Events and Courses
North West Employers offers a regional calendar of events for Elected Members and Officers covering a wide variety of areas and skills, including:
- Core Skills
- Elected Member Development Human Resources
- Local Governance
- Manager Skills
- Organisational Development
- Personal Development
- Specialist/Accredited Programmes
- Train the Trainer Skills - Foundation and Advanced Modules
Peer Support Pool Event
The next peer support event will take place on Wednesday, 7 April 2010 at the Macdonald Tickled Trout near Preston. To reserve your place click here.
We will circulate the agenda and joining instructions nearer the time, but to reserve your place now please click here.
This event is specifically for those who have joined the peer support pool. If you are interested in joining, please email the Equality Gateway.
The North West Peer Support Pool is a register of Equality Officer practitioners and managers who are able to offer their expertise to Officers from other local authorities who are seeking to improve their own and their authority’s performance in the area of equality and diversity. It is about working with others to share good practice, transfer knowledge and to ‘lighten the load’.
The workshops are open to all who have registered to be a member of the Peer Support Pool. Although the focus will be about supporting colleagues outside your own organisation, the skills we will cover will be equally applicable when working internally.
For further information on Peer Support, please contact Bernie Wilde or telephone 07881 792404.
For more details about Peer Support and/or to register, click on the forms below.
Equality Regional Forum
The Equality Regional Forums are held for Equality and Policy Officers to provide an opportunity to network with colleagues, share best practice, and get up to date information about legislative and policy drivers. All delegates take part in action learning sets to work with peers to problem solve and work through challenges, and find out about other equality and diversity activities in the North West region.
The next Forum will take place on the morning of Wednesday, 7 April 2010 at the Macdonald Tickled Trout near Preston. We will circulate the agenda and joining instructions nearer the time, but to reserve your place now please click here.
Regional Briefings for Elected Members
The next sub-regional briefings for Elected Members are to be held at various venues around the North West. These briefings are held on a regular basis and are an excellent way of keeping Members updated on the latest policy and legislative drivers around equality. They are also a useful way to share ideas and reflect on how to drive improvement in this area. Further details and dates are to follow.
North West Employers and the Equality Gateway can also provide Elected Member training for individual local authorities that is tailored to your specific needs and priorities. For further information, please click here to email the Equality Gateway.
Equality Gateway 2009 Conference
- Maximising Impact
The first Equality Gateway Conference was held at the Lowry and was a great success. Over 70 delegates were in attendance from North West local authorities and fire authorities, as well as regional partners such as the NWDA, 4NW and the EHRC.
The conference was a celebration of the work of the Equality Gateway in the run up to the anniversary of our first year in operation. Liz McQue, Chief Executive of North West Employers, and Bernadette Hurst from NWIEP highlighted key achievements and reinforced that there is still much work to be done to support local authorities to reach the ‘Achieving’ level of the new Equality Framework for Local Government by 2011. Catherine May from the EHRC provided an overview of the Equality Bill, and Liz Richardson from Manchester University previewed the findings of our equality mapping pilots. Workshops were held to look at the equality focus for LAAs, equality mapping and North West socio-economic factors.
At the close of conference, delegates were asked to list what priorities they would like to see in year two of the Gateway. Key areas identified included equality impact assessments, procurement, partnership working and cohesion. This information will be used to inform our year two workplan.
Feedback from the conference was very positive. Heath Brennan’s comment from Burnley was common amongst guests: “The conference has given me lots 
to think about, plan and do. Well worthwhile.”
Click here to view the full Equality Conference Report.
Right click here to download a podcast of the event.
Conference Photographs
View the presentations and workshops by clicking on the links below.
Equality Gateway Full Presentation
Equality Mapping/Data Disaggregation Workshops:
Cumbria CC
Sefton MBC
Stockport MBC
Local Area Agreements Workshop - Building Equality into your Local Area Agreements
North West Socio-Economic Factors and Equalities Workshop
Equality Impact Assessments - Joint Seminars with ACAS
Understanding the importance of equality impact assessments and how to do them effectively is key to achieving higher levels of the Equality Standard. In February, in partnership with ACAS, we hosted six half-day seminars throughout the region to support local authorities who wish to 'get started' or who wish to review what they are currently doing. These proved extremely popular and were booked up quickly. We are looking to hold some more in the future. If you require further information please email the Equality Gateway by clicking here.
HR Development Forum
On 28 January the HR Development Forum was held at the JJB Stadium in Wigan. The HR Development Forum is supported by the HR Development Gateway and the focus of the event was Equality and Diversity. The Equality and Diversity Gateway worked closely with colleagues in the design and delivery of this event. You can view the presentations from the event, which include case studies from the former Vale Royal Borough Council and Cumbria County Council, as well as details of the revised Equality Framework, by clicking on the links below.
ACAS Presentation - Chris Wright, Equality and Diversity Officer.
Cumbria CC Presentation - Joel Rasbash, Equality Officer.
IDeA Presentation - Mandy Wright, Associate IDeA Director.
NWEO Equality Standard Presentation - Bernie Wilde, Equality and Diversity Lead.
NWEO Open Space Presentation - Bernie Wilde, Equality and Diversity Lead.
Vale Royal BC Presentation - Anne Bingham Holmes, Chief Executive.
Click here to view the notes from the group activity around the revised Framework.
If you have any questions or comments around anything covered in the Forum, or regarding the North West Equality and Diversity agenda, then please do get in touch by emailing Bernie Wilde.
Lesbian and Gay Foundation - Breaking the Cycle
The Lesbian and Gay Foundation has launched their LGBT Strategy for the North West – 'Breaking the Cycle'. View videos of the presentations from the launch by clicking here.
Click here to view our current Course Calendar and Course Directory.