Ethnic communities

Westminster ethnic minority needs audit (WEMNA)

This Audit, badged WEMNA, was carried out by Imperial College as part of the City Council’s commitment to civic renewal, its commitment to equality in general and race equality in particular. The research was done in partnership with various local BME organisations and groups, who were trained and then used to help conduct the research.

The City Council and the Westminster City Partnership, which is the name for Local Strategic Partnership, provided the funding for it. The WCP is made up of 18 people, who represent the City Council, the Westminster Primary Trust, Westminster Police and the voluntary and community sectors as well, including the Community Network and the current Chairman of the BME Network.

WEMNA is based on perceptions of the BME communities who were interviewed during 2002/3. Over 1500 interviews were conducted with the black and minority organisations, other agencies, businesses and the Council’s partners. The research was conducted by training members of the various BME groups in interview techniques, and through the use of either face-to-face meetings or by filling in questionnaires.

4 communities – Caribbean, Arab, Bangladeshi and Black African were studied in detail. The Chinese, Indians and Pakistanis were also looked at, but in far less depth.

The research covered 10 domains, including community safety, community organisations, communications, health, education, leisure, employment, housing and households, etc. It also covered issues such as (the City Council as well as other public agencies having) representative workforces.

Since the report covers issues such as health, policing and worklessness, all the City Partnership agencies concerned agreed that they would work in partnership to address the issues raised, and so have developed a joint action plan which is being finalised at the moment. Consultations have been held with LSP partners as well as BME organisations and communities, from which the action plan has been devised.

Many of the concerns expressed in the research such as mental health, job prospects, educational attainment levels and policing are no different from those expressed elsewhere in London or indeed the UK as a whole.

A number of Pledges have also been developed, which provide an overall context for the issues raised by WEMNA as well as commitments to deliver on a number of specific issues in the next 12/18 months. When finalised, these will also be made publicly available.