To produce this resource, we have teamed up with Jan Smithies who has spent the last 2 years with The Health Inequalities National Support Team (HINST) - which was part of a Government programme to support local areas to promote equality and tackle inequalities in access to healthcare.

Jan will be working with us to develop seminars and workshops which explain and explore the ever-changing and complex world of health and social care, including Joint Strategic Needs Assessments,  Health & Wellbeing Boards,  Joint Health & Wellbeing Strategies,  Clinical Commissioning Groups,  Integrated  Health & Social Care,  Local Authority Commissioning,  Public Health  transition,  tackling health inequalities and the development of HealthWatch.

“I have just found your women take part report. Fantastic! I am going to use it to argue for why we need a gender analysis in all we do in the Joint Forum’ and also for our service agreement with the council. The emphasis on learning about gender inequality, women centred support and the framework to overcome organisational barriers is brilliant”

Jackie Patiniotis

Joint Forum Development Worker
The Joint Forum, Liverpool

Download the Learning, Support & Development Briefing Paper

Download the Women’s Journeys Briefing Paper

Download the Organisations & Structures Briefing Paper

Download the Closing the Gap Briefing Paper

This exhibition was at Bantock House, Wolverhampton in September but if you missed it don’t worry – it was hugely successful and details of the tour will be here as soon as they are known.

Artists: Pauline Callaghan, Nusrat Javaid, Nazia Kausar, Rose Busby, Shahida Chaudhry, Rani Gundhu, Sue Ralph, Rakhyia Begum, Di Drew

Coordinating artist: Sue Challis: ms.challis@btopenworld.com

A flagship Arts Council funded project

Download a copy of the Impact Evaluation report

There is a power gap in our institutions and workplaces. Women are much less likely than men to reach the top of their professions. Only 10% of directorships of FTSE 100 companies are held by women. In today’s workplace requesting flexible working can still spell career death for many women. Instead they often have to ‘trade down’ when they take on caring roles and then lose out on the top jobs.

When it comes to political representation the situation is no better. Currently less than 20% of MPs are female, and at the current rate of change it will take up to 200 years to achieve an equal number of men and women in the Westminster Parliament.

For certain groups of women, for example ethnic minority women, their representation is even lower.The power gap needs to be closed, with true representation for all groups of women, including ethnic minority women, disabled women, lesbians, and women of all ages and faiths. Shared power would be an important sign of gender equality – it will show us that we have managed to complete the social revolution

In 2007- 2008 changes undertook research for the Government Equalities Office to produce guidance on models, approaches and resources which can be used to encourage, equip and support women who are currently under represented, to become more active, both formally and informally, in governance structures and other aspects of both civic and civil life.

This work followed on from the work that we had been involved in as part of Take Part.

Where Take Part started… In 2004 the Civil Renewal Unit (now part of the Department of Communities and Local Government) set up the Active Learning for Active Citizenship (ALAC) programme, bringing together seven regional ‘hubs’ all based on existing community learning programmes.

The hubs took very different routes to ‘citizenship learning’, yet shared similar values and principles: social justice, participation, equality, diversity and cooperation. The programmes were all about creating opportunities for people to use their knowledge and capacity to shape their lives and their communities. It is widely acknowledged that many people feel disengaged and unable to exert influence on the wider world they live in; they support democracy as a principle but do not see or feel it in action in their everyday lives.

The regional hub organisations who took part in the pilot have formed the National Take Part Network and created the Take Part Learning Framework to share their good practice and guidance for other learning providers.

changes has been involved in this work from the beginning through the West Midlands/Black Country Hub and we have produced an evaluation of our work on ‘Impact! – Women Active in Community and Public Life’ programme (available in pdf format)

The Impact Evaluation Report (8 pages; 237kb)

The Original Report on Women, Leadership, Participation & Involvement (30 pages; 928kb)

• 20 years to achieve equality in civil service top management
• 40 years to achieve an equal number of senior women in the judiciary
• Up to 200 years – another 40 elections – to achieve an equal number of women in Parliament!!!

Download a copy of the Sex & Power report