Employers in the East and South of Lincolnshire require new workers for the food and associated farming industries. The demand for labour in our County is increasingly being met by people who migrate from their country of origin to settle either temporarily or longer-term where there is work. Boston, South Holland and Grantham in particular now have a high proportion of people, who receive collective description as 'New Arrival Communities', (NAC).

Many of these migrant workers currently have no access to Health, Social Services, or to basic information about how society functions. Endless media reports define the problems NAC and local residents experience and increasingly greater numbers of people within our community are experiencing social & economic isolation. Misunderstanding between local people and NAC is commonplace. Many Workers are being economically exploited, with social tensions rising and increasingly further dividing the community.

The statutory, private, faith, voluntary and community sectors have researched and defined the problems they experience, and whilst there are some excellent examples of joined-up working for the delivery of services, in the main the sectors do not consistently work in collaboration or share resources, information and good-practice to meet the huge demands placed upon them.

Generalist and Specialist VCS & Faith organisations all seek to develop new services to meet the local needs of NAC. Regional BME infrastructure is sparse and fragmented at this point in time with little capacity to support the development of the rapidly emerging BME sector in Lincolnshire.

The good will and desire to work together between sectors exist. There is, however, no recognised vehicle for doing so, with no history or experience in Lincolnshire upon which to begin building the needed co-operation between organisations to address the challenges faced across all sectors, especially the voluntary sector BME infrastructure.

At an early stage in voluntary sector development it became evident that the expertise and capacity to deliver new BME services already exists in the County and another specialist service delivery organisation should not be formed to replicate or work competitively with the voluntary sector. What was identified as 'much needed' was a formal forum for joining-up organisations to provide infrastructure support and attract national funding. This forum would provide the supporting infrastructure to develop the BME voluntary sector and work in tandem with other statutory/private BME sector development.

Integration Lincolnshire (IL) was formed to provide a formal BME voluntary sector infrastructure support vehicle and be a focal point for cross-sector co-operation between organisations. It was incorporated in April 2005 following lengthy cross-sector meetings to discuss how best to begin working co-operatively to attract the necessary funding to deliver the range of services needed by people who have recently arrived in the County.

It is a company limited by guarantee and a co-operative consortium. The Members of IL are people who represent the interest of their employers and are currently delivering a service to the community of interest, or wish to develop a new service for NAC. The Members are represented by a Board of Directors that is elected from and by the Membership. Members need not necessarily be Directors. The Directors personal liability is limited to the sum of £1.

Participation of Front Line Delivery Organisations

IL is a non-campaigning organisation acting as a facilitator for a network of service providers. It will not deliver services directly to new arrivals. Instead, it will provide a formal collective of organisations and infrastructure that will demonstrate to funding bodies a united approach to BME service delivery. Cohesive bids are more successful than individual or fragmented bids. Member organisations will work co-operatively to build proposals for funding applications and these will be submitted through IL. Successful bids will be used by VCS & Faith Members that planned the service. The strength and advantage of bidding through IL is the ability to demonstrate the cohesion of a range of service provision.

Statutory Sector Members receive three main benefits:

1. An opportunity to build working relationships with VCS Members and develop contractual relationships for new services.
2. The ability to demonstrate unity of support for new proposals from the statutory sector to attract funding into Lincolnshire to meet the needs of NAC.
3. The opportunity to share vision and gain support from the BME sector and utilise the existing infrastructure to enhance service provision.

Private Sector Members receive two main benefits:

1. An opportunity to gain an understanding of what support and services are currently available from both the statutory and VCS sectors for employees.
2. A forum to raise issues that negatively affect employees that should be addressed through external funding.

IL's unique role is to support its members in applications for funds to develop sustainable infrastructure projects that meet with the approval of the Board. This role will not impinge on the service provider's authority, remit or control in respect of how their organisations function. The role is intended to operate in a complementary way to the service provider's independent and individual activities to source their own funds for those activities they perceive as falling within their remit.

MISSION

Integration Lincolnshire is a vehicle for co-operation between agencies to promote the delivery of integrated services supporting diverse cultures within communities across Lincolnshire.

VISION

Integration Lincolnshire works toward establishing integrated communities in which social and economic development is enhanced by ethnic diversity.

STRATEGIC AIMS

The strategic aims of the organisation are to:

1. develop an intra-organisational infrastructure to facilitate joined up working of cross-sector organisations who share IL's vision for the county.

2. provide a vehicle for its members to work co-operatively to plan services and bid for funding collectively to achieve maximum cohesion of provision through one strategic vision.

3. demonstrate unity to grant making trusts to attract sustainable funding for new projects supporting community cohesion.

4. support new models of social enterprise to drive up the quality and extend the reach of services to the community.

5. link with, and develop new co-operative networks with, BME infrastructure organisations at County, Regional and National level.

OPERATIONAL OBJECTIVES

Early formal and informal research identified some areas of critical unmet need.

Six priorities were agreed by the members to focus upon for developing new services. The priorities form the basis for funding applications in the current year (2006-07). They are:

• Housing (advice, provision, support)
• Banking (advice)
• Advocacy (accompanying people into services, not signposting to services).
• Translations/Interpretation
• Children's Services - Support for primary schools & childcare.
• A building to provide a central focus for services.