The various unintentional (but far from off-topic) posts to the lists
about diversity were of interest to me. I am just concluding a
secondment to Surrey County Council's Best Value Equalities review, and
although I've mostly been working with Social Services and age and
gender issues, I've kept my eye on the Heritage side, too.  Best Value
is a British Local Govt.  management tool which involves consulting
(non)users and stakeholders, comparing with others, challenging what and
how things are done, and then cutting the budget oops, no, the fourth C
is ensuring that it is delivered competitively.  One of these days I'll
be able to say this with a straight face, I'm sure.

Among the comparitors, we included Colonial Williamsburg (for their
training programme for staff dealing with inappropriate behaviour, not
for their record on universal design!). The Galleries, Woking, The
Police Museum in Kent, Brighton and Hove and the Galleries of Justice,
Nottingham have all provided their staff with equalities training.  I am
planning to offer this to all staff (salaried/volunteer/governing
bodies) of museums in Surrey during the next 12-18 months.  There is an
evaluation of anti-discrimination training at: http://www.ilo.org/public
/english/protection/migrant/papers/antdisuk/. Having recently lead a
workshop for South East Museums (our regional body) on Best
Value/Equalities issues, I am painfully aware of how difficult it is to
deliver training to an audience with diverse background knowledge and
levels of understanding.  Any experiences or recommendations of trainers
would be welcome.

An interesting sideline has been observing how Best Value speaks not of
equalities, but about social inclusion (renamed, here in Surrey, as
'self-reliance').

Best wishes to all,
--
Pat Reynolds
(Surrey Museums Development Officer)
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   "It might look a bit messy now, but just you come back in 500 years time"
   (T. Pratchett)