Agenda and minutes

The Chair will welcome everyone to the meeting and invite people to introduce themselves and the organisation they represent. 

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and invited people to introduce themselves. 

Councillors Terry Brown and Pat Case, Deanna Hartley-Davis (Equality & Diversity Co-ordinator, Runshaw College), Adrian Beardmore (Training and Development Manager, Lancashire Constabulary) and Naveed Sharif (Community Outreach Development Officer, Lancashire Fire and Rescue). 

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any personal interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda. If the interest arises only as result of your membership of another public body or one to which you have been appointed by the Council then you only need to declare it if you intend to speak.

If the personal interest is a prejudicial interest, you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

Councillors made no declarations of any interest in respect of items on the agenda. 

The enclosed letter has been sent out to all members of the Ethnic Minorities Consultative Committee, Disability Liaison Group, Parish Councils and partner organisations.  It sets out the rationale and proposed way forward for the Equality Forum.  The letter also outlines the membership of the Forum. 

The Assistant Chief Executive will give a verbal update on the consultation process. 

The Forum were taken through the paper enclosed as part of the agenda, including the aims and objectives of the Forum, potential future agenda items and suggested representation. 

Lesley-Ann explained that the original three week consultation period had been extended as requested by several parish councils and a response to the consultation would be published at the end of the period.  So far there had been a limited response, mainly positive, although members of the former Disability Liaison Group had expressed some concerns including representation.  Lesley-Ann had attended a meeting of the Disability Forum last week to discuss their concerns. 

It was recognised that specific issues would be taken forward via task and finish groups and that the Council could not support a separate group for all seven equality strands.  As part of the consultation representatives had been requested, with seven responses being received across the groups to date.  It was noted that there is a genuine need to have a forum where bme are able to raise issues, such as stop and search and hate crimes.  Agencies would still be able to use the Forum as a consultative body and to publicize events.

The Forum discussed the fact that the new meeting format would be a learning curve and the need for a mix of representatives of groups and people representing themselves.  It was agreed that after consideration of the consultation received it was agreed to reconsider the Forum restriction to three representatives per strand.  

The Forum will discuss potential agenda items, the proposed format of the meetings and the forward plan.

The Forum discussed the importance of considering issues that are common to all strands, potential agenda items discussed included:

• further & higher education,
• policies and service changes,
• neighbourhood working proposals,
• waste collection,
• equality bill requirements,
• community cohesion,
• PCT single equality scheme, access to services, impact assessments,

Other issues raised, such as highways, would be noted down if irresolvable at the meeting and responded to outside the meeting. 

Lesley-Ann explained that Bradford City Council have an Equality Forum and the Council would be making contact with them to discuss best practice and any lessons learned. 

In future all representatives would be asked for suggestions of agenda items to ensure that so everyone can get items they are interested in on the agenda.  As there will be a forward plan attendees will be able to select which meetings they want to attend.

The Forum considered the proposals for the format of the meeting.  It was agreed to add a break for networking and to have a maximum of two presentations per meeting.   The open forum / suggestions for future agenda items would be by strand and allocated a time slot.  There would also be an opportunity for attendees to inform forum members of future events and notices.  

To confirm the date of the next meeting. 

It was agreed that the scheduled meeting on 22 October should be brought forward to 9 September 2008 at 7pm.