The forefront of a fairer society... the Islington Fairness Commission

As logos go, this isn't the most
thrilling - but the Commission is
worth reading about

Andy Hull

At the My Fair London launch that I wrote about here one of the speakers was Andy Hull who is the co-chair of the Islington Fairness Commission (IFC).

He spoke a bit about what the IFC has been doing, and it was so impressive that I'm dedicating a post to it.

It serves as an example to boroughs everywhere of what can be achieved, moving towards a more equal society where residents are healthier, better educated, in employment and less divided from one another.

The IFC was the first fairness commission, but now Blackpool, York, Leicester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield have all started their own up. If you live in a borough without one, why not write a letter/email to your council asking them if they know about the IFC and whether they might set one up themselves?

It was set up in June 2010, inspired by The Spirit Level book which explained how societies with more inequality are overall worse off that societies with less. On its board are a selection of councillors, academic experts and representatives from various sectors such as the NHS and the police.

Islington is a very mixed borough - it has wealthy areas, such as Upper Street which is full of delis and boutiques, and it also has areas of dire poverty and disengagement. Here are some stats about Islington that really hit home why something needed to be done. It has the:

• lowest male life expectancy in London

• 3rd highest crime rate in London

• 2nd highest rate of child poverty in the country

• unemployment among its black and minority ethnic residents is twice that of its white residents

Through a series of meetings using evidence from academics and residents, it reported to Islington Council and made practical recommendations on how to improve life for people living in Islington.

In October 2011, the Council started implementing the recommendations made by the Commission.

In that short amount of time, they have done or have set the ball rolling to do so much good stuff - stuff like moving 186 severely overcrowded households to larger properties, promoting volunteering or residents, helping find affordable childcare, negotiating with TfL to get the Bike Hire scheme extended to Islington, vigorously campaigning for Islington companies to be more socially responsible and trying to limit the number of fast food outlets near schools. Speaking of which, if you haven't seen this piece of music video genius, then you need to.


Below I've given a little more detail on what they're doing about pay inequality, debt, employment, green spaces and crime, just to give you an idea of how they're going about it. You can read the full reports on the IFC's webpage at www.islington.gov.uk/fairness.

PAY

by David G Kline from www.nytimes.com

The IFC wants to reduce the pay ratio in Islington. I wrote about what pay ratio is on my earlier post here - it means making the gap between the top and the bottom earners smaller.

To do this in Islington they have:

• reduced the pay of the incoming Chief Executive by £50,000 in comparison to the pay of his predecessor
• brought in the London Living Wage for all Council staff - they're currently working on extending that to all contracted staff too
• they will be meeting with the 100 largest employers in Islington to encourage them to reduce their pay differentials if they are very high, and to publish their pay differentials on a council-run website

DEBT

I wrote a bit about the debt problem we have in the UK in this post. To help residents in debt, Islington is/has:

• helping people with multiple debts consolidate them into one payment so it is more manageable and less stressful
• established a Citizens Advice Bureau locally, giving out free debt advice
• sent mystery shoppers to payday loans companies to check they are operating legally - that is, not giving out loans to people with no ability to pay them back, and not aggressively targeting vulnerable customers.

EMPLOYMENT

We all know that unemployment is a massive problem in the UK right now. The economic downturn has put many people out of work and prevented many young people from getting into it. Islington has the amibitious and impressive target of having no young people who are not in education, employment or training by 2015 (commonly called NEETs). To kickstart this, Islington has:

• placed 119 residents into work and 40 into apprenticeships through its 'Single Employer Face'
• piloted a scheme offering 14 to 16 year olds paid local work experience
• started 'Business Works' - a mentoring, development and paid work experience scheme. It helps young people leaving care by pairing them up with a mentor for regular meetings. They help them with skills such as interview technique, confidence on public transport and much more

GREEN SPACES

From www.katiebacon.co.uk

Islington have recognised that in a built up city area, green spaces are very important. They create a public area where people can meet and cross the divides between demographics, they create opportunities for exercise, amongst many other benefits.

So, they have:

• given funding to local residents groups to maintain 5 sites that were previously maintained by a company contracted by the council - this means local people getting involved in their local area, an excellent plan brought 6 new spaces into public use for gardening and play

CRIME

we all know what crime looks like, so I
thought I'd give you a pretty picture of
some tulips instead, much nicer

Islington has a lot of crime and a lot of 'gang' issues. To help ease these, they have:

• set up a hotline for reporting anti-social behaviour
• been accepted by the Ministry of Justice as one of two pilot areas in London for trialling Neighbourhood Resolution panels which bring victims, perpertrators and criminal justice professionals together for restorative justice
• they have a couple of schemes under way or being created that help people under threat of gang violence or on the fringes of gangs away from those situations 

The really good thing about the IFC is that it's ACTUALLY GETTING STUFF DONE. It's not just another 'talking shop'.

This sort of grassroots, proactive approach is exactly what's needed. I hope it goes from strength to strength, and look forward to finding out more about the other UK fairness commissions too.

Like I said at the start, why not send a quick email to your borough and ask them about setting one up? The time is ripe.

youcanarguewithstupid

Sources/further reading:
www.islington.gov.uk/fairness for the IFC's reports
www.equalitytrust.org.uk for evidence on why equality matters
www.livingwage.org.uk for the Living Wage Foundation - there's also a wikipedia page that explains what it's about