Unlock the potential within your organisation

In conversation with Stuart Love, Serena Simon (Westminster City Council) and Paul Sesay (Inclusive Companies)

The City of Westminster is a hub for diversity. However, upon publishing their Pay Gap Report in 2019, the council discovered that their workforce was not reflective of the community they serve. Under the leadership of Chief Executive, Stuart Love, they began to address the areas for improvement.

Stuart and Serena Simon, Director of Communities are Westminster City Council, share a commitment and authentic passion for creating an inclusive organisation. Driven by tackling the lack of representation across senior leadership in Local Government and the wider public and private sectors, their efforts have led the start of the transformation in  Westminster City Council into a thriving, diverse and inclusive organisation often challenging and disrupting existing processes and policies to introduce new programmes that drive this agenda. This includes the implementation of several enterprising training programmes, transformation of recruitment practices, achieve a representative org at all levels and the commitment to significantly reduce the gender and ethnicity pay gaps by 2025. As a result, the reputation of Westminster has successfully changed, staff engagement has increased exponentially over the last five years and our resident satisfaction has reached good levels.

During this webinar, CEO of Inclusive Companies Paul Sesay will be joined in conversation with Stuart and Serena Simon to discuss strategy, becoming an inclusive employer, and their courageous efforts in shifting the dial. This session will also allow time for audience Q&A as we delve into inclusive best practices.

Stuart Love

Stuart has been Chief Executive at Westminster City Council since 2018. His previous role was Executive Director for City Management and Communities. He is the co-chair of the Chief Executive’s London Committee’s Tackling Racial Inequality Group London and a Business In The Community mentor. Under his leadership the following initiatives have been launched in Westminster City Council:

• Diverse shortlisted candidates
• Inclusive recruitment
• Reverse mentoring
• The Black on Board governance training programme designed to mentor junior council officers

Stuart has ensured that the council publishes all of its pay gaps, not just the gender pay gap and has used this to address the gender and ethnicity pay gaps that exist in the organisation. During Stuart’s time as chief executive the demographics of the council have changed significantly to represent the communities it serves and representation at senior levels in the organisation has improved significantly.

Stuart’s focus as chief executive is on people and culture, with equity, diversity and inclusion being at the core.

Serena Simon

Serena is a passionate and experienced disruptive leader in the field of community engagement/development, strategy, empowerment and inclusion.

She has worked with diverse and marginalised groups for over 20 years, championing their voices and addressing their needs. She has a strong track record of delivering innovative and impactful projects that tackle social issues such as anti-social behaviour, hate crime, violence against women and girls, and racial discrimination.

She is committed to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of her/department and organisations work and has developed and implemented policies and strategies that foster a culture of respect, dignity and belonging for everyone, supporting this work across Westminster -the council and the place as well as wider in the Local government- as one of the leads under the London Councils Tackling Racial inequality group and the chair of the LC Community engagement forum.

Serena is currently the Director of Communities at Westminster city council, where she oversees a range of services and initiatives that aim to enhance the quality of life and wellbeing of residents, businesses and visitors in the heart of London, particularly proud to be leading the charge around tackling the shocking life expectancy gap within Westminster by reducing inequalities. A key leader in the organisational commitment to anti-racism as well as the work to improve equity through ridding the organisation of ethnicity and gender paygaps, Serena leads with her heart on her sleeve.

Serena is a keynote speaker across a national and international field and an active member of the Health led work to bring about improvement in the quality of life of patients and communities.

Paul Sesay

Paul Sesay is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the National Diversity Awards, Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers, Inclusive Awards and Inclusive Companies since 2006. Paul’s business acumen has mainly been with a social focus.

With over fifteen years worth of experience within the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion sector, Paul has worked with some of the largest organisations in the world on their diversity and inclusion profiles.

He has also worked within local communities to help people from various backgrounds to achieve and empower disadvantaged groups throughout the UK. Paul’s initiatives have helped thousands of organisations and individuals get recognised for their hard work and dedication to diversity.