 Prynhal Dda, Baob Croeso, yng Nghymru gyda'r first of our monthly... Hello, minister. Can you hear us well? Croeso minister, thank you for joining us. You're welcome, it's good to be here. We're really pleased that you are here. I'm saying Prynhal Dda Baob and I Croeso, welcome to the first of our monthly webinar series, Evolving Together, The Journey Towards Anti-racist Wales by 2030. I'm Rajvi Glasbrook, I'm a member of the anti-racist as well as action plan implementation team, and very, very proud and pleased to be here for what will be a very important channel for our plan, we hope. Some very basic housekeeping. Recording and transcription are on and your cameras and microphones have been turned off. However, you do have the option of sending us your questions and you may send your questions in Welsh and we will respond in Welsh accordingly. Since this webinar is the introduction, we sadly won't have sufficient time to answer the questions meaningfully within the session, but we'll collate all those responses, as I say, and circulate them to all present. Our speakers today have been absolutely instrumental to the shaping and ongoing implementation of our plan. They will shed light on crucial aspects of it and explain the way in which mainly co-production and lived experience are the very heart of both the construction of the plan and its transformational purpose. It is a privilege to have the Minister for Social Justice and Chief Whip, Jane Hutt, here with us to launch this series. The minister's commitment and support of the plan as a leader deeply committed to social justice and equality in Wales remains hugely valuable to our work. So thank you so much minister for being here today and I'll hand over. Minister, you're on mute. Yn handa, Paweb. Good afternoon everyone. Diolch yn fawr, Ravgy, and good to see you all. But I think it's also with a great pleasure and a deep sense of purpose that I'm joining you today to welcome you to this webinar series, Evolving Together, The Journey Towards Anti-Racist Wells by 2030. Excuse me. It's great to see so many of you joined today and as the Minister for Social Justice, I'm dedicated to the principles of equity, inclusion and social justice. This gathering is a testament to our shared resolve as a government and as a community to confront racial inequality head on, forging a path towards a more equitable and inclusive Wales. Racism, direct or indirect has no place in Wales. Our ambitious and radical anti-racist Wales action plan crafted through extensive community engagement and co-construction represents not just words on paper but a practical roadmap for change. And the anti-racist Wales action plan is a transformational roadmap. It signifies our dedication toward Wales where every individual irrespective of their background thrives. Our vision is an anti-racist Wales where everyone's unique contributions are cherished. And this plan born from the experiences and voices of our communities is our compass. We aim to make the voices and lived experiences of our Black Asian and minority ethnic people not only heard but also acted upon. We're shifting from rhetoric to meaningful action with a commitment to zero tolerance of racial inequality. The global movement for racial justice has stirred change and Wales stands at the forefront. We're leading by example, striving for a just and equitable future. So this webinar series will be a space for robust discussions, learning and sharing best practices. It's a forum for policy makers, community leaders, advocates and citizens to chart progress, embrace change and conquer challenges. And I urge you to engage actively to question challenge and to share your wisdom. Only by working together can we succeed. Fighting racism is our collective duty and requires dedication and continuous effort. But through collaboration we can make Wales a model of diversity, celebration and actively tackling racism. So my heartfelt appreciation goes to all of you for joining this vital conversation. Thank you also to the implementation team, speakers and all who are engaging. And together we will turn our vision into reality, making Wales a beacon of anti-racism, a place where everyone feels that they can belong and can thrive. So I now want to hand over to Andrew Goodall, the Permanent Secretary and Champion for this work. Diolch yn fawr, Andrew. Diolch, Wynaidog. Prydan hwnnw, bau. I just wanted really to add to the Minister's thanks just to say thank you for joining us today as we launch these monthly regular webinar sessions in respect of the anti-racist Wales action plan. I guess our intentions are really to help an open discussion amongst ourselves but really to be focused on the progress and the activities taking place across the Wales. But like the Minister said I'm really heartened to see such a diverse group from various organisations, big and small, people from the general public as well as colleagues who are working in public services. I think that seems like the basis of a great mix for an open conversation over these forthcoming months. So the Welsh Government's commitment to eradicating racism is embodied in our ambitious anti-racist Wales action plan. And today having been handed over to by the Minister I just wanted to focus on what this means for us as leaders and senior managers in the public services. I mean really it's to create an environment where we can help each other to deliver the expected progress. But I thought I should probably start with me just to explain why I'm here. Of course I have a role absolutely in leading Welsh Government as the Permanent Secretary of Welsh Government as an organisation but I am also the co-chair of the External Accountability Group which supports the delivery of the anti-racist Wales action plan. I would just share that this gives me a great opportunity to hear directly from ethnic minority people about their lived experiences and to contribute how we as a group respond. Irrespective of wherever we are in the plan we do need to make sure that we can lead the actions and activities over the forthcoming months and years. But I also wanted to say that I work really closely with Professor Emmanuel O'Bona who brings all of his wisdom and understanding of how to tackle racism in different parts of people's lives. And I've been really grateful to the time and the leadership that's been applied by Emmanuel in the development of the initial plan as well as following through on the accountability group mechanisms as well. And I'm really grateful to him for the partnership that he has created and that he has helped to oversee as well. And just to say that in future seminars as we break this into kind of the series as offered you will hear directly from Professor O'Bona and the great work he is doing within further education irrespective of course that we take advantage of all of that experience in the delivery of the plan in very general terms as well. So of course I have an interest in how Welsh Government policy that is decided by ministers is translated across Wales but I've tried to more uniquely bring our responsibilities as an employer as an organisation to the fore in respect of how the plan works. So I guess I'm here as the leader of Welsh Government as an organisation supporting ministers but also trying to make sure that we are ourselves delivering diversity within our civil service workforce and that's key to create an environment where ethnic minority individuals can enter, thrive and really flourish in respect of discharging their roles and responsibilities here. So I'm committed to seeing proper representation at all levels of the civil service including of course decision making that is so fundamental to the way we act in support of ministers and this is essential if we are to genuinely achieve a fair and equal Wales. I know that if we want our communities to be part of our organisations we must ensure that our organisations are welcoming and inclusive but I hope that our aspiration is clear. We aim to be exemplary in policies, practices and leadership although I would acknowledge that we have a long way to go to truly represent the communities we serve and we often set policy for others in Wales but in this respect we are applying it very much to the way we behave as an organisation but I also wanted to say that our aspiration to be accountable is also very clear and that it's really important that we are able to externally demonstrate the progress and the activities taking place that do step up and meet the commitment that has been expressed on behalf of Wales. So as an example to bridge our current gap we've set really ambitious targets such as our commitment to by 2026, 20% of all of our recruits will come from ethnic minority backgrounds and I guess that means that continuing to focus on ensuring that we understand our employees' experiences and we can engage very directly with them to enhance our policies and our processes is crucial. We also have a broader role across Wales because we do appoint board members to the many boards who manage the public organisations that we fund right across Wales. I would just say what is obvious to us with all of the evidence and the practice that we've adopted within the plan that when we have a more diverse board the conversations where different lived experiences brought to the table are richer and more reflective of the cultural diversity we see in Wales today and we want this, we want it to be consistent embedded across our different organisations and we are working really hard to encourage people from all different backgrounds to apply to those roles. We're also setting up regional forums to capture lived experiences from across Wales to widen the dialogue about our plan. So I guess today supported by the subsequent conversations is really a call to action for all of us working in public services to collaborate, share experiences and drive meaningful change in the experiences of our Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. The work starts from within and you know as the minister was endorsing together I think we can create a truly diverse and representative government for Wales and I hope as these sessions develop that you know you are able to share your thoughts, your progress and your concerns as the series of webinars develop. I think as we've shown through the plan itself in its development dialogue is a really important way to keep correcting the direction we're travelling in and to improve results. I am with the work that we've done to date I am incredibly proud that Wales is ahead of the pack and doing something that no other nation has done and it does feel that the example we are setting has been noticed by other countries but it's why it's so important that as Welsh Government we can demonstrate that there is progress on the policy expectation but also that you know that visible leadership of us as an employer and an organisation for ourselves is part of the description that we give as we you know demonstrate the progress within Wales but also to those with interest across the world and I just really wanted to ask you to please stay with this journey but genuinely help us to shape a better and more fair Wales and hopefully you'll get some further understanding just from this starting session here today but really important to hand over to colleagues who are really involved in the you know the technical expertise that we receive here and in that respect having taken the baton on from the minister I'm going to now hand you over to our race adviser Usher Ladwyr Thomas so Usher over to you. Diolch yn fawr i am, thank you very much. Great Brinanda, Brinanda, everybody else and thank you Andrew for that introduction. My role is to really go through with you the sort of part of the journey where we developed the plan and we call it the plan because it's basically the anti-racist Wales action plan a short word for it and noticing who you are in terms of the huge audience we've got 125 people I noticed there are lots of ordinary citizens as well as people from public services so my intention is to keep it really simple so if I'm patronising at times forgive me but it's really meant to help you to understand the journey without us getting too much into the jargon. Next slide please Lauren. So I mean just before I start on this slide one really important thing to say is something about language isn't it that we all struggle with how we should collectively recalling groups of people and we had a huge journey and a huge consultation around this and so we will be using the word black Asian and minority ethnic and for short ethnic minorities there was a huge call for all sorts of different terminology but in the end that was what was decided by the majority and the steering group that ran it and that doesn't mean that individually we call people the preferred name or title or identity they prefer to be called by. So just to get you started on the journey and I'm going to use the journey of a train to explain this because I think it helps me to think where on the track am I? So the journey really started well before COVID-19 and it started with a lot of hopes to make a plan or a strategy around anti-racism or race equality as it was called then but it got a bit derailed by the COVID-19 emergency but in some ways the COVID-19 emergency also highlighted the real need to do this plan. We saw that there were huge disparities in how black Asian minority ethnic people were affected by the COVID emergency and at the same time we also had the tragic death of George Floyd and I guess what George Floyd's death did murder I guess and death did was raise the conversation internationally about what racism was and so everywhere including in our own offices we started to talk about white fragility what does it mean to be white what does it mean to be a racist how do we tackle this problem that we forever and ever have been talking but nothing has ever happened with so I guess it was an opportunity so both both the tragedies actually created an opportunity for us to think differently about how we might do this a new plan or a new strategy. Next slide please Lauren. So I think we stopped at the train and we just took stock and we said so what is it that people really want from this plan or strategy we called it a strategy and the first thing people said from the black Asian minority ethnic community is that we don't want a strategy we know how Welsh Government does them and puts them on a shelf and we never see the results of it but also we don't want to see something that you're going to develop and call it a plan but then it drops through a gap we started to refer to it as the implementation gap and so we started to ask ourselves the question about so how can we do this differently because what we've done in the past seems to produce the same and so we were really lucky to have this phase from the permanent secretary and from the immediate managers for us as a small modular team to think out of the box and think how we might do it differently and so we decided that we would do co-production and although the communities didn't use the word co-production what they meant was do it with us not to us and for us as a jargon that's co-production and also we were committed to do it in their own words because it felt like it had to be something that people felt that they owned and they were part of the solution and not just sitting there knocking Welsh Government on public services but saying how can we do this jointly so the journey was going to be together rather than some people being left behind some on the platform and the Welsh Government running ahead I hope that sort of explains it simply next slide so like any journey you know the children will was asked when have we got there but where to go where did we have to start who will steer the train and decide with junctions we will take and groups will take and funding will do and you know negotiate with a lot of other groups why are we going you know it sounds like a silly question to us but we needed charity that we all understood why we were doing this and where we were going and how we were going to get how and when we need to get there also how do we need to be with each other in on the destination as we traveling together and in the end how might we celebrate so as explained I'm only going to give you part of the journey so Riaz will tell you the next train but let me just take you through some of the rationales of it next slide please Lauren so we were really lucky in terms of who was driving the train we had some really clever but also very committed people to it we had the first minister who completely believes in co-production so he was on it like a hot potato right let's get this going because you know co-production is something I really feel would work in this situation and to have that sort of permission was really really useful for us as a team we also had the Jane Hutt of a minister who was a minister in a hurry to get this done and the fact that she kept her paddle on the accelerator and kept on saying I want reports I want to know what's happening I want to know why it's not happening how much really cost what can I do how can I talk to others I mean that constant sort of dialogue in our heads from the minister was so useful she also had a wonderful colleague you many of you will know her also I will be she was the minister's advisor at that time and again she was part of the team in really helping to to have some really difficult conversations we also were very very privileged and glad to have professor Emmanuel Ogbono and as the permanent secretary explained he's the co-chair of what is now the external accountability group but he was also the co-chair of the previous steering group and what was lovely about that was that Emmanuel brought a real insight into what racism was at a very strategic level but he's also a very good at negotiating difficult conversations claiming to people what anti-racism means and why it doesn't mean the same as racism or integration so we had a great ally with us and he stayed with us on the route and then you just heard the permanent secretary Andrew Goodall now I think it might make him blush but I think I'm really pleased that we've got him there as co-chair as well because we need somebody from within the civil service who understands how the civil service works and where the attractions are and where the opportunities are and where the barriers are and that partnership at that high level has been really really critical to making this plan and the journey easier for all of us to do and to do it differently as well and at the next slide please so why go where and how and when do we need to get there we thought that the best way to co-produce this was to get a group of communities coming and talking and remember we did all of this on zoom at that time because we were in covid mode then so we got east of our partners to convene several groups some with young people some with elders some with mixed groups of people across Wales and I'll just take you to the journey that I explain to them so next slide please so the journey that I suggested that we are taking is that we were in this hut this building you know we use that because it applies in any country I've used this model and that we are going to launch a boat and we're going to go to a very sunny future in the future and we need to have some sort of vision of where we are going because if we don't know where we are going and we all split up in different directions how are we to know where we're supposed to end up so the idea was that we needed a vision so and we agreed that actually asking people to think about beyond 10 years was a bit big ask so let's go for 10 years not that it will be sold by 10 years but we need to have a direction of travel and then we agreed that actually we needed to stop and review in about two years time and that we needed a short-term plan and we needed it to be iterative so you will notice that we said that we will do the next iteration in two years time people said but that's too short and we said no because in two years time we'll have learned such a lot about what works what doesn't work how we can modify the actions how we can modify the way we are thinking who else we need on the train who else maybe wants to leave the train and do something different so really the idea was that we discussed with the group about what what might the vision be you know what's the long-term future what's the short-term future what's the plan that we can immediately put into place and we also talked to them about we know what would make it okay for us to travel together what would our values be and we also learned it to them that you know if you don't stay together they will be sharks from the way they will be rocks will hit and we need to stay together but that the real price is that there be cascets of gold and there be cascets of help and there will be wind behind us that will push us forward so it was another joint interest to do this jointly next slide please so um collectively and in their own words uh after all the sort of four or so seven as we did we took some wordings to the steering group and we said so um what what's the purpose why we're doing this and we agreed that we would make a significant change to the lives that's the reason why we were going to do it to the lives of black Asian and minority ethnic people and in the consultation that followed people said no this is about being collective so we added the word collective and where well and then anti-racist Wales by 2030 and again as I say it's not to say that we will we will be anti-racist by 2030 but that's the direction of travel that's a hope that we be getting to it in a big way take big steps towards it and how we need to do this so that we acknowledge it that you know black Asian minority people aren't asking for favors this is about their rights this is about services they deserve and they can call for and expect without having to call for it um lived experiences in all the decision-making I mean throughout the journey we realised that people were really keen to talk about their lived experiences and that made a huge difference to people in public services to see the rationale for doing what they needed to do and the final one was about being open and transparent and you know today is a good example of it we want to share all of our journeys and all of our trials and all of successes by doing things like this seminar so that we're open and transparent and we'll talk about things that didn't work as well as things that worked so next slide please so basically the train was going to start we had 14 plus carriages and in the Welsh Government those carriages are basically policy areas so you've got things like education and you've got health and social care you've got business you've got crime and justice and many many more they're all in the plan so you'll know about them but each of the the carriages are important because although we work in those carriages and you could call asylos the whole intention of this plan was that we'll be joining up together by having this plan and working in a way that an external group was asking us questions about whether joining up happened and so whatever happened in social care did that happen in health you know why isn't it happening in health if something happened good in say primary schools why wasn't it happening in a higher education next slide please so in terms of core developing we used several methods and one of them was of a community mentors and that really came from an idea by Nesina Begham who just said we always go out and talk to people why don't we bring them in and there started a journey so we appointed I think about 11 community mentors who paired up with our policy areas in each of the carriages as it were to bring the lived experiences not necessarily all the expertise and understanding about racism but the lived experience of having to be in that particular area of policy whether it was health or education or whatever we also did what we call deep dives so we realized early on that we always get desk research when we are trying to do policy and the desk research was commissioned by our center for public policy what it really showed to us was there were lots and lots of reports that had never been delivered and so we said to ourselves so we're going to use desk research but is it going to make any difference how can we do this differently so we can mean what we call deep dives so for each topic area each of the policy areas we had about two and a half hour sessions where my wonderful boss Claire Bernard sat and listened and set the tone for how we were conducting those sessions and we listened both to the desk research and we also listened to what the community voices have to say the lived experience had to say and believe you me it seems like a simple technique but it really created a lot of change particularly when policy leads were having to listen to both the desk research and the lived experience and then have to rethink what they thought they should be doing or could be doing and again we'll be doing some evaluations so later we can share that so next slide please so I'm coming to my end so you'll be glad to know so the first bit of the train the first stretch of it arrived in June 2022 when we launched the plan and we did the consultation before Salad's elections and we had to hit a deadline in terms of when we needed to get there so we did that and we were really pleased that in the program for government where the cabinet and the new government says what they're going to do about different bits of our Welsh government work they put priority to the work that we are doing and that has enabled us to do so much more than perhaps we could have done before so in a way there was a real example of how the leadership right from the top to you know right at my level were actually thinking about how important this was and what the lessons were for other oppressions as well and although I haven't meant into sectionality what I'd have to say is that we constantly kept an eye on it so in the plan you will see that at times we talk about the experience of ethnic minority women or ethnic minority young people because just because you are of one characteristic doesn't mean that things don't get multiplied so for young African Caribbean boys being stopped in search is so many more times more dangerous than for white working class boys so I think there are things like that that we tried to take the complexity on and the final bit is that I just want to explain the word anti-racism so we had a huge discussion along the way about whether we talk about race equality because we actually started off talking about race equality not anti-racism and would we realise very much in the early journey was that actually race equality and all the thinking around it which was being equal to people doing things like recording and reporting what figures we had or local authorities had or others had around incidences of racism the approach to sort of integration I you know get black Asian minority ethnic groups to become like us the majority and therefore things will change I mean you know I come from my family of eight and seven of us have changed our names and to make them more anglicised and that hasn't really meant any made any difference to their life chances or their opportunities they're still seen as ethnic minorities and then there was a multicultural approach wasn't it so that was very much about well let's celebrate all the different cultures and traditions and dances and music and things like that and that will change things that didn't work either and the the legislation around race equality fell a bit as well because somehow there wasn't compliance around it so we particularly Professor Gwbonyn and myself were having constant conversations about what actually what do we want to do what is this plan about is it about all those different approaches or is it about actively doing something that if you're not doing something active then you're not being anti-racist that you are actually colluding with it so I've just been sent a clip of a little girl who was missed out a black girl in a group of prize winners who was missed out when the person was giving them their prizes you know the thing they were on the map and she was missed out and you can see the agony of the little girl but what was really tragic was that nobody actually stood up or intervene and say hey hang on you forgot that little girl and there was no apology afterwards now you know in terms of anti-racism if you're anti-racist then anybody seeing that the photographer or the other colleagues were standing there or even the media should have said that's not acceptable do something about it I can go on about it forever but I'd like to hand you over to Rias so can I have my final slide so I'll hand you over to my colleague Rias who is taking you through the next stretch of the journey so although we developed the plan we realised that that wasn't the start of the journey because actually the plan is only a plan till we start kicking it off and start making decisions about making the change you want to do. Rias leads the implementation team he's come from local authority and oh my god he's really flown with coming into the civil service and trying to cope with all the different dynamics that are there in terms of working in a big organisation and he's made huge improvements so over to you Rias thank you for listening to Mindy Ock. Thank you very much Usha for the presentation thank you very much minister thank you very much Andrew for providing the background in terms of the next stage of the journey I just wanted to start my presentation with the challenges that came to us during the co-production of the plan and when we wanted to establish a very strong governance framework for the plan to be embedded in for us to achieve the the type of outcomes we really wanted to achieve we wanted to kind of sync the next stage of the journey with the journey you just heard from from Usha so there were few very specific challenges came during the co-production of the plan when we asked people from the black Asian minority ethnic communities they were very keen for us to take a very intersectional approach they were very keen for us to acknowledge racism and when we're talking about racism it's about a systemic structure and institutional racism there were doubts around the the resources and sanctions in Usha did mention the implementation gap and these were some of the concerns came during the co-production stage directly from our black Asian minority ethnic communities and again at the time and Usha did mention the public sectors is is is kind of really good developing plan and strategies so in terms of the community trust there was a there was a deficit that previously we have developed plans and strategies and kind of promise that we will deliver but then we haven't provided the the the type of resources that required or the sanctions in terms of the accountability which is required if we fail to to deliver whatever we need to deliver so the first thing we have done loading if you go to the next slide please the first thing we have done in terms of the the kind of community trust deficit we wanted to give a very clear message to our black Asian minority ethnic communities that we are very serious this time the work we will be doing is completely different than the work we have done previously so the first thing we done in terms of the implementation in the robust governance structure which is the accountability system is that we wanted to have the implementation team in place to give a message that the promise we made to the people we have the resources in place in that resources is specifically to have the the team to make sure that the goals and actions that we promise within the plan is delivered and there is a team who will make sure that they coordinate with all the policies officials both internally and externally and if you see the the team the kind of the the expertise and skills we have within the within the team we will be making sure that we have that engagement and we have that kind of external and internal stakeholder who have promised to deliver the goals and actions is with us if we go to the the next slide Lauren then in terms of the kind of the implementation that's what the kind of the initial the stage for us to reassure our community that the implementation team is in place in august this year we have the the full team who's who's now been working on the the plan implementation the second stage which we call it the governance structure and again in terms of the governance structure mean that how we need to be more accountable to the black Asian minority ethnic communities and we were very clear from from the outset that if we really wanted to be accountable we need to have a structure the structure which is inclusive but then responsive to whatever we promise within the within the plan so there are four components of the accountability structure so the first one we call it the external accountability group and I will explain that in in in details that how we we we establish the external accountability group then we had the internal supporting challenge group which is specifically to the Welsh Government internal to the Welsh Government and then we have the the race forum which is the four regional forum and then we have the race disparity unit so if I kickstart with the external accountability group and again that is the key in the key is that it's a very unique structure we never seen the kind of accountability structure previously in some of the discussion I'm having with colleagues outside of the Welsh Government but in kind of internationally we had meeting the minister and myself we had meeting someone came from America and they were very keen to see the kind of the anti-racist race action plan specifically the governance structure that we have established we've been in discussion with the Scottish Government again they were very interested in our governance structure that how we establish the external accountability group so again if I take you back to the kind of the train journey so when we started the journey there were kind of specific comments came from the Black Asian minority ethnic communities one is about the resources but second comment was about the sanctions that how the accountability will look like so we had all that information in mind and we wanted to establish this new journey so when we started this new journey we need to have the foundation right and to set the foundation right we had a discussion internally we involved a number of key stakeholders internally did how the kind of the formation in the membership of the external accountability to look like and from the top leadership and you heard from Andrew as the the the permanent secretary and the minister for social justice they were very keen that if we're establishing the external accountability structure that structure needs to be representative and inclusive of the demographics but then the lived experience of a Black Asian minority ethnic communities so when we started the information pack initially we were looking for experts on antiracism so the experts on antiracism we were very clear that it's a new area and we will not be able to find people just in Wales so the limit we we kind of extended that we will be recruiting people who have expertise on antiracism across across the UK so in terms of our call we received more than 30 expression of interest but we were looking just for seven independent race experts to join the external accountability group and the expression of interest the one we received was very very challenging for us to appoint the kind of the people every single person they were offering something very unique but because of the membership the number of the external accountability group you know we were limited with numbers so we have to be very very kind of you know picky and choosy in terms of the people to join the external accountability group so after a very intensive interview process extensive process we recruited our experts who will now join the external accountability group and then the people who have lived experiences the leadership they were very keen within the Welsh Government especially those who are involved in the co-production stage in this right instruction we have that if we really want to have the external accountability group that needs to representative and inclusive of the the wider demographics of Wales in the geography so in terms of the the kind of the group we have in the 11 community representative that now joined the external accountability group they are not just kind of from one particular area previously some of the criticism we received is that whatever we do here in Wales is that's always very Cardiff centric and we really want didn't want to be Cardiff centric or in some cases very much South Wales centric so we wanted to have the kind of Wales wide representation and we the intention was very much that whatever the membership we have that needs to have that representation geographic representation across Wales because the experiences in North Wales and the experiences in South Wales is completely different specifically if you ask people from the Black Asian men and ethnic communities again we were very keen that if we really want to bring people we need to be inclusive in terms of gender in terms of disabilities so a very kind of intersectional approach in terms of sexual orientation in terms of young people we wanted the external accountability group to be inclusive of all those key protected characteristics so if you see the external accountability group in the membership now we kind of try to be a very exemplar group and that's what kind of the group we have the external accountability group the meeting and a bi-monthly basis and the overarching purpose of the accountability group is to ensure that progress towards the purpose of the plan the purpose which I just explained is to hold those responsible to account for what they do or they don't deliver and again the responsibilities for ensuring the implementation lies with those policy leads in the wider sectors who are responsible for the goals and actions goals and actions within the within the plan again in terms of the kind of the other structure which is the intended Welsh Government support in challenge group the way we have done it again the overarching purpose of the group is to ensure that there is a timely delivery in progress towards the purpose of the plan but again is for the policies officials to support a joined up working for us to challenge in supporting colleagues to increase the impact of the plan and for us to share if there are any good practice in challenges within the within the group and that is the kind of the the key purpose of the internal support in challenge group the membership of the internal support in challenge group is all those policies officials who have responsibilities accountabilities within the plan and the meeting on a monthly basis and in our director for community and tackling poverty is currently chair chair that group our seven independent experts they are also part of the group in the reason for for us to have that joined up joined up approaches one for the policies officials to have that direct interaction with our experts but then for the experts to be aware of the the challenges and for them to provide whatever supports we need to we need to provide then in terms of the race the regional forum again we are now in the process to establish those regional forum so hopefully in the next few weeks we will be advertising four positions and there will be four regional forum across Wales and the idea of those regional forum is one is the external accountability group to hold us to account but again is the people from black Asian minority ethnic communities to hold us to account in those regional forum when they are established we will be having that discussion with them directly they will be held us to account that whatever the goals and actions we have within the plans have we delivered if we don't deliver there will be that opportunities for them to ask those questions and there is disparity unit again which I mentioned in terms of the representation that resources was one of the key concerns from the black Asian minority ethnic communities and when we were at the time asking for information we were looking for data there was a significant data gap and the race disparity unit is specifically established to fill that implementation gap in terms of the in terms of the the data with regards to to race disparity Lauren can we move to the next slide please in terms of the policy development again a number of people they asking us question that yes we have the plan we launched the plan last June but what happened so far and again in terms of the the comms so one of the the area we specifically kind of you know focus is around all the policies area but this series of webinar in seminar again an opportunity for us to be directly interacting with people from black Asian minority ethnic communities but the wider public sectors to come and listen to all those policies area in terms of the progress that we made so again I'm not going to kind of providing you with too much details because of the time I'm conscious but the Welsh government did recently appointed professor Anton Emmanuel to lead implementing the workforce race equality standard for health and social care in Wales and they are looking at data across the the whole workforce to measure disparity in the experiences of ethnic minority workforce and again he will be very much kind of involved engage in some of the people he's already been spoken in other people he will be engaging with you very very shortly in terms of our education in September last year Wales become the first part of the UK to make mandatory to teach black Asian minority ethnic history and experiences through a new curriculum for Wales again for higher education HFQ they form the anti-racism network and again they will be publishing the race equality reports and I'm aware some of the higher education institution they are currently working the and of the deadline for them the 2025 to develop their race equality charter and again addressing the the pay disparities in terms of the schools they are focusing on recruiting teacher from ethnic minority communities and incorporating anti-racist practices and providing incentive for ethnic minority teachers in terms of culture heritage and sports last November the deputy minister for arts and sports announced 4.5 million over the next three years to support the delivery of the culture heritage in sports schools in actions in the anti-racist Wales action plan again in terms of the kind of the small grants so the small grants now being given to diverse Cymru and they are currently helping us to encourage especially group within the black Asian minority ethnic communities to apply to those grants and then deliver those activities again you may have Usha mention anishima begum so she's kind of the person a number of you may be liaising with her directly in terms of the leadership and to mention a few examples what we kind of doing internally but during the 2023 2024 all senior leaders in the Welsh Government have been asked to have one performance objective related to anti-racism which deliver the outcome which kind of embed the anti-racism in the work in the leadership of their team in the wider Welsh Government again the Welsh Government ethnicity pay gap was published recently especially the the figure for 31 March 2020 through our now available and it's been been published in the Welsh Government again we finalising the tender to review the Welsh Government HR policies procedure and practices from entry to exit to ensure that they are explicitly anti-racist can we move to the next slide Lauren in terms of the kind of the journey ahead we are almost finalising our annual report and the annual report will provide you the full details in terms of the policies the progress being made but then the challenges we come across and then the kind of the focus we will have between now in June 2024 again the 2024 2026 Usha mention that the iteration of the new plan the current goals in action is for the first two years and we will be looking to review the goals in action for 2024 2026 from June onward and again we will be very much looking for you to be involved and engaged and then when other things we have done we recently established we call it the the small subgroup in terms of those policies area where our experts in people with lived experiences directly working with our policies officials and they will be working to develop and review those new goals in actions again we are very clear that the future focus of the anti-racist roles action plan and especially those goals in actions for 2024 will be very much focusing on impact rather than just the kind of the delivery of the plan your next slide please but again my final slide is before I say thanks to everyone this is just the kind of the the introductory sessions we just wanted to provide you with the background that what has happened and what will be happening now so there will be from next month there will be policies specific monthly webinar and those webinar will be one hour so the first half hour will be very much the progress for each of the policies area where you will be informed and then the last half hour will be direct question and answer so you will be given given those opportunities ask whatever question you want to ask and again thank you very much again over to you Rajavi. Thank you so much Diolch yn fawr i ask for a really really clear overview of what has been a very very complex forming of a plan. Diolch yn fawr also to Usha for your excellent sort of summary of the journey and how far we've got to go. We hope you found that really helpful because I think it was an optimistic and transparent clear introduction to our plan which is as proud of how groundbreaking this is as a permanent secretary said as a plan and its vision as well as the scale of the challenge we've still got ahead of us. A huge Diolch yn fawr to the minister for an excellent introduction and a launch as well as to the permanent secretary we cannot underestimate the vital impact of the extent of high level commitment to the anti-racist Wales action plan that's in place and that's where the sort of real point of optimism that this could be the vehicle for sincere change comes from for us. Our goals and actions as a plan run across all policy areas and we can never lose sight of the compound effect of the intersectional barriers as Usha said and as we wrap up today's session the main takeaway for us along with sort of aspiration dialogue and that importance of high level commitment is that we all have a part to play in an anti-racist Wales that is truly inclusive and representative. Our next webinar is on the 23rd of October in 2023 and it will be focused on anti-racism in schools. Those of you in attendance today will be sent the link for the next session automatically but anyone new please spread the word and if you need to join all you'll need to do is fill in a form and return to our mailbox. Many of you I can see there are some in attendance from schools here, we'll be aware of Professor Charlotte Williams is Black Asian Minority Ethnic, Communities, Contributions and Conevin Report. That will be one of the key aspects of what will be discussed in the next webinar. But above all we thank you all for attending today you know what is the first of what we hope will be many monthly sessions. We can't appreciate your support enough because as I say we are all responsible to make this plan a success and a huge thank you also to members of our implementation team. Rhina, Ahmed, Jess Williams and Lauren Fries especially who've done a lion's share of behind the scenes organising tech support and moderating of the questions. We have put the questions together and as I say we will send responses that are meaningful within the next week or so. Diolch yn fawr o'r fawr for coming and for your questions. Wishing you all a lovely Monday and a week ahead. Thank you so much. Hwyl fawr.