What is the Cultural Cohesion Quality Mark?
The Cultural Cohesion Quality Mark (CCQM) is awarded to organisations and
individuals who can demonstrate improvements in the cultural responsiveness of
their service delivery.
The aim of the CCQM is to improve equality, reduce discrimination, and enable
equitable access to opportunities for every citizen. The CCQM supports
organisations and individuals to reflect on their services and improve the
knowledge, understanding and practices that support work, wellbeing, enjoyment
and quality of life for adults and children.
The Council’s vision for Leeds is to be the best council in the best city, to reduce
inequalities, understand and address causes of unfairness and ensure equity of
outcomes for all. The task of creating a culturally cohesive society in which all
individuals and communities live side by side harmoniously, feeling respected,
safe, valued, and having equal opportunities for personal success and fulfilment, is
complex. The CCQM provides a framework to increase and embed culturally
positive attitudes and behaviour into practices and structures, and reduce
segregation and inequality across communities in Leeds and beyond.
The CCQM has been developed by and is led by Children and Families, in
collaboration with multi-sector partnerships.
Who has the CCQM been developed for?
The CCQM has been developed for individuals within all organisations including:
local government, private businesses, religious organisations, educational
establishments, public sector organisations, and local neighbourhoods.
The aim is to generate participation from multiple sectors including: criminal justice,
education, employment, health, housing, political participation and business,
including third sector organisations
How do organisations get involved with the CCQM?
Any organisation that would like to work towards achieving the CCQM should:
- Register their interest to the CCQM team at CCQM@leeds.gov.uk or via the
website at www.iCCQM.org;
- Organise an introductory meeting with the CCQM team to determine next
steps, or to organise in-house unconscious bias training; and
- Formally pledge their commitment through the website and begin the journey.
How does the CCQM work?
Individuals and organisations work through seven steps, in three phases in
order to gain the accreditation. As organisations progress through the CCQM
discovery areas —through building safe spaces for discussion and reflection,
staff will become more socially aware and adept at identifying inequalities and
discrimination and recognising unfair practices and structures. Effective
sustained change can lead to improved operational and service efficiency.
The Foundation phase of the CCQM encourages organisations and individuals to
register and show full commitment to the cultural cohesion journey by ensuring
full signup from all participants/members/employees and accessing unconscious
bias training.
The Developing phase of the CCQM requires organisations to: carry out a
self-evaluation; identify possible areas of improvement; develop a plan; and
publicise this so that it is visible to the public.
The Achieving phase of the CCQM encourages organisations and individuals to
actively improve their attitudes, practices, participation, innovation and skills.
Participants will demonstrate and celebrate their progress by feeding back to
staff and other stakeholders such as customers and people who access services,
by providing evidence and examples of what has changed. During the Achieving
phase applicants can apply for validation.
What are the benefits for organisations?
Engaging with the CCQM will help develop a culturally aware workforce in which
employees will become more confident in delivering services to a diverse
population. By working through actions and implementing changes towards gaining
the CCQM accreditation, organisations may benefit from increased productivity,
more diverse teams at all levels, reduced staff absences, improved health and
wellbeing of staff and greater customer satisfaction.
The CCQM can also help harness talent and potential by actively improving equality
standards, removing barriers, and increasing accountability, thus creating a more
productive and innovative place to live and work.
For more information
For more information about the CCQM you can email the team at:
CCQM@leeds.gov.uk
You can also find out more information through the website: www.iCCQM.org
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