The Equality Act 2010 conference took place on Wednesday 11th August 2010 and had two aims:
- To increase awareness of the Equality Act 2010 and prepare NHS organisations within the East Midlands to implement the Act locally
- To take the knowledge and learning from the conference to implement similar training and development days to increase wider staff awareness and knowledge regarding the legislation and what it means for patients, carers, staff and communities at local level.
Key note speakers included; Trevor Phillips OBE (Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Professor Lord Kamlesh Patel OBE and Tim Rideout (Chief Executive NHS Leicester City).
Delegates were given the opportunity participate in understanding of the protected characteristics from the Equality Act 2010 through interactive workshops (please see the workshop presentations available below).
The conference was chaired by Kevin Orford (Deputy Chief Executive of NHS East Midlands) and the workshops were supported by Inclusion Leads from the East Midlands, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, external voluntary and community groups and from the Department of Health.
More than 300 people from various personal and professional backgrounds attended the conference, to hear about the benefits and opportunities presented to patients and the wider NHS by the Equality Act 2010. From Board members and Inclusion leads to unions and community groups; from local authority representatives to HR teams and public health, all were interested in hearing from national and regional experts and taking part in the workshops.
Delegates were able to select 3 different workshops on the day in order to understand what is currently taking place in regards to the protected characteristic, discuss key recommendations and a way forward for implementing the requirements of the Equality Act 2010. The act will come into force in October 2010.
A full report of the day is currently being compiled and will be published on this page.
Presentations and information from the day is available to download from the links below.
