Agenda and minutes
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Contact: Lindsey Ambrose 0779 53 33 687 e-mail: lambrose@northampton.gov.uk
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Welcome and Introductions Additional documents: Minutes: The Leader of Northampton Borough Council, Cllr David Palethorpe, was welcomed as the new Councillor Co-Chair for the Forum by the Community Co-Chair, Barry Hansford, and other Forum members. |
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Apologies Minutes: Apologies were given for the need to change the meeting date and the inconvenience that this had caused.
Apologies had been received from several individuals and groups. These included from Out Proud and Equal in Northamptonshire, Lesbian Line, SOLAR and Northamptonshire Police. |
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Round Table Discussion:challenges for local groups in times of austerity. Minutes: It was noted that since the closure of Northamptonshire Lesbian Gay and Bisexual Alliance (“NLGBA”) a few years ago, there had been no organisation developed sufficiently to provide a similar level or range of support for the LGBT community and people questioning their sexuality in Northampton and county.
There were a few small organisations which had developed to some extent and which had a variety of remits.
It was noted that some members of this Forum had in 2010 spoken to the Overview and Scrutiny group which had been developing approaches to funding and commissioning – and had highlighted the need to consider the LGBT community needs.
It was noted that since that time there had still been a lack of LGBT organisations applying for the Council’s grants funding, despite promoting the funding through various communications networks, Forums including the LGBTQ people’s forum, despite good numbers of viewings of information about applying for funding on this and other forums’ Facebook pages, and despite the provision of training and help for organisations looking to apply for grants funding.
Concern was expressed about whether LGBT and people questioning their sexuality or gender in Northampton area might find it particularly difficult to communicate about their needs in light of the relative lack of support organisations compared to some other parts of the country. The lack of hate crimes reporting was noted as one possible reflection of this. |
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Planning for Community' Pride ' activities in 2012 ( including Northampton Carnival and Pink Picnic in the Park) Minutes: Matthew Toresen attended to speak with members of the Forum.
Out Proud and Equal in Northamptonshire known as “OPEN” had been developing as a small organisation concerned particularly with things like influencing policy.
The group Matthew would like to establish would be separate to OPEN and about more fun stuff.
Matthew said he had experience of supporting this kind of activity elsewhere. He noted that as well as helping LGBT people to enjoy a social network, a group like this could be a helpful support for people coming out who did not know other LGBT people in the community.
Matthew said it would be important for the success of this group that it did things that the community wanted to do things for themselves. Some initial thoughts were that it might perhaps hold a picnic in the park (an activity which had been popular with the community in past years), might make links to Northampton Carnival and the Umbrella Fair.
It was suggested that the role of the LGBTQ People’s Forum and the role of the Council might be to help remove barriers and to support the community to do things for themselves, perhaps by helping to communicate about the group and sharing stands at community events.
The group might meet at various locations e.g. local pubs, Northampton College, the Fire Service and the Council.
If anyone would like to contact Matthew to find out more they should contact him on tel/text: 07982250002 or email: matthewtoresen@hotmail.com
Agreed: Matthew’s contact details and a short message about the proposed events group to be circulated by email and on the Forum’s Facebook page immediately.
Agreed: Matthew was invited to share the Youth Forum’s stand at the Riverside Festival and marquee at the Umbrella Fair in August to help promote the group.
Agreed: Barry and Matthew to liaise about possible work with Northampton College to help promote the events group.
Further to the meeting The new social events group “FAN” has now become a constituted group, shared a stand with Northampton Youth Forum at the Umbrella Fair to promote itself, and is planning a Christmas Ball to be held in Northampton. It has a Facebook page open to all to join “FAN Northants”. |
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NBC Equality Strategy Consultation Minutes: Lindsey Ambrose, the Community Engagement and Equalities Officer, told members of the Forum about ongoing work to improve the Council’s performance in relation to equalities.
The single equality scheme was due to end in 2011. New legal duties introduced through the Equality Act 2010 were a further prompt to create a new equality strategy which all council services would use to guide them and contractors about how to provide fair services.
The document now being consulted on was the draft equality strategy document. It had been developed working with inputs from the Northampton Disabled People’s and Pensioners Forum and the Northampton Youth Forum would be helping to consult people at community events during the summer.
In response to feedback from council staff, councillors and people in the community, and drawing on best practice elsewhere, the new document would be much shorter than the single equality scheme. Called “Our Approach to Equalities” the new document should be easier to read and help everyone to understand how the council worked – in relation to things like procuring services, training staff, talking to and consulting with people, considering the impacts of its policies and practices on people it served and its workforce. It would signpost to important related documents – but not try to duplicate them.
The Council wants services to be embedding and integrating equalities into all their work – not treating it as an ‘add on’ or separate thing. The needs of everyone in the community, including LGBT people, should be taken into account day to day and in all planning, in considering how ways of working affect people etc.
The Council’s services are working to
the Equalities Framework for Local Government as a standard which
can help them and other people to understand how well they are
doing to continually improve how fair and accessible their services
are – including in relation to LGBT people.
The Council’s ambition is to have reached the Excellent level by 2013. This requires services
Services may have many different objectives for aspects of their work and Equality Framework progress, which together, form an overall plan of action. A summary is provided at the end of the “Our Approach to Equalities” document.
In addition to the “Our Approach to Equalities” document, services will be publishing other information which may give more detail about equalities at service level or in relation to the ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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World Aids Day- Planning for Dec 2011 Minutes: The Forum discussed what had happened in past years and began to discuss how World AIDS Day might be recognised in December 2011. It was noted that SOLAR (the HIV/AIDS organisation) wanted to organise activities for this day again and would be happy to work with the Forum to do so.
Agreed: the Forum would work with SOLAR and other community organisations to recognise World AIDS Day on 1 December 2011 including a ceremony in the Guildhall courtyard.
Various ideas were suggested. Ian Swift said his Housing Solutions team had purchased T-shirts for World AIDS Day and light bulbs to light up the Guildhall.
It was also noted that last year a business in town had held a ‘red drinks’ theme night in support of World AIDS Day.
Actions:
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Community Information Exchange Minutes: Hate Crime Update
Bill Edwards, Neighbourhoods, Licensing and Support Team Leader, and the officer leading on Hate Crimes reporting policy at Northampton Borough Council provided an update. Then the Forum discussed hate crime reporting and how to improve it.
The new policy was passed by Cabinet in October 2010. It fitted with a countywide way of working. It includes LGB and Transgender equality groups. In March 2011 the online reporting form went live. Training had been provided to staff in other organisations across the county. Bill had been visiting departments to give basic training. He had been to management meetings to ensure managers and team leaders understand the new policy and implementing it.
The effectiveness of Hate Crime reporting at Northampton Borough Council was due to be looked at and reflected on, with a view to identifying ways to improve it, by the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Panel in autumn 2011.
In recent months there had been under-reporting across the county, including at Northampton College, and the reasons for this were not known. There had been under-reporting of hate crimes within the council despite the training and the new policy. Across the country, the only places where reporting of homophobic and transgender hate crime had been good in recent times had been Manchester, London and other places with large visible LGBT communities.
In discussion it was suggested that one reason for under-reporting might be a fear of being targeted more as a consequence of speaking up, or if the hate crime reporting policy and process was perceived to be simply one of “political correctness”.
It was noted that at Wellingborough Prison anonymous reporting had given confidence in the system. There, there reports were made on paper and went to the Equality and Diversity Officer. Reporting had improved as confidence that reports would be responded to seriously had increased. It was suggested that public sector organisations might be seen by the public as not serious about LGBT equality and could do with changing systems to improve the confidence of staff and service users.
At Northampton College one thing which had helped to encourage people to report concerns was that some staff have chosen to wear rainbow ribbons to show their individual support for LGBT equality. This has helped to identify them as ‘safe people’ to talk to, regardless of their own sexuality, gender assignment etc.
It was suggested that sometimes there has been some fear that if people do report concerns nothing will happen as a result of making the report. It was noted that in some organisations, such as Wellingborough Prison, a “you said, we did” response to anonymised reporting had helped to show that things would happen as a result of people reporting incidents.
It was suggested that distributing guidance, perhaps in booklet form, about homophobic language and how to deal with it, might help staff and others feel more confident about how to deal with it.
It was noted that Northampton Borough Council is looking to develop staff ... view the full minutes text for item 7. |
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Items for Future Meetings Minutes: Agreed items for next meeting:
- SOLAR to attend to speak about HIV Transmission and stigma - Update on creating a community LGBT events group: FAN - World AIDS Day – Planning for December 2011 - Holocaust Memorial Day – Planning for January 2012 |
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Date Of Future Meetings 20 Sept 2011 24 January 2012 13 March 2012 22 May 2012 3 July 2012 Minutes: The next meetings of this Forum:
Other activities in which Forum involved and open to all include:
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