West of Scotland Racial Equality Council Annual Report and Accounts 2004
Moving on Racial Equality in Scotland (MOREIS) – A Training and Consultation Project Moving On Racial Equality In Scotland (MOREIS) was set up in September 2003 and has worked on a number of joint projects with other organisations since then. There is recognition on the part of MOREIS and the West of Scotland Racial Equality Council that the Race Relations Amendment Act (RRAA) 2000 requires the training of all staff in Public Authorities in the General Duty. The RRAA also requires Public Authorities to ensure that their contractual arrangements with private sector firms are scrutinised carefully for their commitment to racial equality. MOREIS and WSREC are different from other training organisations in three respects. ● The training materials and exercises are put together by trainers who have experience of teaching/training anti-racist, multi-cultural ideas to a variety of audiences over many years. ● The objective of winning over trainee participants to an anti-racist perspective takes priority over the financial imperative. The need to ‘promote good race relations’ and ‘remove unlawful racial discrimination’ is always foremost in the minds of the trainers. ● The materials are very fresh and of current interest because they are informed by WSREC’s most recent casework and policy development. Other trainers do not have this advantage. MOREIS organised a conference in November 2003 at the St Francis Centre, Gorbals in Glasgow to encourage public authorities to share their efforts on Race Equality Schemes (RESs) and to be open about their strengths and the problems encountered. Speakers included Councillor Irene Graham (Equality Spokesperson from Glasgow City Council), Elish Angiolini (Solicitor General), Angela Webb (Diversity Manager, Strathclyde Fire Brigade), John Vine (President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Scotland) and Mohammed Razaq, (Projects Manager, WSREC). It was an excellent conference and attracted wide interest from areas outside the West of Scotland. A further seminar was organised by MOREIS, the WSREC Education Project and Education Services, Inverclyde Council. Margaret Robertson, Quality Manager for Inverclyde Education Service, told delegates about their work and John Brown, Her Majesty Inspectorate of Education spoke warmly of the partnership efforts of WSREC and the PAREF Group. The seminar was chaired by executive member, Shobha Nagpal, and focused on Promoting Race Equality in Education highlighting the anti-racist pack for schools produced by the Public Authorities Racial Equality Forum Education Group and WSREC. This pack has a collection of material and advice helpful to the promotion of the race equality action plans in schools. The pack had been launched in the Scottish Parliament in June 2003, assisted by Bill Butler MSP and a number of interested MSPs including Gordon Jackson, Ken McIntosh and executive members Mohammed Zahid, Judith Tankel and the entire WSREC staff. A report of the Inverclyde Seminar has been produced and circulated and is available on request. Evaluations revealed that it was felt to be a most valuable seminar and should be organised in other venues and for other sectors of education! A Further seminar is planned for 11th May 2004 within Renfrewshire Council our other partner in the Education project.
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