Minutes: August 2006

Wednesday 9th August 2006

Present

Helen, Paul, Martin, Chris, Kenneth , Tim Nick Stephenson SBC, Kati Wood SBC, Kathleen Daley SBC.

1. Apologies

Robin Stannard, Councillor Bluh

2. Minutes of last meeting

These were agreed as a true record.

Matters arising

2.1 Helen had attended a meeting on Aspire as a representative for the Coalition. She gave an update on the One Stop Shop that will be opening in April and providing the public with one contact point for all Council Services. Eventually it is hoped this will include the Primary Care Trust and the Police. The One Stop Shop will be located temporarily in Wat Tyler until the new Civic Offices are built.

2.2 Membership - Kati had produced a flyer for the LGBT and had dropped some into the Mailcoach. She had put the information on the ‘Newsround’ that goes to all Council staff and also put the information on the ’Wanted’ section of Trading Post on the Intranet. She did have some responses from people within the Council but nothing from the Mailcoach. Kati said she was open to any ideas on how to recruit?

Suggestions / Points made:

• Helen and Paul visit the Mailcoach and speaking to Karl.
• Advertise on the website
• Advertise in ‘Fine Times’ as its more local than ‘Pink’
• Think about advertising in gyms, pubs and clubs
• Flyer needs to be eye catching with maybe some artwork or a picture so it appeals to people
• If English is not a person’s first language it may be difficult to understand
• Say something about things the Coalition have achieved.

Helen raised the fact that Robin Stannard from the Police attends our meetings and she wasn’t sure if that would be seen as a good or bad thing. Nick asked on what basis he attends and Helen advised that he reported on Hate Crime. Chris said his report did give the Coalition an awareness of what was going on out there.

3. Nick Stephenson, Change Manager (Equality & Diversity)

Nick said he had been in post for just over a month. He had a problem knowing what his job was and lots of people have lots of different ideas.

Firstly he had to make sure the Council sits on the right side of legal legislation and secondly make sure all Council processes on employment practice and service delivery are mainstreamed in Equalities as far as possible.

He had found there was quite a lot of good practice going on but it was not joined up. He has had a chance to see where we need to bring things together and one of the places for that was the Coalitions.

Part of the Coalition’s terms of reference were to act as a consultative body and challenge the Council on what it was and wasn’t doing. Part of the reason for him coming along was to find out whether or not the Coalition thought that was happening. He was also there to listen to what the Coalition thought the Council should be doing for its LGBT Community.

Nick said there were various strategies coming out over the next six months and some people in some communities not generally considered would have to be, and the Council would have to demonstrate where it was considering them. He thought Equalities would no longer be driven by Race or Disability, he thought it would be driven by gender.

Helen said personally she thought in Swindon the LGBT population was very spasmodic, people go to pubs and clubs or sit at home. There was no actual community.

There was some discussion about how the Council treated staff and generally it was felt they were treated well. Helen did have an issue with contracted staff and Nick said that there had been trouble getting appropriate answers from bidders on the Aspire programme. When they had been asked to demonstrate how they have worked inclusively in other areas where they had contracts it had been difficult to get examples.

Paul said was that not an issue we should put in writing from the Chair? It was suggested that Kati could raise an Issue Sheet but Helen said she would write.
ACTION: Helen to write a letter.

Nick asked what the Coalition thought about staff monitoring. He didn’t know how the Authority could properly discharge it’s responsibility to their LGBT staff without knowing how many LGBT staff they employ and that cannot be known without some form of monitoring.

There was a general discussion about this issue but the general feeling was against monitoring of sexuality. Points raised were:

• Discussed two meetings ago and decided not to go along with this on the grounds that it could be used against us.
• It needed another generation, there were people of 50 who hadn’t told their parents or work mates.
• People were still worried about putting their sexuality down on paper.
• If life had changed so much then the Local Authority was the place where one ought to be able to take that step with impunity and should be seen to be driving that impunity forward.
• What possible reason would there be for someone to take the risk of ticking a box on a form about sexuality when Race ought to be declared because its more obvious, and it hasn’t been.
• There is an issue of trust that is very significant.
• Sometimes there is a difference between Council policy and the actions of particular groups of managers because of mindset.

Nick said it was a case of chicken and eggs, unless he could go to the Council and say we would estimate 4/5% of the population in Swindon are LGBT but only 2½% of our staff are, we are not going to make changes happen.

Nick said we had to monitor how the Council was dealing with Race and in time we would have to do that across the 6 strands of equalities. People will have to demonstrate how they are putting good equalities practice into effect but that was his view and he didn’t know how practical or possible that would be.

The Race Equality Scheme has seen hundreds of staff going through Race Equality training and Nick said he would hope we would be doing the same thing around gender and more practical disability etiquette for front line staff.

Nick asked the Coalition to think about how it could raise challenges to the Authority that are constructive. He said his impression was that Officers attended the Coalition to ask questions and he suggested the Coalition ask those Officers how they are dealing with issues.

Helen said the issue of monitoring sexuality should be carried forward to a future meeting.

4. EAF Meeting feedback and Issues to be raised at EAF Interim Meeting

Martin asked about EAF and Helen explained the process for taking issues raised at Coalition meetings forward.
ACTION: Kathleen to circulate ‘triangle’ showing how the process works.

5. Report on Hate Crime

As Robin was unable to attend his report was circulated – copy attached

6. Annual General Meeting

Helen suggested this should be at 13 December meeting. Suggested venues were the Art Gallery or Steam.

This would be an opportunity to try and recruit new members.

Various ideas were put forward for speakers and it was agreed that any ideas should be sent to Kati by Monday. Decision on speaker and venue to be made by Helen and Kati.

7. Any Other Business

There was discussion about the lack of social groups within the Swindon area and with the closure of the Cricketers there were now no ‘gay’ pubs except for the Mailcoach. Paul said that with the internet gay men use ‘Gaydar’ to find partners and went out socially with their friends to have a drink at ‘straight’ pubs.

Helen said there was a lesbian group in Devizes and she would give Kati the information.

8. Dates of future meetings

7-9pm Wednesday 11 October CR2, Civic Offices
7-9pm Wednesday 13 December CR2, Civic Offices

2007
7-9pm Wednesday 14 February CR2, Civic Offices
7-9pm Wednesday 11 April CR2, Civic Offices
7-9pm Wednesday 13 June CR2, Civic Offices
7-9pm Wednesday 8 August CR2, Civic Offices
7-9pm Wednesday 10 October CR2, Civic Offices
7-9pm Wednesday 12 December CR2, Civic Offices