Andrew works within Liverpool City Council’s Equal Opportunities Service which was formed in June 2002. He is Head of Equal Opportunities, a post that was created at the same time.

Before being appointed in 2002 Andrew worked at Sheffield City Council (Housing), Birmingham City Council (Race Relations) and London (Housing Management).

Andrew met his Liverpudlian wife whilst working in London and the couple decided to move back to Liverpool so the creation of the Equal Opportunities Service was quite timely and Andrew’s wide experience of race equality and diversity issues was considered ideal.

Having arrived in Liverpool Andrew immediately set out to apply his passion for equality management with the small team of officers that were tasked with addressing the recommendations of the Equal Opportunities Public Review Panel, as well as ensuring LCC was implementing its legislative responsibilities with regards to the Race, Disability and Gender Equality Schemes. The team was also responsible for coordinating portfolios and activities in support of LCC’s performance with regards to the old Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) Standards which were replaced with the Equality Standard for Local Government. In addition to this, until March 2008, the team was responsible for reporting on the Council’s Best Value Performance Indicators for the numbers of black and disabled staff employed by LCC.

Andrew has led the team to achieve many successes, including:

• Achieving level 4 (5 being the highest) of the Equality Standard for Local Government
• Key partner in Liverpool’s Black History Month activities
• Developed a performance management framework for monitoring the performance of equalities in the council
• Initiated the Hope in the Cities dialogue which resulted in a diversity survey of key private and public sector businesses in the city
• Set up the Council’s Operation Black Vote Scheme
• Developed and reached top quartile performance for the council’s Race Equality Scheme and subsequently produced the council’s Disability and Gender Equality Schemes
• Developed guidance on Equality in Procurement
• Commissioned a BME Quality of Life Survey

From the Council’s perspective the above listed successes are commendable but Andrew believes that there is still a lot of work to be done before Liverpool’s BME and other under-represented communities can truly benefit from these changes at the Council. He said, “It takes time to change a culture, with regards to some of the embedded way of life at the Council but we are on the right track. There is certainly a different perspective now.”