Archived News

Black Colleagues' Group Conference 2009

The Council's Black Colleagues' Group (who have since changed their name to Network 4 Cultural Diversity) hosted an awareness-raising conference for County Council and our partners' staff towards the end of November 2009.

The conference was well attended by staff and managers who benefited from a wide range of speeches, workshops and performances. An inspirational keynote speech was delivered by Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones who explained the challenges and obstacles he overcame to realise his dream of owning a farm.  After the event he commented: "I was truly impressed by this diversity event in which I was privileged to be involved".

This type of event certainly puts diversity on the map, and it is a credit to this team of talented and passionate people to have taken a much needed lead in raising awareness. I hope that other organisations will use this as a blueprint so that we can see similar events across the country."

For more information, download the Conference Report  (8.6MB) or contact the Corporate Equality and Diversity Team at E&D@worcestershire.gov.uk.

Management Training conference on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues in the Workplace

On the morning of 27 February 2009, our managers welcomed the thoughts of celebrity copper Brian Paddick as the guest speaker at a training conference on sexual orientation and gender identity . As well as Brian there were also speakers from Stonewall (Campaign and lobby group for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals) and the Gender Advisory Bureau (training provider on gender identity).

The training conference was part of the County Council's commitment to equality and diversity and its aim was to raise awareness of the issues that Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Tran-sexuals(LGBT) face in the workplace and how managers can deal with these issues.  It was arranged to coincide with LGBT History Month which is a celebration of the lives and achievements of the LGBT community.

Brian spoke of his experiences of coming out in the Police - as well as having run for Mayor of London - he also showed a video clip of his time in the Queensland jungle as part of his starring role in "I'm a Celebrity, Get me out of Here!" which featured George Takei (Star Trek), Martina Navratalova (tennis champion) and Brian talking about their sexual orientation.  Rico from The Gender Advisory Bureau also shared his personal experience of his gender reassignment from being a woman to a man which was very moving and thought provoking.  The conference was a valuable experience for everyone and there were many positive comments on the variety of information and the inspiring personal accounts of speakers.

Community Fairs 2008 are a Success!

October saw a series of Community Fairs happen across the county in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester.

The fairs have been deemed a success due to impressive visitor numbers to each event and positive feedback from residents who attended the fairs. In total 1119 residents attended the three events.

The Community Fairs are designed to allow us to engage with our Black and Ethnic Minority Communities who we recognise we need to involve more actively in council services.

Around 18 information stalls were at each event representing services including Waste Challenge, Plug & Play, Social Care and Sustainable Travel. Partners of Worcestershire County Council were involved with the Fire Service, Police Service, Wyre Forest District Council and the Primary Care Trust also having information stalls.

Information was available to take away, officers were on hand to answer questions and many stalls were also running competitions at each of the busy events.

The Community Fairs attracted a large number of people from diverse backgrounds and as well as the stalls there was face painting, story telling, henna hand painting and refreshments on offer.

Contact Centre Manager, Jon Mcleary, a stallholder on the Worcestershire Hub stand said, “The events went really well and the team on the hub stall engaged well with a variety of people to explain what we do. We also gained some interesting feedback on how we could better publicise the hub and its functions to people”.

Rukhsana Koser, Corporate Diversity Manager and organiser of the Community Fairs said, “I am delighted with the success of this year’s Community Fairs. There was a really good atmosphere at each event with both residents and stallholders giving positive feedback. The support BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) communities have shown towards the events has been very pleasing”.

The County Council has achieved Level Three of the Equality Standard for Local Government

Staff throughout the council have been thanked for their efforts towards our equality and diversity work, and for taking part in the Peer Assessment that brought the good news.

The Equality Standard is a national approach to measuring an authority’s achievements in equality and diversity.

Our Peer Assessment, which saw experts from other organisations analysing our work, considered high-profile initiatives such as the Community Fairs and the bespoke Race Equality Conference. It also highlighted our organisational strengths such as two Scrutiny reviews and strong partnership working.We submitted a narrative  (330KB) which described the Council's work in this area.

Other examples of positive work included the Being Different Together partnership project, the inclusion of accessibility rules in our corporate identity guidance, ‘mystery shopping’ research and the publication of our Accessible Formats Directory.

“I’m delighted that our hard work has been recognised,” said our Corporate Diversity Manager, Rukhsana Koser. “Achieving Level Three shows just how far we’ve come. I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who contributed, not only to the Peer Assessment itself but to all of the excellent work that’s helped us to achieve Level Three.

“We still have a long way to go to reach levels four and five, but we have some very strong plans in place to move forward and many dedicated people to make them happen. We can build on this success and make more improvements.”. The peer reviewers final report  (63 KB) confirms our strengths and gives us a focus to improve for the future.