UK 
United States
For many, news over the summer that the Reform Party-led Durham County Council was scrapping equality, diversity and inclusion modules from its Member Induction and Development Programme, will have hit hard.
In America, DEI work has been vigorously rowed back on – much to the chagrin and anger of most in HR – and peers in the UK will have feared this mindset moving here.
But with influential pressure groups, such as the Tax Payers’ Alliance, claiming local authorities have spent £52 million on DEI roles over the last years (including more than 700 EDI heads), with 100 million civil service days also being ‘wasted’ on such training, conversations about the true value of DEI expenditure by public bodies will have been difficult to ignore. Only recently it was revealed that councils are now actively “hiding” DEI roles behind other, less obvious titles, to avoid public scrutiny – especially because many of these same councils are under fire for cutting back on, or not delivering on their core services.
So what council would dare invest even more in DEI in these challenging times? Well, one is Camden Council.
Jaimi Modha
Employee Experience Portfolio Lead, London Borough of Camden
Looking after one of the most ethically diverse areas in London, Camden’s leadership has been unequivocal in recent months about saying strength comes through diversity, with Camden Council's Leader, Councillor Richard Olszewski recently saying that “we will not allow any member of our community to live in fear because of toxic politics that sows division, fear and hatred.” In 2024, the council created a ‘Camden Cohesion Fund’ – specifically to build bridges between different communities, and at the same time as Durham was making its cuts, it announced it would earmark £60,000 per year until 2031 to continuing this.
But to make good on its outward pledge, the council has – over the last few years – also been investing in its own internal DEI training too, in partnership with social value consultancy, FabricShift.
