What Government and Faiths Can Do

In extending the public policy table to include faiths, government must clearly play an active role in helping to make that work. Faiths are generally very welcoming of the policy agenda that is unfolding in their direction and many recognise that there have been significant efforts to support them, for example through the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund, the Faith Communities Consultative Council and the Cohesion & Faiths Unit in CLG.

At the same time our discussions indicate that there are a number of important perceived unmet needs:

There could be much understanding and openness between faith and non-faith partners, and this must be cascaded down to the local government level where it is currently largely unheard
There needs to be better evidence and research which is nationally comparable as well as locally and regionally descriptive so that the added value of faiths, and the challenges and opportunities for engagement, can be communicated and addressed
There needs to be a clear understanding of what faith networks and infrastructure already exist. Developing new structures risks creating parallel spaces which duplicate effort, dilute support and introduce competition where there has been partnership. This would result in the breakdown of trust and reciprocity in contexts where years of work have been done to build them up
The wider VCS should make a stronger commitment to reaching and engaging faiths at local, regional and national levels, working in partnership with existing faith agencies rather than setting up their own new 'faith units' or equivalents
There is also a significant need for intensive, face-to-face, medium to longer term, tailored support to build capacity, developing what has already been started under the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund
Support is needed to help faiths engage in extended forms of governance, especially among minority faiths and smaller community projects which are stretched
Faiths need to have time to reflect on practice in order to maintain the crucial relationship between their worshipping communities and the social action which arises from them. Meanings matter greatly to faiths and reflection upon them is the bedrock of their social action. This will support a continuing creative grassroots constituency of 'active citizens'

Our interviews and discussions with faith groups, and our review of the evidence and other sources, indicates that faiths have some strong views on what would help government and faiths to work together within an effective framework for interfaith dialogue and social action, in a range of areas:

Network & communicate

Opportunities for sharing information and learning should be resourced and embedded in neighbourhoods and supported by the regions. Regional infrastructure should be consolidated by national networking to ensure the dissemination of good practice.

Make available clear channels of communication up and down the policy/practice/research ladder which are sensitive to the lived experiences of faiths at community levels, for example through regular focus groups in local situations, perhaps facilitated by bodies such as the Faith Communities Consultative Council.

Ensure that organisations and agencies, whose policies and practices have a major impact on faith based social action, work together positively.

Promote effective working between faiths and VCS structures at all levels but especially the local.

Faiths themselves need to work to ensure effective relationships between worshipping communities, which are the bedrock, and the wider social activities in which they engage. They could do so using techniques such as 'congregational development'.

They also need to work to ensure that there is trust and confidence in leaders and representatives as they increasingly work in new public spaces.

Resource & support

Signal clear support for faiths at the public table at all levels of government, especially the local where it is largely unheard. Articulate clear rationale which emphasise respect for faiths as well as the value they can add.

Continue to provide resources for building capacity, distributed in partnership with local and regional partners.

Provide resources for maintaining effective and established infrastructure for faiths' engagement, in consultation with the regional faiths forums.

Promote opportunities for faiths to be represented and develop and resource training for skills to engage effectively (eg 'mutual concepts and values literacy' training, and training for participating in formal structures such as LSPs and other partnership bodies)

It should be recognised that there is a need for funding as well as for extending social enterprise approaches to faith based social action. Faiths often work with the hardest to reach and with approaches which will not attract self-sustainability.

In some cases, particularly amongst faiths which are newer to Britain, help is needed to build up infrastructure to ensure effective engagement.

Research & evidence

The building and maintenance of an evidence base on the added value of faiths is key to identifying what needs they are fitted to respond to and how to address them. It is also a key part of communicating added value to partners and funders.

A national dataset requires the development of a shared language for measurement and a process needs to be gone through with faiths to achieve this.

Faith based social enterprise activities should be mapped, their benefit audited and activities categorised in order to establish the potential for extending a social enterprise dimension to faith based social action, and for understanding its limits.

Contact theory has potential as a tool for understanding and promoting better interfaith relations and community cohesion. A programme of research would be required prior to an effective application of contact theory in this area.

Policy & processes

Building on broad support for the Faith Communities Consultative Council, work with it to identify an effective practical and grounded role

Work with and build up existing structures at national, regional, sub-regional and local levels Avoid introducing new ones which do not have the networks, trust, confidence and track records and which risk duplicating effort and introducing competition where there is currently effective partnership

Make support structures more faith friendly, for example through funding and monitoring criteria which reflect what is valuable to faiths as well as how faiths are valuable to wider society

Build the faith dimension into all new policies and initiatives to ensure that their contribution is part of the natural and established landscape of policy formation and implementation

But make efforts, working with faith communities, to refresh, renew and 'grow' the people who appear in that landscape to ensure that they reflect what is really happening at local level - the likelihood of hearing repeatedly from a small number of the same people is higher amongst some faiths where there is growing demand for 'voices' to be heard and a limited number of people available to respond. This compromises representativeness at the same time as 'burning out' key figures