Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Panels

Our Equality and Diversity Panels which are made up of members with lived experiences across disability, gender, race, and sexuality, were launched in 2023, to help tackle discrimination, injustice, and inequalities, in order to improve outcomes for everyone.

The panels are instrumental in helping us to embed, diversity and inclusion in everything that we do, which will better enable us to create a fairer city region were no one is left behind.

Their role is to provide advice, guidance and scrutiny on the design and delivery of our services, policies, and practices and to promote equity,

through their external perspectives, which will provide us with valuable and actionable insight, through an equality lens.

The panels will be instrumental in the co-design and co-production of strategic workplans, aligned to the Combined Authority’s Corporate Plan and the regular review of our Equality Impact Assessments.

The Mayor’s vision for the panels, is for them to effectively question and challenge our decision-making processes, to ensure that they have a lasting impact on transformative change across our region.

To engage with the Equality Panels, you will need to provide some brief information about the background of your project/proposal, the reason for engaging with the panel, specific asks of the panel and any agreed outcomes. 

Please follow the 6 steps below: 

1. Complete either the Executive Summary Doc (DOC, 558KB) or provide a short presentation Standard Engagement Presentation (PPT, 6MB) as soon as possible and at the earliest design stage of your project, policy or proposal. 

2. You will then need to share your completed document with the  Panel Co-Ordinator, who will liaise directly with the Panel Chair, to determine, using the panels preferred evaluation criteria and aligned with their Workplan, if and when the project/proposal will be added as an agenda item. (Please see guidance information below for more information on how to develop your proposal) 

3. The Panel Co-Ordinator will liaise directly with CA Officer(s) to confirm this and if your project/proposal has not been accepted as an agenda item, discuss alternative approaches to engage with the panel or alternative EDI stakeholders networks. 

4. Once confirmed as an agenda item, the completed Engagement Document will be shared with the panel at least one week before the agreed meeting date, along with any other pre-reading/support documents 

5. You will receive an invitation to the panel meeting you have been selected to present at and the panel members will provide feedback and recommendations based on your specific requirements during or after the meeting, as detailed in the Engagement Document. 

6. At the end of your presentation, the panel will agree a definitive timescale for  how they would like you to report back to the panel, about how you have actioned and/or considered their feedback and recommendations.   

This does not always need to be a return visit to the panel, this could be communicated using another creative method such as an email, voice note, or video etc distributed to Panel Co-Ordinator, who will share with the panel members via their monthly Panel Update Bulletin. 

If you are an external stakeholder and would like to engage with or find out more about  the Equality Panels, please contact [email protected]