another chat with Dr Chapman

Meeting this afternoon with Dr Rachel Chapman, Senior Lecturer in the School of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Northumbria (in Newcastle upon Tyne). Rachel came to the Council of Faiths last year with a project she was involved in then, looking at how Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) promote equalities and how they engage with locally-based equalities groups. (See blog post 22 March 2009: "working with the Local Strategic Partnership”)

Today, Rachel is here to interview me for a research project she's currently involved in, entitled, “Faith in Partnership: The Scope, Challenges and Methods of Effective Partnership Working Between Local Government and Faith and Belief Groups”. This is described below.

Religion and belief has become increasingly significant for local authorities through, for example, their inclusion in the Equality Act, a greater recognition of a positive contribution faith and belief groups can make in the public realm, and increasing religious diversity. New opportunities and expectations for partnership working between local government and faith communities have subsequently emerged. These include representation on partnership bodies (e.g. Local Strategic Partnerships), consultations and the provision by faith-based organisations of state funded welfare services and programmes. Their engagement is valued in terms of enhanced policy responsiveness and service performance as well as enhancing democratic participation by widening representation and accountability. More recently, a role for such groups has been identified in connection with realising and shaping the “Big Society”.

Previous research and stakeholder scoping highlights a number of key challenges for local authorities in working with faith and belief groups. These can include lack of experience and/or knowledge about who best to work with and how to assess and facilitate representativeness and accountability, together with a lack of capacity and resources (particularly in light of public sector cuts). Little research has been done to identify how these challenges are being addressed at a local level and to identify transferable knowledge, good practice and learning.

In the context of a limited evidence base, the research will explore partnership working between local government and faith and belief groups (inc. humanist groups). The objectives of the research are to:

• examine the level, nature and models of engagement and representation;
• identify the opportunities from engagement via local authorities;
• highlight the challenges faced by local authorities and faith/belief groups in working together, and identify ways of addressing these;
• identify the impacts of engagement/representation and approaches to evaluating effectiveness;
• explore the role and significance of religion and belief in shaping the actions of representatives, elected members and officers;
• identify good practice and opportunities for policy learning.

The project is funded by the Local Government Improvement and Development Agency, and is supported by the Department for Communities and Local Government. A summary of findings will be circulated to all research participants, and will be made more widely available to practitioners, policy-makers and researchers.

This will be a thematic report, with four case study "vignettes":

• Barnet
• Leicester
• Pendle
• Watford

We meet at the Welcome Centre and adjourn to the LCB Depot in Rutland Street. Rachel runs through her list of questions and records our conversation on a digital device. I’m not going to try and summarise our 90-minute discussion. I’ll post a link to the report when it’s published, then you can read it properly and give Dr Chapman’s work the respect it deserves. You don't need me to tell you that things have changed considerably since Rachel's first visit. It's a different sort of conversation today, as I'm sure you can imagine, faithful reader.

See Dr Rachel Chapman's profile on the website of Northumbria University:
http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/sass/about/socscience/deptstaff/rchapman/