Workshops – Small Steps Big Difference

The afternoon of the conference will begin with 4 workshops. Participants will attend ONE workshop only and we are asking you to select in advance which you would like to attend.

If any are massively under subscribed and another is massively popular, we will adjust what we run accordingly so, please see notes below and submit your first and second choice using this form: WORKSHOP SELECTION

Looking at organisations as a whole, how do we embed a culture of inclusion at strategic as well as operational levels

• What creates the ‘culture’ of an organisation?
• How can we embed a culture of inclusion within organisations?
• Who needs to be engaged, what needs to happen, who needs to know?

Our journey exploring what ‘inclusive practice’ means for health, social care and related organisations has flagged up the need for a resource to convey a collective understanding of the components and operations of an inclusive culture, including:

• Meaningful, applied values and principles
• Clarity, honesty, openness and transparency
• Recognising when things go wrong and working to put them right
• Consistently working to keep the playing field level for all

Without an inclusive culture, organisations can more readily slip back to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion as a ‘bolt on’ or wholly absent aspect of their service.

This workshop will gather ideas to inform the development of local resources.

How to explain inclusion in straightforward terms to small voluntary & community sector groups – with practical ideas to work on

• How can we ensure that socially prescribed activities are inclusive of everyone and actually do contribute to better health and well-being?
• How can we encourage volunteers, whether they are working in foodbanks, offering befriending support or running a local support group, to engage in learning more about other lives and how to make sure that people feel comfortable to be their real selves?

Our journey exploring what ‘inclusive practice’ means for health, social care and related organisations has flagged up the need for a resource that is aimed at smaller voluntary and community sector groups and organisations that provide services and support for people in our local community.

If, for example, I am ‘prescribed’ a particular activity by my GP, I need to know that the organisers have considered that I may exist as an 80 year old woman who identifies as lesbian.

If I contact a counselling support service I need to know that they have considered that not everyone is heterosexual.

If, as a trans person, I go along to a group I need to know that I will be accepted for who I am.

If there is no awareness and no recognition, then LGBT+ people may well feel excluded, unwelcome and unlikely to return!

Participants in this workshop will share ideas to inform the development of a new, simple resource which will support smaller groups and organisations to understand why inclusion matters and to put that learning into practice.

How to make sure that all the good work done to date is embedded in the long term future of health, social care and related services for older and old LGBT+ people in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin

• How can we ensure that this culture of inclusion spans the county?
• How do we maintain it once we’ve got it?

Our journey exploring what ‘inclusive practice’ means for health, social care and related organisations has flagged up the need for a county-wide strategy to future-proof positive experiences for people in our local community, and to illustrate how working together well, is better for everyone.

Without this future-proofing, we will undermine work to date, miss the opportunity to make a big difference and duplicate efforts.

• What are the strengths that we can call upon?
• What are the threats to sustainable inclusion?
• What do we need to do to make this happen?

How do we put EDI (equality, diversity & inclusion) into practice in and across organisational workstreams?

How can we make EDI a golden thread throughout organisational practice – whether you are delivering training yourself, commissioning others to deliver services on your behalf, putting on events, recruiting staff etc?

This workshop looks at barriers to inclusive practice and then considers some of the practicalities of embedding inclusion within organisational systems.

Participants will be introduced to a checklist template as an inclusive practice resource and work on questions to develop this. We will explore

• why EDI matters
• why ‘inclusion’ can feel so difficult
• barriers to EDI within organisational systems
• the difference between being actively excluded and simply not included
• different stages of organisational practice