The Race Equality Assembly was held this weekend at Ellesmere Children’s Centre, highlighting a “pattern of failure” in Sheffield City Council.

“There are people within the community who have seen the same pattern decade after decade, the same pattern of failure and the pretence of inclusion.”

This is the damning conclusion of city businessman, and former chair of the Burngreave New Deal for Communities, Ronnie Lewin, after a community event was held in Sheffield to tackle a perceived lack of action on racism.

This came as a result of a 2022 report from the Sheffield Race Equality Commission (REC), which highlighted a number of key recommendations the council could take to improve the lives of the local community, including empowerment for under-represented ethnic communities.

However, nearly four years after the findings were published, there is a belief that there has been very little meaningful change from the Council.

Mr Lewin said: “There are a lot of people who feel that the process is very tokenistic. It is not inclusive, despite claims otherwise.”

The way forward, he believes, involves accountability from those in charge.

“You must have named accountable people, you have to have a budget, and you have to have inclusion reflective of the city to make sure that whoever is putting the strategy together is being held to account at key milestones.”

Building on this, Lee Jasper, co-founder of Operation Black Vote and a key speaker at the event, said: “By the council’s own admission, from their own evaluation, they have not been able to implement all the recommendations.

“Given that there is a local election in May, this is the perfect time for the local community to come together, to see what has been delivered, what hasn’t been delivered.”

The assembly aimed to tackle key areas which they felt had not been properly addressed so far by the council, such as health inequalities, policing and economic inclusion.

When talking about the Council’s response, Mr Jasper said: “The danger is that it can become performative.

“The Council is missing an opportunity to co-produce a strategy with the community, which has a lot of knowledge, experience and wisdom, and if they only tapped into that in a co-productive fashion, then they could enhance their performance.”

Moussa Sylla, a community engagement practitioner with Community Organisers who was also involved in the Assembly, said: “We want to enable people from the community to create a space where they can come up with solutions, which are from and within the community. And that was the first step.

“As a result of last Saturday’s meeting, I think we have achieved that purpose. There was a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of people feeling that something new was happening, and this is what we are looking for, to create a space of new hope.”

Sheffield Wire have contacted the City Council for comment.