equality bill non-statutory guidance consultation

To Nottingham (again!) for this consultation on the Non Statutory Guidance that will accompany the Equality Bill. The meeting is hosted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, at the Nottingham Hilton Hotel (photo above). A good event in a nice venue with warm and courteous staff, good range of food at lunchtime with decent vegetarian, vegan and halal options.

I'm here representing REDP, but also on behalf of Leicester Council of Faiths - my badge has both on it. Also on hand from REDP is core partner Ian (from the LGBT Centre) and staffer Kelly. There are two delegates from Leicester City Council and I spot at least two people who attended our Involvement Event in Derby yesterday and one from the Retford event last week. On my table is one person whom I first met at our Involvement Event in Leasingham.

Today we're looking at this guidance, seeing if it's fit for purpose, helping get the language right. It's not the time to look at the Equality Bill itself, but to concentrate on the Non Statutory Guidance. There will be changes in gthe Bill as it proceeds toward being signed into law; the final version of the Non Statutory Guidance will reflect that.

The Codes of Practice that go with the Bill are legal documents. They take a ling time to prepare beacuse they have to be legally watertight and they have to take into account the case law that has built up in relevant areas. Non Statutory Guidance is a bit quicker in the making. They mirror the Codes of Practice, but are more in the nature of being practical "how to" guides, aspiring to be simple and easy to follow, user-focused and tailored to their identified audience. They will inform employers, businesses, service providers, clubs and associations of all kinds what they can and can't do, how they should and should not behave toward individuals and groups. Non Statutory Guidance will advise us how we should expect to be treated as individuals an/or as members of groups in society. NSG is written for people who are not HR specialists or legal experts, often working in (or receiving services from) smaller organisations. The NSG has to reflect the language, needs and aspiration of those whom it directly affects. Two versions of the documents are being produced, in print and online: one for service providers and the like, the other for recipients of the services etc. It will also provide examples of good practice and will incorporate a short, straightforward "What's New" guide that will be helpful to newcomers as well as those already familiar with equality legislation.

The four people round our table are asked to consider two scenarios: the first, in the morning, has to do with making reasonable adjustments in order to make public buildings accessible to as wide a variety of users as possible; in the afternoon, we look at the theory and practice of Positive Action as included in the new Bill.

Interesting article in today's Guardian: "Voluntary sector is key to a 'good society' says Etherington". Stuart Etherington is Chief Executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). His article can be read at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2010/feb/17/future-voluntary-sector-role

REDP involvement event: Derby

To Derby, for the sixth in the series of "Involvement Events" hosted across the East Midlands by the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership. Dee (from LCIL) drives Taherah (from TREC) and me through from Leicester. We leave just after eight and would have got there in double-quick time if Dee's sat nav hadn't thrown her off when we arrive in Derby city centre by telling her to take the third turning off a roundabout that doesn't appear to be there.

Today's venue, The Spot, is very "clubby". There's no natural light, the air conditioning is noisy and the place is festooned with posters for appearances by the "UK's number 1 tribute act!" (self-proclaimed, methinks) for a variety of turns: Calvin Stardust, Mylie Minogue, Rake That (I might have made those names up, but you get the picture). A great night's entertainment plus a three-course meal for only £22.95. Well, at least the venue is central and should be easy to find, but the whole place is fraught with roadworks and the venue itself appears to be in the middle of a building site, like an unfinished Spanish resort hotel. The sound of drilling outside occasionally intrudes on our presentations and discussions.

We have 10 attendees from the Voluntary and Community Sector when we get underway, a few minutes late to accomodate those delayed by the roadworks. I'm chairing the morning session. Dee's presenting the Beginner's Guide to REDP and Ian (from the LGBT Centre) is operating the slides. His is the hardest job in the first session, as Dee does a fair bit of extemporising. She has much more historical knowledge related to this project (particularly knowledge about a number of  failed attempts to do something similar across the region in the past); well, she just has much more knowledge about this, full stop. She's the best known of all of us who make up the core partners of REDP; she can speak with authority and experience, but not necessarilly to the running order of the slides!

I haven't said much about the workshops that form such an important part of the progrmme at these events. We've been using this "world cafe" model for workshops at these events, where participants are invited to write or draw on the paper covers we put on the tables they sit around. If you've ever taken part in a workshop where you've felt that your views aren't being recorded (and felt that means your contribution has not been respected) then the world cafe approach is an antidote to that. You get the chance to write down your own thoughts and feelings there and then. There's an REDP staffer sitting in on the discussions on each table as scribe too, so hopefully, just about everything gets recorded. These paper table cloths and notes are being compiled into one set of notes, for sending out to all those who have participated in these Involvement Events once they're over. All very good and well, but then, there's the pens ... we started using some alcohol-based pens, in a variety of bold colours, but we got complaints about their intoxicating properties when working with them so close up for the hour or so that these workshops take. At our event in Loughborough, Laura nipped out to buy some non-intoxicating pens, but these older ones refuse to die, and keep turning up, no matter that we think we've chucked them away!

The questions to be considered by each of the workshops are:

"What should REDP look like and what model best fits the needs?"


"How do you ensure engagement of all organisations?"

"What are the natural organisations that could sit on the core reference group to not only represent your views but also work in partnership?"

"What do you think are the key issues that should be considered at a regional level for your area?"

Mind you, we all know what Alexei Sayle said about anyone who uses the word "workshop" who isn't connected with light engineering, don't we?

We have the services of two palantypists today, who keep a full record of the day's proceedings, although the person for whom we'd booked them doesn't appear at the meeting. Gill Croft's website is http://www.gillcroftpalantype.co.uk/; Georgina Ford can be contacted on ginford@aol.com

After lunch (the first hot one we've been offered on any of these events) we're joined by another ten people from the public and private sector, making this the best attended of these events so far. Ian takes over the chairing. Carolyn Pascoe presents her "Profile of Derby" based on published statistics. She gets more vigorous interogation today then she probably has at any of the earlier events, but rides the wave in her usual confident and professional manner.

Next up it's me, presenting half an hour on the Equality Bill. Since we have to use a hand mic today, I feel that makes me a little more awkward and a little less natural with the presentation. The projector (provided by the venue) blacks out halfway through my presentation. I prefer not to use PowerPoint and can happily cope with that; but if it goes off halfway through, that's not quite so easy to deal with. Still it gets done, though having to move into the audience with the mic for questions is also stiff and awkward - especially if people actually shrink from me when I approach them with the microphone! At the end of my presentation, Dee takes the opportunity to emphasise the importance of Carolyn's stat-based presentation and clarifies how that aspect of REDP's work will become more of a two-way process.

There's a question why so much time is being given to the Equality Bill, when surely we're preaching to the converted on this topic. An assumption's being made that everyone who attends a meeting such as this will know the Equality Bill inside out, but that proves not to be so. During the break in the afternoon session, two attendees (one from the public sector, the other from the private) confess to me that this is the first time thy've been onb the receiving end of any presentation on the Equality Bill, that their employers, although they have clear interest in it, have not provided any kind of briefing on it.

For the second time in this series of events, Vidar Hjarding is our guest speaker, bringing proceedings to a close. Vidar, who is blind, is Diversity Manager for ITV News Group. There's some interesting discussion about the relationship between diversity and equality in the context of Vidar's work. You can read a profile of Vidar at:
http://www.efd.org.uk/role/vidar-hjarding-political-producer-amp-diversity-advisor-itv-bcidn-associate-political-producer-

REDP involvement event: Leasingham

Today we have the third of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership's "Involvement Events" spread across the East Midlands over seven weeks. We're in the village hall at Leasingham (pictured above) just outside Sleaford, Lincolnshire. Good turn out, with eight attendees from relevant local organisations. For the third time of asking, I'm chairing the event as well as making a presentation on the Equality Bill. We've been promised a speaker from the Government Equalities Office  but they're not able to delive in the endr, so I do that bit too. There's rather too much of me in this one; I'm not happy about this and feel that I'm stretched a bit thin. I don't feel I give my best to this event and actually make an embarrassing gaffe. I announce that I wouldn't be reading the PowerPoint slides, "You're all adults, you can all read, printouts of the slideds are in your packs" etc. A few minutes later, I'm passed a note from Dee, reminding me that one of the attendees is blind. So I start reading the text of the PowerPoint slides. After the presentation, I apologise to the fellow in question, who takes it in good heart.

REDP INVOLVEMENT EVENT: NOTTINGHAM

To Nottingham, for the first in a series of "Involvement Events", launching the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP) into the wider world.

Train from Leicester Station at 0725 with Dennis Bradley, Community Development Officer at Leicester's LGBT Centre. Dennis is part of the Amplified Leicester project. I'm not often given to envy, but each time I speak with someone who's doing that, I can't help but wish I was on it! At Nottingham Station we meet Ian Robson, Director of the LGBT Centre and share a taxi to the venue, East Midlands Conference Centre at Nottingham University (photo above).

I'm chairing this event, Ian is leading the presentation on behalf of the Core Partners, with support from Iris Lightfoote from The Race Equality Centre (TREC). We have engaged the services of Judith and Karen, BSL interpreters. We have about a dozen people signed up for this event from the VCS sector in Nottingham, representing Nottingham Council for Voluntary Services, The Deaf Society, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham Refugee Council, and East Midlands Ambulance Service amongst others. Nice venue: food is good and plentiful but the room is really cold and seems resistant to all attempts to heat it. Even in the Gents, although the taps had that sign saying "Danger! Very Hot Water!" what came out was stone cold!

I'd like to keep to the schedule. After my general introduction and housekeeping announcements, Ian has half an hour to present a "beginners' guide" to REDP. He sprints through it and finishes in five minutes. Time to switch to decaf, Ian! We're not going to have 25 minutes of dead air, of course, and I'm not going to chuck out the timetable at this early point, so I fill - for 20 minutes. The attendees don't know that this isn't how we planned it, so as long as I can keep the ball rolling then all's well. We take a short break then go into the workshops on time. These include some very strong and positive contributions an take us through to lunchtime.

The afternoon session begins with our guest speaker: Rauf Mirza, one of some 200 ambassadors around the country promoting public appointments for the Government Equalities Office. For some little while now there's been a cross-departmental drive to increase the diversity of people sitting on boards of public bodies, with particular emphasis on women, members of ethnic minorities and disabled people. I found especially interesting the part of Rauf's talk when he focuses on the seven principles of public life as outlined by the Nolan Committee. These are: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.

Carolyn Pascoe, REDP's Researcher, presents her Regional Profile, looking at the facts, figures and stats illustrating various equality strands in Nottingham, and in comparison with the rest of the region and the country. I give the final presentation, which is on the Equality Bill - and we finish on the very stroke of 4 o'clock.

In summing up at the end of the day, I said that if we were a theatrical company on tour, this would have felt like a public dress rehearsal. There's a few bugs need ironing out, and many of those attending have given us helpful notes.

LGA Equality & Diversity conference

After dropping in at our exhibition in Highcross for an hour or so first thing this morning, I take the train to Melton, to attend the Equality and Diversity Conference of the Local Government Association at PERA (photo above). I’m going there as one of the partner members of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP) along with Laura Horton, Project Manager for our Mainstreaming Equality Project. The conference covers the main equality strands: age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation. There are contributions from ACAS and the Equality and Human Rights Commission among others. The conference considers how provisions in the Equality Bill will affect the duties of local government at all levels of engagement with those who are recipients of their services, and reflects on how it might change employment law.