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Racial Equity Action Learning Programme Handbook

updated on 14 May 2025
9 minutes
Copied to clipboard

Welcome to Phase 2 of NCCPE's Racial Equity Action Learning Programme. Here you will find all the information you will need to take part in the programme. 

on this page
  1. Programme Background and aims
  2. Action Learning Sets and dates
  3. Other Programme Dates
  4. Evaluation Tools
  5. Meet your Fellow Participants
  6. Meet the Facilitation Team

Programme Background and aims

The NCCPE is committed to inclusive engagement practices. We are keen to support individuals and organisations to develop effective approaches to inclusive engagement work involving universities and research organisations.

Working with an inclusion working group, the NCCPE published a statement on inclusion detailing our organisation’s commitments to inclusion. We are currently implementing an action plan to enable us to review and, where necessary, improve our own practices and the guidance and resources we provide to the sector.

We are extending our Action Learning programme, with a specific focus on Racial Equity, to support public engagement professionals who are developing their inclusion work. We recognise the intersectional nature of many exclusionary practices and that such exclusionary practices cannot be tackled in isolation. Our focus on racial equity provides a lens to begin working on these intersectional issues in an action learning context.

The key aims of this programme are:

  • To offer public engagement professionals an opportunity to develop their understanding and approach to inclusive and racially equitable engagement practices through an action learning process
  • To build capability in reflecting on race equity and how this might be achieved in public engagement professionals’ work
  • To reinforce networks of public engagement professionals committed to race equity in their work
  • To draw out learning to share with others including the action learning project participants and public engagement professionals (PEP) network members 

Action Learning Sets and dates

Your action learning sets and dates are listed below, and you can find out more about your fellow participants and the programme facilitators further down the page.

Group 1 - Facilitated by Carol Sidney

Participants

  • Claudia Antolini from University of Cambridge
     
  • Debbie Syrop from Cardiff University
     
  • Kevin Leomo from University of Glasgow
     
  • Zoe Williamson from NCCPE

 

Action learning dates

Action Learning Set 2 - Online 
Friday 23rd May, 10:00 – 12:30

Action Learning Set 3 - Online 
Friday 20th June, 10:00 – 12:30

Action Learning Set 4 - Online 
Friday 11th July, 10:00 – 12:30

Action Learning Set 5 - Online 
Friday 19th September, 10:00 – 12:30

Action Learning Set 6 - Online 
Friday 17th October, 10:00 – 12:30 

Group 2 - Facilitated by Suri Patel

Participants

  • Emma Garbett from University of Cumbria
     
  • Jenny Irvine from Vocal
     
  • Natt Day from UCLPartners
     
  • Stacey Habergham-Mawson from Liverpool John Moores University

Action learning dates

Action Learning Set 3 - Online 
Friday 20th June, 10:00 – 12:30

Action Learning Set 4 - Online 
Tuesday 15th July, 10:00 – 12:30

Action Learning Set 5 - Online 
Friday 19th September, 10:00 – 12:30

Action Learning Set 6 - Online 
Tuesday 14th October, 10:00 – 12:30

*additional learning set to be confirmed ASAP

Other Programme Dates

Launch Event - 16 April

In-Person Launch Event including Action Learning Set 1
1st Floor, The Studio, 7 Cannon St, Birmingham, B2 5EP 
Wednesday 16 April 2025, 09:45 – 16:00

A view from the inside – Lessons from leading on anti-racism in HE

Supplementary Workshop - Online
Tuesday 3rd June, 1:00 - 2:30pm
In this workshop, Xavier Baker will share insights from working in academic and civic engagement roles to push for anti-racist change in a university setting.

Closing Event - 19 November

In-Person Share and Learn Event, Birmingham (venue TBC)
Wednesday 19th November 2025, 09:45 - 16:00

Action Learning group 1 Focus Group - 04 December

End of programme focus group (group 1) - Online 
Thursday 4th December 2025, 14:00 - 15:30

Action Learning group 2 Focus Group - 04 December

End of programme focus group (group 2) - Online 
Thursday 4th December 2025, 11:00 - 12:30

Evaluation Tools

We are keen to monitor and evaluate the impact of this programme on your personal and professional practice, as well as the practices of your institution. 

We have already collected some insights from the questions you answered in your programme enrolment form and will end the programme with an online focus group on Thursday 04 December 2025. 

We are offering access to an anonymous Padlet which you can access below for you to share any feedback, reflections or concerns with the project team throughout the process.

We also encourage you to make use of our Reflective Journal template to track your progress following each session, you can download the template below.  

 

Feedback using the Anonymous Padlet
Download the Reflective Journal Template

Meet your Fellow Participants

Emma Garbett

Emma

Emma Garbett (she/her) - Lecturer in Leadership and Management at the University of Cumbria

Emma is most looking forward furthering her understanding and experience of action learning and developing a better understanding on how she can work with her organisation to further race equity. Emma hopes the programme will support her to develop a better understanding of action learning and to be able to use it to facilitate sessions within her organisation. She also hopes to understand how her own role is limiting race equity and look for ways in which she can diversify her own practice.

Jenny

Jenny Irvine (she/her) - Associate at Vocal

Jenny is looking forward to having the opportunity to dedicate time to the topics and consider how she could support and improve her work. She is hoping the programme will support aspects of her role, from embedding the public into decision making, through to strategy development and engagement activities.
Natt Day

Natt

Natt Day (she/her) - Head of Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement at UCLPartners

Natt is most looking forward to the continuation of the critical, and frank, challenge to the practice and holding our work in this area to a group account. Ensuring it always gets the space it should hold even when priorities start competing. The UCLPartners PPIE Strategy (2025-2028) commits to 'Build equitable involvement across our communities' which acknowledges the need to work with the communities who are facing the largest health inequalities in our programme areas. In many cases, this is linked to race and ethnicity. This entire portfolio of work thinks about inclusive practice for the PPIE Team work, the wider staff group, and also the organisation policies. Natt believes it's important to have challenge, account and development of this practice in the space like the Action Learning Programme.
Stacey Habergham-Mawson

Stacey

Stacey Habergham-Mawson (she/her) - Project Manager at Liverpool John Moores University. Stacey Habergham-Mawson is pronounced "Stay-see Hab-er-gam More-sun".

Stacey is looking forward to continuing to have safeguarded space to reflect on best practices and share conversations about important but difficult topics in a safe space with like-minded individuals. She is also looking forward to being challenged to think from new perspectives. Stacey is hoping that the programme will support her in managing an outreach / engagement project and give her the skills to improve the university's offering to underrepresented groups. She hopes she will be able to create a public engagement strategy for the department based on best practices.
Claudia Antolini

Claudia

Claudia Antolini (she/her) - Public Engagement Manager at the University of Cambridge. Claudia is pronounced "Cloudy-ah (Claaah- oooh- dee- aaah)".

Claudia is excited to deepen her learning and develop better tools to support inclusion in her engagement work and in her team. Claudia is the EDI Data lead for her team and supports the EDI strategy across the board in her role, so this programme fits right with her job role and interests.
Debbie Syrop

Debbie

Debbie Syrop (she/her) - Public Engagement Officer at Cardiff University. Debbie is pronounced "Deb-Bee".

Debbie is looking forward to having the opportunity to talk with peers facing similar issues. She is hoping that the programme will support her to embed EDI into the university's outreach practices.
Kevin Leomo

Kevin

Kevin Leomo (he/him) - College Community and Engagement Manager at the University of Glasgow

Kevin is most looking forward to continuing the discussions and learning from the first action learning programme; meeting new PE colleagues. He hopes that the programme will support him to address structural barriers within his institution relating to race.

Zoe

Zoe Williamson (she/her) - Senior Project Officer

Zoe is most looking forward to learning from others about how they approach issues around racial equity in their work and having the space and time to reflect on how she approaches these issues. She hopes that the programme will help her to know how to support PEPs with developing their understanding of this work and how to approach issues around racial equity in her own work.

Meet the Facilitation Team

Carol Sidney

Carol Sidney (Action Learning Facilitator)

Carol works as Research Analyst at the race equality think-tank, The Runnymede Trust. Her current projects include the efficacy of ethnicity pay gap reporting and improving access to flexible working for shifting workplaces into inclusive ways of working. Her broader interests encompass race, representation and the British media and a recently completed research-led Masters in Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has a long history with a large variety of not-for-profit organisations as well as a track record with freelance and voluntary work at grassroots and community level. She trained as an Action Learning Set facilitator with Action Learning Associates and is a passionate advocate for its transformative power. 
Suri Patel

Suri Patel (Action Learning Facilitator)

Suri is a skilled facilitator, action learning consultant and coach. She believes in making action learning an accessible tool for change and in developing leadership skills. Bringing a range of experience, from project, stakeholder and volunteer management across the international development, CSR and social enterprise sectors, she is passionate about supporting the development of people to make a real difference in their communities and teams. Suri has facilitated action learning and delivered action learning facilitator training across a variety of sectors, including within NHS, local authority and charity. Examples include working with women of colour in leadership positions in the UK, UAE and Canada and US and with senior academics and researchers in universities across Africa, UK and Scotland. She has worked extensively with social entrepreneurs, community business leaders and creative arts leaders. Her action learning facilitation spans face to face, virtual, and internationally and, on the rare occasion, a combination of all three! 
Dr Peggy Warren

Dr Peggy Warren (Guest Speaker)

Dr Peggy Warren is a practitioner - researcher, lecturer, integral coach and author whose curious mind takes her and those she engages with on unconventional pedagogic journeys. She creatively and critically explores systems and behavioural practices.

Peggy has decades of experience developing, facilitating and evaluating Leaders and Managers programme for the National Health Service in the UK and a range of organisations in the UK and overseas. She is the lead facilitator on the double award winning Elevate leadership programme for Bristol University and the partnership group. Peggy is a storyteller and utilises the sharing of lived experience as a method of seeing and engaging with nature and each other’s humanity.
Xavier Baker

Xavier Baker (Guest Speaker)

Xavier is the Civic Development Manager at UWE Bristol, where he develops partnerships with civic and community organisations, focusing on collaborative research, innovation, skills and enterprise. Over the past year, he has also worked with the Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) team to shape the university’s first Anti-Racism Strategy. This has included creating interactive resources to improve understanding of key principles and terminology.

Equity and racial justice are central to Xavier’s work. Previously, he was Mentor and Cohort Manager for a multi award-winning Green Skills programme, supporting young people from global majority backgrounds to access opportunities in the sustainability sector. He also spent three years as a trainee lecturer in UWE Bristol’s Law School, contributing to efforts to close ethnicity awarding gaps. A former trustee of a Multi-Academy Trust with 5 primary schools, he now sits on an independent board that scrutinises Avon & Somerset criminal justice agencies’ efforts to tackle racial disproportionality.

Xavier has recently accepted a brand-new EDI Business Partner position at UWE Bristol and will transition into his new position in the middle of May.

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