CASE STUDY: CITY OF EDINBURGH COUNCIL

City of Edinburgh Council was the first local authority in Scotland to sign up to our workplace training package and through this partnership we have:

Identified and supported a lead official at the council to drive forward the project internally. This official jointly leads the various staff presentations with NBM staff to underline the council’s commitment.
Delivered training to staff at all four local public offices in the city.
Presented to staff at operational depots across the city.
Ran dedicated ‘train the trainer’ sessions with council’s ‘Equality Champions’ to equip them with tools to identify any issues and resolve them.
Seen an increase in staff reporting of sectarian behaviour.

In October 2014 NBM and COEC will present to the Scottish Councils Equality Network in Stirling on how other councils can replicate and develop our partnership’s best practice. Equality leads from all 32 local authorities have been invited to this event.

Feedback from City of Edinburgh

“As a Health Improvement & Diversity Manager employed by the City of Edinburgh Council I am accountable for embedding a culture where the equality, diversity and human rights agenda is mainstreamed in our strategic and operational activities. One of the ways I achieve this is to enter into partnerships with organisations which can support the achievements of our equality outcomes and mainstreaming action plans. Working with Nil by Mouth supports the Council evidence it’s due regard to eliminating prohibited conduct as a way of ensuring that people living, working, visiting and studying in our city can do so free from Sectarian behaviour.

Examples of the ways in which we are achieving this by working with Nil by Mouth are:

The delivery of general awareness raising sessions
Using An introduction to Sectarian Behaviour as a way of making human resources policies such as the Code of Conduct come to life
Responding positively to reports of Sectarian behaviours using existing policies
Recognising that staff understand this to be unacceptable behaviour and taking the appropriate actions to address it when it does happen
Promoting the links between social networking sites and the potential for negative impacts on reputational damage

The City of Edinburgh Council has, also through our partnership with Nil by Mouth, been able to share best practice with other organisations, develop further awareness raising packages to support line managers take appropriate actions and to promote the achievements to date jointly to the Scottish Councils’ Equality Network with a view to ensuring all local authorities in Scotland support the Scottish Government achieve its objectives.”

Wendy Henderson

Health Improvement & Diversity Manager