Ethnic Minorities

Baroness Hollins Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hollins (CB)]

My Lords, there is hardly a major religious community in the UK that does not embrace some kind of ethnic or racial diversity in its heart, and there are no ethnic minorities that have not given us one or all of doctors or academics, entrepreneurs or councillors, lawyers or soldiers, diplomats, nurses or volunteers. I want here to celebrate their contribution to health and social care, to comment on the diversity and contribution of the Catholic community and to bring to the House’s attention a new awards scheme for young people in faith communities with which I am associated.

The NHS is in many ways the most British of institutions, but it is also one of the most diverse and global institutions rooted in British soil. In 2004, Mary Seacole was voted the greatest black Briton for her work in caring for soldiers during the Crimean War. Less recognised were the Irish Sisters who joined Florence Nightingale’s team as nurses, so enabling another pioneer of British healthcare to take her first groundbreaking steps. The noble Lord, Lord Suri, referred to the high proportion of NHS staff from ethnic minorities. I would add that in one recent survey 11% of all NHS staff were recorded as being nationals of a country other than Britain. The British Medical Association, of which I am a past president, believes that without that distinctive contribution, especially from Commonwealth countries, the health service would struggle. So in its origins and in its present reality, our healthcare system is one part of our national life into which minority communities have been truly welcomed and in which they have thrived and contributed out of all proportion to their number in our wider society.

The British Catholic community has had to explore and manage the interface between ethnicity and religious belonging in communities across the country perhaps more than most. Grounded in mass Irish immigration, the community’s numbers rose in the 19th and 20th centuries. The history of our great cities and social reform movements cannot be written without recognising its huge contribution to social welfare and city leadership.

These new Irish arrivals often built schools before churches and founded charities to relieve need, irrespective of their recipients’ religious background. Many of today’s charities, described by the noble Lord, Lord Touhig, are fruits of that tradition. There is hardly a department of state that is not working in some way, every day, with an institution or charity of the Catholic community. Today, that community is even more diverse, including the Filipino nurses gathered at Mass while resting from their service in the NHS, and the busy Polish congregations which act as mini labour exchanges for those seeking work.

In many parts of the UK, it is a mainstream experience to find local Catholic churches whose origins and ethnicities include those of over 80 nationalities. In Southampton, the church launched a groundbreaking welcome project for migrants, co-funded by the local authority and widely respected as an adviser to other agencies across the central south, and there are many other examples.

Last week, in Leicester Square, I had the honour of hosting the first ever national Celebrating Young People awards, which recognise the contribution of young people associated with our Catholic communities, from all faiths and none. I was delighted that Cardinal Nichols was able to join us to recognise and reward the overall winner with the Pope Francis award. The awards, created by the charity Million Minutes, had invited nominations and applications from across the country of young people who have contributed to building up their local communities. From hundreds of applications, the category winners were as diverse as our nation. They included a young woman in remission from leukaemia from Leicester who had become a campaigner for bone marrow donors, a psychiatric nurse from south Wales volunteering with young people at risk, and a pioneer of anti-homophobic bullying education. I was especially pleased that among the winners were those of south Asian and African heritage and those from a variety of religious traditions other than Christianity. Welcoming the young people to tea here in the House before the ceremony, one could only admire the young Muslim students who were fasting for Ramadan on the hottest day in decades. Their work to build common community bonds, one in a Catholic school, the other at Exeter University, was even more admirable.

In the coming year, these awards will be launched on a bigger scale thanks to a strategic partnership between St Mary’s University in Twickenham and Million Minutes made possible by the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s innovation fund. I am sure that the organisers would welcome interest and support from the Minister and her officials at the DCLG. Our hope is that together we can develop a shared civic life in which all—especially the most vulnerable among us—may flourish. Young people, such as those recognised by the Celebrating Young People awards, must be at the core of that task.