take a seat

To Loughborough this afternoon, to meet Patrica Stoat, Chief Executive Officer of the Faiths Forum for the East Midlands. We're meeting to discuss how to fill a vacant seat for religion and belief on the Core Reference Group of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP). Each of the Protected Characteristics and related topic areas has its own particular criteria for membership. the one for religion and belief is as follows:

An inter-faith/multi-faith organisation or body with representation from a variety of faith/belief communities and not specifically identified with (or led by) one faith community.

Represented organisations should be actively involved (or willing and able to be involved) in promoting good relations

• between different communities identified with religion or belief

• between the general community identified with religion or belief and other communities of interest regarding issues of equality, diversity and human rights,

• between the wider community identified with religion or belief and society in general.

Pat and I spend a couple of hours considering who's around in the East Midlands and who might fit the bill. While we can't simply put our finger on one organisation who meets all the criteria, we come up with a proposal for filling that one remaining space that we'll put before the Core Partners at their next meeting, early September.