Race Equality Foundation - Development

The black and minority ethnic family policy forum

Background

The background to this project is the dramatic growth in developments around family policy. For example the Government is targeting initiatives to support families better. At the same time there appears to be a number of attempts to work better with African, Asian and Caribbean communities. But there remain a number of gaps in our knowledge and uncertainty about what the issues are that concern black and minority ethnic communities, and how this may vary from community to community, or between generations. There is also some evidence that black and minority voluntary organisations have not had the opportunity to identify and clarify the issues that they face and this may inhibit their ability to impact on policy and developments. Furthermore, the innovations and good practice that have been developed by black and minority ethnic voluntary organisations appear to be locked into these organisations, with little opportunity to explore their relevance to other organisations, or impact on mainstream providers.

What we did

The overall aim of the project was to support the development of effective services and family policy with the aid of black and minority ethnic voluntary organisations who work with families. This involved:

facilitating the identification of issues that black and minority ethnic voluntary organisation see as impacting on families;
facilitating informed discussion of these issues with a wide spectrum of groups;
and using the outputs of these discussions to impact on services, local practice and government policy.

Between 2000 and 2002 we worked a Family Policy Forum consisting of 29 black and minority ethnic voluntary organisations providing a range of family support services, and several service users. They attended eight structured consultation seminars to explore and discuss issues relating to black and minority ethnic families. Briefing papers were produced for each seminar, pulling together research evidence and its implications. The papers and organisations' practice experience formed the basis of informed discussion on particular topics. In addition regional seminars took place in Coventry, Manchester and Birmingham to facilitate discussions with local black-led voluntary organisations.

The policy discussion papers were also circulated to over 300 black and minority ethnic voluntary and faith based organisations across the UK, and mainstream parenting and family support agencies.

Outcomes

Black and minority ethnic voluntary organisations are better informed about national parenting and family support initiatives
Mainstream agencies are better informed of issues pertaining to parenting and family support to African, Asian and Caribbean families
The dissemination of issues from the regional informed discussions and Forum seminars to Home Office Ministers and the Chief Executive of the National Family and Parenting Institute
A series of policy discussion papers (Click on appropriate paper to download)

For further information contact Tracey Bignall on 020 7619 6225 or email tracey@racefound.org.uk