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With apologies for cross posting Dear colleagues I would like to introduce myself. My name is Liz Sutherland and I have just started work with the Equality Challenge Unit as their Policy Adviser on Disability and Age, working alongside Alex Miles, the Policy Officer on Disability and Age and other colleagues who cover race, religion and belief and gender and sexual orientation issues. ECU's remit is with staff but there are areas where equal opportunities work needs to be institution-wide and the forthcoming Disability Discrimination Bill and the duty it introduces on public bodies to promote equality for disabled people proactively through having a Disability Equality Scheme is one of these. Following on from Neil (Crowther's) recent message to the list re the consultation exercise Delivering Equality for Disabled People ECU has produced a brief Update on that exercise and has sent it today to all heads of institution, human resource directors and equal opportunities officers. You can find the Update on our web site at http://www.ecu.ac.uk/updates/ We do hope that this Update and the fuller briefing which we are planning for later on this month/early September will encourage HEIs to recognise the significance of this new duty and the importance of this consultation exercise. Its good to be back working with the HE sector as a whole. (Some of you will know that I worked with the first national disability team and have since worked with the University of Edinburgh and the Open University in Scotland as disability adviser).Looking forward to being in touch with you all on regular basis either through this list or through other lists or through our web site. Best wishes Liz Sutherland ECU works in partnership with universities and colleges of higher education, unions, and agencies across the country. We are owned by the sector. Our sponsors are HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England), SHEFC (Scottish Higher Education Funding Council), ELWa/HEFCW (Higher Education Funding Council for Wales), DELNI (Department for Employment and Learning Northern Ireland), Universities UK and SCOP (Standing Conference of Principals). The ECU's remit is staff in higher education, but we recognise that often equal opportunities are indivisible. Liz Sutherland, Policy Adviser (Disability and Age), Equality Challenge Unit Direct tel +44 (0)20 7520 7081 Email [log in to unmask] Office: 3rd Floor, 4 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9RA Switchboard tel +44 (0)20 7520 7060 Fax +44 (0)20 7520 7069 Web www.ecu.ac.uk Email [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> Liz Sutherland, Policy Adviser (Disability and Age), Equality Challenge Unit Direct tel +44 (0)20 7520 7081 Email [log in to unmask] Office: 3rd Floor, 4 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9RA Switchboard tel +44 (0)20 7520 7060 Fax +44 (0)20 7520 7069 Web www.ecu.ac.uk Email [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> ********** The Equality Challenge Unit promotes diversity and equality of opportunity for all who work or seek to work in higher education. We are sponsored by the representative bodies (SCOP and Universities UK) and the four UK HE funding bodies. This message is confidential. If you are not the intended recipient you should not copy or disclose this message to anyone but should kindly notify the sender and delete the message. Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message which do not relate to the official business of the ECU shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it. No contracts shall be concluded by means of this e-mail. Neither ECU nor the sender accepts any responsibility for viruses. The administrator of this e-mail service (Universities UK) reserves the right to access and disclose all messages sent over its e-mail system. **********