Faith groups have been working closely with the government during the pandemic, dutifully giving messages about Covid regulations and vaccinations, and providing frontline services feeding the hungry and befriending the lonely.
When the “Levelling Up” White Paper was published and mentioned faith only once, Daniel Singleton, national executive director of FaithAction, took to Twitter to say it was a missed opportunity.
He told a Religion Media Centre media briefing that the paper had not given due recognition to the essential role of faith groups in delivering frontline services in the pandemic. Faith groups, he said, reached parts of society where other organisations failed.
The contribution faith groups made was “almost like a secular forgetfulness”, he said.
The White Paper did not pick up as much as it could have done on community development: gurdwaras, mosques and churches were places where people connected and there was an opportunity to utilise those networks of faith as a ready-made social infrastructure from which to build.
For Levelling Up to mean something to people in their daily lives, the White Paper says, “we need to reach into every community in the country, from city centres to rural areas, to start to rebuild social capital and self-reliance in our most abandoned neighbourhoods”.
It suggests piloting “a set of community covenant approaches: new agreements between councils, public bodies and communities themselves to empower communities to shape the regeneration of their areas and improve public services”.
This was welcomed by Danny Kruger, the MP for Devizes, who last year set up the New Social Covenant Unit to promote ideas and policy suggestions in favour of “strengthening families, communities, and the nation” making people happy, safe and free.
In a tweet he said: “V pleased with Govt response to my 2020 report Levelling Up Our Communities, out today — and the commitment in the Levelling Up White Paper to ‘community covenants’. We need people-led reform, with power exercised by communities not remote bureaucracies.”
FaithAction has already pioneered “faith covenants” — commitment between faith communities and local authorities to a set of principles guiding engagement, removing mistrust and promoting practical work on all levels. There are 24 in towns and cities across the country.
“There is a role, yes, for food banks and that kind of immediate relief. But there’s also something beyond food banks, there’s advocating for the unheard voices. Integration feels so key as well. And I think, partly, we’ve got an imagination problem. We have to move beyond that. It’s not all about cash.”
– Daniel Singleton, FaithAction
Last September, the government announced the £1m Faith New Deal Pilot Fund to focus on strengthening engagement between national government, local government and faith groups. But Mr Singleton understands this scheme has stalled.
There are a bewildering number of organisations and initiatives involving faith groups in society. Phil Champain, director of the Faith and Belief Forum, says they all come up against a persistent, chronic and complex issue, a hangover from 9/11, that faith is an issue to be solved, rather than an asset.
There was a degree of “secular anxiety” in local government about working with faith groups, but interfaith work is a key way of creating connections and building social capital. Faith groups are often “the heartbeat of a community” and an important part of the levelling-up agenda in terms of social cohesion.
Dr Peter Rookes, secretary of the Birmingham Council of Faiths, agreed and said groups such as his were already involved in levelling-up. It was a question of reaching out into the community to hear voices who otherwise go unheard and ignored. He thought the omission of faith groups in the levelling-up White Paper was an oversight, from writers who were not in tune with what is going on.
The White Paper mentions faith once, in regard to the importance of having effective institutions in making places succeed. These include, it says, faith groups, schools, universities, community groups, sport and social clubs.
Mr Singleton told the briefing that the importance of faith structures was not in their building, but in the way they gathered people. And when they did, they could provide ambition.
He said faith groups could provide a vision for a better type of country and a moral discussion was necessary alongside economic and educational ambition.
“We’re very happy to meet government departments to start to imagine how you can utilise faith communities better,” he added. “There is a role, yes, for food banks and that kind of immediate relief. But there’s also something beyond food banks, there’s advocating for the unheard voices. Integration feels so key as well. And I think, partly, we’ve got an imagination problem. We have to move beyond that. It’s not all about cash.”
The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said:
“Our Levelling Up White Paper provides a clear plan to level up every corner of the UK, addressing regional disparities across the country. We recognise the immense contribution of faith groups during the pandemic, and they will naturally be among the communities whose engagement will play a vital part in delivering the White Paper’s ambitions.”
The entire briefing recorded on 8th February can be found on YouTube
