At the heart of One Tower Hamlets: understanding human rights in an inner city borough

Tower Hamlets is one of the most deprived places in the UK but, at the same time, as we have Canary Wharf in the borough there is also great wealth.  This part of London has a long history of providing settlement for a stream of new communities. In recent years Tower Hamlets Council, working with Praxis and other community partners, through the New Residents and Refugee Forum, has explored how a better understanding of human rights can help create effective and efficient services.

In 2008 during discussions with residents and partners about refreshing the Tower Hamlets Community Plan there was anxiety about how the progress in the borough could be undermined by the tensions which have so often arisen throughout our history as a place of settlement for migrants both from other parts of the UK and abroad. These discussions led to the creation of ‘One Tower Hamlets’.

Since then we have worked to ensure that the concept is more than a slogan and is both an overarching and embedded principle. To help do this ‘One Tower Hamlets’ is defined in three linked ways:

• Tackling inequality
• Strengthening cohesion
• Building community leadership and personal responsibility

As the illustration shows these provide a cycle of action whereby the successful development of services (to address local need) is dependent on strong working relationships (between different sectors, providers/users and citizens/politicians). Achieving this then opens up a different dialogue with and between all sections of the community to drive forward further new ways of thinking about services to ensure the cycle continues. Important is the belief in how the diversity of community experience is fundamental to meeting the challenges which deprivation poses us. While our confidence and resilience to do this is sorely tested in these harsh economic times we are using the development of ‘One Tower Hamlets’ to create the vision and values which will inspire us.

At the heart of what we do are people – an obvious statement but one we often forget. One of the important elements of the 2010 Equality Act, and the public sector Equality Duty which forms part of it, is how it remind us of this.  The Act covers nine ‘protected characteristics’, sitting in the heart One Tower Hamlets above, and challenging us to think about how the interaction of all, or any of these, creates us as individuals (even when we define ourselves as not something) and, in turn, our place in wider society.

This understanding of the diversity of individuals is fundamental and therefore human rights help us improve how our services can do this. Arising from the work of the New Residents and Refugee Forum we have considered the needs of one of the most vulnerable groups in our community - people with no recourse to public funds. In recognising their human rights we strive to go beyond merely thinking about the limit of our statutory responsibilities. By working in partnership with other parts of the public sector and with community and voluntary groups we have developed guidance both for staff and those with no recourse to public funds to manage the resources available as best as possible.

Using human rights has therefore been a driver for shaping better quality joined-up services which in turn can provide greater value for money in this time of tight budgets. It is exactly this community response to individual needs and rights that will help us realise ‘One Tower Hamlets’ (together).