General Teaching Council Success

General Teaching Council

I assisted a teacher who was discriminated against to pursue a successful and landmark complaint at the General Teaching Council of England (GTC). This involved attending the GTC Professional Conduct Committee hearing in Birmingham, on-going liaison with the barrister, preparing a witness statement and support. In October 2008, the disciplinary panel said the ex-headteacher had “brought the reputation and standing of the profession into serious disrepute.” Read the GTC's decision, it is strongly in our favour.

The complaint was against a former Education, Training and Employment Manager of Brighton & Hove City Council for discriminating against the teacher, Ms. Thoday, because she is transgender. The purpose of pursuing the complaint against the senior manager, Philip Morgan, was to hold him to account, because the City Council his employer did not reprimand him which was considered unjust and unfair.

In October 2008, he was found guilty of professional misconduct by the GTC, which is the professional body for teaching. It "provides an opportunity for teachers to shape the development of professional practice and policy, and maintains and sets professional standards." After examining the evidence I helped to prepare, they decided the Council Manager had a case to answer.

The GTC funded a barrister to prepare and present the case. Our barrister was from Blake Lapthorn - one of the UK's leading full service law firms. This is the same legal firm I was involved with winning two previous successful cases at the Employment Tribunal against the City Council and the same employee. The Equality and Human Rights Commission employed them.

The GTC decision sets a positive precedent that discrimination is not acceptable and all people need protection from its' harmful effects. There is a definite public interest. The local newspaper, the Argus, reported the hearing took place. Pink News reported the hearing and the positive outcome. G-Scene Magazine has published two magazine articles and three online reports about the hearing and the outcome. Other news sites and webgroups are also covering the story, such as Indymedia and Press for Change. The Green Party supports us with quotes in G-Scene and Pink News, by Nigel Tart, their LGBT spokesperson.

In November 2008, G-Scene magazine publishes a feature article on Ms. Thoday and I and a news report about the GTC decision against Philip Morgan. The Editor, James Ledward, dedicates his editorial to our efforts. He criticises Brighton & Hove City Council, makes a direct link to my high profile Tribunal in 2005 against the Council and exposes more discrimination by the Council, over the former Chief Executive's (David Panter) partner.

Equality and Human Rights Commission Co-Working

Equality and Human Rights Commission

I worked with the Equality and Human Rights Commission on the preparation of two successful legal actions taken against Brighton & Hove City Council for the victimisation and discrimination of an ex-employee. I co-wrote the two successful applications to the Employment Tribunals. The victim and I described and analysed the acts of discrimination and victimisation. I then successfully negotiated with the Commission to sponsor the legal action, via Blake Lapthorn - one of the UK's leading full service law firms. I liaised regularly with well-known barristers, such as Stephanie Harrison QC, solicitors and officers throughout the process of preparing the cases, giving vital input until they were completed and Brighton & Hove City Council were found guilty on five counts. The Council also lodged an Appeal against the Tribunal’s decision, but withdrew it.

The success and background to these cases are very significant and receiving increasing public interest. I have been liaising with the press to promote the issues and raise awareness. The Times Education Supplement magazine and website published a feature in September 2008. G-Scene has published three articles on this story in their downloadable magazine or blog. The first article (pg.6) is in the October 2007 magazine issue, the second is a blog "Brighton Council found guilty of discrimination" on 26 November 2007. Thirdly, there's a new blog and a printed magazine article (pg.6) for October 2008, "City Council named and shamed as a discriminatory employer in The Times Educational Supplement." Web based newsgroups and forums are sharing the news widely and web traffic to the website is coming from many countries.

The Commission works to eliminate discrimination, reduce inequality, protect human rights and to build good relations, ensuring that everyone has a fair chance to participate in society. It has extensive legal powers and a dedicated directorate of expert lawyers who are specialists in equality law. They are well equipped to take legal action on behalf of individuals, especially where there are strategic opportunities to push the boundaries of the law. Where there are chances to create legal precedents or to clarify and improve the law, the commission will seek to do so.

Employment Tribunals and Employment Appeal Tribunals Experience

Employment Tribunals
Employment Appeal Tribunals

I have been involved in the complete processes of taking several cases to the Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal. I have assisted victims throughout as a power of attorney to both types of Tribunals and been a litigant in person myself. I have attended Tribunals, been a witness and supported witnesses. These experiences have given me many insights, knowledge and skills into the official and unofficial processes involved. More importantly I was also exposed to the lengths and many tactics used by the accused to deceive and mislead a Tribunal. These include withholding evidence, faking or doctoring evidence, stealing witnesses, trying to discredit the victim, using the official rules to waste time or misdirect the process and bullying the victim.

I have also experienced the differences between the Tribunal people who are genuinely interested in the victim or are strongly against the victim and in favour of the employer. They are usually against the victim and in favour of the employer, from my observations and listening to other professionals. Tribunal members have wide discretion so their on-going decisions on the management of the case and their Judgement often reveal their own attitudes. The system is designed to support individual discretion, so bad attitudes are very hard/impossible to challenge.

I have dealt with many examples of bad Tribunal practice, such as refusing to follow the law and legal precedent, knowingly allowing the accused to conceal evidence, viciously and incorrectly dismissing valid cases before they are even heard, refusing to protect the identity of vulnerable victims, maliciously awarding costs of thousands of pounds against the accused, ignoring medical advice, emailing the Judgment to the accused days before sending it to the victim, totally excluding witnesses and evidence from the Judgment, making grossly inappropriate and discriminatory comments about the victim or vulnerable groups. I have also dealt with a Tribunal that was balanced, fair, accurate and thorough and not inherently prejudiced, so can make comparisons between cases.

In these processes I have successfully worked with the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Free Representation Unit (FRU) to get help or sponsorship for victims The Free Representation Unit provides pro bono representation before the Employment and Social Security Tribunals. I have dealt directly with accused employers, regularly communicated with the Tribunal and the Appeal Tribunal, written successful and unsuccessful claims to the Tribunal, written successful Appeals to overturn wrong decisions of a Tribunal Regional Chair, successfully received £10,000 to fund an appeal though Legal Aid, attempted to raise concerns about a Regional Chair with the Tribunal President and the Ombudsman, achieved assistance from Members of European Parliament and Government Ministers, worked directly with barristers, solicitors, officers, a Citizens Advice Bureau adviser, an Employment Tribunal member, witnesses, victims, journalists and Members of Parliament.

The Employment Tribunals (ET) are judicial bodies who determine disputes between employers and employees over employment rights.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) considers appeals from decisions made by Employment Tribunals.

Strategic Advice & Consultation Experience

Home Office

I was employed as the Co-ordinator of a Community Safety Forum to build the capacity of individuals and communities. I also gave expert strategic and operational advice to numerous organisations, such as the police, the Council and community groups. This was to improve the quality of design and delivery of their services, improve performance and attitudes towards the communities the funding was provided for. I also worked directly with people who were the victims of hate crime or discrimination and represented their needs.

The Home Office is the UK government department responsible for leading the national effort to protect the public from terrorism, crime and anti-social behaviour. They fund pilot projects to try out new ways of working. They awarded Brighton & Hove Police Division £1.2 million to work in a new partnership with eight other local organisations to reduce hate crime, educate, increase awareness and to build trust and confidence. It was an ambitious attempt to develop innovative strategies and interventions through a multi-agency partnership approach to tackle hate crime in Brighton and Hove.

The project was known as the Anti-Victimisation Initiative. It was set up to fight against racism/racial harassment, homophobia, transphobia and domestic violence. Racial minorities, lesbians, gay men, bisexual people, transgender people and victims of domestic abuse were the people the project served.

The partners were the Sussex Police, three Community Safety Forums (Racial Harassment, Domestic Violence and LGBT Community), Victim Support, the Women’s Refuge Project, East Sussex Probation Service and the local Council.

Crown Prosecution Service

I was invited onto the Equality and Diversity Committee for the CPS in the South-East of England to give advice and expertise on how they could provide the best service to victims and improve the internal running of the organisation, from a perspective of people traditionally under-represented, ignored or treated badly.

The Crown Prosecution Service’s slogan is “Championing justice, defending your rights.” It is responsible for prosecuting criminal cases investigated by the police in England and Wales

Local Strategic Partnership

I was appointed a member of the partnership as a Communities of Interest Network Representative, which meant representing the views of ordinary people, especially those who are traditionally under-represented, forgotten or ignored.

Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) are non-statutory, multi-agency partnerships, which matches local authority boundaries. LSPs bring together at a local level the different parts of the public, private, community and voluntary sectors; allowing different initiatives and services to support one another so that they can work together more effectively. 2020 Community Partnership is the name of Brighton & Hove's LSP.

The partnership created a sustainable community strategy to set out the vision and plans of the agencies, organisations and communities who work together through the 2020 Community Partnership to improve the quality of life in the city.

Community Development Experience

I was the Project Manager for Diversity Alliance, co-ordinating the organisations involved in the partnership, plus the development and launch of campaign materials to educate, inform, raise awareness and challenge prejudice.

Under the banner ‘Homophobia: what are you scared of?’ Diversity Alliance launched its campaign with radio advertisements on Juice 107.2, bus advertisements, postcards, leaflets, posters and a website. The campaign featured celebrities Dermot O’Leary and Jayne Middlemiss, who showed their support to stamp out homophobia by appearing in the publicity, as reported in the Argus, the local newspaper. Footballer Ian Wright and actor Ralph Brown also appeared in the campaign previously.

The main target audience was heterosexual young people, but was generally far-reaching through its’ presence all over the city. There was the well-attended media launch at Brighton's Komedia, the South's premier live entertainment venue, which I presented. It was a great success and the radio adverts I worked on with Juice 107.2 won a national award.

Some of the activities done by Diversity Alliance:
* High-profile advertising campaign featuring celebrities
* Campaign packs to schools, youth services, and other organisations
* Anti-discrimination and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender awareness training for teachers and youth workers
* Events in the community and in schools highlighting the issues around homo/transphobic bullying
* Development of tools, policies, and advice to help schools and other places young people go
* Funding of 'Deep Blue Sea', a highly successful collection of writings and sayings by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and unsure youth members of Allsorts Youth Project (see below).

Diversity Alliance was a project of the Safety Forum for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community, and had the support of many organisations:
East Sussex, Brighton & Hove Health Authority
PSE (Personal and Social Education) Advisory Team
Brighton Lesbian & Gay Switchboard
Gay & Lesbian Arts & Media (GLAM)
Young Men’s Sexual Health Project
Allsorts Youth Project
Celebrating Diversity
Queericulum
THT South (Terrence Higgins Trust)
Brighton & Hove Council Youth & Community Services
Brighton & Hove Council Education Services
as well as individual members of the community.

Spectrum

For several years I was a appointed a trustee of Spectrum which oversees the management and development of the organisation. I was also appointed a member of the Interim Executive which created the organisation, set up the organisational framework, got funding, recruited staff and was a member of the management committee for several years after. Here's the Co-ordinator's message of thanks to me in an Annual Report:

Spectrum exists to inform, consult, involve, build, represent and respect the LGBT Community in Brighton & Hove. At least 15% of Brighton & Hove residents are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, which is the city's largest 'minority.' The award-winning and large scale LGBT community survey, called Count Me In, has led to the development of a LGBT Community Strategy for Brighton & Hove, supported by the Police, Primary Care Trust, City Council and others.

Spectrum developed from this process to work with local services and planners in implementing the strategy, and to provide infrastructure and community development support for the LGBT community.

Allsorts Youth Project

For several years I was appointed the Chairperson of Allsorts, or was on the Management Committee, to oversee the management and development of the organisation. Allsorts is a very successful project based in Brighton to support young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or unsure (LGBTU) of their sexuality or gender.

Millennium Volunteers

I helped to create Brighton & Hove Millennium Volunteers project (BHMV), set up the organisational framework, get funding, recruit staff and manage staff and was a member of the management committee for several years. The project which was highly successful, especially for its’ ability to attract young people who would not normally volunteer. BHMV won an award for its’ work. The Millennium Volunteers scheme was a national youth volunteering programme and England's biggest ever youth action operation to inspire young people to volunteer. MV had a recognition scheme for volunteers aged 16-25, which celebrated and rewarded the amazing things that young volunteers get involved in. ‘vinvolved’ has replaced the Millennium Volunteers scheme.

Positions of Responsibity in Trade Unions

UNISON Equality Officer

I was an Equality Officer in the union on a branch Executive Committee giving advice to the management and the Committee on equality, discrimination and diversity issues. I worked with and represented individual employees who came to me with issues and problems. This often required networking and making links with other institutions and colleagues in the region and the wider community to promote solidarity. I was also a Health and Safety Officer.

UNISON is the trade union for people delivering public services and has more than 1.3 million members.


National Union of Students

I have been elected to three National Executive Committees within the NUS over several years relating to promoting human rights, fighting discrimination in society and improving the internal openness and accountability of NUS. I organised conferences, put together campaigns, produced educational materials, produced policy and furthered the interests of the people I represented.

NUS is one of the largest student organisations in the world and provides research, representation, training and expert advice for individual students and students' unions. It has a voluntary membership of over 600 constituent members and represent the interests of over 7 million students.

NUS fights barriers to education, empowers students to shape both a quality learning experience and the world around them, and supports influential, democratic and well-resourced students’ unions.

There are three core values. Equality: there should be equality of opportunity for everyone to participate fully in a society that celebrates diversity. Democracy: policies and priorities must be student-led and students’ union-focused through building open, transparent and accessible democratic structures that increase performance and strengthen accountability.
Collectivism: students and students’ unions are more effective when they organise together locally, nationally and internationally: unity is strength.


Lancaster University Students’ Union

I was elected as a Non-Sabbatical Executive Officer during my studies to help and represent individuals and groups with problems. I also designed and implemented campaigns to raise awareness about many issues, such as rights, discrimination and prejudice. Elected student officers conduct the affairs of the students' union and implement policy.

After I graduated I was also elected as a full-time Sabbatical Officer for a year. Sabbatical officers of the union are elected to represent all students. These are paid positions lasting one year. Sabbaticals' jobs are to represent students views to the university management, to make sure students' voices are heard and to ensure that there is a diverse range of quality services available. This can be anything from raising issues such as improving campus facilities through to national concerns such as the funding of higher education.

Students' unions play a vital role in facilitating the representation of students' views within the institution. It is run by a body of students elected as officers to deal with specific aspects of the union, as well as being administered by a core of full-time staff. The Union is there to represent students needs and views. I worked on a national, regional and local level, with the wider community, like-minded agencies and other institutions as a matter of course.

Personal Development Experience

University of Sussex

I was employed as a Development Worker at the University of Sussex Students' Union. The purpose was to help students from many backgrounds and cultures develop themselves and get the best out of their time at university outside of their studies. This is involved helping and advising students on how to run their own clubs and societies, organising a Student Community Action scheme and offering the opportunity to volunteer in a wide variety of local community projects, for example.


Career Development & Employment Centre

I was employed as an Assistant in the Career Development & Employment Centre (CDEC) at the University of Sussex. The Centre is a vital resource for Sussex University students and graduates. The staff provide quality information and advice on all aspects of making career choices and job-hunting.


Common Purpose


I completed the one year Common Purpose ‘Matrix Programme’ for Brighton & Hove.

Higher Education

I graduated with a Certificate in Management from the Chartered Management Institute at the University of Brighton in 1999 and a Honours degree in Psychology and Women’s Studies from Lancaster University in 1994.