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UK News

Faith group supports government's bid to tackle England's 'segregation problem'

by Eno Adeogun

Plans are being laid out which could see pupils who come from a single ethnic or religious community required to mix with children from other backgrounds.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid will call on schools to teach "British values", with one of the key measures being to boost English language skills.

 

There are currently 770 thousand people in Britain that can speak hardly any English at all.

Daniel Singleton is the national executive director of Faith Action - a national network of faith-based and community organisations.

He told Premier teaching people English isn't an attack on other cultures.

"There's not any shortage of people who want to learn English and what we have to remember is that just because someone is not speaking English, doesn't mean necessarily they're speaking the same language as all the other people they're around," he said during Premier's News Hour.

"So actually, English is the common factor that draws people together.

Integrated Communities Strategy Green Paper

A consultation paper on the plans - launched by Mr Javid with the backing of £50 million of Government money - follows the 2016 Casey Review, which warned that social cohesion cannot be taken for granted in multicultural UK.

He said: "Britain can rightly claim to be one of the most successfully diverse societies in the world. But we cannot ignore the fact that in too many parts of our country, communities are divided, preventing people from taking full advantage of the opportunities that living in modern Britain offers.

"Successive governments have refused to deal with the integration challenges we face head on, preferring to let people muddle along and live isolated and separated lives.

"We will put an end to this through our new strategy which will create a country that works for everyone, whatever their background and wherever they come from."

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Singleton rejected the idea that boosting social integration will lead to Christian children being forced to go to school with people that have a different religion.

"I don't think it will work like that at all. I think more the case will be that people with non-English backgrounds will... be required to have a connection with those from an English background.

"Basically, English is the common currency and you have to be able to speak to join in - that's what Eric Pickle [the former communities secretary] said way back in 2013. Giving people the opportunity to speak and someone to speak to is part of what's key here."

Five pilot areas - Blackburn, Bradford, Peterborough, Walsall and the London borough of Waltham Forest - will develop local integration plans allowing new strategies to be tested as the programme develops.

Listen to Daniel Singleton speaking to Premier's Cara Bentley:

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