Spirit of partnership
We work to exceed expectations. We operate in a spirit of partnership with clients, combining our knowledge and skills with theirs with the optimum professionalism to achieve the agreed goals. We commit to do whatever it takes to get the job done and expect to be judged by the value of our results.
Education, health, social & well being
ACBC education, health, social and well being objectives:
- To help motivate, empower, and inspire disengaged and unrepresented BME individuals and communities to become active citizens and agents for change to realise life benefits for all.
- To demonstrate the strategic importance of BME communities’ participation and importance in UK decision making structures and activities
- To help ensure that the Government, children, young people and family education and social strategies recognise and act on the position of BME individuals and propose to deliver targeted interventions.
- To ensure respect for all vulnerable BME individuals in the UK, regardless of their citizenship status, in recognition of their Human Rights.
- To contribute to working in partnership to ensure world class commissioning in the health sector can meet the needs of BME groups.
- To contribute to working in partnership to ensure the Ministry of Justice and Department of Health improve the mental wellbeing of BME offenders in criminal institutions.
"Social inclusion and justice is dependent on Economic Inclusion and Economic Justice", Equanomics UK
Educational, health, social and well being disparities for BME individuals in the UK
Around two fifths of people from BME communities live in low income households, twice the rate for white people. Four million children in the UK live in poverty, 56% BME children. (CRE report, 2007, A lot done, a lot still to do).
Black African and Bangladeshi people are more overcrowded in social sector housing than in any other tenures. Currently, people from BME backgrounds are three times more likely to end up homeless than their white counterparts. BME Housing Associations, once a prime example of social enterprise in BME communities have now nearly been wiped out by takeovers or excessive regulations.
There are staggering differentials in BME groups by ethnicity in health outcomes; these are detailed in the AFIYA Trust Manifesto. This is particularly worrying because of the life threatening nature in disparities of coronary heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
Prevalence of suffering a stroke in African Caribbean and South Asian men is 70% higher than the average. Black men and women have a higher risk of cancers of the stomach and liver, and Black men have a higher risk of prostate cancer and are more likely to die younger (NCIN 2009).
Black Mental Health has also detailed disparities in mental health prevention and care. It is estimated that the cost of over-representation of BME people in psychiatric hospitals could be up to £100 million in London alone (Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health 2006).
In 2006, one in five of individuals sentenced to custody were from a BME group, with 72% of BME male and 70% of BME female prisoners suffering from two or more mental health disorders. Whilst 1.3 per 1000 of White British Citizens is in prison, a staggering 6.8 per 1000 African Caribbean Citizens are imprisoned.
BME communities are seven times more likely to be subjected to Police stop and search activity, the highest group searched was Black individuals at 13%. Black communities are 3.8% more likely to be arrested and only 16% cautioned compared to 24% of White citizens.
The Runnymede Trust reported that Black Caribbean boys remain three times more likely to be permanently excluded from school and twice as likely to experience fixed-term exclusion. These figures vary from area to area; with some areas with Black boys are six times more likely to experience permanent exclusion.