10 Local Actions to Promote Social Integration
A New Collection of Essays Published by the British Academy, 13th December 2017
Ted Cantle’s Essay is
A Proposal for Local Integration Plans
This suggests a more holisitic approach to integration that considers the provision of expanded public services alongside work to address concerns about identity and difference, with support for settlement programmes.
The Full collection of essays is found here:
https://www.britac.ac.uk/sites/default/files/British%20Academy%20IYCDOT%20Essays.pdf
School Segregation – My blog for the Integration Hub
published 24th April 2017
School Segregation is the result of official policies, as much as parental decisions.
The general election will, of course, be dominated by Brexit. But, in the light of the Casey review, it should also make some space to discuss issues of integration and segregation. The increasing segregation of our schools is one very good reason for that.
A number of previous reviews of school segregation have refused to even recognise the problem as it seems to run counter to parental choice. Or, it has been dismissed on the basis that ‘nothing can be done – schools just represent the areas around them.’ These have been convenient excuses. School admissions can easily be adjusted – only in the last week or so the government has made it clear that grammar schools will be expected to include more children from poorer areas.
Our new report, Understanding School Segregation in England 2011-2016, by iCoCo Foundation, SchoolDash and The Challenge separates the two issues of school admission policies and segregation and exposes the reality of how schools segregate young people from an early age.
It also reveals a pattern of increasing school segregation and especially, that school segregation now exceeds the segregation in the local area, as measured by the proportions of school age children who could take up places.
Schools now need to take responsibility – perhaps especially the governors – for the problems that they are helping to create. We should recognise that school segregation is the result of official policies, as much as that of parental decisions.
The focus of segregation in the past has also been on the concentration of ethnic minorities, but this is only part of the story – the over representation of ethnic minority pupils (categorised as ‘low’ White British’) in some schools is almost inevitably supported by schools that have an over representation of White British pupils (categorised as ‘high’) in other schools and our approach thus enables us to highlight those schools that are ‘contributing to segregation’. These schools also need to be challenged and have been neglected by more traditional approaches to segregation. A large number of schools are included in this category and for many local authority areas the number of schools with an over-representation of White British pupils exceeds those with a low representation.
This is also true for some categories of schools, perhaps especially faith schools. Catholic and Church of England schools are by far the most numerous and their collective impact on school representation is clearly significant yet often unexamined. As an example, in one London Borough the 17 faith primary schools that have somewhat diverse intakes, take up to five times the proportion of White British compared to the area, substantially reducing the potential for other schools to become more mixed.
We now need to recognise that school segregation is not simply the result of ethnic minority clustering and cultural determinants – it is actually fostered by institutional arrangements and supported by traditional patterns which have been exacerbated by recent policy choices. Change is possible.
We now need to put a premium on mixed schools and develop a strategy to achieve that aim.
As Jon Yates, Director of The Challenge, a co-author of the report has said:
“This study shows far more needs to be done to make sure school intakes are representative of local communities. As the government’s Casey Review pointed out, segregation is at a “worrying level” in parts of the country. At a local and national level, Government needs to commit to doing much more to reduce school segregation. We know that when communities live separately, anxiety and prejudice flourish, whereas when people from different backgrounds mix, it leads to more trusting and cohesive communities and opens up opportunities for social mobility.
“We urge local authorities, faith schools and academy chains to consider the impact admissions policies have upon neighbouring schools and put policies in place that encourage better school and community integration.
From a wider perspective, we do need to give children the chance to grow up with others from different backgrounds, especially where their communities are segregated and they have no experience of difference. We know that contact between groups improves tolerance and breaks down prejudice – and will even contribute to tackling extremism. But we appear to be going in the opposite direction.
Tackling residential segregation is more difficult and will take longer to achieve, so schools are our best chance for integration; they should be the bridges between communities, not compounding the problem and slowly dismantling the bridges.
And in Response to Simon Burgess and Rich Harris
Previous studies have also been revealing and we could have followed their methodologies, but they only compare pupils in each school with the ethnic and social class representation of the local area as a whole, and generally use out of date Census information. As we point out in our report, had we adopted the same approach we might have revealed even more segregation if it is simply understood as a majority of the school population being from an ethnic minority. For example, applying a threshold of 30% or less of the school population being White British, Birmingham has 132 primary schools and Bradford has 56. By contrast, Birmingham has 40 primary schools with a ‘low’ White British pupil representation and Bradford has 33, using our methodology. In other words, our methodology better reflects segregation in relation to the local area – and it is much more up to date. This is achieved by using the pupil population in 2016 from the neighbouring 10 schools, rather relying on the generalised Census information from 2011.
It is unfortunate that ideas about ‘segregation’ have become part of an orthodoxy, often reliant on the use of out of date statistics and the Index of Dissimilarity. The IoD has its’ uses, but it also has its’ limitations.
We have tested school segregation in relation to the characteristics of students in the 10 nearest schools. This is not unlike the geographic areas suggested by the Casey Review:
‘The degree of segregation or ethnic concentration in schools appears to be a product of where people live, family size, parental and pupil choice and admissions policies: most children do not travel very far to school. At primary schools, the average distance travelled by pupils is 1.6 miles, while at secondary schools, it is 3.4 miles.’
This use of 10 local schools was not an ‘arbitrary’ choice as Simon Burgess and Rich Harris have suggested, perhaps eager to defend their own approach. For urban areas, 10 schools were clearly within the range of travel-to-school distances but we also explored the impact in other in both rural and suburban settings through examination of school catchments in areas such as Rutland, Nottinghamshire and Darlington. We found that while not useful in every case, school and parental choice was generally possible across this range and that such an approach would help schools to think about traditional patterns of selection. This was supported by a school governor who gave a very interesting and perceptive response:
‘In our case your basic 10-nearest-schools was difficult to interpret because of the non-interacting catchments of the different LAs, but when I probed deeper I came up with the interesting observation that the school within the northern half of the area had a higher FSM population than those in the south, even though the known deprived areas were in the southern catchment.
‘It is something that as a governor I will follow up. It may possibly be a hangover from the days our school was a grammar and the other a secondary modern even though the change was almost 50 years ago. These days the two school catchments pretty much serve as a joint catchment for all schools, with our school right on the boundary and equally accessible to both sides. Longer term though the population is rising, and we are moving towards all three schools joining up in a MAT which may initiate all sorts of discussions about the way the schools both work together and at the same time provide a level of choice to parents.
Traditional patterns of school selection are often taken for granted in this way – even for more than 50 years! But with the impact of parental choice, become even more challenging.
The focus of segregation in the past has also been on the concentration of ethnic minorities, but this is only part of the story – the over representation of ethnic minority pupils (categorised as ‘low’ White British’) in some schools is almost inevitably supported by schools that have an over representation of White British pupils (categorised as ‘high’) in other schools and our approach thus enables us to highlight those schools that are ‘contributing to segregation’. These schools also need to be challenged and have been neglected by more traditional approaches to segregation. A large number of schools are included in this category and for many local authority areas the number of schools with an over-representation of White British pupils exceeds those with a low representation.
This is also true for some categories of schools, perhaps especially faith schools. Catholic and Church of England schools are by far the most numerous and their collective impact on school representation is clearly significant yet often unexamined. As an example, in one London Borough the 17 faith primary schools that have somewhat diverse intakes, take between one and five times the proportion of White British compared to the area, substantially reducing the potential for other schools to become more mixed.
So, change is possible. and we now need to put a premium on mixed schools and develop a strategy to achieve that aim.
Understanding School Segregation in England 2011-2016
Understanding-School Segregation in England 2011-2016 (Cantle et al 2017)
This new report, written by Ted Cantle, with SchoolDash and The Challenge, reveals increasing school segregation is increasing and, more especially, that school segregation now exceeds the segregation in the local area. It suggests that we now need to put a premium on mixed schools and develop a strategy to achieve that aim.
Professor Ted Cantle said: “Children need to grow up with others of different backgrounds especially where their communities are segregated and they have no experience of difference. We know that contact between groups improves tolerance and breaks down prejudice – and will even contribute to tackling extremism. But we appear to be going in the opposite direction.
Tackling residential segregation is more difficult – people cannot simply be moved from one area to another. So schools are our best chance for integration; they can be the bridges between communities. But instead, schools appear to be compounding the problem and slowly dismantling the bridges.
Faith Schools: Consultation to Remove the 50% Cap and Reduce Integration
The Government launched a consultation (ends on the 12th December) which will reverse the policy espoused by David Cameron and will remove the obligation to offer 50% of places to other faith children in over-subscribed faith free schools.
Ted Cantle’s response (below) to this consultation views this as a very retrograde step and asks that it should be withdrawn
faith-schools-the-case-for-the-retention-50-per-cent-cap
Note: the on line consultation process is found here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-frameworks/schools-that-work-for-everyone/ though the section on faith schools is tucked away at the back of the questions
Is Segregation Increasing in the UK?
My article with Eric Kaufmann published by Open Democracy:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/wfd/ted-cantle-and-eric-kaufmann/is-segregation-on-increase-in-uk
And the Foreword kindly provided by Chuka Umunna MP in his capacity as Chair of th All Party Group on Integration:
Press Release about the above article
Research published by leading integration experts Professor Ted Cantle and Professor Eric Kaufmann reveals that while England as a whole is more ethnically mixed, we are allowing white and ethnic minority populations to become more isolated from each other.
The research, published on openDemocracy, presents census data in an entirely new way and comes as the government prepares to publish its major review into integration, segregation and extremism, led by Integration Tsar Dame Louise Casey.
This also follows the national debate about immigration in the UK’s decision to leave the European Union and the surge in hate crime. Professor Cantle commented “the antipathy towards some communities may have been much less if we were more integrated and actually lived in mixed areas – all the evidence suggests that prejudice and intolerance is broken down by contact”.
The research finds that while generally society is becoming more diverse, another trend is emerging – the strong shift towards the polarisation of White British and minority groups is mainly in our urban areas.
Key findings:
- Ethnic minorities in many towns and cities across England – from North to South – such as Slough, Birmingham, Leicester, Luton and Bradford, as well London Boroughs, are living in areas with an increasingly dwindling White British population and growing minorities.
- Ethnic minorities are increasing in many areas but this trend has not kept pace with the overall change and is further away from a proportionality.
- The trend towards isolation is even greater in smaller geographic areas, for example at ward level.
- The pace of change is striking, and most prominent in urban ‘pockets of diversity’, many showing a decrease in the white population of over 50 percentage points from 1991-2011.
Professor Cantle, who carried out a report into community cohesion in the wake of a series of race riots in 2001, said: “Analysis of the census data on ethnicity has to date been very broad and has concealed some of the trends and findings this research unveils.
This research shows what is happening on a local level and that there is increasing polarisation between the White majority population and minorities across England, particularly in our urban areas. This has gone under the radar, but it is time this became a national priority because cohesion is at stake”
“The focus of policy needs to shift, this is not just about minorities, politicians and policy-makers need to encourage White British residents to remain in diverse areas too; and to choose, rather than avoid, diverse areas when they do re-locate, encouraging similar choices with respect to schools; in other words to create a positive choice for mixed areas and a shared society for all communities.”
Chuka Umunna MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Integration, said: “During a year in which our country has seemed more divided than at any point in modern history, there are few questions which require investigation more urgently than the matter of how well we are living together. Equally, however – at a time in which our political debate has become yet more polarised and media headlines yet more fraught – there are few questions which it can seem harder to get to the bottom of.
“It’s clear that, whilst the UK is becoming increasingly diverse, levels of integration are not keeping pace. This has real implications for community cohesion – with social segregation having been shown to undermine trust between neighbours, to grow the fear of crime and bolster the prejudice which fuels the politics of recrimination and blame.”
For more information on the All Party Parliamentary Group, see http://www.socialintegrationappg.org.uk
It’s Time for Dangerous Conversations
Ted Cantle argues that schools should be prepared to discuss contentious issues – It’s time for ‘dangerous conversations’ in which extremist views are debated. Instead of banning extremists, they should be robustly challenged and young people should be helped to acquire critical thinking skills so that they are more resilient to extremist ideology.
And, in particular, schools should ensure that all students develop a fully fledged religious education – or ‘religious literacy’ – and state schools should not be allowed to just offer instruction in one faith, they should provide a critical analysis of all faiths and non-faith beliefs.
This means a both change in school policy and a change in the Government’s approach to Prevent, Ted suggests
Ted’s article in RE Today, September 2015
New Book ‘Interculturalism in Cities’ 2015 from Elgar Publishing with a contribution by Ted Cantle
Interculturalism in Cities 2015 flyer
Open Democracy Article: Time to Get Serious About Right Wing Extremism, October 2014
This article, by Paul Thomas and myself, sets out the pressing need to challenge far right extremist views
Link to the article:
Paul and I are also working with EYST in Swansea on an innovative programme with young people to confront this views and we will be supporting a confernece in London on the 12th November. You can book here:
http://eyst.org.uk/links/events/
The Daily Telegraph, 11th June 2014
My article in the Telegraph says that schoolchildren are still leading ‘parallel lives’ and we need to reverse the balkanisation of our school
system in favour of more inclusive schools to enable children to learn about others
Link to the article: fw.to/IyDQP5l
‘Think Project’ Report Launched 18th March 2014
Ted Cantle and Paul Thomas have co-authored this report on The Think Report‘. It was launched in the House of Commons on the
18th March at a special reception. It has been widely welcomed as a new way of addressing Far Right extremism and prejudice.
‘In the past, we have been content to just denounce these extreme views as ‘ignorant’ and ‘racist’’ said Professor Ted Cantle (ICoCo) and Professor Paul Thomas (University of Huddersfield), who have co-authored the report. ‘Now, for the first time, we know we can challenge extreme views through the direct engagement pioneered by EYST. All local areas need to learn from this success – and help young people counter the appeal of racist ideology and bigotry’.
Interculturalism moves forward – with the support of the Council of Europe
This new book examines the relationship between interculturalism and multiculturalism
Ted Cantle’s chapter sets out the strong case for interculturalism – already supported by the Council of Europe
Published December 2013 by the Council of Europe
ISBN 978-92-871-7692-9 €29,00/$58.00, Paperback, 188 pages
Order online at: https://book.coe.int/eur/en/cultural-policies/5790-interculturalism-and-multiculturalism-similarities-and-differences.html
New Book: Negotiating Cohesion, Inequality and Change: Uncomfortable Positions in Local Government
by Hannah Jones, published by Policy Press
This interesting new book published towards the end of 2013 shows the reality of community cohesion – and how robust the
concept really is – Ted Cantle’s full book review will be ready soon
Revealing Map of Faith School Segregation is Launched
My ‘Comment is Free’ piece in the Guardian 3rd December 2013:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/03/faith-schools-religious-discrimination-boundaries?CMP=twt_gu
See My Blog today (3rd December 2013) for further details of the Fair Admissions research and campaign
New Ideas to Reconnect Our Political Class. Published by Open Democracy
The warning signs for democracy are clear: the decline of mainstream political parties and voter turnout, growth of Far Right and Popular Extremist Parties, the lack of trust in politicians hit by scandals, and a political elite, locked into a Westminster ‘bubble’, seemingly detached from the everyday concerns of the people they represent.
So, now that the party conferences are over it is time to ask ‘How do we reconnect the political class? My ideas are published by Open Democracy.
Radical ideas include a limiting politicians’ terms of office; working on line from High Street offices rather than staying within the ‘Westminster Bubble’; removing Government/Opposition formalised positions in favour of a collaborative culture; a completely new system of appointments to the House of Lords and; developing systems of political plurality.
Interculturalism Gaining International Support
Support for the idea of interculturalism is expanding and developing and is fast becoming an alternative progressive perspective to that of multiculturalism. In this new academic paper http://www.upf.edu/gritim/actualitat/workingpaper.html#.UhI-l5L0_is , Professor Ricard Zapata Barrero (Zapata-Barrero, 2013; Departament de Ciències Polítiques i Socials, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, www.upf.edu/gritim ) reviews Gerard Bouchard’s L’interculturalisme: un point de vue quebecois, and Ted Cantle’s Interculturalism: The New Era of Cohesion and Diversity.
A range of other publications, including those setting out policy and practical frameworks, will be published shortly, reflecting the view that multiculturalism has been locked in to a series of single countries who only see diversity as an accommodation between their majority and minority populations rather than an unfolding pattern of diversity on a global scale.
Launch of Fair Admissions Campaign for Schools
I am helping this new campaign which was launched in London recently. It is long overdue, why do we stand for state funded schools discriminating against our
children on the basis of their parent’s religion? We are almost alone in Europe in allowing religious selection. Children are being divided into different schools
and this compounds segregation within communities – no opportunities for parents from different backgrounds to meet at the school gate and no
shared sporting or cultural activities. And most of all, the opportunities for students to learn about people who are different from themselves, to build cross-cultural
friendships and to become more tolerant and respectful of ‘others’ are completely lost.
Here are my Fair Admissions Campaign Speaking Notes
See the full story and sign up for the campaign on the Fair Admissions website http://fairadmissions.org.uk/
STOP PRESS
The Fair Admissions Campaign’s research has revealed just how faith schools have lost sight of their original purpose. They are not only segregating children by faith
and ethnicity but have now been found to be excluding poorer pupils too!
The recent coverage in the Telegraph is at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10323404/Faith-schools-selecting-wealthy-pupils-by-the-back-door.html
Plus they’ve listed the 50 schools that are most exclusive at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/10322429/State-schools-the-top-50-most-socially-exclusive.html
Jonathan Romain’s challenging article is at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/10322520/Its-time-for-fair-selection-policies-for-all-schools.html
Guardian On Line Publishes my ‘Expert Advice’ on Holding Communities Together (After Woolwich)
m.guardian.co.uk/local-government-network/2013/may/27/woolwich-crisis-community-cohesion
27th May 2013
….but as the Government has cut back community cohesion resources so much, will it be heeded?
My letter in The Times challenges Matt Ridley’s contrarian views on climate change
Letter in The Times 23rd May 2013
Sir,
Matt Ridley’s contrarian views (Earth to Met Office: Check your climate facts, May 20th, 2013) have to be set against the weight of mainstream scientific evidence. Granted that no science can ever exclude the ‘possibility that climate change will be slow and harmless’, the risks of accepting Ridley’s hunches are so immense that we cannot afford to stop taking immediate action and insuring against irreversible longer term damage. Appealing though it is, we should not allow ourselves to take comfort from his ‘rational optimist’ ideology.
We should also recognise that de-carbonising the economy has other benefits – the substantial health risks and environmental degradations resulting from the use of fossil fuels would be reduced as a result. Further, the UK would also be able to decrease its dependency on energy imports and improve energy security – again a very significant problem. These other drivers of change have recently gained credence in the United States. Meanwhile, this Government like the last has accepted carbon reduction targets. Achieving those will not be easy as the debate about wind farms shows. But we do need to show a real resolve to protect the planet for the benefit of future generations and Ridley’s highly selective use of data and his focus on the short term must be firmly rejected.
Professor Ted Cantle CBE,
New article examines the changing nature of national and global identities
published by Open Democracy on 16th April 2013
The state remains a very powerful force in the lives of many people and is the most significant unit of democracy in the developed world. For many, being a citizen of a particular state, having absorbed the traditions and cultures, being subject to its laws and economic regulation and taking part in the polity, a sense of belonging is still very evident. But the role of the state has changed profoundly in recent years and it is under threat from above and below.
Consequently, Ted Cantle argues that national identity has also been weakened and is now just one of a number of significant ways in which people think about themselves. ‘We have to learn to live with plurality, people no longer have just one way of seeing themselves’, he said
School segregation – divided children and divided communities
The campaign for more mixed and inclusive schools is gathering pace. Faith schools in particular are being challenged – see for example the Richmond inclusive schools campaign (http://www.richmondinclusiveschools.org.uk/) which was set up in opposition to a new Catholic secondary school in the Borough.
Similar campaigns are being mounted against applications for new religious schools, most recently the proposed evangelical Christian school in Oxford
Ted Cantle’s paper to a series of recent conferences outlines the way in which school segregation contributes to divided communities (see ‘publications’) and points out that the problems are becoming more acute, with the potential for our schools to be balkanised by approval of more and more minority faith schools. ‘We have to change course’ says Ted ‘ rather than imprison children in a limited world of their own like-minded communities, we need intercultural education and experiences for our children, they need the skills to understand and relate to the globalised world in which they live’. He also asks ‘why, if David Cameron opposes ‘state multiculturalism, does he persist with state support for separation of children and their families?’
Ted is a Distinguished Supporter http://accordcoalition.org.uk/our-supporters/ of the Accord Coalition’ campaign – see 28th November story below.
The Spirit of Togetherness
Ted Cantle’s article on ‘the spirit of togetherness’ asks how we can sustain and build upon the remarkable intercultural ethos engendered by the Olympics
A 2013 New Year’s message to business leaders and wider civil society
“We all know we face huge challenges, economically, socially and environmentally. We recognise that we need to harness all our talent and capabilities to meet these challenges. To do this, we need to be the very best version of ourselves. What was wonderful about the Olympics and then the Paralympics is that they showed us that we can achieve this, and how to make it happen. We believed in ourselves, as a nation and as a community of nations. We leveraged difference and recognised our shared purpose and humanity. For Tomorrow’s Company the further challenge but also tremendous opportunity is to understand and help realise what this means for business, as an integral part of strong communities, for the benefit of people, planet and profit.”
– Tony Manwaring, Chief Executive, Tomorrow’s Company
“We are now firmly in an era of super-diversity and globalisation. The Olympics and Paralympics helped us to recognise this new reality. It created a new spirit of togetherness that transcended ethnicity, faith, nationality and disability. We must sustain this legacy and develop an intercultural future, embracing difference rather than fearing it.”
– Professor Ted Cantle CBE, Chair iCoCo Foundation
Political Insight Magazine publishes Ted Cantle’ critique of Meer and Modood
Political Insight Magazine publishes Ted Cantle’s critique of Nasar Meer and Tariq Modood’s earlier defence of multicultural policies. Ted sets out the arguments for interculturalism and contends that it now offers the only effective progressive framework for diversity in an increasingly globalised world.
28th November 2012
Ted Cantle spoke at the Accord Coalition’s event in London in support of the campaign for inclusive education. Ted said ‘We live in a multi-faith and multi-ethnic community, but if we want a shared society our schools have to become shared too. The evidence suggests that they are moving in the opposite direction with increasing segregation. Now is the time for faith schools to accept change’
The Accord Coalition is a wide coalition of organisations, including religious groups, humanists, teachers, trade unionists, educationalists and civil rights activists, working together for inclusive education. Although Accord’s supporters derive inspiration for their values from different sources, they are united in wanting to ensure that state funded schools respect and uphold human rights and promote mutual understanding. Accord has a very useful website with a great portfolio of evidence in support of its campaign – go to http://accordcoalition.org.uk/about-us/
The Accord Coalition, Ted Cantle, and others subsequently wrote to the Guardian and called for an end to the segregation by faith schools – go to: published by the Guardian 16 December 2012
Faith organisations should adopt an ethical code
Faith organisations should adopt an ethical code of practice to govern the unacceptable way they deal with inter-faith relationships, says Ted Cantle. Speaking to the Faith and Civil Societies Unit in London, he says that faiths are creating impossible choices, particularly for parents of mixed faith children and in some instances their behaviour is oppressive and represents an assault on human rights’ For more details Click here.
Ted Cantle urges an end to single identity funding
Ted Cantle urges an end to single identity funding for religious and ethnic groups and proposes that the money should be spent on needs across all groups to enable them to work together and to share experiences rather than compete with each other. See Daily Telegraph article at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9544252/Multiculturalism-past-its-sell-by-date-warns-race-expert.html
First Review of Ted Cantle’s New Book
http://www.cles.org.uk/yourblogs/bookreview-interculturalism/