Research Reports
COMPACT Consultation Event
(Jointly organised by London Chinese Community Network
and Chinese in Britain Forum)
Held on 14th January 2002 at The Chinese National Healthy
Living Centre, London.
Acknowledgments:
- Race Equality Unit of the Home Office for funding
this seminar.
- Chinese National Healthy Living Centre for the use
of the premises.
- Guest Speakers: Paul Barasi - Compact Development
Officer, (NCVO); Lord Chan of Oxton - Chairman of
Chinese in Britain Forum; Thomas Chan - Chairman of
Chinese Takeaway Association.
Aims of the Event
To disseminate information to the Chinese Community
about Compact: a government initiative to improve relations
between the government and the voluntary community sector.
To provide information about the Race Relations (Amendment)
Act 2000.
To create an opportunity for Chinese voluntary and community
organisations to discuss the implications of the Compact.
Introduction
The London Chinese Community Network and Chinese in
Britain Forum jointly held the consultation event in
an convenient location near London China Town. The event
was attended by 47 people. The majority were representatives
of Chinese community organisations, some representatives
were from service providers such as local authority.
Lord Chan of Oxton and Thomas Chan gave presentations
on an overview of the Race Relations Amendment Act and
its implications to the Chinese Communities. Paul Barasi
introduced the Compact. Each presentation was followed
by five minutes 'questions and answers' by participants
and an opportunity for group discussion was programmed
into the day.
Keynote Presentations:
1. 'Equal Opportunity to Valuing Diversity'
& 'Race Relations Amendment Act 2000' by
Lord Chan of Oxton, Chair of The Chinese in Britain
Forum.
- Presentation covering ' Multicultural Britain, '
a short background to migration demography of Britain,
giving figures of Chinese settlement and the workforce.
- Chinese Community Issues: education of first generation
immigrants and British Born Chinese, a comparison
of figures was made. 63 %Chinese children pass five
GCSE's compared to 45% white children. At higher level
education, 26% Chinese gain professional or university
degrees whereas 24% Indian and 11% white.
- The ethnic 'diversity' of the Chinese Community
was drawn upon and how the UK Chinese Community was
made up of Hong Kong 48%, China 17%, Malaysia 14%,
Singapore 4% and Vietnam 8% (1991 Census).
Q1: Mrs Lim from Camden Chinese Community Centre made
a statement regarding her difficulty in fundraising
for frail elderly and how they are ignored.
A: LC advised on Government plans on modernization and
other organizations to approach such as Age Concern
to help her cause.
Q2: Mr Min raised an issue regarding Chinese medicine
and how this was not available on the NHS and how he
saw this as an infringement of human rights.
A: LC responded that he would bring up the matter in
his next meeting with the ministers.
2. 'The Implications of the Race Relations
(Amendment Act) on the Chinese Community' by
Thomas Chan, Chairman of Chinese Takeaway Association
UK.
Thomas Chan introduced the legislation and raised points
on how the community can play a role in relation to
future legislation directly affecting the Chinese in
Britain. Key points included:
- The general duty - To eliminate unlawful racial
discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and
promote good race relations between different racial
groups.
- Specific duties of the Act - To publish the Race
Equality Scheme, its function and its policies. The
importance of assessment, consultation and monitoring
impact of new legislation.
- Crossovers in services with public authorities -
communities contracted to carry out services such
as under 5's education, social and health care promoting
race equality as a remit and partnership work with
public authorities.
- The importance of the Chinese to get involved with
input and play a role in participating in public consultation
meetings, focus groups, reference groups, citizens
juries and survey questionnaires.
- Advice on translation and interpretation, assistance
in satisfaction surveys and assistance with complaints
and feedback.
Q & A: John May London Borough of Barnet: Translation
and Interpretation Services agreed there was little
Chinese input in responding to survey questionnaires
and far fewer logged complaints from Chinese individuals.
3. 'Compact, to improve relations between the
government and the voluntary community sector'
by Paul Barasi, Compact Development Officer.
Paul Barasi gave a general outline of Compact, an agreement
between government & the public sector to improve
relationships for mutual advantage. His talk covered
the 5 codes of good practice to make the agreement operational.
To summarise key points the following was included in
his presentation.
- Informing BME organizations and getting it known
is a challenge for the Government. Partnership on
race equality, fair funding, investing in BME sector's
infrastructure, recognising BME's sector's role nationally
& locally.
- Teething problems in first year due to lack of framework
or links with local government agenda, issues of mutual
benefit and ownership, have been resolved with a new
set of criteria with a seven-fold improvement.
- The community as a focus of local government modernization,
consulting and participation, engaging the community,
working with & supporting small groups and building
strong communities.
- Best Value: Developing a local compact where it
does not exist, to review the best value of voluntary
sector support.
- Working together in partnerships and how effective
these are. The voluntary sector bringing its expertise,
links and know-how to the table. Being an effective
partner and putting it into practice.
Q: Richard Lam Chinese Community Centre asked about
getting additional funding to cover time and resources
used to participate in setting up a compact, giving
time to consultations and questionnaires.
Paul Barasi: Expectations need to be increased and feedback
collected first so it is accounted for in the future.
Suggestions were made to use Compact to get the Council
to look at this whilst in early stages of development
of the agreement.
Participants were eager to use the seminar as a platform
to voice their views on other issues in the wider community
at this point. Generally there was still some confusion
on what Compact was and how to access it.
Group Discussion
Two groups of 9 and 11 were formed to discuss a series
of prepared questions. Facilitators were Thomas Chan
(group A) and Shu Pao Lim (group B), Paul Barasi volunteered
to give further advice to this latter group.
Outcomes of group discussion.
There was a wide spectrum of understanding amongst the
two groups, Group A used the opportunity to clarify
many of the points raised in the talk to better understand
Compact. In group B many of the participants were not
clear what Compact was about and much discussion took
place. Issues brought up included,
- A need to look at London specifically.
- The link between local strategic partnership and
local Compact is not clear.
Members were concerned about how they can make use
of Compact with no clear guidelines provided, no personnel
contact and no representative. These discussion groups
reflected on the shortcomings of Compact and how it
is presented to the Chinese Community.
Evaluation Form.
Total numbers of participants including staff and speakers
were 47.
We received 9 feed back forms from a total of 40, about
half the participants remained for the discussion groups
in the latter part of our programme.
When asked if the seminar had met their expectations,
4 out of 9 responded Yes, and 4 responded as No. For
people that answered N, the following boxes were ticked.
- More background information should be provided.
(2)
- More focus should be placed on plans for liaison
with the provinces. (1)
Not indicated. (1)
- Other comments included, timing of the event that
it was held during working hours. More Chinese should
be involved, it was a fair introduction of Compact
and the discussion groups should be divided into different
levels of understanding.
Internal Evaluation
The timing of the event may not have been the most appropriate
as it was so soon after the Christmas holidays. It had
two events taking place on the same day, an AGM and
a Seminar. It was planned that the Seminar would attract
people to attend the AGM with lunch provided. Two issues
were also addressed in the seminar Compact & Race
Relations Act and it appeared that the objective was
not streamlined enough. Each speaker was given 15 minutes
to make their presentation. This seemed adequate for
most speakers but for the Compact it seemed too short
and it was hard to follow.
Invitation list
Suggestions were made for publicity to be made more
diverse to include 'grass roots' community. It was noted
the lack of students attending and in future to include
academic groups on the mailing list.
***Ends***
Back to reports index
|
