Understanding Community Trust: Everyday Experiences and Expectations - Building Community Trust Panel Series

Cllr Concia Albert

Westminster City Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities

Concia is an author, workforce strategic advisor, coach and public service leader, serving as Westminster City Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and making history as the first Black personnel to be appointed as a Cabinet Member in Westminster Council.

Dr James Laurence

Post-doctoral research fellow at University of Manchester

Prof Ben Bradford

Professor of Global City Policing at the UCL Department of Security and Crime Science

Ben Bradford is Professor of Global City Policing at the UCL Department of Security and Crime Science. His research interests include public trust, police legitimacy, cooperation and compliance in justice settings, and social identity as a factor in all these processes; ethnic and other disparities in policing; and elements of public-facing police work such as neighbourhood patrol, community engagement and stop and search.

Prof Christopher Baker

Professor of Religion, Belief and Public Life at Goldsmiths, University of London

Christopher Baker is Professor of Religion, Belief and Public Life at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the Director of the Faiths and Civil Society Unit that is based there. He is an Associate Partner with In-Difference Consultants and a Trustee of the Ella Baker School of Organising.

Prof Louise Ryan

Senior Professor of Sociology and Director of the Global Diversities and Inequalities Research Centre at London Metropolitan University

Louise Ryan is Senior Professor of Sociology and Director of the Global Diversities and Inequalities Research Centre at London Metropolitan University. Over the last twenty five years, she has published extensively on migration including the books Gendering Migration (with Wendy Webster, 2008), Migrant Capital (with Umut Erel and Alessio D’Angelo, 2015) and Migration and Social Networks (2023). Her contribution to migration research was recognised by the award of a Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2015.

On 22 April 2026, The Dialogue Society hosted its introductory panel as part of the Building Community Trust discussion series – Understanding Community Trust.

Supported by Camden Council, The Dialogue Society hosted a thought-provoking dialogue, facilitating a prescient exchange of insights, perspectives, knowledge and expertise. The Dialogue Society brought together researchers and academics, community and faith representatives, charity leaders and grassroots workers, and institutional representatives all joined by a shared belief that British communities are capable of overcoming the challenges facing trust, connection and social cohesion in the UK.

What emerged was an insightful afternoon where attendees discussed both the challenges and the credible and effective means in which to better build community trust.

Understanding Community Trust: Everyday Experiences and Expectations – Building Community Trust

Guest Speakers and Presentations

Councillor Concia Albert – Westminster Council Cabinet Member for Communities

Concia Albert discussed the importance of effective and representative leadership in delivering genuine engagement with communities beyond symbolic inclusion and reflected on her experience in ensuring community hubs were truly shaped by residents’ voices.

Professor Christopher Baker – Professor of Religion, Belief and Public Life, Goldsmiths, University of London

Christopher Baker reflected on the innovative partnerships and transformations between faith and secular agencies that emerged in response to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as other crises and emphasised the importance of transparency, authenticity, communication and discovery of shared values.

Dr James Laurence – UCL Principal Research Fellow and Associate Professor, University College London

James Laurence explored the research on area diversity, segregation and their relationships to attitudes towards ethnic diversity. He highlighted the important factor of how residentially segregated or integrated areas are to shape attitudes and cohesion and importantly how areas of the ‘same’ level of diversity can be highly different.

Professor Ben Bradford – Professor of Global City Policing, University College London

Ben Bradford shared his research into applying the model of a minimum standard as an effective means to gauge what communities expect from institutions and service providers. Using the example of policing, he highlighted the conditions under which trust began to decline, and the expectations necessary for communities’ confidence in the police.

Professor Louise Ryan – Senior Professor of Sociology, London Metropolitan University

Louise Ryan shared her qualitative insights into the network rupture that displaced people face, and explored the key challenges that recently arrived Afghans faced in overcoming isolation and loneliness through the forging of new friendships in the UK.

Conclusion

The panel emphasised the importance of transparency, communication, genuine engagement and inclusion and the centrality of mutual collaboration and shared values as key aspects of effectively building community trust. The discussion also highlighted the necessity of socio-economic conditions that facilitated a positive cultivation of relations and trust that would overcome the discourse of division.

The Dialogue Society continues to engage in research as part of its Building Community Trust project and will explore more specific institutional relationships in the future panels of this series.