The 9th British Diversity Awards, held on Friday 31st of October 2003, concluded the celebrations of Britain's Black History Month. Nearly 300 guests saw South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Services (SYF&RS) win three awards: as Diversity Champion in the Public Service, followed by Maria Tonks (its diversity manager) winning the Manager of the Year and finally the ultimate accolade of Diversity Practitioner of the Year.

The success of SYF&RS is particularly poignant for AnSer House of Marlow UK which stages the Awards because they were the first members to have their diversity initiatives validated by its Diversity Practice Index (The DP100©). Judges do not see the result of this validation, judging only what is submitted and on their perception. Yet, not only did SYF&RS get maximum votes in one category from all 11 judges, but nearly 60% of the total of 33 judges (who NEVER meet), selected SYF&RS as Best Practitioner.

The prestigious British Diversity Awards publicly reward HR initiatives which assist the recruitment, employment, training and promotion of under-represented groups in the workplace: like visible minorities, women, the disabled and people of certain ages who are denied career opportunities. These initiatives aim to not only eliminate discrimination in the workplace, but also to provide maximum organisational benefits in terms of the creativity and innovation a diverse workforce can bring to staff interaction, productivity and the bottom-line.

Presenters of the Awards were Air Marshall Sir Joe French - Board Member for RAF Personnel, Baroness Anne Gibson - Chair of 2003 Awards Judge, Lord Chan of Oxton - Awards Patron, Mr Felix Dexter -Comedian, Lord Navnit Dholakia - President, Liberal Democrats, Mr Alex Pascall - Writer & Broadcaster, Mrs Hazel Parker-Brown - Director, Service Delivery, Department for Transport, Mr Duncan Selbie - Chief Executive, South East London Strategic Authority, Mrs Elaine Sihera - Awards Founder, AHM-UK and Mr Claudio Vespucci - Global Diversity Director, Hewlett Packard.

The winners were selected for 13 categories which go right across the country, from PUBLIC SERVICE (won by the Department for Transport), HEALTH (Cares of Life Project, Maudsley Hospital) and EDUCATION (National Coalition Building Institute) to COMMERCE (HBOS plc), MEDIA (Canterbury Tales, BBC WM and Radio 5 Live) and the VOLUNTARY SECTOR (Barnardo's). The 2003 Executive Diversity Trendsetter was DEREK CAMPBELL, chief executive of Central Liverpool PCT, who followed closely in the footsteps of Barry O'Donnell, Chief Fire Officer for SYF&RS (2002) and Sir Richard Mottram, Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions (2001).

2003 Fellowships were awarded by the Judges to AGE CONCERN for its campaigning impact on raising awareness of the needs of older people and the SHAW TRUST for enabling disabled and disadvantaged person to have the opportunity for work through the provision of a wide range of employment and training services.

The founder, Elaine Sihera, welcomed the guests to the event pointing out that, "The fundamental difference between the finalists who have made the effort to be here tonight and the organisations which felt they were 'not yet ready' to put in an entry, is that those present consider the diversity process to be an ongoing journey within their own sphere of understanding and expectation; a journey which will take years of commitment, angst and nurturing to bear fruit."

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