REDP (not very far) away day

We're having an "away day" for the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP). Not very far away though. It's a sign of these austerity times that we've only gone as far as upstairs in the third floor training room at Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL). this is the second time this week that I've been involved in an "away day" that's gone no further than upstairs (the other one was with the Management Committee at Network for Change on Tuesday).

We're 18 months into our project at REDP, halfway through our period of guaranteed funding. Time to take stock of what we've achieved so far, what's still to be done - and what future we see for the partnership and our places in it beyond the end of funding in June 2012.

The away day is facilitated by Bob Clarke, who drafted the original business plan that helped us win the bid and who conducted an evaluation of the project at the end of its first year. I like Bob. Bob is cool.

We start off with just the four Core Partners of REDP:

• Leicester Council of Faiths - represented by me;
• Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Centre - represented by their Director, Ian Robson;
• Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living - represented by their CEO, Dee Martin;
• The Race Equality Centre (TREC) - represented by their CEO, Iris Lightfoote.

We consider the original aim of the project and discuss to what extent this has been achieved:

To establish an effective regional equality and diversity partnership that can provide a voice for voluntary sector organisations on equality issues and ensure that national and regional information relating to equality issues is cascaded through infrastructure organisations to frontline bodies. Our overall aim is to provide a mechanism by which equality is embedded in regional thinking.

We carry out a similar exercise for the objectives originally agreed for the project:

• To ensure the partnership becomes the hub of influence in the region for infrastructure organisations.
• To develop links into the network of strategic government departments and agencies working on equality and diversity issues.
• To help East Midlands organisations which are working on the recognised equality strands tap into the wider networks promoting and challenging equality and diversity policies and practices across the region.

We're well aware that the environment has changed, quickly and radically, since these aims were agreed upon. Spatial strategy in governance has been virtually eliminated, which removes much of the regional dimension from planning and implementation. many, if not most, of the bodies that seemed fixed parts of the landscape when we got underway have been abolished or are living from day to day. the current Home Secretary has disavowed the whole business of equality "strands". Despite all that, we have no doubts that the principles on which REDP is founded and which it promotes in all its work are sound and solid. We stand firm and together in upholding these.

After the Core Partners have gone through these tasks for almost two hours, we're joined by Laura Horton (REDP Project Manager) to discuss some of the practical aspects of our work.

At lunchtime, we're joined by members of the the wider REDP team, bringing in more people from the four Core Partners. We've grown from four (plus Bob) when we started in the morning to ten (plus Bob) now. I'm pleased that Tony Nelson, Vice Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths (and a member of my management group from day one) is able to be here too.

We spend the next few hours largely going over the same issues and questions that we addressed this morning, but this time with a bigger number of participants and differing input.

Two practical decisions from today: we're going to have another "away day" (facilitated by Bob) within the next couple of weeks, just for the members of the Working Group; we're going to arrange for a presentation about REDP to be given to the boards of the four Core Partners (delivered by their own respective member involved and A.N. Other),
We read three papers in particular from central government in preparation for today. Here are the links, so you can follow them up yourself if you feel so inclined, faithful reader:

Decentralisation and the Localism Bill: an essential guide (published 13 Dec 2010 by HM Governement)
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/1793908.pdf

The Equality Strategy: Building a Fairer Britain (published Dec 2010 by HM Government)
http://www.equalities.gov.uk/pdf/GEO%20Equality%20Strategy%20tagged%20version.pdf

Building a Big Society (published Mar 2010 by the Conseervative Party)
http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2010/03/~/media/Files/Downloadable%20Files/Building-a-Big-Society.ashx