#CIHDiversity More ideas: gender neutral language in policies, clarifying provisions like special leave are open to everyone, giving examples what homophobia/biphobia/transphobia looks like

#CIHDiversity Next up is Craig Picknell sharing with us how Leicester City Council have approached BME inclusion in the workplace

#CIHDiversity Craig sharing with us his journey to better understand how representative his workforce is of the communities served. Context is important, but which context to consider: city area, county area, both, actual home locations of current employees, split by grade?

#CIHDiversity Craig calculated that it will take 10 years to improve senior leadership diversity due to low staff turnover so change will be slow despite measures but in place

#CIHDiversity Craig sharing with us how blind shortlisting removed bias in shortlisting of candidates

#CIHDiversity Equality, diversity and inclusion is everyone's job and has to be embedded into the culture, it's not a training course or the job of HR

#CIHDiversity Our final speaker before the discussion starts is Baljit from @ARKConsultLtd who is focusing on the issue of age in the workplace, are we ready for 4 or 5 generations in our workforce?

#CIHDiversity Baljit cautioning us that stereotypes will influence all of us, even if we consciously refute them, and that age is an overlooked issue where discrimination seems more tolerated, e.g. 'you look great for your age'

#CIHDiversity now hearing some stats on parental issues, fathers who spend time caring for newborns are 40% less likely to separate from mum. 1 in 4 families are single parents, 30% of dads works 48 hours+ per week. How do we support all parts of the family?

#CIHDiversity we're now into the discussion, kicking off with an example that younger colleagues can be made to feel like a child when older colleagues say 'oh you're too young to remember that' and also if not worked in sector for 10-20 years

#CIHDiversity The issue of menopause now being raised, some organisations have high numbers of older women that will be going through this and this will only increase, some organisations developing working groups, policies, etc

#CIHDiversity A challenge to us all to not create additional barriers, does labelling something for young professionals help or hinder the cause?

#CIHDiversity Diversity pay gap reports being recommended by Citizen and Leicester City Council as barriers not just faced by women, suggestion to broaden Women in Construction type initiatives into Men in HR, etc.

#CIHDiversity how do we create a diverse talent pool to apply for senior roles? Or is the key changing recruitment practices? Great example from recruiting BME and female firefighters, by engaging with community leaders and understanding reasons for not applying

#CIHDiversity Great to have two tenants from @emhhomes with us this morning, highlighting their experiences re age, disability, mental health and how organisations as landlords and employers can learn from them

#CIHDiversity A practical example highlighting how we need to think about how we deliver services during different religious festivals, e.g planning gas servicing programmes around Ramadan as well as Christmas

#CIHDiversity Some more practical examples:review language in adverts,think about where you advertise,not everyone reading Guardian or Inside Housing or even looking online,double check long lists,speak with any recruitment agencies you use about strategies to increase diversity

#CIHDiversity Discussion now on challenges of gathering data, culture needs to be right to enable this but can the culture change without having the data to inform this? One example is to share stories from those that are happy to do so to encourage others

#CIHDiversity practical ideas: share role model examples, work openly, tell people what you are doing, what difference it is making, use awareness days, don't just put rainbows on everything

Beau enjoying her presents from today’s visit to #Crufts