The Future Jobs Fund team!

We caught up with the Future Jobs Fund team, working hard improving their local neighbourhood’s environment!

They are:

• Saturday 13th March:  LOZELLS EMPLOYMENT FAIR (11:00am – 3:00pm)

  At:  St. Paul & St. Silas Church, 80 Lozells Road, Lozells,

• Wednesday 24th March: OLDER PERSONS NETWORKING EVENT (11:30am – 3:00pm)

  At: St. Francis Centre, Wretham Road, Lozells, B19 1ED

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• Friday 26th March: WOMEN’S ONLY NETWORKING EVENT (9:00am – 1:00pm)

  At: Lozells Recreation Group, Graham Street, Lozells, B19 1QY

Hope you can make these interesting and informative days, and don’t forget that Saturday 13th March will also see a LOZELLS NEWSLETTER sent to every house in the area!

Stephen Hughes, Council Chief Executive, takes the floor.

This is only the start — although we’ve got the report and some ideas, we have to carry on and continue with the consultation that has taken place.

The thing that came back strongly was communication: how we communicate these things and make a grand swell of change.

If you Google Handsworth and Lozells, all you get is bad news: riots, guns and gangs. How can we make our own website go up the listings?

Ifor Jones It’s fifth on the list.

Back to SH If we want to tell people about what’s going on, including the vision of a global urband village, then we have to get our voice made more accessible to people.

Two matters of personal explanation: one point made on the table that key priorities (crime, environment), dealing with the visible aspects are merely dealing with symptoms. The real issue (to me, anyway) is about jobs for people in the local area and in the local area; even if people work here and aren’t local people, they will be helping the economy by spending in local shops. The housing issue is equally important: we need to attract people who have wealth and resources so that they investin the area too. There simply isn’t enough public resource, so we are reliant on private investment.

Re. Morrisons: I didn’t say the Council couldn’t fix it, but it’s not as straightforward as people think it is. I explained my position, which is the position of the executive; but there are processes that have to go to. I didn’t say it won’t happen; I hope it does.

I mentioned the wholesale markets and future jobs fund, where we’re looking to get a bid in which will have a direct impact on jobs for young people. Jobs, prosperity are important. If we fix those, the rest will follow. That doesn’t mean ignoring things like the environment, but we need to tackle the causes.

In conclusion, the communication part is critial; development of local leadership capacity; that doesn’t need to be just one or two people but getting local people passionate about making a change. We talked about community assets and how they aren’t working. I’ve been involved myself in running community facilities, so I know the huge effort it takes to keep something like that running. But that’s what you need to grow, that kind of capacity.

To end on a positive note: I’m sure you heard that Carol [Coombes] got an OBE for work in local leadership. [Applause.]

Carol Coombes thanks all and the meeting closes.

Table 1: Dilbagh Dhami reported back.

• A ‘MyPlace’ building — which is going to happen — for young people.
• The Leadership Foundation
• The priorities are the rebranding of Handsworth and Lozells. Keywords are ‘inspiring people to greatness’. Part of that is encouraging people. Some of our photographers are capturing people like Vanley Burgh.
• If we’re on about ‘MyPlace’, let’s create a virtual MyPlace — we can wifi enable at least some of the neighbourhoods at low cost.
• Better innovative use of social media. Not just using and creating a physical and virtual MyPlace, but setting up something on the web, using the kind of technology kids are using today, so that things are alive and kicking today and not just in the old way.
• Getting the connection between older and younger people. Perhaps using schools as place for this discussion.
• Apprenticeships, especially as we are trying to get people into work.

Closing remark: it’s about interaction; we’re going to be running community days here (at Nishkam) where we’ll be encouraging e.g. African Caribbean community, where we will be encouraging them to talk about their issues. We’ll also be having dialogue days that will address those difficult issues, like tensions between Sikhs and Muslims.

Table 2:

Presented by Alexandra Powell.

• Culture: a need for a carnival, more music events and showcasing talent and tradition.
• Employment: not in the sense of low paid work; not necessarily local jobs for local people, but good quality jobs somewhere in the city.
• Re. Morrisons: people thought that the Council could fix this, and there is an opportunity for the Council to rewrite its spatial strategy.
• Public toilets: there is now only one toilet, that has to be paid for. People don’t know how to use it (!).
• Parking, forcing people to park on pavements.

Table 3

• Dialogue, communication
• Environment — cleanliness leads to more self-esteem
• Poverty — breeds crime.
• Feed the youth — give them resources, but need to engage them
• Youth forum: 1B is trying to set up a youth forum; resources are a difficulty. But we always get results
• The voice of the youth and the elders: the youth goes astray because the elderly aren’t there to guide them.
• More and more dialogue; more of these meetings where we can see the officers and issues can be raised. Love what Stephen Hughes said — I (the speaker) started a successful picnic in the park last year.

Table 4

Steve Salt (Perry Barr Constituency Manager) presents. We didn’t get to one ‘big idea’. All of the issues were top priority! All of this will take a long time to realise, but people wanted it now.

• Education
• Environment
• Access to health and community facilities
• Finch Rd is a nice building, but where is the overall commitment: what people were told will be in this building is not there yet.
• Back to crime and image of the area.
• There’s an awful lot going on, but people don’t know about it.
• The same goes for facilities: we need to ensure that they don’t all compete with each other and fall by the wayside, as has happened in the past. What happened? Avoid repeating past mistakes.

Ifor Jones: Regarding Neighbourhood Forums, we have supported them. Post BANF, I have worked with Stephen Hughes and Jackie Mould to provide about £55,000 interim funding in BANF to allow it continue its business in supporting the fantastic network of forums we have across Birmingham. It has been working on a business plan to continue to be a sustainable organistaion over the next few years. We are also putting in a proposal for WNF funding. We do have to work with BANF to support forums to ensure that it is still a sustainable organisation when WNF funding runs out.

One of the things we can do locally is to ensure that neighbourhood forums can play an important role in the local community. I’m very hopeful to engage you (Raj Rattu) locally.

Jackie: There are other organisations — residents’ groups, older people’s forums, ward advisory boards, street champions, other groups that the police officers are looking to establish — how do they all fit together? You can get community development fatigue. If there isn’t a proper, clear structure, there isn’t much point getting involved with them. We need a proper structure where every element of it works well together.

Stephen Hughes: We can over-consult; but if we have effective local leadership, we will rely on them to understand what the community is thinking and communicate to them what is required. We need good governance, but let’s not get wound up in the constitution of these groups and lose sight of the need to have effective communication between these groups and local public bodies. We have been over-focussed in the past about the formal role of different bodies — not necessarily in this area — rather than what we are trying to do. I think it’s important to have really authentic community voices leading the community, in whom the community has confidence that they are able to speak for them, and with whom public agencies can do business and take forward interventions that are needed.

Ifor Jones: We have already started doing this; when we started off, there wasn’t any joining up. We have started to have a dialogue between these bodies and organisations. Cllr Hussain has been critical in enabling us to do that. We have constituency committees and constituency strategic partnerships. We have also created more informal, but more risky, dialogue which has given us some depth to our consultation. We will build all of those governance bodies, equip them to take forward this agenda, use new innovative techniques and work with the Leadership Foundation.

It’s about recognising, developing and promoting leaders in the local area.

The last time I was talking here, it was snowing: we were talking about grit for the roads, whether there is enough. Now the latest news is that Michael Jackson has died. We often talk about stuff, but don’t act.

A steering group has been set up, chaired by Dr. Mashuq Ally, from the Council’s Equalities and Diversity department.

We did a study, consultation completed in March, and the rest will be completed at the end of July. The business plan will be completed in September; intended to be launched in November.

This addresses previous criticism: something is actually happening.

When we talk about the north-west corridor, this is one of the most entrepreneurial areas; when we talk about innovation and creativity, this is where it is happening.

We intend to target community groups that target this area. We talk about worklessness, gang violence. How do we reintegrate elderly people with the growing young city that we have here? This is one of the key issues facing the LF.

The Leadership Foundation will be built in Handsworth and Lozells, not parachuted in. This is a very exciting time; the only way we’ve got to this point is through the support we have got from the local community.

Thanks Carol.

The impetus for starting this came from Sir Paul Scott-Lee, previous Chief Constable. In the context of issues around guns and gangs, he [P S-L] said it was important to have a strategy and not just go in picking up the pieces all the time.

Other starting point was that what happened in the past hadn’t worked. The reason that it didn’t work was because it wasn’t appropriately embedded in the community; not enough ownership; not enough connectivity. Not a common view of what should happen. This was about generating a common view, then directing public agencies to achieving that objective.

Someone talked about money. There will likely be an axe on public spending following the next general election. It will take a long time until we have sustainable public finances and we have to work with this. However, there are significant public resources being spent in this area, and it’s important that we identify that and ensure that it’s spent effectively. Colletively, £7.5bn is spend yearly in Birmingham. Through partnership working, we can identify how best to spend that moeny.

My remit was to say what we’re going to do next. I’m quite reluctant to do that — it’s not for us to say that, but for the community as a whole. How do we get organised and keep the dialogue debate going so that ultimately we can get the direction of travel going in the area?

The leadership foundation is about identifying and giving support to new and existing leaders from within the local area. If we can develop community capacity, we can move this on much more quickly than if we rely on the effectiveness of public agencies.

The people’s panel should be a focal point for determining what goes on in the local area. Revamping street champions is critical to creating a direct line to public bodies. There will still be a need for public agencies.

That sounds very boring, but it is absolutely critical to find effective ways for the community to express its voice on a regular basis and put pressure on public agencies to do what they want. If not, we will slip back to old ways of doing things.

There is a key issue about jobs. We’ve esablished a partnership with £2.5m of Working Neighbourhood Fund money.

To answer previous questions (from earlier session): if you want my personal view, it’s a no-brainer that we should accept the planning application. We’d have to deal with local traders’ complaints about being put out of business. But it’s not just about bureaucracy, but about law. You can change the designation of land from industrial to retail, but only if you can demonstrate there aren’t other options in the area. Morrisons haven’t done this, and we would create precedents if we did this. Also, it’s not a Council decision but the decision of a quasi-judicial body that is part of the Council. However, my opinion is that we should agree it but we must manage it in a way that doesn’t create unforseen consequences.

Regarding Ministry of Justice. We could creat lots of jobs — but this is a competitive process. Lots of other cities say we should put the MoJ there. We need to sell the best parts of the city to get it. Job access team needs to provide local people who can fill the jobs. It’s important to get them in Birmingham.

Wholesale markets will be relocated to Witton; that is not directly here but will provide job opportunities for local people. There is also an initiative in partnership with Advantage West Midlands, which is looking at regenerating North-West Birmingham. Jobs are absolutely critial; unless we can raise employment in the area, we won’t turn it around.

Housing is also critical: there’s some good housing, but we need to address issues of houses of multiple occupation. We need to bring in more prosperous people who have jobs in Birmingham but who choose to live elsewhere (e.g. Solihull).

There are critical issues: Black Cat, Muhammad Ali Centre, Old Bank on Villa Road. The dialogue should be involved in these issues.

Some direct activites are planned for this summer, including community events and events for young people. My own view is that we should also create a multicultural music event in the area.

There is clearly an issue around communication. Although a lot is happening, we are not necessarily tapping into social media and the likes of Twitter. (Yay!)

Issue about stopping dumping, part of which is about education programmes in schools. Some of it is about enforcement. I understand that a confidential hotline will be set up.

A really large issue around crime: neighbourhood police team doubled in number, which should have a big impact. Spoke to the new chief constable this week, who has plans around creating CCTV, working with youth groups; a key element of safety partnership is reducing gang violence.

There are a lot of things happening — but I want to reiterate that the capacity within the community to engage with us and lead the programme is critical.

Hands over to Lesley…

Jenny Brown: In the work you’ve done with the university, how much did you look into what had already happened in the area, what had worked, what hadn’t worked and why? Pleased to hear Prof Middleton suggest a 20-year programme because 7 years isn’t enough. How much were previous reports used?

Prof Alan Middleton (AM): BCU & Governance Foundation did a literature review, consulting over 70 documents on local area. The findings of this report were confirmed by what had been found before — very little was a surprise.

It won’t take 20 years for things to happen — things can happen now — but to turn the area around, these things have to be embedded, especially economic issues.

Questioner: You managed to engage lots of people from local community; how does that fit in with usual ‘propaganda’ from local agencies that it is hard to engage with certain people?

Audience member responds: We talked to many people who would be difficult to reach normally — students, young people, gang members, elderly house-bound people. Spoke to people about issues they faced on day-to-day basis. Asked them what their solutions are, because they live day-to-day in the area and need to be engaged in the process. What is their vision for the area?

Previous questioner: [Restates point, felt it wasn't answered]

AM: This is why we got Birmingham Settlement and Carol Coombes involved; I can’t speak for the agencies who say certain people are hard to reach.

Raj Rattu: Re community engagement: Morrisons wanted to create over 200 jobs in Handsworth; because of bureaucracy, Birmingham City Council recommended refusing the application. City Council officers say it’s industry land; but where’s the industry? Re engagement; we have many neighbourhood forums, but lack of commitment recently.

[One last question!]

Director of Association of Neighbourhood Forums: I was born in Handsworth, but will be long dead by the end of this 20 year period. Understand that things take time, but unless sustainability is built in, continuous degeneration takes place despite attempts to regenerate. Re Morrisons: the city centre is an attractant worldwide thanks to Council’s work; it would be difficult to get those global organisations to come out to places like Handsworth and Lozells. But why can’t we have, for example, Ministry of Justice building in Handsworth and Lozells with dual purpose of providing a building for community use? The Council and central government can stop such organisations going to city centre places like Brindley Place and come to H&L instead.

AM: It’s difficult to get industry to come to this part of the city — I wouldn’t write it off — but it does mean large scale capital investment. Regarding ministries, I think it’s a good idea and will pass it on. Although it’s more likely to go to Hodge Hill.

Carol Coombes: To round off: it’s really important that these ideas are out there. It’s not just about getting any businesses here, but businesses in which people would like to have jobs. Now I’ll hand over to Stephen Hughes, Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council. This is the first time that a Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council has stressed the importance of ‘getting in there’ and placing importance on what communities say. This is a partnership approach, and Stephen is one influential player.

Carol Coombes then introduced the report and began outlining the major outcomes.

Carol then handed over to Patrick Loftman and Prof Alan Middleton, both from Birmingham City University, who gave more detail on the report that they authored on behalf of Birmingham City Council and the CommUNITY Dialogue programme.

I join you as Prof Middleton is talking about employment prospects for the area. Follow the event on Twitter by searching for #h&lcomm or #handsworth!

Prof Middleton is talking about a possible replacement for the Muhammad Ali centre — an iconic building, celebrating song and dance, multicultural and aimed to bring young people from different backgrounds together.