University of Hertfordshire: Hertfordshire Drug and Alcohol Team

In 2006 Equality Works began working with Hertfordshire Drug and Alcohol Team (DAT) to deliver a tailored training programme for staff and managers on Equality and Diversity. This programme was carried out for DAT working in partnership with the University of Hertfordshire.

Hertfordshire DAT had identified that drug and alcohol workers from the statutory and third sector wanted to have further guidance around the impact of Equality and Diversity in their specific work areas. Employees had a good basic understanding of equalities issues but wanted to apply this understanding in a focused and considered way to their roles and service users.

Equality Works began the design process by carrying out a Training Needs Analysis with staff and managers across the DAT. This consisted of a series of focus groups focusing on the key issues they wanted to address within the training and an exploration of scenarios that had arisen with individuals from different equality strands in their particular roles. These discussions helped inform the areas that required focus within the training sessions and also informed the training material design.

The training course included sessions on:

• Identification of the equalities issues within individuals’ roles;
• Building equalities into individuals’ day-to-day work; and
• Confidence when working with service users from different equality strands.

Material was developed which related specifically to the drug and alcohol sectors and had direct relevance to the work of all participants. This enabled them to explore the issues in a practical and realistic manner. Delegates were encouraged within the training to identify key actions that they were going to take as a result of the training to ensure that they consider different equality strands more effectively within their future working.

This training gave delegates the opportunity to:

• Review examples of good practice in equalities and identify the underlying principles;
• Share an understanding of how institutionalised discrimination works;
• Identify how to build equalities into their day-to-day work;
• Understand their responsibilities in light of the law; and
• Build confidence around equality and diversity within their work role.