The Inclusion Challenge

[Conference funding and support] [Background] [Audience] [Aims of the day] [By the end of the conference, delegates will have:] [Programme] [Event Information] [Application Conditions] [Application Form]

Conference funding and support

This conference, part of the Inclusion Challenge project for disabled staff in the learning and skills sector, is funded and supported by the Learning and Skills Improvement Service.

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Background

Over the last decade, the learning and skills sector has made good progress in a range of important areas, including equality and diversity. Learning providers in the sector have reacted positively to equality legislation, including the Equality Act (2010), and have been proactive in going beyond legal compliance. There has been particular progress in safeguarding young adult learners and adult learners with learning difficulties and disabilities. Learning providers have become skilled in meeting the learning support needs of disabled learners and engaging learners and potential learners with mental health difficulties. Infrastructure organisations such as the Learning and Skills Council, the Centre for Excellence in Leadership, the Quality Improvement Agency, the Learning and Skills Network, Lifelong Learning UK, Skill, UCU, the AoC and NIACE have supported progress with a number of initiatives aimed at different ‘segments’ of the sector.

Some areas however have been relatively neglected, and one of these has been recognising and addressing the employment barriers faced disabled staff.

In March 2008, the Commission for Disabled Staff in Lifelong Learning published final and summary reports revealing just how far the sector had to go to catch up with progress in other areas. Ministerial and BIS support for the Commission was encouraging, and Lifelong Learning UK set up a Disability Equality Implementation Group to take forward development work. That development included a training programme and guidance documents specifically designed to help learning providers recruit, retain and develop disabled employees, and encourage disability declaration for securing appropriate adjustments.

More recently, LSIS, through its equality and diversity team, has recognised the importance of supporting learning providers with disabled staff and disabled staff themselves and maintaining the momentum of previous initiatives. It has recognised the importance of achieving disability equality not just for disabled staff and learners but to improve organisational culture and inclusion overall. The conference is the recent culmination of LSIS’s commitment. It marks an end and a beginning – the end of a regional programme of workshops and support for disabled staff, and the beginning of a network of continuing support. LSIS has been supported in a very committed way by six regional learning providers – Blackpool and the Fylde College in the North West, Doncaster College in the Yorkshire and Humberside, Leicester Adult Learning Service in the East Midlands, City and Islington College in London, VistaProject in the South West and Worthing College in the South East. NIACE and Skill are the national partners.

The event aims to provide disabled staff participants who have been associated with the programme to date with a celebration of their achievements as disabled staff, confidence to make progress in their personal development and careers and the opportunity to meet other delegates from other regions facing the same challenges. Participants will gain up to date knowledge and information (in addition to that from the workshop programme) to support them in their current work and possible progression. In particular, they will gain confidence about legislative and other support to ensure that they have the same opportunities as all other staff. The conference can also help them to help their organisations to promote disability equality and inclusion.

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Audience

The event will be of particular interest to these groups within the learning and skills sector:

• Disabled staff who have engaged to date with the Inclusion Challenge programme
• Regional LSIS partners who have co-delivered the programme
• Disabled staff with an interest in being supported in the area
• Equality and diversity managers and strategic managers responsible for equality and diversity who wish to make progress with disability equality in their institutions
• Trade union representatives who support disabled staff
• HR managers and directors
• Non-disabled staff and managers who wish to support disabled colleagues.

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Aims of the day

• To celebrate progress for disabled staff through the programme and beyond
• To share knowledge and information for disability equality
• To convey messages to strategic managers and sector representatives invited to participate
• To disseminate good practice in relation to disabled staff for future action.

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By the end of the conference, delegates will have:

• Received updates and information relevant to their work and development as disabled staff
• Discussed and shared information with other delegates from each regional partnership through knowledge cafes
• Conveyed messages to strategic managers and sector representatives in order for them to be disseminated to their networks
• Demonstrated confidence as disabled employees about future opportunities and available support.

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Programme

10:30 Registration and networking (tea/coffee available)

11:00 Welcome and introduction to the day from the Chair
Chair: Jane Watts, Programme Director, NIACE

11:10 Keynote address:
Joel Petrie, Advanced Lecturer - Study Support, Liverpool Community College

11.30 Knowledge Cafés (6) – morning session – and text wall
(tea/coffee available during the process)
– key messages for strategic managers to take back to their networks

12.30 Feedback from knowledge café leaders/text wall feedback

13.00 Lunch

13.45 Knowledge Cafés (4) – afternoon session – and text wall

14.30 Feedback from knowledge café leaders/text wall feedback
 – key messages for strategic managers to take back to their networks

15.00 Keynote closing address from participant in the Inclusion Challenge programme

15:20 Evaluation and next steps

15.30 Close of conference (tea/coffee available)

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Event Information

• Arrival and registration is at 10:30am for a 11:00am start. The event will end at 3:30pm
• Event fee per person (includes lunch, tea/coffee): Free.
• Places will be allocated in order of receipt of completed application forms (one form per person)
• Video cameras may be in use at this event. If you do not wish to be photographed or appear on the video outputs please indicate this on the application form and make yourself known at registration
• Participants should be prepared to take their own notes as there will not be handouts for all sessions
• If you have not received an e-mail confirming your attendance and joining instructions 4 working days before the event please contact:

  NIACE Events Team
  Tel: 0116 204 2833
  Fax: 0116 254 8368
  E-mail: events@niace.org.uk

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Application Conditions

Event: Thursday 5 May 2011
Closing Date: Thursday 14 April 2011

• Substitutions are to be advised 5 working days prior to the event
• A 10 working days notice period is required for provision of electronic note-takers, sign language interpreters and transcription to Braille
• Places can be reserved online via: www niace.org.uk/events Alternatively completed and signed application forms can be faxed or posted to NIACE by the closing date. Reservations by telephone cannot be accepted
• Application forms are individually acknowledged by e-mail. Joining instructions, including map and directions, will be e-mailed out one week before the event

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