Give with one hand ...

In the copy of Know Faith! (quarterly newsletter produced by Faiths Forum for the East Midlands) that I picked up this evening at County Hall, I read, with interest, the following text in relation to National Inter Faith Week 2010:

At national level, there was no multi faith event on the scale of last year's launch as the change in Government led to late confirmation of support for the Week and limited planning time. but the new Government expressed strong support for the Week and the Secretary of State for Communities, Eric Pickles, hosted a reception at Admiralty House for the Week. Members of the Regional Faith Forums were invited along with key officers of Inter Faith Groups in their regions as a gesture of appreciation.

Mr Pickles has since removed all funding from these Regional Faith Forums across the country. Because of that decision, the work of these organisations has been thrown into confusion as they've had to make staff redundant, close premises and (in many cases) call a halt to their activities. There's a "gesture of appreciation" for you.

REDP Working Group

At Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL) this morning for the weekly meeting of the REDP Working Group.

Much of the (admittedly short) meeting is taken up with debriefing on our away day last week (especially since two members of this working group missed it through illness) and a bit of preparation for the away day planned for the members of the working group this coming Monday.

I show that front page article from The Mail on Sunday ("Equality Madness") and we discuss whether there is some meaningful way we can respond to this and other pieces like it. I propose that we have a space on REDP's website called something like "The Wrong End of the Stick" or "It's Equality and Diversity Gone Mad!", covering stories such as this. I used to do this sort of thing when I worked at NEBOSH (National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health). It was part of my brief there to seek out and collect stories that we called "Bonkers Conkers" for inclusion in the annual report and in the Chairman's address at the AGM.

I think that we need to acknowledge this sort of media misrepresentation of equality and diversity work, such disparagement of the Equality Act 2010, and be able to rebut it - but with a relatively light touch.

- George M Ballentyne - Core Partner, REDP

REDP (Not very far) Away Day

Last Thursday was 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.

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.

We've read three papers in particular form 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 Conservative Party)
http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2010/03/~/media/Files/Downloadable%20Files/Building-a-Big-Society.ashx

- George M Ballentyne (REDP Core Partner)

Equality Madness

I couldn't resist that headline. It reminds me of those alarmist, hysterical, shrieking titles of trashy novelettes and movies of the 40s and 50s, such as "Reefer Madness". And what's that text above the headline? "Government spends £30 million to discover whether preserving fish stocks harm ethnic Chinese, or hovercraft discriminate against gays". Now read on ...

The government has been accused of wasting tens of millions of tasxpayers' money to comply with controversial new equality laws that force organisations to prove they are not discriminating against minority groups.

Whitehall departments have already issued a string of bizarre reports to meet the terms of the Equality Act 2010.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) paid £100,000 to consultants who produced a report investigating how efforts to boost Britain's coastal fish stocks would affect minority communities including the Chines, homosexuals and Welsh speakers.

And the Department for Transport issued a study this month looking at harassment and discrimination on ships and hovercraft. The report covered a range of groups, including transsexuals [referred to as "gays" in the strapline, you'll note.]

There's an in-depth report on a double-page spread inside the paper. Read the full article here (then go take a shower):
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1349691/Governments-30m-equality-discover-hovercrafts-discriminate-gays.html

It's almost Burns Night. As I was writing this blog entry, a few lines from Burns's poem, "To a Louse", came to mind:

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!

REDP Equality Update Event - Derbyshire

Early start this morning. Off to South Normanton, Derbyshire, for the first in a series of update events on the Equality Act 2010, offered by the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP).

I catch the 0715 to Melton Mowbray station (just one stop from Leicester). Just before 0800, Laura Horton, Project Manager for REDP (and on the right in photo above) picks me up from outside the station and we're on our way.

Some slow moving traffic means we reach South Normanton at 0930. The meeting is in the Post Mill Centre, which is fairly easy to find in this small town. It doesn't take us long to set up. We're joined by five representatives from equality-based Voluntary and Community Sector groups working in the area. Starting at 1000, Laura and I present an overview of the "equality landscape" (central government's phrase, not ours) with a little bit of PowerPoint and lot of chatty interaction.

We're doing half a dozen or so sessions like this over the next few weeks. I'm involved in helping present another two (in Northampton and in Nottingham). I love how REDP gets out and about, mixing it up among the people on the ground, the ones who do the actual work, in some places that wouldn't normally be considered for this kind of event, away from the bigger population centres. Keeping it real!

by George M Ballentyne - REDP Core Partner

NHS Voluntary Sector Consultation

To the University of Nottingham, the Innovation Park, Jubilee Campus. The space-age looking Sir Colin Campbell Building there (photo above) is the venue for a consultation between NHS East Midlands and representatives of the Voluntary and Community Sector in the region, on "Liberating the NHS". I'm there, representing the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP), along with Tonia Frew from Leicester LGBT Centre and Liz Harrison from Leicestershire Centre for Integrated living (LCIL).

The event is hosted by Maqsood Ahmed, Head of Inclusion for NHS East Midlands. This is the third time I've been at a meeting addressed by Maqsood, who was guest speaker at Leicester Council of Faiths AGM in October.

Around 40 people are in attendance, representing a variety of organisations, such as:

African Institute for Social Development

Alzheimer's Society

AWAAZ, Asian Mental Health Resource Unit

Bassetlaw District Council

BME Community Development Project

Centre for Social Justice

Citihealth Nottingham

Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Derbyshire Friend

Derbyshire Mental Health Services NHS Trust

East Midlands Cancer Network

Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre

Leicester LINk

Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living

Lincolnshire LINks

Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

NHS East Midlands

NHS Leicester City

NHS Lincolnshire PCT

NHS Nottingham City

NHS Nottinghamshire County

Nottingham University Group

Nottinghamshire County Council

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Nottinghamshire Royal Society for the Blind

University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust

Opportunities and challenges in the ongoing restructuring of the NHS which are of particular relevance to organisations like ours were front and centre of our discussions here today, such as:

• embedding inclusion and equality into new structures: Department of Health; NHS Board; GP consortia; Health Watch England; local Health Watch.
• role of voluntary sector; supporting groups with protected characteristics.
• effectively engaging diverse patients, carers, excluded groups and those with protected characteristics.
• measurement and accountability of equality outcomes.

REDP is the only organisation from the Voluntary and Community Sector exhibiting today. Normally we have to fight for space at events like these. At EMAS's "Community in Unity" event at Nottingham Council House at the start of November last year, we had to make do with half a table top.

At the end of the session, I'm given five minutes to introduce REDP, say why we're here and encourage further involvement in our project. This appears to be received positively, with a number of strong contacts and definite leads.

- George Ballentyne - Leicester Council of Faiths 

To view George's blog, please click here

Equality Britain

The Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership has a prominent entry in Equality Britain 2011. This is a national resource which enables people from all sections of society to find organisations committed to the establishment, maintenance and promotion of equality and diversity.

With a following of thousands, Equality Britain is fast becoming a useful resource for employers, job seekers, students and those looking for more information on equality issues. With dedicated sections for employment, housing, education, sport, and adoption and fostering amongst other themes and topics, this is a valuable resource for all sections of the community.

As well as REDP having its own entry, so the our four core partners (shown in the photo above). Here's proof, if it were needed, of the benifits obtained from working in partnership.