No offence but… Minding your language in the workplace

Peter Fahy served as a police officer for 34 years spending 5 years as Chief Constable of Greater Manchester. He held national responsibility for the Prevent anti-extremism programme and for policy on race and diversity. On leaving policing he became Chief Executive of the street children charity Retrak later merging it with the anti-slavery charity Hope for Justice. He is Chair of Plus Dane Housing Association and is Chair and founder of We Stand Together which he started after the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015 to promote community cohesion. He was knighted for services to policing in 2012.

Natasha is the Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing lead for Mills & Reeve. She has over 20 years’ experience of working within the diversity and inclusion field and has carried out roles including the Head of Diversity and Inclusion for Victim Support.  Natasha led the organisation to become a Stonewall top 100 employer (including top charity), Top trans employer and achieve the ‘Leaders in Diversity’ accreditation from the National Centre for Diversity and the charity was the first national charity to achieve ‘Leaders in Diversity’ status.

Natasha also worked as the Head of Development for Equal Approach. Equal Approach is a leading inclusive recruiter, diversity consultancy and training provider, supporting organisations to attract, recruit, recognise, retain and promote diverse talent, and make workplaces more inclusive.

Natasha currently works at Mills & Reeve part time and continues to run her own Diversity and Inclusion consultancy Diverse Matters.

Over the years Natasha has gained a wealth of experience in working within the Black and Minority ethnic community, disabled community including mental health, LGBT+ community and young people. She also set up and managed a ‘highly commended’ regional mentoring programme and is also experienced in leadership development.

Graham was born in the small former mill town of Bacup in Lancashire in 1974. It was whilst working in a factory near Oldham and also supplementing his income by working two nights a week in a local youth club, that a chain of events resulted in him realising his passion of working  with people.

It’s been a privilege for him to work with young people in differing roles. After more than a decade in the youth work field, Graham lost his sight which left him with some significant challenges to overcome.

Now his work continues with a disability awareness company and national sports charity StreetGames, as National Doorstep Sport Advisor; it’s important to Graham to work with others in order to understand fairness and difference and the positive role people can play in contributing to society, In his opinion, becoming blind was the making of Graham. To have no sight at all, he says, gives you a very special view on people, to not know how they look, to not judge on what they’re wearing and to just purely work with them as individuals is a unique opportunity.

Heather Lacey is a multi-award winning disabled activist, D&I writer and speaker. As a young woman embarking upon life at university, Heather became heavily involved in disability advocacy online and began to share her lived experience of disability as a way to spread awareness of the barriers faced by disabled people in the UK. Her writing – though candid and oftentimes hard-hitting – illuminates yet celebrates the disabled experience and her lived experience of cerebral palsy, fibromyalgia and neurodiversity and the myriad of symptoms she lives with day-to-day.

Heather has worked with a plethora of organisations and charities including Scope, BBC, HuffPost, Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative and AccessAble.

Heather is actively involved in promoting disability rights in the workplace and chairs pro-manchester’s EDI sub-committee for Disability, Mental Health and Neuro Diversity. Heather is also co-chair of the Ability Network at Eversheds Sutherland internationally, an ERG for disabled colleagues, carers and allies, and has promoted and contributed to the firm’s D&I strategy. Heather has featured on the Northern Power Women Future List, been recognised as one of the most influential disabled people in the UK on the Shaw Trust Disability Power List, listed as one of University of Hull and Team GB’s ‘Extraordinary People’, and has been named on the Manchester Evening News’s The Rising Star list: The finest young female lawyers and barristers in Greater Manchester.