Press Release (15 January 2003)

East of England Development Agency Appoints IRIS Consulting on Equalities

This new commission is aimed to help EEDA fulfil its equality objectives (and particularly its statutory race equality obligations). All Regional Development Agencies, like most other public bodies, are under a statutory duty to promote race equality and good race relations under the terms of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

A team of specialists from IRIS Consulting will be providing briefings and advice to the activity leaders who are responsible for bringing forward and implementing EEDA’s corporate objectives.

This is the latest equality assignment which has been awarded to IRIS Consulting. Other recent assignments carried out by this team include:

IRIS Consulting has carried out numerous “equality” assignments for the WDA over the last two years. These include:

An evaluation of the WDA’s Gender Equality Project: this involved a detailed assessment of the effectiveness of an EU funded Project designed to promote gender equality in the workplace and improve the employment position of women in industrial south Wales
An evaluation of the WDA’s Work/Life Balance Project: this involved assessing the impact of pilot projects aimed at helping companies to provide a better work/life balance to their employees
An equality review of the agency’s policies and procedures: this involved examining both WDA’s internal policies on recruitment and human resource management as well as external relationships relating to how the Agency presents and delivers its services to its customers. Following on from this work IRIS Consulting has been appointed to advise on how the WDA should comply with the new obligations introduced under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. This work included support in preparing WDA’s draft Race Equality Scheme

Ridgehill Housing Association

IRIS Consulting was appointed to carry out an equality review of this housing association’s policies and procedures. This involved examining both internal HR policies as well as external service delivery to customers. Following this review we were appointed to carry out “diversity awareness” training for Board members and all members of staff.

Sport England

Consultants from IRIS Consulting are working on a number of other assignments for Sport England which involve reviewing their policies and processes on equality issues relating to gender, race, disability, sexual orientation.

South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)

IRIS Consulting provided advice and support to help SEEDA prepare its initial Race Equality Scheme in accordance with the requirements of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

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