LEICESTERSHIRE PARTNERSHIP NHS TRUST

At the Towers, Gypsy Lane, for a meeting with Abida Hussain, Equality & Human Rights Officer, Integrated Equality Service of Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust.

This morning, Abida and I heave a collective sigh of relief as we see final proofs for the Multi-Faith Staff Resource and give the go-ahead for printing. This has been a much more difficult and sensitive project than either of us reckoned with, when we started on it, about a year ago. Although it has given both of us sleepless nights, I hope that by this stage, it has helped give Leicester Council of Faiths as an organisation (and me as an individual) a name for dogged determination in pushing through a project such as this, despite unexpected obstacles.

We finalise a short programme of training and induction to be held for staff on the purpose and use of this resource. These will be lunchtime meetings (1230-1330) held at:

• Brandon Unit, Leicester General (Tuesday 22 November)
• Mansion House, Glenfield Hospital (Wednesday 23 November)
• Daisy Peake Building, Towers (Thursday 24 November)

The Trust will count these as contributions toward Inter Faith Week. I've submitted details to the online listing of Inter Faith Week events on the Inter Faith Network UK website. While they'll be listed publically, they'll be described as closed events, by invitation only.

We also go into more detail regarding the Interfaith Forum for staff that we'll be trailing at the same time as we do induction for the Multi-Faith Staff Resource. This group will be established in context with existing staff support bodies that Leicester Partnership NHS Trust is seeking to revive at the moment:

• Black and Minority Ethnic staff support group run in association with The Race Equality Centre (TREC)
• Carer staff support group, run in association with CLASP (The Carers Trust)
• Disabled staff support group, run in association with Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL)
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender staff support group, run in association with the LGBT Centre

We talk about how we can start our Interfaith Forum at the turn of the year, develop it over the next few months, then launch it officially in April 2012. This raises the prospect that we'll be doing some paid work for Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust after our current contract ends in May next year.

Abida and I will be meeting with Sally Martin, head of the Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Department, at the end of this week to move ahead with our plans. I need to work up some notes for the induction meetings before then.