COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOCIAL AND COMMUNITY SPC

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

HEADED ITEM NO. 2

 

Development of Integration Strategy

The development of a new draft five year Integration Strategy for South Dublin County has been significantly progressed through the following actions being undertaken by the Council's Social Inclusion unit in co-operation with South Dublin County Partnership:

• There was a comprehensive review of the actions identified under the Council's previous Integration Strategy was undertaken to determine where there was successful delivery of actions, and also to examine what actions were not delivered and the reasons for non-delivery. This review has informed the development and direction of proposed actions for the new Strategy.
• The National Migrant Integration Strategy and a discussion document produced by the Immigrant Council of Ireland ‘Keeping it Local: Discussion document and proposed actions for Local Authorities on developing local migrant integration strategies’ have both significantly informed the new draft Strategy as well as providing guidance in determining possible actions for inclusion;
• South Dublin County Partnership developed a questionnaire to gather feedback from key stakeholders in this area - the questionnaire was published on www.sdcc.ie and was also distributed to South Dublin Migrant Integration Forum, local Elected Representatives, the Local Community Development Committee, the Public Participation Network and others to ensure as wide a response as possible;
• Direct consultation was undertaken with South Dublin Migrant Integration Forum to gather their input on the proposed actions for the draft Strategy;
• Internal consultation across relevant sections and departments of the Council has also been undertaken to identify possible actions to support migrant integration in the various work streams of the Council.

The rearsch, consultation and analysis outlined above has now resulted in the identification of four key themes for the new strategy:

• Inclusive Communities
• Lifelong Learning
• Enterprise and Employment
• Health and Wellbeing 

In addition, a cross-cutting Inclusive Service Delivery theme is also proposed for the new Strategy.

A range of proposed actions have been identified under each of these themes, identifying the key deliverables and key partners for each action and further work is now being carried out to determine relevant local, national and international indicators.

The next steps in the development of the draft Strategy are:

• Proposed actions will be circulated to the Members of the Social & Community Strategic Policy Committee and to the Council's Senior Management Team for consideration;
• The draft Strategy will be finalised and circulated to the Members of the Social & Community Strategic Policy Committee in advance of the next meeting of the Committee with a view to finalising and recommending the final draft Strategy at the next meeting of the SPC.
• The draft Strategy will then be presented to full Council for adoption.