The City Mayor will give a verbal update on Black Lives Matter and the steps being taken by the authority to deal with inequalities. The Committee is recommended to receive the update and comment as wished.
Minutes:
The City Mayor introduced this item, recognising the broad range of issues to be considered when looking at Black Lives Matter and stressed the seriousness with which the Council took these. Much work remained to be done, with issues to be addressed by the Council, the city and other institutions in the city.
The City Mayor explained that it was important to have a particular individual leading on this and advised the Committee that Councillor Hunter had been appointed to take this lead.
Discussions had been held with the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre at De Montfort University, which would be providing support, including critical support, and helping with engagement with the wider community, to ensure that concerns were heard and responded to. It also was hoped that initiatives could be identified that helped the Caribbean Centre be even more effective in embodying the dialogue needed in the wider community.
The City Mayor advised that a fuller report would be brought to the Committee when a work programme had been established that encompassed the priorities of wider communities and not just the Council’s priorities.
Councillor Hunter addressed the Committee, stating that she looked forward to working closely with other Councillors and with the wider community to move this work forward. Consideration needed to be given to what was meant by Black Lives Matter, so that work could be done with the community to eradicate racism and racist practice. Working with the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre, the community and Councillors were important goals, as this was an issue that everyone needed to address, not just the Council.
Councillor Patel, (Assistant City Mayor – Equalities and Special Projects), advised the Committee that before the Black Lives Matter movement came to prominence, investigation of disparities in the Council already had been undertaken. Directors had been tasked with looking at past recommendations, to see what had been implemented and what had not, and this information would be used to help find real solutions as the work progressed.
The Committee welcomed the update, noting that it would lead the scrutiny of Black Lives Matter, but it was stressed that this also would be a focus for all scrutiny commissions.
Members stressed the importance of being able to dismantle racist practices and create structures that would allow better practices to replace them, working towards being one community working for Leicester. Successive governments and legislation had failed to address racism, but the opportunity now needed to be taken to produce tangible results.
The Committee agreed that a lot of work had been done in Leicester to facilitate community cohesion and other parts of the country had looked to the city for guidance on how serious issues had been addressed, but it was important for the Council to now address the issues from within all service areas before better practices could be developed with other communities or institutions. In this way, it was hoped that a national template could be provided for other parts of the country to follow.
One area of work for the Council and other bodies would be to address inequalities in the education system. Opportunities should not be closed to people because of the colour of their skin, so there was a need to re-educate the education system.
It was suggested that clear targets needed to be set, in order to be clear about which direction the work was moving in and to encourage participation, as work by all bodies needed to be transparent.
The City Mayor thanked the Committee for its comments and agreed that complacency needed to be avoided, as there was still much work to be done.
AGREED:
1) That this Committee welcomes the opportunity to scrutinise Black Lives Matter work and looks forward to receiving a full written report on Black Lives Matter at an appropriate time; and
2) That, in preparing the report referred to under 1) above, Councillor Hunter be asked to:
a) Take account of the comments recorded above; and
b) As well as identifying what the Council can do itself, explain how it is considered that the Council can influence partners and wider society.