The Bristol Conference |
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Conference Number 5 was kindly sponsored by Rolls Royce. It was chaired by the NEC member for Wales and the South West, Mark Riches. Opening the event and welcoming delegates Mark said how Disability Champions fits in with many of the issues that he and other MSF section members fought for as members of the Amicus rules committee. He said the new rules gave us lay member equality structures to enable this project to be successful active campaigning members of the movement.
Rachael Maskell introduced the project giving both a background and a vision of the future with our budding partnership with Scope and the possible expansion of 'Disability Champions' to 'Diversity Champions' looking at all aspects of equality in the workplace. The Scope partnership proposal is for a three year 'Disability Champions Phase II' project which will further promote our objectives and continue the process of recruiting and training new Champions and expanding the self generated resources on the web site. In his presentation Dave Parr told the conference that we have now identified 74 Champions and that training was now available via a CD Rom distance learning option. A number of identified Champions have signed up for this which uses a combination of the CD and a special area of the web site. He reported that, following the 'two ticks' audit one of our Champions in the CPHVA has successfully got her trust awarded the symbol. The management team now refer to her as 'our Disability Champion'! The next speaker was Kingswood MP and steering group member, Roger Berry. Roger spoke about the forthcoming Disability Bill and how it would address some of the 'fundamental flaws' in the 1995 Act. The bill will remove all of the exempted occupations except the armed forces, remove the small employer exemption and give protection to people with long term degenerative conditions (such as cancer and HIV) from the point of diagnosis. It is hoped that this bill will feature in the forthcoming Queen's Speech. Roger also talked about the single equality commission. He said he welcomed this move as it would greatly help tackle cases of multiple discrimination. The afternoon workshops were a great success provoking some really good input and debate. The conference had successfully attracted delegates from the target areas of the South West and South Wales. At the end six delegates signed up to be Champions including our first two from Wales. We now have Champions in all 12 regions of the new union. The WorkshopsIn the afternoon the conference split into workshops. Click on the links below to see the items they addressed and their conclusions.Workshop 1 - campaigning at work Workshop 2 - overcoming obstacles |
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