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The Institute of Community Cohesion (iCoCo) has highlighted the need for local authorities and their partners to continue work on building community cohesion, despite cuts in government funding. 

In response to the announcement from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) of 10^th June, that the £1.166 billion local government savings will include big reductions to ‘Prevent’ and cohesion funding, Ted Cantle CBE said:

“iCoCo has always made the case for organisations to ensure cohesion activities are delivered as part of mainstream front line service delivery.  Although the Government has cut the dedicated budgets which fund cohesion initiatives, organisations need to integrate this work.  It is already the case that those organisations having real impact in tackling community tensions, are doing so by embedding approaches across key service areas. 

“Some pump priming will however continue to be needed to develop new approaches, to build good practice and target hotspots.  We will always need some funding to incentivise new approaches, to encourage new ideas and to respond to new and emerging problems.

“It essential that all organisations do continue to maintain their focus on understanding their local communities, being sensitive to emerging tensions and have clear approaches in place to tackle these.  The long term costs of dealing with the aftermath of tensions and community disturbances far outweigh the short term costs of identifying and managing them at an early stage.”

iCoCo’s web site (www.cohesioninstitute.org.uk) contains free toolkits and advice that help local authorities and businesses to take a practical low cost approach, to building cohesion in the community and the workplace.

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For further information contact Ali Bushnell, External Press and Media Relations Officer, Coventry University, on 024 7688 8245 or Jennifer Tankard on 07971 510085.

Note to editors:

The Institute of Community Cohesion (iCoCo) was established in 2005 to provide a new approach to race, diversity and multiculturalism. Its work focuses on building positive and harmonious community relations, using applied research to constantly develop practice and to build capacity of all the agencies and individuals involved.

iCoCo represents a unique partnership of academic, statutory and non-governmental bodies, combining the experience and expertise of universities, including Coventry - with practitioners from a range of diverse backgrounds and professions.