REDP monthly meeting

At Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living, Upper Brown Street this morning, for the regular monthly meeting of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP). More people round the table than usual this morning. We welcome to their first meeting Liz Harrison, newly employed Equality Officer with LCIL/REDP, and Tonya Frew, recently appointed Community Development Officer at the LGBT Centre. With these new guys on board, there's a sense that the team is complete. Capitalising on this feeling, we reinstate the weekly working meetings for REDP, which will now be on Tuesday mornings.

Much of our discussion focuses on the upcoming event on the Equality Act 2010, at Walkers Stadium later this week (Thu 10). Last month, we were considering the penalties of cancelling or postponing this. Now the list is full, with over 20 people on reserve. We discuss whether we need to amend the programme in the light of Laura and I having attended the Equality and Diversity Forum event in Birmingham yesterday. Some minor adjustments are felt to be in order.

One major development that takes place today is a change in our Chair. As the project is about to enter its second year, Dee hands over to Iris from The Race Equality Centre (TREC). I'm all in favour of this. The plan is that the four Core Partners will take turns at chairing REDP. I am the baby of the group. Having been involved in this sort of work for the past three years. I defer to Dee and Iris and am conscious of still being under their tutelage in many ways. Sometime in the initial three-year life of REDP, when the time is right, I'll do it. But in this early phase, and in the increasingly difficult economic, political and social climate, it's right for someone of Iris's experience and expertise to take the helm. I'm not "kick ass" enough - not yet anyways.

The Coalition Government is in the process of virtually abolishing the regional tier of government throughout the country. Many of the bodies which have been the big players on that scene are disappearing, almost overnight. As long as our funding stays secure (and we're confident about that), then REDP may turn out to be last man standing in the East Midlands. Tthat would give us an extraordinary prominence and a much more influential role than we could have predicted.