Edinburgh can’t take ‘colour blind’ approach to services – Robert Aldridge

As the world rightly reacts in horror to the killing of George Floyd in the USA, there is a temptation to sit back and think nothing like that could happen here. Of course in the UK we do not have the level of racist aggression displayed in parts of the USA. And of course our police have a very different approach including a sophisticated level of racial awareness and a determination to root out all hate crimes.

However, the recent special report by Edinburgh’s Poverty Commission, which looked at the impact of Covid-19 on poverty in the city, drew attention to a range of people contacting services who were not usually in touch with them. These included people from the so-called BAME communities.

We have also seen the publication by Public Health England of its inquiry into why people from the BAME communities are affected far worse by Covid-19 than the white majority. It came up with few answers and no clear recommendations.

Both of these show the deficiencies of the ‘colour blind’ approach we have generally adopted both locally and nationally. We don’t have a clear understanding of the needs and expectations (cultural, social and economic) of significant numbers of our citizens.

Many of our mainstream community services are not well used by people from the BAME communities. Don’t get me wrong. I do not believe anyone consciously seeks to exclude any of our citizens. But perhaps we should make more effort to ensure services are jointly designed to ensure unintended barriers are not created.

Councils, as government at local level, have shown how vital they are in responding to the Covid crisis. While national governments have provided regulations, laws and guidelines, councils have co-ordinated a sophisticated and flexible local response. They have done what government at local level should: ensuring essential services are delivered, co-ordinating the input of the fantastic work of volunteers and the voluntary sector, working with other partners to maximise the effectiveness of limited resources.

Staff have done a superb job, whether keeping social services or bin collections going or simply being flexible and adaptable. If the council wasn’t there, we would need to create it. But what it also does when working at its best to identify gaps in knowledge and service provision and respond quickly to them, bringing together all the right people and organisations.

As we begin to emerge from lockdown, Edinburgh faces levels of unemployment it has not known for decades. Tackling that effectively will require using the talents and skills of every citizen, whether in the private, voluntary or statutory sector, and from all communities.

Edinburgh is a wonderful outward-looking international capital city which genuinely celebrates diversity (especially in its usual festival season). In shaping the post-Covid Edinburgh, many things will be a bit different. It is really important that we hear the voices, concerns and interests of all citizens including BAME residents to ensure Edinburgh is a city for all and that no-one is excluded or left behind.

So let’s take care to make sure we don’t just assume our services are open to all and that we take active steps to ensure they are designed to guarantee that they include the needs and interests of BAME citizens.

If anything positive is to emerge from the twin horrors of Covid-19 and George Floyd’s death, let’s make sure in Edinburgh it is a determination to ensure we listen and respond to the needs of our BAME citizens and ensure that at least in Edinburgh black lives really do matter.

Cllr Robert Aldridge is the Lib Dem group leader at Edinburgh City Council

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