Diverse workforce development

Some examples of this network's achievements over the past year include:

• 'Know Your Numbers': A campaign to encourage blood pressure testing. It has helped to recognise the disproportionate effect of blood pressure issues for BAME staff and has also raised it as an awareness campaign for all staff. Working with employee healthcare, there was a joint effort to communicate and facilitate blood pressure checks for staff. These checks have been in operational depots and were set out as drop-ins, to reduce service distraction.
• Black History Month - The month was established in 1987, to acknowledge, raise awareness and promote the vast contributions that people of Black, African and Caribbean descent have made to the UK and world history. In a post-covid world, the network had to adapt how we delivered these events. Alongside a wide range of community-based events, the network hosted a virtual, internal, council-wide staff presentation entitled: The Power of Platform, delivered by Andrew Muhammad (also known as the Investigator).
• South Asian History Month - A series of events were organised to highlight the shared cultures and histories of south Asian heritage and the impact it has had, not only in the UK but also the world. This year's events covered the Sikh Soldier in Greenhead Park (commemorating the thousands of Sikhs who fought and died in World Wars I and II) migration, teas and traditions, art and an interview with the BBC's Apprentice winner, Harpreet Kaur. Over a four-week period, this series of events built on last year's successes from our inaugural launch.
• World Book Day - This year, the network wanted to incorporate black history into mainstream activities throughout the year and a good opportunity for this was, World Book Day. The network worked with a local school around championing diversity, which was featured on ITV Calendar news and worked to showcase the diversity in literature, available to the community.

The BAME network continues to promote race equally and celebrate black and south Asian history. The events mentioned above are now firm fixtures in the Kirklees calendar and are attended by a wide, cross-section of employees, helping to raise awareness and promote inclusion.

A particular mention needs to go to the 'Know Your Numbers' campaign, which has been taken up by hundreds of employees. In numerous cases, it has helped to uncover unknown health conditions, which people have then been treated for - it is changing lifestyles and saving lives!

The network intends to build on its events programme in the coming year and will look to promote itself to employees, managers and services, to further advance race equality in the workplace. It will also increase its advisory and consultancy role, when services are developing council policies and strategies, with particular attention paid to any impact on BAME employees and communities.

The network has undertaken many activities in the past year, notably it:

• Provided one-to-one and group support to members of the network, on ad-hoc issues arising in the workplace, including specifically, issues around return to workplaces.
• Supported managers in areas such as, how to approach conversations with disabled employees and prospective employees, around disability and adjustments, providing information and signposting to other information resources.
• Engagement in council projects, such as, Dewsbury Town Park, wheelchair services review, visual and hearing impairment strategy and room accessibility update.
• Supported the organisation to improve access to documents more generally.
• Input into new recruitment processes and guidance on approaches for managers, to enable a more inclusive recruitment process from start to finish, with a current focus on reasonable adjustments and making information available to managers around what adjustments may be offered.

DEN continues to provide important advice and guidance to disabled employees, managers and services. As the activities above evidence, the network has promoted disability equality in the workplace and service delivery. The support given to disabled employees returning to the workplace after the covid pandemic, has been a particular success, providing advice and reassurance to individuals.

Increased capacity within the network needs to be achieved, to improve its reach in the organisation and its ability to guide and support services.

Over the last 12 months, the network has seen a period of significant growth in scope, visibility and membership. The GEN has grown from a handful of employees to over one hundred members, as well as establishing a committed leadership team, with distinct portfolio areas. The network strives to highlight the opportunities, we as individuals, have in combating the ongoing climate crisis and functions as a knowledge-sharing space, as well as a platform for engaging with volunteering events.

The key impact achieved by the network include:

• Providing regular (6-8 weekly) full network meetings, which serve to reflect on the successes of the preceding period and offer novel opportunities for practical involvement in volunteering and projects, as well as corporate updates and presentations from the Environment and Climate Change service, providing a forum for members to come together and share thoughts.
• Providing a space where over a hundred members of staff share ideas, inspire one another to be more climate and environmentally aware.
• Producing monthly newsletters ('Green Voice') which include news articles, opportunities for members, network updates and a dedicated artwork section.
• Raising awareness of nature and biodiversity in Kirklees, through seasonal-related projects; the most recent being our 'Spring Watch' event, in which members shared images and videos of nature in Kirklees, in line with four-weekly themes.
• A frequently updated blog page.
• Ongoing learning and development projects, with development opportunities for staff.

The network will strive to raise awareness across the organisation, to continue to attract new members and raise its profile, as a forum to come to for advice and support.

2022 saw the LGBTQ+ Network host its very first Kirklees Pride celebration, on July 9th. It was a full day of activities, celebration and live entertainment, centred at the Lawrence Batley Theatre, with stalls and events across Huddersfield town centre. This year's Pride was the first year where it was co-ordinated and driven by Kirklees Council and specifically this network. Colleagues worked hard to bring together local charities, children's entertainment, community organisations, emergency services, music, poetry, drag acts and even a celebrity guest star.

In the run up to the event, Kirklees Museums and Galleries, hosted a new exhibition: The Day the World Came to Huddersfield, looking back to 1981, when London Pride came to Huddersfield to stand with the LGBTQ+ community at the time.

The network also worked with colleagues in People Services, with the development and publication of the 'Gender Identity Pledge', providing support and increasing confidence in colleagues around gender identity.

There were numerous events held for LGBT History Month in February, such as a history lesson on the origin of the pride flag, sharing recommendations with colleagues on finding out more about LGBTQ+ history, and a partnership event with Stonewall housing.

The network has worked with the Senior Leadership Team and colleagues in IT, to make rainbow lanyards available through the corporate store, to boost allyship across the workforce.

There was a special guest speaker for Trans Day of Awareness, in November. The radio presenter Stephanie Hirst gave her 'Believe Achieve' seminar to over sixty colleagues.

The Kirklees Pride event was well-attended and brought together a whole host of community organisations. Huddersfield town centre was transformed with colour for this large-scale event, with something for everyone.

The network has brought inspirational learning to the workforce (through guest speakers, blogs and awareness-raising) and practical support, with developing policies and practices, to support LGBTQ+ members of staff, for all to work with dignity, respect and fairness in the workplace.

The network plans a series of events over the coming year, marking significant events such as International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia and continuing to create a safe space for colleagues.

The wellbeing champions network aims to support Kirklees employees, to actively encourage them to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing. At Kirklees Council, we offer support to help employees stay healthy, prevent illness and cope with difficult and challenging times. Part of this commitment is the provision and development of wellbeing champions within the workplace.

The wellbeing champions network had a soft launch in May 2022. They have supported wellbeing champions, who have interests in certain areas of wellbeing, to become leads in their areas of interest. So far, they have wellbeing champions who lead in the following areas: cancer support, men's health, 50+ health, holistic and alternate therapies, mental health, grief and loss, thyroid support, fitness and exercise, diabetes support, digital wellbeing, pre- and post-natal support, menopause and long covid.

The network is still relatively new but already it is:

• Encouraging their members to participate in meetings, to provide a platform for feedback and information, which can be used to influence change within the organisation.
• Developing a wellbeing champions' essential learning package, for all wellbeing champions to have access to, so they can feel confident to signpost to colleagues.
• Attending new starter events and encouraging new members to sign up to promote positive wellbeing in the workplace.
• Supporting services with high levels of sickness, to promote having wellbeing champions within their teams.
• Offering peer support, via network champions, to colleagues and signposting to relevant services.
• Providing support to employees with thyroid issues, via a successful thyroid support group.

Going forward, the network will be evaluating using member surveys, to gauge the impact. The data and intelligence gained from this, will be used to put together a forward-looking action plan.

This network is incredibly new and is at the start of its exciting journey. Its biggest achievement so far, is its launch in April 2022. Following the formation of a working group, which hosted some activities for International Women's Day in March 2022, the group decided they wanted to formalise the network and proceeded to set up a formal employee network. The activities held on or around International Women's Day included:

• A webinar led by the Kirklees Apprenticeships for All team, focusing on personal development.
• A 'More Than A Book Club' session, about inspirational women.
• A restorative session around the theme of '#BreakTheBias'.
• A panel event of speakers from Kirklees Council, Huddersfield Town Football Club, Cummins and the LGBTQ+ Network.

Since the establishment of the formal network, two co-chairs have been elected, plus a core steering group and they have gathered over eighty members so far.

The network offers a platform for everyone across Kirklees Council to engage with. A place to connect, communicate and share ideas and experiences in the workplace, without fear or judgement. It prides itself on being welcoming and inclusive for women and those who support women, however they identify themselves.

Moving forward, the network wants to function as a collective voice for all and enable communication between leadership and the network, for feedback and action.

The network meets every six weeks and features on topics of interest identified by women, ranging from health and wellbeing, the culture of our organisation, barriers and challenges faced in the workplace from a woman's perspective and gender inequalities.

It is too early in the life of the network to report significant impact, suffice to say, that it has created a positive forum for members to come together for support and to help promote gender equality.

To be determined in the months ahead.

The Working Carers Support Network aims to support Kirklees employees who have the additional responsibility of caring for a family member or friend, in an unpaid capacity, alongside their day-to-day role with the council.

The network provides monthly, virtual meetings, for members to catch up and benefit from peer support from other working carers. The meetings also provide the opportunity for guest speakers to provide information about support that is available for working carers, both through the council and through local charities and organisations.

The network enables working carers to share their experiences and ideas with council officers and our two Network Director Champions, who continually work to ensure that Kirklees Council is an inclusive and supportive employer of working carers.

By the very nature of its membership, individuals who have caring responsibilities, often find it difficult to attend meetings, so a key action moving forward will be to address this barrier to involvement and engagement.

The Young Employee Network (YEN) is composed of all council employees aged thirty or under. The network is managed by a team of leads and two co-chairs, who commit their time to delivering the network's priorities and championing young people in Kirklees, alongside their day-to-day jobs. Key achievements for the network over the past year include:

• Continuing to support members throughout the covid pandemic - though the initial lockdown periods have now ended, YEN continues to represent and support young council employees in the transition to hybrid working, or through the weekly online, 'Tea and Talks' meetings, which provide a space for members to learn, share and socialise.
• Guest speaker events, such as the Pensions awareness session, where members learnt all about the importance of starting to plan for the future, key things to look out for on their Pension statements and understanding them.
• Health and Wellbeing events and activities, such as Loneliness Awareness Week, Menopause awareness sessions, Cervical Screening (and on the importance of being screened) and Mental Health Awareness sessions, delivered in partnership with Andy's Man Club.
• Activities for European Democracy Week, in partnership with the Green Employee Network, where members ran a series of environmental volunteering opportunities for council staff, to use half a day of their volunteering time, to join a community group and help them with their environmental project. This saw around thirty council staff sign up to support four projects, which included: a tidy up of a local park in Slaithwaite, helping a community garden in Batley prepare for winter, a litter pick in Lindley and supporting our recycling team, to tidy glass recycling points in Lockwood and Newsome.
• Workshop development opportunities to improve or develop their political awareness, in the context of their officer role, including helping colleagues better understand the role of a councillor, relevant political structures and provided the opportunity for young employees to meet and talk to councillors.
• Supporting members with their professional development, to help them to achieve their potential and have even more fulfilling careers with the council, while helping to retain young talent within the organisation.
• Attending Young Local Authority of the Year, where YEN won the best, 'Pride of Place' category, with a two-minute presentation on Standedge Tunnel, Britain's longest, highest, and deepest canal tunnel, located in Marsden.
• Partnership Work, utilising video conferencing technology and hybrid ways of working, to identify and reach out to other young employee networks at local authorities across the UK. The working group meets regularly to share best practice, discuss overcoming common challenges and think ambitiously about how, in nurturing partnerships with other local authorities, they can deliver joint events for young staff going forward.
• Social, cultural and volunteering opportunities, such as: supporting the LGBTQ+ Network with Pride week; social activities like a trip to Laser Quest; greeting new starters to the council at Welcome Events; speaking to a local, sixth form students, from Greenhead College, about the opportunities of a career at Kirklees; and sharing skills through delivering IT training, for the Paddock-based charity for asylum seekers, DASH.
• The Young Employee Awards - a great event, which saw more nominations from council employees than ever before and the event was attended by over two hundred staff members, making this year YEN awards the biggest and best yet!

As one of the network's areas of focus is professional development, this year, YEN held its first 'Careers Conference', where officers from across the council were invited to introduce young employees to their services and tell them all about the career pathways and opportunities that can be found within them. Development of staff within the council and exploring career progression, without losing talented employees is a core part of YEN's ambition. The event was filled by different departments and services, keen to speak to young staff, with a high number of network members and young colleagues in attendance. The network plans to host another session in the future.

In September 2022, a group of volunteers from the Young Employee Network, visited the charitable, incorporated, organisation Destitute Asylum Seekers Huddersfield (DASH) based in Paddock. They worked with staff and volunteers from the group during training sessions, to help them with their Microsoft Teams and Excel skills. The Mayor of Kirklees, Councillor Masood Ahmed, was invited by the charity and the network to see the work, and said:

"It is a great chance for our employees to go out and meet members of the community to develop their skills, but it also highlights the young and talented people we have working here".

"It is another example of showing how we are working with our communities, and it would be great to meet other departments and staff who are doing the same."

Every year, the leadership team help put together the 'Young Employee Network Plan', which communicates the priorities of young employees in the council. It is informed by regular engagement with young employees, including the Annual Survey.

The network intends to undertake a further survey in 2022, to inform the plan for 2022-23.

The team is also looking forward to hosting the first, post-pandemic, in-person YEN Awards event, in early 2023.