KELMARSH HALL AND GARDENS

Sunday: a day off. A day out to Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire to see the house and gardens. The house is closed for a private function (a colourful and joyous Indian wedding) but the gardens beckon. Small talk with two charming, pleasant and helpful ladies volunteering on the admission desk reveals them to be medical professionals in their day jobs: Wendi, a Cardiac Physiologist based in Warwick and Corinne, who introduces herself as a recently qualified paramedic. Of course I have to ask if she works for EMAS (East Midlands Ambulance Service). When she says that she does, I tell her about some of the work I've been involved in with EMAS over the years I've been working for Leicester Council of Faiths - in particular the Community Engagement Event in Leicester hardly ten days ago. I give her my card and encourage her to read the blog. Sunday: a day off at last.

Students and teachers of Caring Professions

A meeting at Leicester College (Abbey Park Campus) this morning, with Jen Monk and Angie Botrill: Trainer/Assessor and Workplace Administrator respectively for the college's Caring Professions courses.

I met Jen and Angie at last week's Community Engagement Event run by East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS). I was pleasantly surprised when Jen phoned me at the Welcome Centre last Friday afternoon and asked if we could meet today and talk about ways in which Leicester Council of Faiths might be able to assist them and their students.

Students on these Caring Professions courses have to complete a placement of 30 hours in an appropriate care or support setting. Leicester College is trying to look beyond the obvious and find a greater variety of placements. We're being asked to help open the door wider in the sense of helping the college obtain greater access to local care and support facilities owned or operated by businesses, charities or organisations with a particular faith identity, or which are specially focused on service users from within particular faith communities. This sounds like something we can do. I also hope that, through our onw networks of contacts, we can help Jan and Angie access other groups in the city dedicated to working with groups, families and individuals who might identify with other Protected Characteristics.

EAST MIDLANDS AMBULANCE SERVICE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: 1

To Nottingham this morning, to take part in a Community Engagment Strategy Working Group with East Midlands Ambulance Service. I'm here with Laura Horton, Project Manager of REDP. This is the first piece of work we've done together since the last of REDP's Involvement Events; that was only three weeks ago, but it was such an intensive period that, now it's all over, it feels like it was ages ago! We had a lot of support from EMAS for those events. Two members of EMAS's Community Relations Team - Gulnaz Katchi and Mick Rimmington - took it in turns to attend, so that we had one or the other at each and every one of those meetings across the region.

We're at EMAS's Nottinghamshire Divisional HQ, in Beechdale Road. There are 30-odd people in a fairly small room, mostly people working or volunteering for EMAS around the region. There's a lot of brainstorming and small group work around our tables, in which people are honest and open about how much they know and don't know concering the communities they serve and issues of equality and diversity that can affect their service. This would appear to be early steps on a long road!