we can deal with them before they escalate We have been working closely with local businesses and national companies and in September 2006 we worked closely with the business community on a HRH Prince of Wales seeing is believing tour which was organised by our business community. This looked at the food processing chain from the land to the shop. A follow up meeting took place in September 2007 where it was agreed that private and public sector would work together to ensure national supermarket chains take their corporate social responsibilities seriously and ensure all links in the chain of food supply are operating on a legal basis and also give support to public sector agencies in addressing issues and problems as well as benefits and opportunities of the rapid increase in the growth of economic migrants in areas like Boston. A report is being prepared to meet with relevant Ministers in the New Year to discuss. We are involved with our partners in ensuring sufficient English language courses are available at the college to ensure more people can speak English and integrate within the community Working with the Neighbourhood Policing teams we have a better understanding of the issues felt within the community and are helping them through a multi agency group to identify the key priorities that need tackling within their local area. Supporting Voluntary Sector initiative of staging a Community Roadshow in the town s park (Sept 06 and Sept 07) providing welfare and advice services, food and music in a safe environment. 2,500 attendance in 06 rose to 7,500 in 07. Gangmasters Licensing Legislation We have quickly recognised the links between employment and accommodation for many economic migrants and have been working closely with the GLA to establish early notification of large scale closures of disreputable gangmasters.

4 This will ensure that all agencies have the correct support mechanisms in place to deal with the potential social and economic issues associated with a large scale closure. Earlier this year we co-ordinated a multi agency table top exercise with several key partners with the aim of establishing a guidance document to assist agencies at a National level through the GLA. This document is nearing completion, and in addition a new Communication protocol has now been established to ensure early notification of key agencies is achieved. Tension Monitoring We work closely with the police as part of a multi agency approach to monitoring tensions and help communities deal with conflict locally. Much good work has already been done, in our preparations for the World Cup football tournament in 2006 we learnt many lessons from the disturbances which took place in Boston in 2004 at the European Football Championships and established an effective responsive team. This work has been recognised by the Institute of Community Cohesion as an example of best practice. We are now extending this group to include tension monitoring within schools. What are we doing at a regional and national level? Even though we recognise much of the work in achieving a cohesive community needs to be done at a local level, we feel that it is important that as a Council we feed into the development of National policy. We are a member of the Local Government Association steering group on migration which gives us the opportunity to inform policy and decision makers about the issues within a small rural area such as Boston. We have also been campaigning for a fairer deal for better funding for public services in the area. To date there has been little recognition of the scale of ethnic minority communities and the impact on service providers. The Chief Executive attended a Roundtable Meeting to discuss the recommendations of the Commission for Integration and Cohesion Report, chaired by Hazel Blears, Minister for Local Government and Communities on 21 November 2007, along with 14 other Chief Executives across the country. The Chief Executive has been contacted by the Improvement and Development Agency to agree an article for its online magazine around his (Chief Executive s) view that this current wave of economic migration in the UK has placed local authorities in a process of New Learning. Aspects of this economically driven

5 migration are different to those which took place in the 1940 s, 50 s and 60 s as that was driven by individuals from different countries searching for a better life. The present wave is largely controlled by gangmasters, often operating illegally. This means it is very hard to reach out to these groups because they are usually living in multiple occupancy houses, sharing rooms/beds and have their movements (job/accommodation) controlled by the gangmasters. This control in conjunction with the inability to obtain an accurate picture of demographic and population changes and the mapping of population clusters in different localities in the area has serious implications for cohesion and is a barrier to integration. Also communities like Boston do not have the infrastructure in place to deal with rapid surges of migration introducing new cultures/communities to the area, as many large cities/london Boroughs have, who have experienced migration at different times over the last 50 years or so. And while much can be learned from these more mature communities, because many aspects of this new wave are different to anything previously experienced, Boston (and other similarly affected communities) are having to develop New Learning, in real time, with limited capacity and resources, where we cannot always rely on the old solutions to work and must therefore create new systems and networks to determine new solutions. Demographic and Population Statistics Our current official population statistics are 58,300 (mid term census figures). However through our research with the PCT the GP registrations reveal 79,000 patients registered and the National Insurance number applications reveal 10,000 registrations for 2005/06 alone. The recent ONS/Worker Registration Scheme population trends 8 EU (A8 Countries) indicated that Boston has the 2 nd highest number of A8 migrants per 1000 of total population in the UK (2 nd only to City of London). Some local schools have up to 50% of children with English as a second language (average in many schools is 35%) but do not have the resources available to deal with this. Boston College (FE) are oversubscribed on ESOL courses, they presently have learners from 51 different countries and the Citizens Advice Bureau record over 30 nationalities, living and working in Boston. Our current estimates stand at around 15,000 to 20,000 economic migrants living and working in the Boston area, which is not recognised by Government and not

6 reflected in the RSG which provides local councils with the funds to deliver services. However clearly there is a need to have more accurate statistics which will enable authorities to better plan for the future and shape our services to support all of our community. We are utilising the toolkit with the Institute of Community Cohesion and working in partnership with the County Council and the Lincs Primary Care Trust to establish a more accurate picture of our changing communities. Impact on Services: Translation Services: It is difficult to quantify the impact on services across the Council in monetary terms with the exception of the additional spend on translation services. This totals 2,000 for 2006/07 but is increasing monthly. The need to translate key documentation is essential in terms of achieving future efficiencies, for example the difficulties with ensuring customers fully understand the documentation which is required for a variety of services where English is not their first language, can cause delays in assessing applications or dealing with requests. This can lead to inequality on service provision, impact on customer satisfaction and targets where application process time is critical. Translation is necessary at the front end when people first arrive but we need more resources for ESOL provision as learning the language is a faster track process towards integration. Service Provision: Some of the additional strain on key service areas within the Council is due to the increase in population rather than the specific nationality issues and this is agreed across the public and voluntary sector providers in Boston. But for other service areas there are specific issues which have put an additional strain on service providers: - Complaints regarding refuse - Lack of understanding of many new arrivals of refuse and recycling service - Anti social behaviour complaints have risen as have the incidents of Hate Crime, even though many are believed to remain unreported - Housing and HMO s ( see attachment) - Proactive Communications and the need to dispel myths - Monetary value for publications and methods to support myth busting

7 - Schools/College require more resources for ESOL and addressing the needs of the increased capacity of pupils/students - Resource Contribution to tackle community cohesion through multi agency delivery group - Resource contribution as Community Leaders