REDP CORE REFERENCE GROUP MEETING

At Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living this afternoon, for a meeting of the Core Reference Group of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership. I've been able to zoom back here in time for the meeting from a morning delivering training on the Equality Act 2010 at South Derbyshire CVS's Staff Development Day in Hartshorne (or rather, Chino did the zooming, I just rode shotgun).

Attending today are representives of eight VCS organisations, all of them members of REDP's Core Reference Group:

• Derby & Derbyshire Race Equality Commission
• East Midlands Army Cadet Forces
• Leicester Council of Faiths
• Leicester LGBT Centre
• Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living
• Lincolnshire Association for People with Disabilities
• One East Midlands
• The Race Equality Centre

In a relatively short and focused meeting, we debrief and reflect on recent events hosted by REDP:

• Human Rights & Equality regional event, Derby, Thursday 22 March 2012
• Choice Unlimited, Leicester Tigers, Thursday 5 April 2012
• Training for Girls Friendly Society, Skegness, Wednesday 11 April 2012
• Equality Act 2010 training for  South Derbyshire CVS, Tuesday 17 April 2012

EQUALITY ACT TRAINING FOR SOUTH DERBYSHIRE CVS

Chino Cabon delivers

At Goseley Community Centre, Hartshorne, Derbyshire, this morning, delivering training for the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP).

I'm here with Chino Cabon, from The Race Equality Centre (TREC), one of REDP's four Core Partners. We're presenting on the Equality Act 2010 at a staff development day for South Derbyshire CVS. There are 27 attendees, a mix of paid staff and volunteers.

Chino (in the orange shirt, photo above) takes the first session, giving an hour-and-a-half long overview of the Equality Act: its history (including the decades-long back story of equality legislation in this country); innovations and extensions (what's new and what it retains from previous legislation); what's lawful and what's unlawful under its provisions; who it protects and who's responsible for its enforcement.

I do something half that length focusing on disabled people and the Equality Act. Not my specialist area, that's true, but it's part of the deal at REDP that we're able to double up for each other and cover all the Protected Characteristics.

Chino's presentations are always encyclopaedic and rooted firmly in the texts. Mine tend to be a bit looser. Variety is the spice of life! I use five scenarios, affecting or involving disabled people, of the kind that those here may have experienced in their own lives, or of the type which may have been brought to them for advice or guidance. The scenarios are taken from Disability LIB's handy Equality Act Toolkit.

As soon as my session is finished, we dash off back to Leicester, so I can get to the meeting of REDP's Core Reference Group at Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living. We're leaving just as lunch starts here; we'll probably arrive just as lunch ends there!