London Borough of Tower Hamlets: Sexuality Awareness Training

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets recently changed their training provider and approached us on the basis that we have been working with them on a number of projects over the last two years and have received excellent feedback on all the interventions. They commissioned us to run two sessions as a pilot and will then review and evaluate the work for rollout across the Council.

We designed and delivered a one day equalities training programme, with a focus on awareness of sexuality and gender. The programme was designed to fit with the Council's commitment to providing excellent public services to staff and residents who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, to combat discrimination and harassment effectively and to value staff and customers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

The course looked at a range of issues including good practice from a variety of organisations as well as encouraging participants to think about their own good practice within the Council. The course also provided an analysis of how discrimination and disadvantage operates within organisations, particularly looking at how homophobia can negatively impact on LGB people and the legal framework around sexuality. The course included both trainer input and a range of participative activities to ensure that delegates were able to gain the maximum from the learning experience.

The feedback from the training was extremely positive and the findings will now be used in decision making regarding how to roll out the training across the Council.