BRITISH DIVERSITY AWARDS 2005 WINNERS
(20 June 2005)

In a prestigious ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel, the annual British Diversity Awards (BDA) provided much excitement for over 300 guests and also raised a useful amount of money for the very worthwhile Sickle Cell charity. Highlight of the event were Nacro and the Muslim Council of Britain winning this year's Fellowship, and Heart of Birmingham PCT gaining the Best Practitioner accolade, with the Cooperative just missing out close behind. Both categories were voted for by all 31 judges of the awards. Dr Neslyn Watson Druee, a senior judge and the 2004 Diversity Persuader of The Decade, commented on the high quality of this year's entry and the reasons why more entrants weren't successful.

These premier awards publicly recognise initiatives which assist the recruitment, employment, training and promotion of under-represented groups in the workplace; those who are denied career opportunities trough bias or other factors. The initiatives aim to reduce discrimination and provide maximum organisational benefits to productivity and the bottom-line.

The Gold Standard Champions are as follows:

1. Innovation & Awareness Champion (1): SOUTH YORKSHIRE FIRE & RESCUE SERVICE,

2. Innovation & Awareness Champion (2) BLACKBURN with DARWEN BOROUGH COUNCIL

3. Innovation & Awareness Champion (3) NEWARK & SHERWOOD PCT

4. Diversity Team Champions (1): ADVANTAGE WEST MIDLANDS (last year's runners-up), Birmingham

5. Customer Service Team Champions (2)The PENSION SERVICE, Glasgow

6. Public Service Champion (1) BLACKBURN WITH DARWEN COUNCIL

7. Public Service Champion (2) TRUST HOUSING ASSOCIATION LTD

8. Diversity in Health Champion: NEWARK & SHERWOOD PCT

9. Diversity in Eucation Champion (1): The BLACK LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE, London

10. Diversity in Education Champion (2): MOSELEY SCHOOL A LANGUAGE COLLEGE Birmingham

11. International Diversity Champion: The UNIVERSITY of BRITISH COLUMBIA, Vancouver

12. Media Diversity Excellence Award - TV: SOUL DEEP Series BBC1

13. Diversity Executive Trendsetter: BRUCE MACDONALD,Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

14 Diversity Champion Practitioner 2005: HEART OF BIRMINGHAM TEACHING PCT

15. Diversity Fellowship 2005 (1): NACRO

16. Diversity Fellowship 2005 (2): MUSLIM COUNCIL OF BRITAIN

There were also surprise Inspiration Awards for PAUL DEEMER, HEMA PATEL (Bexley), JOHANNA RENZ (Kingston-upon-Thames) and BIPIN PATEL (Apnaonline) who are all very active in their communities and making a big difference to good practice. The full list of winners, including Silver Standards, are on www.diversityleaders.org.uk

Awards founder, Elaine Sihera, in a very poignant pen-portrait of her life relating to her childhood and the relationship with her mother, showed a link between her mother's approach to her children and the the approach of managers to diversity in the absence of knowledge and expertise.

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