The next Welsh Government will come to office at a time of growing concern about division and polarisation in communities in Wales and across the UK. Strengthening social cohesion in this context will require coordinated action to tackle inequalities, (re)build trust in institutions, and support the local infrastructure that underpins positive connection within and between communities, whilst working within a devolution settlement where some key levers affecting cohesion remain reserved to the UK Government.
What does this mean for Wales?
In the past three years, Wales has experienced at least four major incidents that have affected social cohesion, ranging from anti-immigrant protests and riots to social media attacks against organisations supporting asylum seekers and refugees. These incidents have taken place within a wider context of increasing tensions and social polarisation across communities in the UK, with the killing of three young girls in Southport in 2024 triggering the most severe period of civil unrest seen across the UK in decades, fuelled by misinformation and rising anti-immigrant sentiment.
Against this backdrop, the Welsh Government Equality and Social Justice (ESJ) Committee launched an inquiry into social cohesion at the end of 2024. Stressing an urgent need for policy action by the Welsh Government and other stakeholders, the Committee’s final report recommended the establishment of an independently chaired Expert Group on Social Cohesion (EGSC) to develop short-, medium- and long-term actions ahead of the Senedd election in May 2026. The Welsh Government asked the Wales Centre for Public Policy to provide the Expert Group with evidence to help the Group identify these actions.
Given the compressed timescale of the EGSC, we reviewed the academic literature submitted to the ESJ’s inquiry, alongside evidence provided through a call for evidence for submissions from the EGSC’s members. This was supplemented by a review on existing evidence syntheses of interventions to promote social exclusion.
Our work to synthesise this evidence focused on identifying interventions to promote and strengthen social cohesion, and on translating these findings for the Welsh policy context, responding to the following research questions:
- What policy and practice interventions are effective in promoting and strengthening social cohesion?
- What potential policy actions for Wales are indicated in the evidence on social cohesion interventions?
It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it
Our evidence synthesis revealed that many interventions improved one or more aspects of social cohesion, but the wide variation in measures, intervention types and their varied effectiveness across contexts make it challenging to compare approaches or draw conclusions on which approaches are most effective. The mixed outcomes seen as a result of some interventions also suggest that intervention type – the what – may be less important than how an intervention is developed and implemented – the how. Despite the difficulty in drawing robust conclusions from the evidence, we can highlight a number of areas worth considering to determine possible policy actions for Wales.
- Intervene early in the life course. The evidence clearly articulates the value of intervening early in the life course to strengthen social cohesion, largely as children and adolescents are still forming their attitudes. Additionally, the impact of interventions may have a more lasting impact.
- Develop universal interventions. In contrast to targeted interventions, universal inventions can help to reach less interested groups who are not as likely to voluntarily engage. Universal interventions could include work-place based education and awareness raising.
- Incorporate elements of coproduction and codesign. Evidence suggests that engaging community members in the design and implementation of interventions can create benefits for community members and increase institutional trust. However, ensuring that the needs and engagement of a diverse range of community members, including those that are vulnerable, is essential.
- Consider strengthening volunteering. Volunteering can have a mutually reinforcing relationship with social cohesion, meaning volunteering promotes social cohesion and social cohesion promotes volunteering. To ensure this is the case, policy strategies will need to explicitly address this connection and ensure the positive effects of volunteering is experience both within and between groups.
- Invest in community infrastructure. Longer term funding and inclusive engagement will support the building and maintaining of community infrastructure. One study highlights the need for conducting a wellbeing inequality impact assessment to mitigate against unequal or negative impacts of place and space interventions.
- Expand investment in coordinated strategic local action. Investment in these strategies are found to strengthen cohesion at a local level, and performance contracting with social cohesion targets could be utilised by policymakers to improve social cohesion at a local level.
- Strengthen the evidence base for interventions to strengthen social cohesion. Various studies highlight the importance of strengthening the evidence base. Developing standardised and validated measures and incorporating longitudinal and experimental designs would support evaluation, larger scale analysis and allow causality to be established.
Webinar: Evidence and insights for strengthening community cohesion in Wales
On 25th March, we presented an overview of our findings at our webinar, along with insights from expert panellists on the role that the next Welsh Government can play in supporting and enabling community cohesion efforts. Our expert panel explored:
- What the biggest emerging threats to community cohesion in Wales are over the next five years - and how can the next Welsh Government act to address them;
- How the Welsh Government can better support place-based and community-led approaches to strengthen cohesion; and
- How trust can be (re)built in contexts of division or low confidence in institutions - and what role the Welsh Government and local action should play.
Our full report will be published in the summer.
