Our Lives Research - Partner Responses

1. Review interpreting services and recruit more interpreters.
2. Ensure training for people in care roles incorporates different cultural needs.
3. Recruit more carers from BAME backgrounds.
4. Acknowledge alternative perspectives on mental health.
5. Ensure service providers are trained to understand the impacts of trauma on our refugee communities.
6. Meet the cultural needs of ethnic minority patients. 
7. Provide places of worship with more resources and support.
8. Provide culturally sensitive activities in daycare centres.
9. Provide face-to-face opportunities to address the digital skills gap.
10. Improve IT training, including in a variety of languages.
11. Provide venues where BAME communities can access the internet and IT equipment.
12. Investigate avenues of financial support.
13. Sign up to schemes that embrace equal opportunities in employment.
14. Boost employment skills and opportunities.
15. Investigate partnerships to support refugees wishing to engage in entrepreneurship.
16. Ensure ESOL classes are tailored to learners’ needs.
17. Celebrate diverse cultures.
18. Ensure schools showcase the rich ethnic and racial diversity.
19. Ensure greater diversity of the workforce.
20. Consider the safety of BAME families when offering housing.
21. Ensure transparency about criteria used to allocate resources to BAME groups.
22. Ensure access to BAME communities which are poorly represented in this research.
23. Invest resources in childcare to allow Congolese women to participate in training.
24. Consider Syrian women for opportunities in the voluntary sector.
25. Support Syrian women to report discrimination.
26. Educate communities about diverse cultures and practices.
27. Set up a support service staffed by those with appropriate cultural awareness.
28. Invest in training to help improve interpersonal skills and empower women.
29. Set up an organisation for women from the Indian sub-continent.
30. Ensure services are responsive to the needs of the individual.
31. Improve language skills of Syrian refugee adults.
32. Celebrate the rich diversity of cultures in schools.

"Community planning partners endorsed the findings of the research… there is more that partners and public sector agencies need to do, and we cannot be complacent or defensive in our approach." - North Lanarkshire Partnership Strategic Leadership Board, February 2023