North Yorkshire County Council
A wide ranging Programme of support from November 2006 to March 2007 involved developing the skills and confidence of Elected Members, managers and service delivery staff on implementing the Social Model of Disability in Service provision and employment practice.

"Simon has guided and supported all the councils' 73 Scrutiny Members to develop a thorough, practical understanding of disability equality and importantly enabling them to engage the issue in their service improvement work. Focusing development on the County Council's key business and improvement priorities, he was able to win Member commitment and support for practical and strategic action that we expect will make a tangible difference to peoples' lives."

County Councillor Paul Richardson
Scrutiny Member Champion (Disability Issues)

Hambleton District Council
Diverse Matters assisted the Council to establish its first Disability Equality Scheme through engaging with local disabled people and development for service managers responsible for leading its Equality & Diversity Strategy.

"Simon has helped us enormously to put together our Disability Equality Scheme.  His level of knowledge and excellent advice has resulted in an action plan that has been driven by local disabled residents and service users who will now be involved in a long term dialogue with the Council on evaluating and scrutinising service developments."

Julia Spittle
Head of People and Performance
Hambleton District Council

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
When RMBC contacted Diverse Matters they already new they wanted to engage a wider community of disabled people to explore the potential interest among local people for developing a Centre for Independent Living. They were delighted when some 90 disabled people attended an Involvement event following the theme of – "A morning in Rotherham, an afternoon in Paradise" facilitated by Simon Cox of Diverse Matters.

"We wanted to engage a large number of disabled people from the area and explore their ideas about Independent living and how they wished to be involved in the future.  Simon took this brief and designed an innovative programme enabling around 90 disabled people the opportunity to shape plans for an ongoing dialogue and relationship with the Council and our Health Authority partners.  Simon's engaging style and equalities expertise has enabled us to not only raise the profile of our commitment with local disabled people, but, has initiated the basis for a longer term success story."

Zafar Saleem
Manager, Equalities,Community Cohesion & Inclusion
Rotherham MBC

Middlesbrough Borough Council
Middlesbrough Council were attracted by the prospect of trying a new training delivery format of short, highly participative Disability is... Events where 77 employees took part in 5 x 1 hour events on April 27, 2007. These highly engaging, positive and challenging events were very well received by participants. Click here to view the Councils' Summary Evaluation Report.

"Since Simon and Paul ran the first day of the Disability is... Programme in April the participants have spread the word back in their teams and demand is such that we have now booked a further 2 day programme for November.  Our employees enjoyed the Disability is... format so much we are planning to try it in other areas of diversity development as a way of effectively introducing and engaging staff in a topic."

Faith Hambley
Corporate Training Manager
MBC

Leicestershire County Council
Our Disability is...  Programme delivered by Diverse Matters Ltd. was really taken to heart by staff at the Council. Over the first 3 day programme at County Hall headquarters, Leicester in June, 2007, some 180 managers and employees attended 12 90 minute workshops. Further 3 day programmes are planned in the Autumn and Spring 2008, to share the experience with staff in other parts of the county.

"Simon and Paul deliver a lively and highly participative programme. Their creative exercises, disability expertise and use of humour has led to some exceptional feedback from participants. We are delighted with the impact this training is having for our disability equality work and plan to take the programme to other parts of the County to enable wider employee participation. I would highly recommend Diverse Matters to other service organisations."

Kamal Sisodia
Development Officer; Equality and Diversity
Leicestershire County Council

Richmondshire District Council
Diverse Matters provided learning and development support for Elected Members and senior managers on implementing equality and diversity plans as well as coaching support for a management team to identify and implement its Equality Strategy.