Equality, diversity and inclusion: annual report

The YJS has taken a proactive and strategic approach to addressing discrimination and reducing inequalities, with a sustained focus on disproportionality across the system. The service has strengthened its use of data to identify and understand disparities at key decision-making points, using thematic audits and linking youth justice data with wider datasets to inform targeted action and partnership responses.

Work with academic partners and regional agencies has further enhanced understanding of racial disparities in youth justice decision-making, informing system-wide improvements, including the development of a whole-area model focused on fairness and consistency in out-of-court disposals, which is a regional priority alongside West Yorkshire Police and supported by the Youth Endowment Fund.

Governance arrangements have also been strengthened through a dedicated disproportionality subgroup of the Partnership Board, ensuring oversight of inequalities relating to protected characteristics and driving collaborative action to address the over-representation of specific groups, including children from Black and mixed heritage backgrounds, those with SEND, and care-experienced children.

Collectively, this work demonstrates the service’s commitment to a child-first, inclusive and evidence-informed approach that actively challenges discrimination and promotes equitable outcomes for all children.

For children the service works with, the impact has been a more equitable and responsive experience, with practice increasingly tailored to their individual identity, needs and circumstances. Improved understanding of disproportionality means that children from Black and mixed heritage backgrounds, children with SEND, and care experienced children are more likely to have their needs recognised and addressed at key decision-making points, supporting fairer access to diversion, support and intervention.

Children are benefiting from more culturally informed and trauma aware practice, with staff better equipped to explore identity, challenge discrimination, and build trust and engagement. This has contributed to stronger relationships between practitioners and children, with feedback and practice indicating that children feel more heard, respected and understood. In practical terms, this has supported more individualised planning - where interventions are informed by a fuller understanding of the child’s background, strengths and barriers, including wider factors such as education and community context.

At a system level, partnership work to improve consistency in decision-making, particularly around out of court disposals, is aimed at reducing bias and ensuring children receive fairer outcomes regardless of background. Overall, the impact for children has been a service that is more inclusive, reflective and focused on achieving equitable outcomes, with increasing attention to addressing the structural factors that contribute to discrimination. The voice of children and families from Chapeltown Youth Development Centre, through Project Shield, have directly influenced the strategic plan sitting under the Disproportionality Subgroup.

The Disproportionality Subgroup is now established with a clear action plan in place underpinned by the voice of children and families. Over the next year the action plan seeks to:

1) Develop a multi-agency data package focusing on disproportionality of protected characteristics throughout the justice system.

2) Increase subgroup and board membership diversity.

3) Recognise the impact of bias, stereotypes, and power dynamics in statutory practice.  Adapt approaches to be culturally responsive, respectful and community led.

4) Work with the police, VRP and education partners to implement changes to correspond to research findings on disparity.

5) Identify how statutory systems unintentionally create obstacles for families and reflect on own roles within systems and how to mitigate harm.

6) Recognise parents as partners not obstacles and apply strategies for involving families meaningfully in support, planning and intervention. Communicate in ways to reduce shame, blame and fear.

Generally, there is a need to collectively position children and parents/carers as active partners in decision-making. We recognise the importance of listening, patience, and relational practice and commit to actions that build safer, more trusting communities.

The Leeds Children's Mayor elections took place during summer 2025 and Year 5 children were invited to write a manifesto linked to the 12 Child Friendly Leeds wishes. 8,000 children voted in the elections and the manifesto with the greatest number of votes was Sienna and her manifesto links to Wish 4: "Differences are celebrated in Leeds so children and young people feel accepted for who they are. They do not experience bullying and discrimination." The strapline for her manifesto is "One city, many voices - let's celebrate us all!"

The Voice and Influence Team are working with Sienna and her school to address her manifesto aims and she will be sharing what actions have been taken with other schools in Leeds at the Children’s Mayor Summit which is taking place on 2 June.

The following update focuses on the work done under this priority generally and under 3 different themes:

Multiple different ethnicities, religions, faiths and beliefs are respected

‘We are Leeds’: Building a Stronger Britain Together: The Leeds Development Education Centre had the great pleasure of working with 3 different communities across Leeds, as part of the Building a Stronger Britain Together (BSBT) project, funded by the Home Office to promote intercultural understanding. The purpose of this project was to bring Leeds’ communities together to explore and reflect on different stories of how people came to Leeds, how people feel about Leeds and how they are part of the wider Leeds community. A central aim of this project was to encourage participants to explore different perspectives, what differences and commonalities they find with people from other communities in Leeds in order to strengthen intercultural understanding within and across different communities in Leeds.

Belonging Project: On 4 July 2025 Key Stage 2 classes were invited to join Global Leeds Learning (formerly Leeds DEC) and Picture News together with 3 Harehills primary schools to deliver a live session on what it means to ‘belong in Leeds’. The session sought to empower and support teachers who are less confident is discussing migration related issues and provide support to staff and young people seeking support. 125 classes engaged with the Live session on the day. 

Getaway Girls: In May 2025 a listen and learn workshop was facilitated by Getaway Girls as part of the Child Friendly Leeds Wish 4 work. “Let’s Talk about Racial Injustice in Schools” is a new educational video resource produced by young women at Getaway Girls as part of the national ‘Young Changemakers’ programme. The resource is aimed at professionals, including teachers and looks at the disparities between the treatment of Black and dual heritage girls in comparison to their white friends or other racialised pupils. 

Accessible Information: Information to support parents of children with SEN has been translated into 7 community languages, with ongoing efforts to further increase accessibility. Further detail of this and other related work at provided on the SENDIASS website.

Black Care Experience Charter (BCE): The charter aims to improve outcomes for Black children in care and ensure their voices are represented. Fostering colleagues attended the BCE conference in Manchester on 28 March 2025. Discussions took place at the conference about signing up to the Black Care Experience Charter Conference. A meeting was held on 6 May 2025 to look at how to sign up to and embed the charter in Leeds. 

Thanks to the generosity of Out of Many People CIC, BookTrust, and Penguin UK’s Lit in Colour, the fostering service received a donation of books celebrating and exploring Black British culture specifically to support children within in foster care. These books, which seek to support children to develop a strong sense of identity and belonging, have been distributed accordingly. 

Children, young people and families with different physical and mental abilities are supported and provided with equal opportunities

Learning week 8 to 12 September 2025 focused on EDI. Sessions were held on topics such as working with interpreters, protected characteristics, social skills, cultural responsiveness, neurodiversity, British values, British Sign Language, and supporting trans and intersex youth. Learning week was coordinated by the Learning and Inclusion team and aimed at the professional development for staff. Further work has taken place since the week to further expand knowledge on the above topics.  

British Sign Language training has been hosted for staff with approximately 40 people attended the training. Due its popularity 3 more training events for staff are due to be delivered. It is hoped that several people will go on to advance their knowledge of British sign language and potential to offer sign language support to services going forward. 

Children, young people and families with different sexualities and sexual identities are accepted and respected

The School Wellbeing Service continues to maintain and update its LGBTQ+ A-Z of resources. The A-Z is designed to support Leeds City Council Children and Families Services Staff, schools and settings with accessing LGBTQ+ information, resources and agencies to support effective delivery of the PSHE curriculum. The document provides an “at a glance” resource to support Leeds City Council’s wider equality, diversity and inclusion priorities. All information and materials included are provided for general information and do not constitute any kind of advice, recommendation or endorsement by the council. 

LGBT+ awareness training and support groups: A new LGBT+ awareness session was held in September to improve understanding of gender, sexual orientation and the lived experiences of LGBT+ people. It was delivered by members of the council's LGBT+ Staff Network, whose lived experience helped inform the session for colleagues across the organisation. The session, which supported the ‘What Makes Us Different, Make Us Leeds’ campaign, was funded through the Council of Europe's Intercultural Cities programme.

Belonging Project 

The project enabled children to explore their identities, their communities, stories of migration and belonging. Children created poetry and artwork and wrote a powerful song with a message ‘Leeds - We all belong’. The project was a resounding success. To celebrate the achievements of the project, Leeds DEC and a group of young people involved in from the 3 Harehills schools attended a deputation at full council in January 2026 to talk about the project and sing their song to elected members.

On 26th March 2026 a meeting was held at Harehills Primary School between Leeds Dec, Cllrs Hayden and Asghar Khan, and school staff involved in the project to hear more about the work that was done and think about ways the project could be expanded. 

Due to its success, the Belonging Project was also used as an example of community cohesion work at the Show Racism the Red Card event that took place in October. Some of the young people from the Harehills Primary came to the event and sang their song.

Youth Justice Service

Black History Month celebrations have provided dedicated opportunities to recognise and celebrate the heritage, experiences and contributions of Black communities within the Youth Justice Service. These activities have supported open conversations about race and identity, increased staff and partner awareness, and reinforced the service’s zero tolerance approach to racism and commitment to cultural cohesion.

In 2025/26 16 new fostering households were approved, 5 of which were from ethnically diverse backgrounds. The service has a further 18 households undergoing a fostering assessment and 10 of these families are from global majority backgrounds which increases our ability to find fostering families for children where there is a cultural match.

Raising Awareness of Hidden Disabilities

Child Friendly Leeds supported the Raising Awareness of Hidden Disabilities campaign which was focused on raising awareness of what young people with hidden disabilities want others to know about them. Everything from this project is based on the words and voices and young people with SEND in Leeds. The campaign culminated in several resources being produced including posters, teams backgrounds, an assembly and a training session. This has been shared and promoted at all staff engagement events within the Children and Families Services directorate.

Deaf Awareness Week 

Last year’s Deaf Awareness Week in May was celebrated with an online session for Primary Schools, a musical signed story and activities around sign language and deaf awareness. Between 30 to 40 schools attended the event and over 500 people accessed the information added to the Leeds for Learning website within the first 30 days.

The LGBTQ+ Youth Groups ‘Out 2 18’ and ‘Transtastic’ 

These groups continue to provide young people with a safe and inclusive space for peer support, advice and guidance for those who identify as LGBTQ+. Over the past year, young people have contributed to wider partnership and developmental work aligned to the Equality Improvement Priority, including working with The Children’s Society ‘Time to Talk’ service around mental health, collaborating with Spin Arts and DeNada Dance Theatre to inform professional productions using lived experience, and building links with Alphabet Collective. Young people have also co-produced specialist training with STARS focusing on LGBTQ+ young people with autism and SEND, and supported service development by participating in youth panels and interviews, helping to ensure young people feel accepted, valued and represented across services in Leeds.

A variety of work will continue to be done to celebrate difference and diversity across the city and improve community cohesion in the coming months. Examples of work include:

The Child Friendly Leeds Awards

These take place in in July 2026. The awards provide an opportunity to recognise and celebrate all the people, the children and young people, the groups, the places, the organisations, the partnerships that are making Leeds a Child Friendly city. So many of the nominations reflect work that people are doing, building, bringing communities together, supporting equality and diversity. A record number of 1,013 nominations were had last year. Children and young people play a central role in planning the awards and have chosen a theme for this year’s awards which links back to Child Friendly Leeds Wish 4, which is carnival. To take this theme forward conversations are currently taking place with the West Indian Carnival to see what could be done to link in with the Child Friendly Leeds12 Wishes.

SENDIASS 

SENDIASS are working with the Voice Influence and Change Team on a project with young people with the aim of developing to develop a range of resources to inform other young people about the Leeds Local Offer and their rights.

New fostering recruitment strategy

A new fostering recruitment strategy (2026-2028) has been launched featuring priority objectives of recruiting more foster carers from diverse backgrounds to better meet the needs of children in care. Recruitment activity has been delivered in partnership with the Muslim community, the Sikh community and the Christian community as part of a faith-based recruitment campaign. The service has also worked with the Muslim community to identify opportunities for foster carers to learn more about caring for a Muslim child, including offering “buddies,” and Eid party, attendance at Iftar events and delivery of Eid boxes for Muslim children placed with non-Muslim foster carers.

Cultural brokers project

Cultural brokers project using Leeds City Council staff volunteers to create culturally accessible language videos with initial information for parents on One Send services with the aim of helping parents who do not speak English feel more comfortable and informed prior to engaging with One Send professionals.

Cultural Cohesion Quality Mark

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. Work towards the CCQM remains active and is consistently moving forward. 

Youth Justice Service

Plans are underway for Black History Month 2026. Work will involve activities for both staff and children/families, with the overall aim to improve cultural awareness and support open conversations about race and identity. Identifying and addressing racial disparity is a key priority for the YJS, with Black History Month providing a platform annually for celebrating diversity and championing inclusion. In addition, the YJS is going to be working with a Race Equity Associate as part of the Whole Area Model work with the Youth Endowment Fund to support the service to look at cultural competence, practice and behaviours and support the co-design of a cultural charter for the service.

Child Friendly Leeds Wish 4

The Child Friendly Leeds Wish 4 working group will continue to work with colleagues in the council and partners across the city to celebrate differences and diversity by spreading awareness of relevant initiatives and projects and wherever possible join up work to maximise the impact these have on local communities. This work will include being involved and the council’s new Community Cohesion Strategy.

Over the past 12 months, significant work has been undertaken to progress the equality improvement priority for care experienced people within the organisation and across Leeds. 

Care experienced has been formally adopted has as a protected characteristic. As part of this commitment, Leeds City Council has developed and successfully launched a care experienced staff network, supported by a full terms of reference. Alongside this, a Care Experienced Working Group has been established, which includes participation from an elected member champion.

To strengthen employment pathways within the council, Leeds City Council has introduced an Interview Guarantee Scheme for care experienced staff and applicants. To implement this corporate application, forms have been updated. In addition, steps have been taken to improve data on the number of staff who are care experienced, with HR monitoring forms now including a declaration option. Senior leadership support has also been visible, with the CEO promoting a call for colleagues to join the network through the staff bulletin.

In relation to employment and skills more generally for care experienced people, the key priorities have focused on improving access to work experience, apprenticeships, employment pathways, employer engagement, and in improving the use of data. 

An overarching Care Leavers EET (Education, Employment and Training) Strategy has been developed to bring together and align all related services. In addition, a system wide dashboard is being developed to baseline EET performance by 2026/27, although this work is complex due to the number of different datasets involved. 

To map opportunities across the system and ensure practitioners are connecting young people with the support available, a new opportunities coordinator role has been established. In addition, the Supported Selection Scheme has also been expanded, extending guaranteed interview commitments beyond care experienced young people to include veterans and people with disabilities.

From and independent living perspective, the council has piloted practical support for care leavers transitioning into independent living. The current 6-month pilot scheme provides flooring for care leavers moving into a Leeds City Council tenancy. In the last 3 months, 15 properties have benefited from this provision, and surveys will be undertaken with each recipient to understand the value of the support and to identify any areas for improvement. The pilot will continue for the full 6-month period before a full evaluation is completed, allowing the council to assess the long term feasibility of continuing the scheme, including its financial implications.

The work of Care Experience Protected Characteristic Implementation Group (CEPCIG) has resulted in a more coordinated, effective and accountable offer for care‑experienced young people and staff. Joint working strengthens early identification, ensures consistent support across education, training and employment pathways, and builds shared capacity across teams such as the Virtual School and Care Leaver service. Closer integration helps the council meet its corporate parenting duties by modelling high aspirations, improving access to work experience, apprenticeships and employment, and developing robust data and tracking systems to measure outcomes.

Stronger working with Children’s Services has improve early identification, coordination, and tracking of care experienced young people and enhanced pathways toward employment and clearer progression routes.

What difference has been made to care experienced young people?

To showcase the creativity of young people that have been in care and provide an opportunity to have their voices heard, a comic book anthology was co-created by young people aged 15–25 with lived experience of the care system in Leeds. Once produced, the comic book, named ‘Our Story’, was launched in a free digital format. The comic book brings together a unique collection brings of art, storytelling, and creativity to amplify voices that are too often unheard. Developed in partnership with the British Library, Leeds Children’s Services, and facilitators Sarah Chapleo and Mollie Ray, ‘Our Story’ offers an honest, vibrant look at care experiences through the eyes of those who know them best. 

Last year, to enable care professionals to be more informed about the interaction of care-experience and HE, Go Higher West Yorkshire’s ‘Care to go Higher’ certified programme offered sessions to care professionals to support young people to overcome the challenges they face when leaving the care system. 

The sessions aimed to equip those who significantly influence care-experienced young people with the necessary tools to help them make informed choices about higher education. 

To enable more care professionals to attend the training, further sessions were held in February 2026. 

Care Leaver Resources-ASK apprenticeships created a guide to apprenticeships to help care experienced young people and those supporting them explore their options. The guide contains clear information on what apprenticeships are, how to find vacancies, and gives an outline of the kind of support and financial assistance that may be available. Alongside the guide, there's also a helpful flowchart that helps young people to find out if they are eligible for the Care Leaver Bursary.

Several challenges have affected progress over the past year, and these will continue to shape the focus of work in the months ahead. These challenges include:

• a significant change of the council’s HR and recruitment systems as the upgrade to iTrent and MyRecruitment has impacted on progress
• maintaining continuity within the Care Experienced Staff Network as several colleagues who were instrumental in establishing the network have since moved into new roles. 
• the capacity of care experienced colleagues to attend network meetings is limited
• the updating of HR policy to include care experience is ongoing and remains a challenge as capacity is reducing 
• the joint Housing and Care Leaver protocol is also still in draft form, with an ambition to finalise it in the first quarter of 2026/2027

Looking ahead, a number of activities are planned to strengthen progress and enhance support for care experienced young people. These include:

• Healthy Working Life Supported Employment programme: 50 care experienced young people per year; intensive Place Train Retain model.
• Archway partnership: Co-designed careers offer with young people.
• Opportunities Coordinator Pilot: Targeted 2-year model to improve access and practitioner awareness.
• City Development Work Experience Pilot: Next cohort June 2026.
• Foundation Apprenticeships: New construction pathway with EN:Able Futures for 2026, supporting up to age 24.

In addition, further sessions on the Go Higher West Yorkshire’s ‘Care to go Higher’ certified programme will be offered to care professionals. These will likely take place in June and October 2026.

The following update provides some examples of some of the work that has been done to support schools and services to address bullying and discrimination along with work to prevent bullying and discrimination happening in the first place by promoting tolerance and respect.

Over the summer of 2025 the annual Leeds Children's Mayor elections took place. Children chose a manifesto linked to the Leeds 12 wishes. Sienna (a Year 5 pupil) became the 2025-26 Leeds Children's Mayor in October 2025 with a total of 7,688 children and young people voting in the elections. Sienna's manifesto is about celebrating diversity and tackling bullying and discrimination and links to child friendly Leeds Wish 4. The strapline for her manifesto is "One city, many voices - let's celebrate us all!" This provides a focus and actions for schools.

Bullying Definition Survey

Last year, as part of the work to examine issues affecting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, the Yorkshire and Humber Office for Health and Improvement Disparities (OHID) working group developed a school survey to gain a greater understanding of practice within schools to address bullying and to determine whether developing a universal bullying definition for schools would be useful across the region. The survey conducted in Leeds found that the vast majority of schools already had a bullying definition and so the development of a universal bullying definition for Leeds schools was not deemed required. Schools reported that the main bullying-related pressures affecting them were social media /cyberbullying; community issues and tensions spilling into school; and parent expectations and perceptions, including a perceived lack of parental recognition of their role in addressing bullying and discrimination and in encouraging children not to bully others. Schools stated they would like further support to address these issues, particularly further support on addressing parental recognition of their responsibilities to address bullying. 

The Health and Wellbeing Service in Children and Families Services deliver a range of sessions to schools to provide support them to challenge bully and discrimination, encouraging children to respect other and value diversity. As an example, Picture News sessions were delivered to pupils to explore British Values and Protected Characteristics. The sessions were designed to help children understand respect, equality and inclusion. Through discussion of real-life scenarios, pupils were supported to recognise prejudice, challenge stereotypes and understand the impact of discrimination. Due to their success, there are plans to repeat the sessions to a wider audience of schools.

Online Safety Campaign Competition

The Child Friendly Leeds team promoted the “Your Voice for Online Safety” campaign competition which invited children and young people in Years 5-8 to create a poster, artwork, or short written message encouraging safer online behaviour. This was part of a Leeds city-wide campaign led by the NSPCC to support professionals, parents and carers to help keep children safe in their online world. Children and young people have shared that there is a lack of awareness of the types of online platforms and safety messages available. The entries focused on online safety themes including social media, gaming, grooming, bullying, abuse, sharing images, distressing content, advice, safety, and online news/advertising.

Show Racism the Red Card

The national event was organised by Children and Families and GMB Union representatives on Friday 17 October 2025. The morning event consisted of a welcome from the Lord Mayor, Ed Whiting’s opening remarks, guest speaker from Stand Up to Racism, a quiz from the Race Equality Network, and a presentation from the Leeds United Foundation and Global Learning Leeds. The event was attended by a range of staff from across the council.

Young Futures is a government funded programme which has seen Leeds recognised as early adopter of the Youth Futures Programme, encompassing the Youth Futures and Hub and local youth transformation. The programme, which is in its early stages, is focused on providing coordinated support for young people aged 11-18 (up to 25 for care experienced individuals).

Cohesion Strategy - Stronger Leeds Plan

The voice and views of young people were sought when developing the council’s new Cohesion Strategy. Youth service teams surveyed a significant number of young people. Focus groups were also held with young and older people from different ethnicities and backgrounds. The focus groups allowed participants to share their experiences, as well as identify issues and concerns that were perceived as barriers to social cohesion.

The focus groups enabled people to provide their views on how to build on and improve social relationships in the city. Young people made up approximately 10% of the people included in the consultation about the strategy. A specific young people’s version of the strategy was created in partnership with Leeds Youth Service, with the consultation featuring as part of youth service programmes across city.

Bullying definition survey and development of a parent guide

In October 2025 the findings of the bullying survey were shared with the PSHE and Healthy Schools Network. The identified issue of the need for greater parental understanding of bullying was confirmed as area where schools would welcome further support and resources and to help communicate with parents. Consequently, it was agreed that a parent guide would be developed in conjunction with schools. 

My Health, My School survey

The My Health My School survey is a pupil perception survey that asks children and young people in years 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 11 (as well as separate surveys for post-16 and provision for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) a number of questions in order to generate vital information on the health and wellbeing of these individuals. The data provided can allow us to tailor interventions to improve the data and the lives of children and young people for the future. The survey comprises of a range of questions on the 10 themes:

• All about me
• Healthy eating
• Social, emotional and mental health (SEMH)
• Gambling (new for 2024)
• Physical activity and sport
• Play (new for 2024)
• Physical education in school
• Drugs, alcohol and tobacco
• Sexual health (for secondary and post-16)

The data from the survey is used by schools/settings to ensure that their provision and curriculum meet the needs of the pupils.

Unconscious bias training

All 13 secondary subject leader networks received unconscious bias training in the first term of 2025/26. The sessions were delivered in the context of understanding the factors that may affect vulnerable learners. The sessions were well received and provoked significant reflection and discussion. Following this training, 4 secondary schools have booked unconscious bias training for all of their staff.

Empathy Week 2026

On 12 March 2026, the Health and Wellbeing Service worked with Empathy Studios to host a session for primary and secondary schools promoting understanding, respect and inclusion across schools. The event aimed to raise awareness of the impact of prejudice and hate, encourage pupils to develop empathy, challenge stereotypes and recognise the importance of positive relationships. The session was attended by 197 primary pupils and 28 secondary pupils. The day began with a live show with the Empathy Week team where primary pupils became certified culture explorers, engaging in lots of activities related to this year’s theme. In the afternoon, secondary school students explored culture, identity and human rights through poetry with the Deanna Rodger in partnership with Amnesty International. The Lord Mayor also joined the event. The day concluded with a CPD session with the Born Free Foundation that explored traditional teachings of animal welfare in the classroom through the lens of empathy.

A variety of work will continue to address the bullying and discrimination children and young people and their families experience.  Examples of planned work include:

Parent Guide on Bullying

A draft parent guide has been developed entitled ‘Understanding and Responding to Bullying’, which is intended as a resource for schools that they can adapt and use with their own families. Feedback on the guide is currently being sought to ensure it includes all the appropriate information. Once the feedback has been received and the guide updated, it will be shared with the PSHE and Healthy Schools Network for discussion and approval. Once finalised, the parent guide will be shared with schools and learning settings and added to the Leeds for Learning website.

Delivery of Prevent Awareness training for early years, including schools, private, voluntary and independent (PVI) childcare providers, and childminders

The risk of a child being radicalised in an early years setting is extremely low. The main concern for early years providers in terms of extremist and terrorist activity is to identify the possible harm posed to the child by adults, carers, family or community members who care for them or with whom they engage.

The training will be available for all early years providers that to support them to meet their Prevent duties specifically helps your setting meet the Prevent Duty. The training will support schools and providers to understand current risks and methods of engagement to inform methods of protecting young people from radicalisation; consider the Prevent implications for early years settings; think about who may be vulnerable to radicalisation; signs recognise when a vulnerable individual may be in need of help; and provide details of what support is available in Leeds if a setting or provider has concerns.

Young Futures

The programme commenced on 1 April 2026. The intention is to both test and learn the Youth Future’s Hub and Locations Model alongside the Transformation Fund.  

The Youth Futures Hub operates from main hub and spoke sites in Bramley, Hunslet, and Seacroft, aiming to provide a central access point for young people to receive coordinated support without needing to approach multiple services. In summary the hub is operational focused on the needs of young people. It aims to support partnership and collaboration with partners across multiple sectors. The Transformation Fund intends to deliver 5 streams of work with prevention at the core. It includes workstreams on quality assurance, youth voice, workforce development, and the creation a digital offer. A formal launch event planned after local elections. Work will involve the ongoing development of partnership structures and referral processes.

Hate incident reporting in schools

Introduction and rollout of a new method for schools to report the hate incidents their pupils experience. The new SMART survey method of reporting incidents is due to be launched in September 2026 at the start of the new academic year. Once established and used by schools, information on the hate incidents reported will be analysed to determine any key themes and trends. The data collected will include information on the type of incident that occurred, for example, a verbal, physical or online; the motivation of the incident, for example, racism, religion, homophobia or a combination of motivations; where the incident took place, for example, in school, in playground or outside of school gates; and whether parents of the victim and pupil that committed the incident were contacted. Over time the frequency of reporting will be analysed to see if the incidents correlate with any incidents or activities that occur in the city or nationally and in any particular geographical locations of the city. 

CFL Wish 4

Due to importance placed on this wish by children and young people places, the wish leads and the Children’s Services Voice and Influence team will ensure children and young people's voices are heard when delivering the city’s new Stronger Leeds Strategy and other projects and initiatives aimed at addressing divisions and promoting diversity and respect.

Developing a greater understanding of the needs and barriers faced by older people through: 

• ongoing work to ensure the voices of people in later life are a central part of the Age Friendly Strategy and Action Plan for 2025-2030, including dissemination of insights in the Director of Public Health Annual Report to raise awareness of the experiences of ageing well, needs and barriers experienced by older people in Leeds
• continuing to strengthen community voice in Age Friendly Board, for example, through Age Friendly Steering Group membership on the Board to represent the voices of older people. 
• showcasing the work of the Age Friendly Leeds Steering Group and their active involvement in local decision making in a Centre for Ageing Better publication
• completing a review of the healthy ageing needs of ethnically diverse communities in later life and ongoing work to understand issues affecting ageing well outcomes for people in later life who are LGBT+, neurodiverse and ageing without children
• ongoing work to bring the voices of people in later life to the wider Age Friendly Leeds Network
• Leeds Older People’s Hub managed by Leeds Older People’s Forum continuing to provide a space and support to ensure that older people’s voices are heard, helping partners to meet with people in later life and discuss any consultations, proposed changes to services and supports the co-production of new initiatives
• publishing an Ageing Well data dashboard and inclusion of older people’s poverty and low-income data on the Leeds Observatory
• focused engagement with older people on travel and transport, for example, bus stop accessibility study and Travel Connections Let’s Talk Transport
• weekly attendance at Centre for Ageing Better Peer network call to discuss issues that have an impact on older people

Influencing across the council and wider partners to ensure age, as a protected characteristic, is considered in strategic priorities and plans through:    

• the continued involvement and commitment from domain leads from across the council to report against objectives and actions in the Age Friendly Leeds Strategy and Plan to the Age Friendly Board, which includes actions to further embed age friendly into strategies, policies and services (examples can be provided on request). 
• ongoing work to raise the profile of and position Age Friendly and its critical role in delivering the Leeds Ambitions
• formal reporting an update on progress made towards recommendations in the Director of Public Health Annual Report – Ageing Well Our Lives in Leeds. 
• preparing an age friendly response for a number of consultations, for example, Local Plan, City Centre Vision document, West Yorkshire Transport Plan, DfT proposal for mandatory eye tests for people aged 75+, and Health and Social Care Committee Inquiry on healthy ageing and physical activity
• ongoing work around to ensure the Mental Health Strategy review reflects the needs of people in later life
• providing an update to Executive Board and bi-annual updates to Adults and Health DLT and the Executive Member lead

Put interventions in place to remove or reduce barriers faced by older people through:  

• working with Commissioners/services and the Friendly Communities team (Leeds Older People’s Forum) to develop and implement age friendly principles to ensure services are accessible and inclusive of older people and those with protected characteristics by:    
  • ongoing engagement of new and existing Age Friendly organisations and Age Friendly Ambassadors
  • focused work to create Age Friendly Community Hubs and Adult Social Care Services and Transport Services
  • approving a further 3 year grant for Leeds Older People’s Forum to deliver the Friendly Communities Programme
  • agreeing approaches to embedding age friendly requirements and principles into commissioned services
  • developed with Forward Leeds age friendly communications for alcohol and later life and exploring ways in which to increase the accessibility of the service
  • working with Leeds Stop Smoking service for the service to become Age and Dementia Friendly and stop smoking advisors to become Age Friendly Ambassadors
  • developing and delivering communications, campaigns and events that support healthy ageing, address ageist attitudes and celebrate the contribution of people in later life, for example, Age Without Limits, International Day of Older People, Alcohol Awareness Week
  • reviewing the Voluntary Action Leeds inclusive volunteering website and principles and developing resources relating to good practice around engaging older people in volunteering for the Volunteer Managers’ Network
• working with partners to ensure a preventative approach is taken in later life to address individual risk factors as well as the wider determinants focusing on those who are more likely to experience inequality to ensure they age well through:  
  • Age Friendly Board overseeing delivery against Age Friendly Strategy domains that reflect the wider determinants, for example, housing, transport, employment
  • Age Friendly Network ensuring continuous professional development and networking to members to maximise impact on preventative opportunities for ageing well, for example, financial wellbeing/abuse, adverse weather/heat
  • dissemination of learning (end of project report and video) from the Creative Healthy Ageing project which awarded grants to community organisations to test, learn and develop ways of communicating priority public health messages through creative, healthy ageing approaches. Taking this work forward with the West Yorkshire Creative System programme
  • ongoing work to commission preventative services and support that support people to age well, for example, Neighbourhood Networks, lunch clubs, strength and balance, Home Plus
  • ongoing work to raise awareness of the needs and challenges relating to alcohol and ageing well and partners developing actions to address these
  • three active ageing workshops completed, recommendations being developed to feed into Age Friendly strategy, Physical Activity Ambition, and One Workforce strategy
  • intergenerational sports tournament attended by more than 80 people
  • training session held for lunch club providers around the Eatwell messages
  • continued work on a targeted local approach to increasing access to benefits/pension credit 
  • raising awareness of age friendly employment through the Age Friendly Recruitment Fair, with 140 people booked onto the fair with 80 people attending
  • ongoing commitment from Leeds City Council as an Age Friendly Employer, for example, through accreditation as a Carers Confident Employer and Disability Confident re-accreditation.
  • Alzheimer’s Society delivered 6 days of dementia training to West Yorkshire Housing Partnership member organisations
  • Two Winter Wellbeing sessions delivered to wider workforce focused on keeping older people well over the winter

Examples to demonstrate the impact of the work include:  

• Age Friendly/accessible businesses and organisations: An increase to 285 in total, 40 of which signed up in 2025-26.
• Age Friendly Ambassadors who spread the message and advocate for Age Friendly: An increase to 500 in total, 105 of which were recruited in 2025-26. 
• Wise Up to Ageism Training: Raised awareness of ageism for 318 people in 2025-26, 28% of which were Leeds City Council Employees and commissioned services.
• 311 older people supported to travel independently or with friends and family and 35 City Cabs drivers trained in age and dementia friendly awareness 
• Between April 2025 and March 2026, 243 older people attended a falls prevention programme, with 111 of these completing the programme, an increase of around 30 people completing in 2025-26. The programmes have consistently demonstrated improved falls prevention outcomes as well as reductions in GP appointments and hospital attendances. 
• Home Plus Service, April 2025 to March 2026 - 3,406 assisted to reduce falls risks, fuel poverty - 1,198 (an increase from 945 in 2024-25) warmth/energy efficiency measures - 1,436 (an increase from 1166 in 2024-25) good access across some target groups. 34% of clients live in IMD1 areas and 20% are ethnically diverse with fantastic feedback about how the support has improved wellbeing and independence
• lunch clubs – 91 funded across the city with approximately 4,660 beneficiaries (an increase from 4,200 in 2024-25) with weighting according to need (IMD 1 and 2 areas 52.2%)
• Leeds Irish Health and Homes effectively supporting people across the Irish community to live healthy and independent lives: 2,600 people received electronic newsletter providing information and updates on LIHH activities that people can get involved with. 520 people accessing LIHH services, 143 people accessing 1-1 support service, with a 2.1 point increase in health and wellbeing (point scale of 1-10 used) breakdown: 1.53 increase for mental health, 2.43 increase physical health, 2.23 increase in social wellbeing, 1.83 increase in financial wellbeing.
• 350 households have taken up pension credit with a total yearly gain of £1.4m as a result of targeted engagement work  
• raised the awareness of Age Friendly Leeds, ageism and the contribution of people in later life through 9 community grants as part of International Day of Older People
• Stay Well This Winter Grants – 20 grants made specifically to support older people across Leeds in winter (IMD 1and 2 areas – 55% of funding); 3,683 individuals directly supported with reported improved mental health or wellbeing (1,228 people), improved physical health or wellbeing (1,205 people) and feeling less lonely (924 people)

Core strategy targets for M4(2) and M4(3) wheelchair accessible housing continue to be met.

Develop a greater understanding of the needs and barriers faced by older people through:  

• further engagement with academic partners to better understand the needs, barriers and what works for supporting people to age well
• engagement with community organisations to capture the learning and insight around falls prevention and physical activity – motivations, barriers, and learning for public health messaging
• expand and develop the Age Friendly Steering group to become more diverse and have a wider reach into all communities of Leeds
• continue to develop and facilitate the Older People’s Equalities Hub involving the full range of older citizens of Leeds, providing space and support to ensure people in later life are listened to

Influence across the council and wider partners to ensure age, as a protected characteristic, is considered in strategic priorities and plans through:

• ongoing work to raise the profile of and position Age Friendly and its critical role in delivering the Leeds Ambitions
• implementing committed actions within the Age Friendly Leeds Strategy and Action Plan 2025-27
• producing an action plan for 2027-2030 to sit alongside the Age Friendly strategy, ensuring this is informed by emerging needs, expectations and barriers experienced by people in later life, opportunities and evidence
• progress with embedding age friendly requirements and principles into commissioned services
• deliver 2 bespoke Wise Up to Ageism training sessions for Leeds City Council employees and commissioned services. 
• further strengthening intergenerational work with Child Friendly Leeds and work with Anchor Organisations
• work with Leeds Stop Smoking service to become Age Friendly and for Stop Smoking Advisors to become Age Friendly Ambassadors within the service

Put interventions in place to remove or reduce barriers faced by older people through: 

• ongoing work with Commissioners/services and the Friendly Communities team (Leeds Older People’s Forum) to develop and implement age friendly principles to ensure key services are accessible and inclusive of older people and those with protected characteristics
• ongoing work to encourage and support anchor organisations with implementing good practice in relation to supporting people to age well in work

Working with partners to ensure a preventative approach is taken in later life to address individual risk factors as well as the wider determinants with a focus on those who are more likely to experience inequality to ensure they age well: 

• implementing actions within the Age Friendly Leeds Strategy and Action Plan 2025-2030
• final report and learning from the Creative Healthy Ageing project which used a test and learn approach to engaging with older people on key priority topics. Linked to additional grants pot for active ageing to provide investment funding
• delivering the Falls Steering Group plan which includes actions such as improving falls prevention pathways and primary prevention of falls
• ongoing review of reach and outcomes of preventative services and support, for example, Home Plus, Strength and Balance, lunch clubs, Stay Well this Winter Grants
• ongoing work in collaboration with partners to further develop and deliver plans that enable people in later life to keep active and stay healthy, with a focus on supporting people to age well (for example, active ageing, nutrition and hydration, alcohol)
• developing and delivering an ageing well/age friendly communications plan and toolkit focused on a range of topics
• finalise report of the Leeds review of ‘Good Home Hub’ agree next steps with steering group and stakeholders
• deliver quarterly Age Friendly Network meetings, focussing on key issues that impact older people and having a collative approach to removing barriers that older people may face

Refresh the Leeds Carers Strategy

The Leeds Carers Partnership is a well-attended stakeholder group whose focus in 2025/26 was around gathering information and sharing insight around support for carers in the city, to identify gaps, areas for improvement and strengthen the community-based health transformation programmes. This work has informed the refresh of the existing Leeds Carers Partnership Strategy, and the group is planning further co-production with carers to ensure the new strategic approaches make a positive impact on carers lives and make Leeds a carer-friendly city.

Develop the self-assessment tool working with carers

The Carers Assessment Team and other area social work teams undertake statutory assessments to identify carers’ needs and ensure access to appropriate support, including direct payments and community-based breaks. The outcomes of these assessments may result in support packages for carers including practical help such as cleaning, gardening, and wellbeing services. The dedicated team consistently receives positive feedback, highlighting how even small changes can make a significant difference such as household cleaning and gardening. Last year, a total of 2,107 carers assessments were completed by both the dedicated unpaid carers team and the wider ASC teams.

The CQC assessment highlighted that uptake of carer support among ethnic minority communities remained low. To help address this, the council and Carers Leeds delivered targeted roadshows to improve awareness and help people recognise their caring role, leading to the recruitment of more carers with lived experience. A Listening Forum and the Big Chat Leeds events further gathered insight into how communities prefer to access support. A co‑designed self‑assessment form is also being tested with a voluntary community group to better support carers from diverse backgrounds.

Expend digital offer for carers, including working with partners

The Leeds Directory serves as a comprehensive online resource, listing over 2,000 local support services, groups, and activities for people and their carers.

Carers Leeds is continuing to develop its ‘digital front door’ to ensure it has parity with its Support Line and physical presence in the community and hospitals. As a result, it is integrating technology and digital solutions into its service offer. Carers Leeds has a monthly carers E-newsletter reaching 9,000 subscribers, a website with key resources, how to guides and advice videos. Carers can book an appointment via the website, as well as over the phone. Carers Leeds launched a webchat in May 2025 where carers can ‘live text’ with someone from the Support Line during opening hours. Its digital offer is reaching carers who are less likely to access the Support Line or face to face. For example, from launch to present, 79% of carers on webchat were employed (compared with 21% by phone); 26% were 18–34 (compared with 17% by phone) and 17% were LGBTQ+ (compared with 1.3% by phone).  

The Accelerating Reform Fund (Department Health and Social Care (DHSC)) funding has also enhanced the digital offer for carers, through Carers Leeds employing a Carers Leeds Digital Carers Support Worker to experiment, implement and integrate digital information, advice and support tools and techniques into Carers Leeds service.  

Carers Leeds and third sector providers develop their work around reaching into ethnically diverse communities

Carers Leeds offer professionally designed, visually accessible materials translated into the 6 main community languages in Leeds and can translate their resources into any language on demand using AI.

Carers Leeds have strengthened partnerships with organisations such as Hamara, ABA Leeds and Touchstone to develop a shared approach to engaging ethnically diverse communities and are seeking joint funding to increase capacity for outreach work. Alongside this, Carers Leeds work closely with local LGBTQ+ organisations, including Out Together, MESMAC and Trans Leeds, to reach LGBTQ+ carers through targeted engagement and dedicated LGBTQ+ carer break grant.

Continue to expand our portfolio of opportunities for carers to have short breaks, including planned pre-bookable breaks

A range of options for short breaks are available for carers to help them maintain social connections, pursue work, education or leisure activities, and take time to recharge, and prevent them from developing their own needs for care and support. For example:

• the Community-Based Short Breaks Service provides respite for unpaid carers by a suitably qualified individual visiting the home and providing support or a trip out while the carer is away for a few hours
• one of the council’s in-house providers, Dolphin Manor, has been repurposed as a short stay dementia hub. The centre allows carers to book a one off short break respite or schedule regular planned breaks over a set period to provide ongoing, predictable support
• commissioners, working alongside social work teams, continue to review and respond to the city’s respite accommodation needs. This work has already resulted in an additional mental health respite unit and is informing future planning for learning disability respite across both health and social care

The Caring Kind Project, an initiative led by Carers Leeds in partnership with Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees and Calderdale carers organisations and which covers the whole of West Yorkshire. The project launched in September and sources free breaks from West Yorkshire hospitality, tourism, leisure and culture businesses. Local carers organisations then match those breaks with unpaid carers. Over 600 breaks have already been gifted which include everything from coffee and cake at a local café, theatre tickets, local attractions and overnight stays.

Neighbourhood Networks are community based organisations that support older people to live independently and stay connected within their local areas. They play an important role in supporting unpaid carers by offering opportunities for short breaks from caring through activities such as luncheon groups and shared social events. These provide carers with time away from their caring role, the chance to connect with peers, and access to practical support at an early stage before needs escalate. With 34 organisations operating across 37 neighbourhoods in Leeds, the networks have a significant citywide presence, with a combined membership of 28,133 people.

Unpaid carers in the workplace

The council has recently been awarded Carer Confident Level 1 (Active), recognising the commitment to building awareness of carers in the workplace, supporting staff to self identify, and establishing the foundations of a carer friendly culture. Achieving Level 1 demonstrates that the council has the essential building blocks in place, and the next step is to work towards Level 2 (Accomplished) by strengthening support for employees with caring responsibilities.

Carers Leeds have achieved the highest-level Carers UK Carer Confident Level 3 Award (Ambassador) for its gold standard policies and practice in relation to working carers. Leeds City Council and the NHS Trusts in Leeds are members of the Carers UK Employers for Carers network.

Carers Leeds facilitates an active Employer Forum for organisations across Leeds including Blacks solicitors, Channel 4 and Northern Gas. The forum has 50 members and meets quarterly to share ideas and best practice around identifying, engaging, supporting, and retaining working carers in the workplace.  

Carers Leeds provides bespoke consultancy support to employers, helping them to identify and support carers in their workforce and to develop and promote carer-friendly employment opportunities. This includes workforce analysis, designing carer policies, training for managers, and implementing best practice.

The Survey of Adult Carers in England is carried out every 2 years and asks carers who are known to Adult Social Care about the impact of services on their quality of life and general health and well-being. The provisional results for 2025/26 are presented in the table below:

While the survey provides useful insight around carers in Leeds, its reach is limited (only 304 surveys returned in 2025). The most recent results show the proportion of carers who felt included or consulted in discussions increased to 66.7% (from 60.7%). This indicates social work practice is more inclusive and supporting carers in terms of parity of esteem.

The percentage of carers who found it easy to access information also improved slightly to 60.6% (from 58.1.1%), illustrating that the recent investment in the provision of information and advice may be benefiting carers in Leeds.

Recognising the number of carers reporting less social contact then they would like has effectively remained static, the council and Carers Leeds are seeking to promote the Caring Kind project and other social activities to help address this.

An oversight group within the Adults and Health directorate is working together to improve carer support and outcomes, plans for 26/27 include:

• develop the Carers Partnership and refresh the Carers Strategy
• expand support provision within Carers Leeds for concerned others (carers of people affected by substance misuse (drug or alcohol)
• expand the current carers champion model, which is currently in place across social work and GP surgeries. The council and Carers Leeds are planning to expand the role to other Adults and Health teams, secondary care, community healthcare and the third sector
• progressing the council from Carer Confident Level 1 (Active) to Level 2 (Accomplished) by strengthening internal support for staff with caring responsibilities

Active Leeds rolled out the service EDCI Priorities Plan in 2025, which is driven by the service EDCI working group, drawing on members from across all strands of Active Leeds. The service represented on Leeds Intercultural Cities Steering Group and Disability Inclusive Leeds steering group amongst many others. Active Leeds undertook a first specific Inclusion and diversity staff survey which had an excellent response rate and has given a greater and more detailed insight into the key issues and barriers colleagues face alongside capturing the positive aspects of being part of the service. These results alongside the follow on research project with Leeds Beckett University will guide actions to reduce future disadvantage, improve representation, and foster inclusivity in the service. Consultation took place with a number of key stakeholder groups in relation to the designs for the new Fearnville Wellbeing Centre.

Working closely with Leeds City of Sanctuary and Mears Housing for a third year running, Active Leeds extended the leisure centre access for people seeking asylum situated in hotels, with 5,389 visits taking place in 2025. Mears report that Active Leeds are the only sport and physical activity service in their portfolio across Yorkshire supporting refugees and asylum seekers in hotels in this way. In total there were 32,484 Active Leeds health and fitness members in 2025, with 7 Active Leeds gyms offering low sensory (music and lighting) sessions, and in early 2026 the “Accessorise” App was launched, including staff training modules to promote and support disabled access in a gym environment. 8 leisure centre facilities currently offer specific disability swim sessions. There were 1,528 referrals to the Active Leeds Health Programmes in 2025 and more leisure centre staff were trained up to L3 GP Referral qualification to increase our capacity to deal with health referrals and support the council's prevention agenda. Through the Leeds Parks Community tennis programme 60,194 free bookings were made at LCC parks tennis court venues, which is double the number that were made in 2024.

According to the latest Sport England data via the Active Lives survey the Inactive rate for Leeds has increased from 23.9% (Nov 2022 to Nov 2023) to 25.4% for the period (Nov 2023 to Nov 2024). This is, however, lower than the Yorkshire average of 26.9%. Those classed as active is down from 66.4% to 64%, however this is higher than the National (63.7%) and regional (62.3%) average. The levels of inactivity in the city remain highest in the most deprived areas of the city and whilst there is an improvement in people moving from inactive to active or fairly active, this shift has been greater in the least deprived areas (1.8% change) compared with most deprived (0.7% change). This indicates there is a continued need to focus work with these communities to better understand the barriers to physical activity including environmental factors and identify the preferred type of activity.

Sport England have released information on the social value of sport and physical activity which is estimated an annual social value of £107.2bn, and a Leeds specific breakdown which sits at £1,340,553,500. This just relates to post-16 year olds, and records the improved wellbeing and wider benefits to society. The social value for disabled people being active is worth £35.9 billion in social value. We estimate the ‘activity gap’ at a cost to society of £10.9 billion; this would be the additional value if activity levels of disabled people were the same as non-disabled people.

Active Leeds supported 117 sports clubs with discretionary rate relief and 58 clubs from priority demographics and localities received sports equipment grants alongside 14 individual athletes. The Kit Exchange Equipment Partnership (KEEP) was the Leeds Sports Awards 2025 Sustainability winner, and at one event in October 2025 1,890 items were donated to good causes, with £32,000 saved / 831kg waste prevented.

In the Leeds Parks Community tennis programme there were 7840 coaching session bookings in 2025 (compared to 6975 in 2024), with 46% (Harehills Park), 41% (Armley Park) and 28.4% (Woodhouse Moor Park) of players living in the 30% most deprived UK areas. 21.1% of bookings at Armley park were from those in IMD 1; 22.6% of players living within the 30% most deprived UK areas and 7.9% of players within the 10% most deprived UK areas. Our Free Parks Tennis programme delivered 31 sessions and attracted 889 bookings- 37% of those that attended were children and 52% female. There were 15,000 swimmers on our programmes in 2025, and 2000 gymnasts attending weekly, including new SEN sessions at Kirkstall Leisure Centre.

636 women and individuals from the maternity community who are at high risk of gestational diabetes and living in the most deprived areas of the city engaged in our bump and babyfit programme in 2025. 13 leisure centres hosted “Make The Switch” period dignity events, now have donation stations and offer free period products in toilets and changing rooms. 940 sustainable period products were donated to customers and communities; 330 boxes of disposable products were donated by customers to leisure centres and 30 members of staff are now period champions after attending Freedom 4 Girls training.

Active Leeds supported the JogOn campaign supporting women’s safety; and through the healthy holidays programme engaged with 904 children over Easter and Summer in 4 community venues. This also included delivery of free intensive swimming lessons to approximately 600 children identified as having low swimming ability, across 12 leisure centres, providing each child with 4 45‑minute lessons designed to rapidly improve water confidence and essential swimming skills. All children were given access to free swimwear and goggles, supplied through a partnership with Zoggs. Such a targeted intervention aimed at increasing water safety, improving physical activity levels, and supporting equitable access to high‑quality swimming instruction for children who need it most.

Through successful community projects with our partners British Triathlon and British Cycling the service continued to break down traditional barriers to participation in sport and physical activity.

The roll-out of the new Sport England funded place-based systemic physical activity work through the Get Set Leeds (GSL) project will be a major focus for the development arm of the service, supporting 8 of the most deprived wards in the city. Inclusive cycling will be a focus area for Active Leeds especially in the build up to the Tour de France femmes grand depart in 2027. The service will be heavily involved in the build up and legacy of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup taking place in Summer 2026, enabling greater opportunities for women and girls in cricket in Leeds.

Operationally the service will continue to support refugees and asylum seekers through leisure centre access and kit/clothing provision; expand the SEN and women’s only swimming offer across leisure centres; and through facility upgrades enable further low sensory gym opportunities. The new care experience and carers policy will be put into place, alongside the development of a new inclusive membership and pricing structure. We anticipate positive developments with the Fearnville Wellbeing centre new build, alongside Football Foundation funded Playzone developments to enhance community spaces in priority areas of the city.

Following the findings of the inclusion and diversity staff survey in late 2025, Leeds Beckett University will be engaged in a specific research project in 2026 which will strengthen our EDI commitment by embedding fairness and respect into Active Leeds culture. The roll out of the new Active Leeds EDI workforce action plan will be a key focus for the service in this period too.

Culture programmes

The Leeds Cultural Investment Programme delivered the second year of its 2-year cycle. Through its 5 funding streams, the programme supported a broad range of creative and cultural activities across the city, helping to ensure that people who live, work, study, or visit Leeds can benefit from an inclusive and thriving cultural offer. These funding streams are Inspire Grow, Project Grow, Revenue, Thrive and Cultural Anchors, which cover project and annual revenue funding year cycle. Through its 5 funding streams, the programme supported a broad range of creative and cultural activities across the city, helping to ensure that people who live, work, study, or visit Leeds can benefit from an inclusive and thriving cultural offer.

• The programme supported 24 projects in total, including 16 led by individual artists. Of the projects funded, 9 were delivered by individuals or groups identifying with one or more protected characteristics.
• To support the project application process, individual advice sessions were made available to all applicants. These were offered in person, online, and by phone, with appointments provided both during office hours and in the evening to ensure accessibility for freelance artists.
• Within the guidance for applying for funding we encouraged applicants to contact us if they need additional support.
• Diversified the panel to include a wider representation of colleagues within (and outside of the team) offering the opportunity for professional development.
• Diversity and inclusion is built into all funding decisions, based on the core principles of the LCIP programme.
• Through LCIP revenue funding the programme supported 45 organisations of which 1 was specifically working with older people and 1 with people with disabilities.

Arts, events and venues

Breeze 

Breeze In The Park provides 26 events in local green spaces, engaging over 18,000 children with accessible, low-cost cultural activities. With events in the wards of all 16 of the lower super output areas across Leeds that are in the 1% most deprived neighbourhoods in the country (including the top 6 priority areas). Specific efforts were made to ensure equitable access through relaxed sessions tailored for children with additional needs and free entry for those most in need. These events fostered safe, welcoming spaces for cultural and sporting experiences that promoted wellbeing and enabled meaningful engagement between local families and support services. Breeze supported SEND-focused events working with SNAPs and Child Friendly Leeds, whilst also providing support to community events targeted at providing free, local access to arts, culture and sports. Additionally, inclusive experiences were embedded in the Christmas Experience, with relaxed sessions specifically for children with additional needs.

Through the Healthy Holidays scheme, Breeze provided 2 Easter and 4 summer holiday targeted activities for children eligible for free school meals, including free holiday camps and a dedicated Christmas experience day. The team also played a key role in facilitating free community light switch-on events, ensuring inclusive celebration opportunities citywide.

Events team

• Provided free access to the Leeds Holocaust Memorial Day civic remembrance event and Leeds Armed Forces Day and festival events.
• Leeds Armed Forces Day included youth engagement through working with local cadet groups and providing family-friendly activities.
• Leeds Armed Forces Day engaged with older veterans during the planning and delivery of the event.
• Holocaust Memorial Day engages with Holocaust survivors during the event planning through membership on our steering group, and through participation at the event itself.
• Provided free, city-wide access to over 200,000 people attending Light Night.
• Access preview for approx 200 people with disabilities/access needs on the night before Light Night to see a smaller number of artworks with reduced sound without the crowds. Feedback was positive with helpful suggestions for improvements for next year. BSL tours were also provided every night.
• Artist workshops in 4 primary schools (Armley Park Primary, Park View Primary, Shakespeare Primary, Little London Primary) and a public exhibition of pupils work under UV lights for Light Night 2025.
• Working with Shantona Women's Centre, Harehills collecting oral histories of Bangladeshi women's migration stories and contributing sewing to the final artwork Stitching Light which was displayed at Light Night Leeds 2025.
• Distributing 300 creative activity packs for children and young people who could not attend Light Night due to being in hospital or residential care and provided an inflatable lit dormouse into the children's hospital during the daytime of Light Night for in-patients and day patients to enjoy.
• Consultation and engagement with older people through the Leeds Older People's Forum and inviting older people's groups to attend the Light Night Leeds access evening.
• Provided out of school activity through dedicated learn to skate sessions at Ice Cube event.
• Continued work with Attitude is Everything and their Charter of Best Practice for showing continuing commitment to venue access for customers and performers at live music events

Leeds International Concert Season

The Leeds Lunchtime Organ Music series runs every year from September-April with free weekly concerts taking place on Mondays at Leeds Cathedral (usually Leeds Town Hall which is closed due to refurbishment). In the last 12 months the series has featured performers from the USA and Europe and the 24/25 series attracted approximately 3,500 attendances across 26 concerts. The series is predominantly attended by retired residents of Leeds. The concerts are streamed online so that they can be viewed at home by people who experience barriers to attendance in-person.

The Lunchtime Chamber Music series runs every year from September-April with free weekly concerts on Wednesdays taking place at The Venue at Leeds Conservatoire. Predominantly attended by retired residents of Leeds, this series includes a number of relaxed performances, particularly suitable for people who have sensory and communication impairments, dementia or any disabilities. Attendance in 24/25 was approximately 5,000 across 25 concerts.

The Summer Bands in Leeds Parks series consists of approximately 125 free concerts on Sunday afternoons between May and September each year at 36 parks across the city.

The Leeds Best of Brass series at Pudsey Civic Hall features 8 concerts per year. Whilst the concerts mainly appeal to an older demographic aged 60+, the series regularly welcomes young people by offering free tickets through Artforms.

Carriageworks Theatre

• The Carriageworks Theatre presented a Dementia Friendly performance of Sleeping Beauty in Dec 2025, alongside 3 BSL performances and 4 relaxed performances. Groups who may experience barriers to attending were offered free tickets, including foster families, Angels of Freedom, Home Start Leeds, Hunslet Club, LCC Youth Service, Leeds Children’s Hospital and Swarthmore Education Centre.
• Carriageworks Theatre became an Age and Dementia Friendly organisation in 2025.
• The Carriageworks Young Theatre Makers is the theatre’s youth theatre offering, consisting of weekly term-time sessions in devising theatre for young people aged 11 -18 (from writing through to directing and performing). Bursaries are available for young people who are eligible for free school meals.

Leeds International Film Festival

For the 39th edition of Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF), which ran from 30 October to 16 November 2025, we continued to increase our accessible screenings for audiences with disabilities across every section of the programme. These included presenting over 50 screenings with descriptive subtitles (that is , subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing), audio description for blind or partially sighted audience members, and autism-friendly screenings. We also presented more introductions and filmmaker Q and As with British Sign Language interpretation for screenings of films with descriptive subtitles.

We worked with the Old Fire Station in Gipton on 3 free screenings, giving local people in East Leeds free access to LIFF. One screening was of family film Mary Anning with free crafts, with the event circulated through low-income family groups the venue supports. At Chapel FM in Seacroft, we screened a short film programme of music videos and the feature documentary Move Ya Body: The Birth of House both for free. We expanded our work with Mill Hill Chapel presenting 4 free screenings during the festival. Tickets were offered to community groups that meet at the venue, including local refugee organisations, LGBTQIA+ and neurodiverse adult meeting groups. We hosted screenings with St. Luke Cares based in Beeston, a charity which works with the community in south Leeds and free food, drink and tickets were offered. We also partnered with Blackburn Hall in Rothwell for the first time, helping them to realise their plans to create a community cinema at the centre.

We organised a paid internship with the local arts organisation South Asian Arts and one of their trainees came to work with LIFF over several months in the lead up to and during the film festival itself. We again partnered with the Cinema Africa strand at Hyde Park Picture House, on a screening of classic African epic Chronicle of the Years of Fire. This was promoted on their website and circulated through the African diaspora communities that regularly attend Cinema Africa screenings, and we offered free tickets to global majority trainees on the JGPACA traineeship. We took care to programme more LGBTQIA+ content in our core features programme and we also have a specific short film category for queer film, presented in collaboration with Leeds Queer Film Festival. We offered free tickets for queer films to the Leeds LGBTQ+ Angels group who support queer refugees and asylum seekers.  

Leeds Young Film

Leeds Young Film Festival offered free VR, short films, and career-focused activity for young people, including those underrepresented in the screen industries.

• They delivered free VR cinema at Breeze Festival to ensure low-barrier entry for all audiences, including those without access to expensive tech equipment.
• LYFF on Tour: Free short film programme in venues across the city, including museums and Kirkgate Market.
• BFI Film Academy Short Course: free, high-quality film training with progression pathways for 16-19-year-olds from diverse groups, with bursaries provided. 
• Free Filmmaker Network (in partnership with Hyde Park Picture House and Studio 12) Network building and screening opportunities for young, underrepresented filmmakers
• LYFF Movie Club Programme: Fun, inclusive workshops promoting film skills, confidence, and social interaction for children
• LYFF Screenings Programme focused on diverse representation in film for children/young people, affordable ticketing, accessible venues, and relaxed screenings for SEND and neurodiverse audiences

Leeds Museums and Galleries (LMG)

During 25/26 LMG has continued to run long-term groups at Leeds City Museum - the Preservative Party - and Leeds Art Gallery - the Youth Collective. These groups include people with disabilities, people who are from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds, and a diverse range of gender identity and sexual orientation.

Careers for All is a programme for young people with SEND (special educational need and disabilities) designed to help bridge the gap between learning in school to earning in the workplace. The programme creates a range of career aspiring opportunities and was supported by UK Shared Prosperity Funding during 2025/26.

Run a regular ongoing programme for older adults including:

• 1152 Club at Abbey House Museum
• Tea and Talk at Temple Newsam
• talks programme at Lotherton Hall
• Sociable History Club at Leeds City Museum
• Community Choir at Leeds City Museum
• Meet and Make at Leeds Art Gallery
• Lotherton History Group at Lotherton Hall

Intergenerational programmes: Our guiding principle is that we can make our sites and city better for everyone by listening and actively encouraging cohesion amongst all Leeds’s communities. Many volunteering projects include younger people (under 25) and older adults (Abbey House Museum’s exhibition volunteers and the Team Music volunteers, for example). Additionally, All Age Activists and People's History of Leeds are 2 projects running at Leeds City Museum where young adults interact with older adults. All Age Activists discuss areas of ageism that affect both younger and older adults.

LMG is part of Mini Wonders, a national programme funded by Art Fund and Nesta, created to support and enhance families whose children were born during the COVID-19 pandemic by offering life-enriching experiences through 8 museums and galleries around the UK, including Leeds Industrial Museum. During Q3, we completed work with the fourth cohort of families. 

Leeds Art Gallery has been a partner in 20/20, an ambitious 3-year programme announced by the Decolonising Arts Institute in November 2021, with funding from Freelands Foundation, Arts Council England and UAL. Combining artist residencies with artistic commissioning at scale, 20/20 is bringing together 20 emerging artists of colour and 20 UK public art collections, leading to 20 new permanent acquisitions. Leeds Art Gallery has worked with artist Curtis Holder for over 18 months, who in turn connected with Global Majority creatives in the city and has led to the creation of final portraits of 8 sitters exhibited in Silent Echoes, Spoken Truths, from November 2024 to April 2025. One of the portraits has been gifted to the collection and we have fundraised successfully to acquire a further 3 portraits together with preparatory sketches. 

We continue to work on the Careers for All programme, supporting young people with SEND to have meaningful work experiences. At Leeds City Museum we held a SEND Careers fair as part of the national Discover Creative Careers month for 200 students from 9 different educational settings.

A new Who’s Who wall in the Leeds Story Gallery at Leeds City Museum launched in November 2025 co-curated with the Leeds Hip Hop Historian Society featuring key members of the music movement in the city. 

Another Way of Seeing at Leeds Art Gallery featured artworks by 9 contemporary artists that encouraged visitors to touch, listen, smell and discover layers of meaning through their senses, and is curated by Gill Crawshaw. The display had 1113 visitors over 2 weeks.

A new co-curated display opened at Leeds City Museum in October 2025, celebrating 60 years of music in Leeds. The exhibition Music Leeds Us, in partnership with Leeds Conservatoire and with support from Leeds Beckett University, includes stories from more than 100 partners, support from over 50 volunteers and more than 900 loaned items together with objects from LMG’s collections, including recent acquisitions.

A new co-curated display with groups from Pyramid and Leeds Art Gallery’s Youth Collective opened in Artspace. Pyramid supports artists who have learning disabilities, autism or both. Together, the groups met in Artspace for 7 months prior to the exhibition opening to plan, design and research into the ‘moonlight’ paintings created by celebrated 19th century Leeds artist, John Atkinson Grimshaw in the art collection. We Bathe In Starlight in the Ziff Gallery, sees members of Arts and Minds’ display poetic responses and prints, nestled into the collections of Victorian paintings where Grimshaw’s artworks have previously hung. The Arts and Minds Network brings together people in Leeds who believe the arts can promote mental wellbeing. Both projects connect to the exhibition ‘Don’t Let’s Ask for the Moon...’: Nocturnes and Atkinson Grimshaw which opened in November 2025.

Colleagues from across Leeds Museums and Galleries marched in Leeds Pride parade in July 2025.

Leeds City Museum hosted the first Outing Leeds, a day of talks and performances about Leeds’s LGBT+ history.

Leeds City Museum hosted groups from the national British Sign Language (BSL) conference, which was held in Leeds in July.

The Museum arranged deaf-led tours and showcased new BSL interpretation in the Life on Earth gallery.

Culture programmes

• Through the culture programmes, Leeds Inspired What’s On platform year-round promotion of free and accessible cultural and creative activities across the city was presented including free activities, seasonal periods and school holidays supporting wider community access round promotion of free and accessible cultural and creative activities across the cityround promotion of free and accessible cultural and creative activities across the city.
• Across the LCIP project strands, a total of 72 applications were received, of which 35% were awarded funding. Of the projects completed to date (with some still in progress), activity was specifically targeted at Disabled people, Mental health and Carers, supporting the programme’s commitment to equitable access and inclusive cultural engagement.
• A specifically EDI-focused LCIP Grow: Project funded Gill Crashaw to deliver a boxed multi-sensory exhibition created by local disabled artists alongside photographs of the work of Audrey Barker, the inspiration for this project with an accompanying workshop for disabled people which was exhibited at Leeds Art Gallery for 10 days in December 2025.

Arts, events and venues

Breeze

Breeze in the Park supports the Best City priorities in particular Child Friendly Leeds with a direct impact on 4 of the 12 wishes, including "Wish 12 – Leeds is an inclusive city for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities". As well as delivering on the city priorities the events also provide the space for other services to engage with families 81% of the 49 partners said Breeze helped them achieve their goals. The Uniform exchange scheme assisted 1,110 families at Breeze providing over 5500 items of school clothing for reuse. Saving over £82,000 in costs to families in the 19 areas they attended. The distribution at these events equates to over a quarter of all the uniform redistributed in the city over the year. 
Through the Healthy Holidays funded programmes, Breeze provided targeted support for children eligible for free school meals - offering nutritious meals, structured cultural and sporting activities, and secure safe spaces, alongside free childcare provision for parents and carers during school holidays. Our commitment to inclusion was further demonstrated through relaxed sessions, which ensured children with additional needs could fully participate in and enjoy cultural experiences without barriers.

Events team

• For Holocaust Memorial Day, engagement took place with the local Jewish community and interfaith groups in planning the annual Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration event. 
• Leeds Armed Forces Day engaged with the armed forces community across Leeds to plan the annual Leeds Armed Forces Day event in June. This includes serving forces, reservists groups, cadet groups, veterans groups (including veterans of all ages) and charities. The creation of the Leeds Armed Forces festival in the Summer has enabled us to celebrate and raise awareness of the armed forces across venues in Leeds.
• Independent research demonstrated that the Light Night audience has become more diverse over the last few years and in 2025 28% of visitors were from the global majority. 6% of visitors claim they never attend or participate in arts events and another 27% participate in arts events or activities just 1-3 times a year, suggesting that Light Night Leeds is doing a good job in encouraging new audiences to participate in cultural activity.
• 220 pupils in Years 5 and 6 in 4 primary schools across the north, south, east and west of the city took part in Light Night- 88% of pupils at the schools were ethnically diverse with an average of 42% on free school meals indicating high local deprivation. The project enabled them to learn about light art and placemaking, grow in confidence as their designs were publicly exhibited and ultimately we hope that some were inspired to consider a career in the arts.
• The women from Shantona were extremely proud of their contribution to the artwork for L:ight Night. They said it was an amazing experience and hadn't realised the enormity of the event with so many thousands of visitors seeing their work. They also felt that their stories, which are often not told, were given a public prominence that they never imagined.
• Feedback from the creative activity packs for Light Night which were used at the Children's Hospital were enjoyed by over 100 children and this, in addition to the and inflatable dormouse, meant that kids in hospital were able to take part in the buzz of the festival. A couple of quotes from the young people about the kit include: "this is so cool", "this has been challenging but fun" and "can you thank the Light Night people for such a fantastic kit!"
• Ice Cube at Christmas has provided opportunity for over 500 school children of all ages to learn to Ice Skate at the annual Ice Cube Ice Rink plus provision for dedicated accessible sessions for disabled and older persons.

Leeds International Concert Season

Audience feedback from Evening Chamber concert in Nov: "This was my first time attending and I was there to accompany a visually impaired friend of mine…The personal context of this for me has been deteriorating hearing over the past few years and a concomitant decrease in the enjoyment of live music…I have been trialling a new set of hearing aids, thanks to which I was now able to hear perfectly a quite extraordinary interplay between French horn and piano, as the strings reverberated to the sound of the horn in an exquisite , heavenly, celestial,  ethereal conversation in sound. I have never experienced anything like it!"

Carriageworks Theatre

• Audience feedback from panto relaxed performance: "My grandson is neurodivergent and he loved it! And felt relaxed and happy enough to behave how he needed to!"
• Audience feedback from Dementia Friendly performance: "The staff and venue were so thoughtful. Mirrors covered in toilets…a great touch. A small venue and cast but they were all brilliant. The dancers and singing and the lead cast. Haven’t laughed so much in a while"

Leeds Museums and Galleries (LMG)

LMG’s Community Engagement work continues to have a positive impact on participants’ mental health and wellbeing. From October to December 2025, there were 82 respondents to the Community Programme wellbeing survey, where once again average scores out of 5 against 8 wellbeing metrics were all over 4. ‘I feel welcome’ was 4.88 and ‘I feel safe’ 4.91.

The 10th annual interfaith Light For Leeds event ran on Sunday 17 November 2025 at Abbey House Museum and was a great success, very well attended and with very positive feedback. We had Christian women’s choirs, South Asian music performed by children from the local Hindu Mandir, an explanation of the importance of light in Judaism, Islamic recitations, and a contemplative moment at dusk when all attendees lit a candle and held a moment of silence. Other highlights included the provision of community food, the opportunity to write messages of peace and hope and place them on our Tree of Hope, a flute recital and a meditative walk with Brahma Kumaris. The event was opened by Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr Barry Anderson and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire Dr Kuldip Bharj OBE, who lit the World Peace Flame and made speeches on the importance of togetherness.

We are working with the Learning Zone of Leeds Children’s Hospital, supporting families with children who are under long term medical care. We visit Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) every 2 months aiming to bring joy and spark conversations using objects from the collections. We work with between 4 and 8 young people and their families at each session, either at the bedside, or as small groups of children in the Learning Zone classroom space. Themes for conversations in autumn 2025 have included the Tudors and Under the Sea. This is an important strand of work for reaching, engaging and supporting some of our most vulnerable children within Leeds for whom cultural experiences can be challenging.

LMG’s major project, On the Pitch, Off the Pitch: Sporting Heritage in Leeds, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund successfully concluded in August 2025. The project set out to increase the representation of sports in LMG’s collection and our city, create connections between the collections and the public realm, and recognise the important role sport plays in the culture of the Leeds. The project was guided by a volunteer Steering Group working closely with the Project Curator. Together with our community partners we have created 15 oral histories, 5 films and 5 murals around the city; collected 120 objects; hired 2 full time members of staff for one year each; given paid opportunities to 5 artists, 5 photographers and 5 filmmakers; worked with 33 volunteers and engaged with approximately 400 community partners. As a legacy from the project elements of the updated sports collection went on display in the Community Cases on the Leeds Story Gallery at Leeds City Museum from late October 2025 into 2026.

Throughout the month of May for Mental Health Awareness Month, Leeds Art Gallery ran a series of Wellbeing Walks themed around a different artist from our exhibitions and collections each week. The sessions focused around the 5 ways to wellbeing; offering the opportunity for people to connect with one another, be active exploring different walking routes, slowing down to take notice of the city, learning a new artistic approach and technique meanwhile giving time to support and encourage one another. Alongside members of the public, the walks were offered out to staff at the gallery, encouraging people to invest in their own wellbeing and guest artists shared their own practice and process through their curated routes of the city. The sessions were so warmly regarded that we are looking at extending this offer to a monthly workshop through summer, autumn and spring. "My mental health feels better, getting outdoors and walking together has lifted my spirits, this was a really good day" – Participant

Leeds Industrial Museum is a lead museum with Nesta and Art Fund on the Mini Wonders Early Years Innovation in Museums 2-year research programme. We have worked with the children’s centres, libraries and nurseries in Armley (LS12) to support 4 cohorts of 8 families through an 8-week programme to develop parenting support, deepen family connections and prepare children for school. Families have done bug hunts, made wet felting and played with magic sand. The first cohort had a high proportion of participants with English as an additional language, who were using the parenting classes as a way of making connections and accessing wider services. The second cohort had a high proportion of families awaiting neurodiversity diagnoses. The third cohort has focused more on parental mental and physical health alongside that of their children. The research is confirming that museums give people a sense of place, a sense of trust and the programme provides a sense of regularity. Families have said they feel grounded, connected and welcome, and they feel comfortable enough to try stuff out (which some have said is unusual for them) and they feel there’s no judgement, just support. The research builds on our universal and targeted Early Years programming for families and settings including Playground and Atelier Leeds Art Gallery, Little Lotherton and Tiny Tigers at Leeds City Museum. We are restarting under-5s work at Abbey House Museum in autumn 2025.

A student from Pinc College completed a 6-month Careers for All placement, which are designed to provide opportunities for young people with SEND. The placement with the archaeology collection was used to support the student’s successful UCAS application.

Culture programmes

The Leeds Cultural Investment Programme revenue strand has been extended for an additional year, providing continued stability for the organisations supported through the original 2-year programme. Each eligible organisation has been required to respond to the Leeds Ambitions and to set 2 KPIs for each ambition.

These will be assessed at the end of the final year to evaluate progress and impact:

• we will review the EDI data form for the new Seasons of Culture project grant funding stream
• with our 2026-27 programme we will continue to develop the opportunity to invite new assessors to ensure a more diverse panel
• grant sessions are no longer compulsory, removing what can be a barrier to applying for some applicants and any advice sessions offered that take place online will have the option of being recorded and transcribed
• for Seasons of Culture, we will create accessibly formatted guidelines to apply for the funding

Arts, events and venues

Breeze

The team continue to deliver our Summer Program with relaxed sessions for children and young people with additional needs one of the key areas for us to work on relates to making sure information and communication is accessible to all our communities and that we provide a breadth of material through multiple channels that means families right across the city continue to engage with Breeze.

Events Team

• For Holocaust Memorial Day we are exploring working with young people from local cultural groups to learn about the Holocaust and subsequent genocides and create a performance for the commemoration event.
• For Light Night we want to extend the Access Evening to include people with learning disabilities and are consulting with Purple Patch.

Carriageworks Theatre

• Work with both internal and external partners to improve attendance figures at Dementia Friendly performances.
• Work to embed the BSL / relaxed / Dementia friendly adjustments for panto into the production at a much earlier stage so that they are more planned and integrated into the production from the outset.

Leeds Museums and Galleries (LMG)

Leeds Museums and Galleries will continue to deliver its ongoing community engagement and learning work through by open activity and targeted programmes. This activity will continue to take place across our 8 museums and galleries located around the city and through outreach activity, placing the collections at its heart.

Delivery of the Leeds Inclusive Growth Strategy 2023-2030

Equality is an important component of Inclusive Growth, from tackling poverty and inequality to supporting all sections of our society into better jobs and removing barriers that entrepreneurs face in starting a business. The work of services within Economy and Skills (Economic Policy, Employment and Skills, Business Support and Visitor Economy teams) all feeds into delivering inclusive economic growth.

In October 2025 the new Leeds Economic Vision was launched, which will facilitate the delivery of the Leeds Ambitions and Inclusive Growth Strategy, securing more opportunities for people in Leeds.

Leeds Anchor Network is one of the city’s key partnerships supporting and driving delivery of the Inclusive Growth Strategy and wider Leeds Ambitions. The network continues to strengthen, alongside the Leeds Business Anchors, and work in partnership with Leeds Community Anchor Network.

The Leeds Inclusive Growth Partnership, our mechanism to engage with a wide range of stakeholders from across the city about Inclusive Growth, has grown from 900 members in 2022 to over 1,600 members at the end of 2025.

Inclusive Growth Strategy delivery highlights

A report on progress achieved in delivering inclusive growth was brought to the Infrastructure, Investment and Inclusive Growth Scrutiny Board in November 2025. A highlight is the delivery of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in Leeds, which has a strong focus on inclusive growth and enabled activities such as She Can Shine. This programme delivered a range of targeted support for 77 female entrepreneurs from over a 6-month period in 2024/25, recognising the specific barriers facing women such as access to funding and balancing work-life commitments, as well as those facing women from disadvantaged communities. The programme has continued into 2025/26 with funding from the Innovating, Enterprising and Thriving grants.

1) Leeds Anchors

A new partnership report published in September 2025 sets out the breadth of activity, and impact achieved, through the Leeds Anchor Network. Leeds Business Anchors also continues to increase its local impact, for example, a joint initiative delivered across the Business Anchors is a work experience model giving young people who are care experienced exposure to the broad range of careers available in Leeds’s largest businesses. One young participant commented "being on this experience has made me more open to talking to new people and asking questions". An update report will be brought to the Infrastructure, Investment and Inclusive Growth Scrutiny Board in February 2026, and the council is currently preparing 5 areas within City Development to host a work experience week for care experienced young people based on this model in June 2026.

2) Employment and Skills 

The table below shows the demographics of people who have been supported by Employment and Skills during October 2024 to September 2025, with 60% or more achieving a successful outcome either by improving their skills or supported into employment.

A key project delivered by Employment and Skills includes the Healthy Working Lives VCSE Work and Health Programme (HWLWHP). This is a £720k DWP funded programme delivered by the VCSE Sector and commissioned by Employment and Skills and the Leeds Work and Health Steering Group to engage economically inactive residents with health conditions into employment pathways. The programme is on-target to engage 521 residents by end Mar 26 with 223 already engaged, 83% of whom have a mental health condition.

3) Business Support

Through the Business Growth Service for SMEs, the AD:Venture programme for early-stage growth businesses, and Digital Enterprise which supports SMEs to invest in digital solutions, the council continues to help businesses in Leeds access the relevant support, grow and create new jobs. Work continues to ensure support focuses on areas and priority groups which have been hard to reach.

4) Visitor Economy

Within the Destination Marketing and International Relations Team, Visit Leeds have developed the ‘Leeds is for Everyone’ messaging which has been embedded across all of their campaign content. This includes showcasing LGBTQ+ owned businesses and the best ways to experience Leeds as an LGBTQ+ tourist. In addition, the International Relations Team has used funding from the Council of Europe’s Intercultural Cities Programme to partner with Leeds City Council’s LGBT+ Staff Network to deliver a new LGBT+ awareness training session for all LCC colleagues called Rainbow Connections.

The delivery of the Inclusive Growth Strategy will continue until 2030 and the Economic Vision until 2035, with opportunities to ensure equality is a key focus as we grow our economy. This is particularly important in the current operating context where the council has to make significant savings and the city faces wider economic pressures. 

For example, the UKSPF programme is coming to an end and is not being replaced with like-for-like funding. Government funding focused on business and skills will now be distributed via the Local Growth Fund at a Combined Authority level, and the government’s Pride in Place programme will provide funding for 4 neighbourhoods in Leeds.

In addition, the new Integrated Settlement that West Yorkshire will receive in April 2026, which will influence the distribution of the Local Growth Fund, will cover a range of areas including Employment and Skills. Until the allocations are agreed, priorities cannot be fully established.

Last year's report detailed ‘what we still need to do’ as:

• continue to engage with and grow Leeds’ access and diversity networks when consulting on schemes 
• deliver on the new H and T ‘Be your best’ EDI action plan – developed to stage 4 by end of May 2023
• focus on emphasising the social values of H and T schemes in communications

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training was launched for all managers and supervisors across the council. Let’s Talk Equality, Diversity and Inclusion was the new EDI online training package for all staff to equip everyone with the skills, tools and confidence to embed the values. It also supported to foster inclusive workplace cultures by challenging discrimination, tackling inappropriate behaviour, working in diverse teams and removing barriers so we can all perform to our best. All managers were asked to take part in the training as the training was a vital way of supporting us all to embed and live our values and this is ongoing training.

Information has been circulated outlining training resources for all staff to be undertaken. See Appendix C for further details of EDI training and development undertaken in H and T.

Since January 2023, H and T Comms Team completed actions against a new EDI initiative, ‘Connecting Leeds for All’. CLFA identified existing and perceived barriers preventing different people across Leeds from seeing our communications, feeling engaged and taking part in consultations.

In April 2024 we received notification that our entry for Enhancing EDI through ‘Connecting Leeds for All' (CLFA) had made the shortlist for the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation award category of Equality Diversity and Inclusion. This was a great achievement and the team has been highly commended for ‘Treating People Fairly’ internally - demonstrating an essential Leeds City Council value. Details of the CLFA work is included in Appendix D.

The H and T ‘Be your best’ action plan has been developed to stage 4 and is into stage 5 as of April 2024. Details of social value associated with H and T schemes is included in Appendix E.

1. Priority: Improved consideration of EDI in scheme development, procurement, design and delivery

Actions taken:

• staff have undertaken EDCI training relevant to H and T. Increased check and challenge of projects presented at H and T Board and at major Boards, for example, CRSTS Exec Board. Consultation ongoing at Staff Networks and Disability Hubs to ensure all issues are being addressed with scheme design, consultation and delivery. Consultations including CRSTS projects in the city centre have also been shaped with accessibility in mind - see Priority 4 for details of how access groups were better engaged with 3D models, for example

Outcome: Improved team awareness and better outcome in terms of scheme design and delivery. Better demonstrating that H and T scheme promoters have given "due regard” to EDI. Accessibility groups including National Federation for the Blind and Age Friendly Steering Groups have fed back during 2024 that our methods of engagement have improved and they appreciate our attendance at their meetings.

2. Priority: Ensuring an inclusive working environment – undertaking available training and call out “banter”

Activities/actions taken include:

• EDI Working Group, Race Equality Group and Women’s Group operating with H and T EDI Action Plan
• training for all PO6s (then cascaded through teams – including face to face sessions in depots) on behaviours, including ‘calling out’
• promotion of Vanessa Wenham as ‘Freedom to speak up’ Guardian
• standing item on senior management and team agendas supporting individual staff to raise any EDI issues
• implementation of EDI calendar which is used as a tool to highlight cultural or EDI related events / dates and promote activities related to them – supported by regular discussions and presentations on EDI related topics.

Outcome: 

• more inclusive working environment for all staff
• better team spirit and cohesion
• face to face meetings working well with active discussion and increased awareness

3. Priority: Inclusive recruitment practices recognising where teams are not representative and seeking to address the balance

Activities/actions taken:

• job descriptions reviewed in advance of any team recruitment and language adjusted / review essential criteria to make sure they are essential to the role
• discussions had regarding wording of advert and location of advert to attract women and ethnic minorities into Highways and Transport teams (still not getting enough diverse applications so this is a work in progress)
• mixed recruitment panels to be used, such as male / female / ethnicity
• PATH trainee recruitment (supporting racially diverse people into work)

Outcome: PATH recruits progressing through structure and now in permanent roles and some success sponsoring external candidates (female recruit into Flood Risk Management).

4. Priority: Identify and mitigate existing barriers preventing people from bringing their whole selves to work or external people taking part in consultations

Activities / actions taken:

• age-friendly and Dementia-friendly training and commitment to a nationally recognized Action Plan
• made reasonable adjustments for colleagues who are not neurotypical
• improvements to the accessibility of external communications and the inclusivity of consultations to ensure we ‘treat people fairly’

Outcomes: The team has embraced these improvements and feel able to be themselves at work to the extent they were highly commended in 2023 at the Corporate Awards for ‘Treating People Fairly.’

Accessibility improvements such as QR codes, What3words use, 3D models and reasonable adjustments are now standard practice.

• Continue EDCI check and challenge of schemes. Ensure all major programmes of work have detailed Equality Impact Assessments.
• Improve number of allies within H and T.
• Social values promotion within communications and continuing with identifying imbalances or poor response rates in scheme consultation and working to rectify.
• Improve inclusive recruitment (currently limited due to financial challenge) to better represent the population of Leeds and improve inclusion in the service.
• Continued training and normalisation of being uncomfortable / calling out bad behaviour to improve inclusion and the percentage of staff able to “bring their whole selves to work”.

Electric Vehicle charging

• The electric charge infrastructure in the city has continue to grow in line with the increased prevalence of plug-in vehicles in the city.
• There are now 690 public chargers, of which 141 are 50kW or faster, and Leeds is in the top 20% nationally for its provision of EV charging.
• At the end of 2025, Leeds had its first on street charging facility installed. This is a significant step forward as it supports accessible charging for residents who reside in properties that do not have an adjoining driveway and until now have had to rely upon public charging provisions.
• The data we have so far in relation to on-street charging is:
  • 69 applications received
  • 10 applications rejected for technical reasons
  • 25 have accepted suggestions from Kerbo to allow installation to proceed
  • 34 in review
• Alongside the installation of infrastructure, there has continued to be publicity to promote the new infrastructure and to promote the use of EVs, including their benefits.

Energy and efficiency 

• The council’s Home Energy Help team completed the latest Home Upgrade Grant scheme. The scheme was aimed at fuel poor households without gas central heating working in partnership with an external energy services provider to ensure as many households as possible benefitted from government funding.
• Equality data was captured for every applicant who was approved to receive installations from the grant.

Green Spaces

• The rangers have moved to an area-based model working with communities, establishing volunteer groups and supporting existing volunteer groups. 
• They attend local events promoting nature based activity in the city’s green spaces and have 2 rangers with permanent bases at Armley and Gotts Park and Middleton Park who run regular nature and climate-based activities with the community volunteer groups. 
• The rangers are building links with ABCD colleagues and other services such as Active Leeds who promote active lifestyles and green prescribing in localities.
• A ‘Climate Project Day’ is provided from the Climate and Energy team to Green Spaces colleagues to provide information in relation to numerous climate initiatives throughout the city. In turn, this allows Green Spaces colleague, for example, Rangers to talk to communities about this work with confidence. Other training to support the parks workforce in their roles include - Managing Green Spaces for Wildlife (annual training for parks staff), Amphibian survey training and Action for Nature Day.
• Statistics for 2025 within the Rangers service:
  • number of volunteers - 2,874
  • number of volunteer hours - 12,000
  • number of education activities/sessions - 51
  • assisted friends/community groups on 102 occasions

Communications and Engagement

The focus of the Climate Emergency Advisory Committee (CEAC) workshop was ‘Communications and Engagement’ this year, to ensure that work was being undertaken to improve the way that the council communicates about the changing climate and the action required.

Two 6-month interns from the University of Leeds have re-designed the #LeedsByExample website. The website is public-facing and needed a refresh as its purpose wasn’t clear, information was not as concise as it could be, and a lot of information was outdated. The website has now been updated, ensuring accessibility to all and the ‘call to action’ element of the website provides prompts that all residents, businesses and visitors can be involved with in to help Leeds become the first net-zero and nature positive city.

During its refresh, work was undertaken to consult with members of CEAC, community groups and council colleagues to ensure fair representation throughout the website.

In all our consultation and engagement on projects we always ensure we reach as broad a cross section of the Leeds community as possible, identifying the most appropriate method of consultation.

We have identified challenges and barriers when communicating on climate change and are continuing to work with colleagues to further improve our methods to address this.

Our service-wide equalities working group meets monthly with representatives from a variety of teams. This group provides opportunity for officers to share information on upcoming projects and schemes requesting feedback in relation to equalities, diversity and inclusion, particularly prior to consultation and communication work.

Electric Vehicle (EV) charging

Increases in the use of charge points installed through commercial investment, mandated through planning conditions and through delivery of council projects will continue to improve the air quality in the city for all sectors of the community especially those in areas of multiple deprivation who tend to be in close proximity to transport related sources of air pollution.

• St Paul's Street utilisation: 
  • average charge time – 2 hours, 29 minutes
  • 809kg CO2 saving equivalent 
  • 57 charging sessions since 22nd Jan 
  • increase of 118.8% between February and March

The above installation was supplemented with a press release to explain the reason for doing this and future installations that will be coming throughout 2026. Providing this information ensures we are a trusted source of information - this is important with EV conversations to avoid misinformation.

Energy and efficiency

Completed the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) 2 scheme assisting mainly low income residents without gas central heating. 251 properties benefitted from this.

Green Spaces

The Leeds Parks and Green Spaces Forum is a collection of friends groups; local community groups and climate conscience groups such as Wildlife Friendly Otley and Horsforth Climate Action. Continued engagement with these groups strengthens communications with communities.

Communication and engagement

The service-wide equalities working group won the directorate award for excellence for ‘Treating People Fairly’, and nominated for the corporate award. This is testament to the group and the hard work that has helped areas of the service improve and accessible for all.

Across all the workstreams, we will look to improve our equality monitoring to ensure we better understand the distribution of grants and services to allow us to take targeted action where required to improve representation.

Communications and engagement

As the new #LeedsByExample website is still to be launched, it will allow opportunity to monitor usage and feedback in the 2026/27 Storyboard.

Continue to work with communities to communicate and engage in the benefits of the work we are doing not only for climate change, but to improve health and wellbeing. This will also be supplemented by the work proposed with the Climate Emergency Advisory Committee to explore additional ways we can achieve this.

The service is currently exploring options for an established work experience programme for a wide-range of ages and partnering with education establishments. This programme will ensure there are various opportunities to access placements within Climate, Energy and Green Spaces.

In addition to this, 2 further areas of work being developed include:

• a climate conference for A-Level students to learn more about the council’s work in conservation, protecting local wildlife, managing green spaces, and tackling climate change. This will be an engaging, informative session that highlights real council roles, showcases practical environmental work, and inspires students to consider future study or career routes linked to the environment and climate
• a sustainability walk throughout Leeds city centre that provides a free activity for people, accessible to all with no digital divide. This can be expanded beyond the city centre as a second phase

Energy and efficiency

Continuing to identify funding and implement work to install energy efficiency, low carbon heating and renewable energy measures in low-income households.

On a national level, continue to lobby government for area based cross-tenure retrofit funding that benefit more types of homes in fuel poverty in Leeds.

Review the equalities data received from HUG 2 scheme and analysis for use in future schemes.

Individual Needs Policy

We launched our Individual Needs Policy in November 2025 following extensive consultation with customers, staff, and partner agencies. The policy was developed by a cross-service working group and shaped through engagement with equality networks, partner organisations, and a public consultation hosted on Commonplace, which received over 300 responses. Customer feedback directly influenced the policy content, including how individual needs are defined, identified, recorded, and responded to, as well as the types of adjustments that may be offered. The approved policy is supported by staff guidance, training, and system updates, ensuring a consistent and inclusive approach to meeting individual needs across Housing Leeds and its partners in line with equality and regulatory requirements.

Data Quality Improvement, Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) Strategy

We developed a KIM Strategy based on the recommendations from the Housing Ombudsman KIM Spotlight report. This was shared with all Housing colleagues by the Head of Housing, with a request that it be read and discussed as part of team meetings. To complement the strategy, a Data Quality Improvement campaign was delivered to staff to improve data collection and quality across all systems. The campaign was run through sharing information in the staff e-bulletin, standalone bespoke emails, discussions at team meetings, discussions in 1:1 meetings, and through setting all staff a KIM related objective for 2025/26. There will also be a separate assessment of the impact of the KIM Strategy. 

Ombudsman outcomes and learning

The service developed a learning log for Ombudsman cases to track determinations, compliance with orders, and ongoing learning and improvements. Learning from complaints continues to be shared in local teams and to the wider service through the staff e-bulletin, and to tenants through the Annual Report and a dedicated web page. 

Customer consultation and engagement

We are now 18 months into hosting consultations on our engagement website, Housing Leeds Feedback. During the year, the site has been visited 43,000 times, with almost 4,000 respondents making 6,300 contributions by completing surveys or commenting on suggestions and proposals. 2,490 residents have subscribed for updates, meaning they receive an email alert when a news item is posted inviting them to take part in new consultations or provide feedback on previous ones. We equality monitor responses to identify whether any groups are underrepresented. Where this is the case, we carry out more targeted promotion - for example, approaching specific age groups - to help address any gaps. Local Tenant Engagement Officers continue to attend tenant meetings, coffee mornings, and other community events. They play an important role in supporting the inclusion of tenants who may not be online, using a combination of hardcopy surveys and iPads to assist residents who wish to take part. Alongside the opportunity for all residents to contribute to service improvement consultations, we continue to develop and increase engagement through the Tenant Voice Panel, the Tenant Scrutiny Board, and our work with the Complaint’s Working Group.

Customer data improvements

Customer contact records: The number of records with incorrect contact phone numbers has reduced significantly over the period. At the start of 2025, issues remained broadly stable at around 51,000, reflecting a steady level of ongoing data quality errors. Initial communications introduced between April and June helped slow the creation of new errors, while further communications from July drove a clearer reduction. More targeted system changes and focused data cleansing activity from September 2025 onwards led to sustained and substantial improvements, with the steepest declines seen through late 2025 and early 2026. By the end of March 2026, the total had fallen to 25,062, representing a reduction of around 26,000 records, or roughly 50%, from the start of the year.

Customer equality data: We monitor new tenancies to make sure that equality related data is being entered for tenants and are exploring system updates that would allow tenants to update their own information via the online portal. Over the last year we have seen a 6% increase in the percentage of tenants having all their data recorded. 

Text and email sending: We have just under 42,000 email addresses recorded. Delivery reports for our monthly tenant e-bulletin show that over 92% of emails are delivered, with an open rate of over 54%. This is over 1,000 additional emails recorded since last year with a 5% improvement on delivery and open rates. We have seen a slight reduction in mobile numbers recorded on the system due to data cleansing, but delivery rate for text messages has shown an improvement of approximately 2% indicating that our data quality is better. This ensures that more residents are kept up to date and informed. 

Ombudsman outcomes and learning: Ombudsman findings show a clear improvement in services for tenants between April 2025–March 2026 compared with the previous year. In 2024–25, complaints more often described widespread and connected problems, including “poor communication”, “failure to keep the resident informed”, and “poor record keeping”, alongside cases where we “failed to provide… sufficient housing support” or “did not follow [our] own procedures”. These issues often overlapped, particularly where residents were vulnerable, and regularly led to findings of maladministration. In contrast, during 2025–26 there were fewer findings overall, and issues were more often described as isolated “service failure in [our] handling of the resident’s reports” or “delay in progressing the resident’s request”, rather than systemic problems. Communication issues still appeared but were more commonly framed as “delay in responding” or “frustration caused by [our] communication” and were less likely to escalate into maladministration. There was also a notable improvement in record keeping, with fewer cases centred on “poor record keeping” and more limited references to minor “inconsistencies in records”. Overall, the Ombudsman reports reflect more consistent services, clearer processes, and an improving experience for residents, while recognising that communication remains an area to continue strengthening.

Improved customer influence and satisfaction: During the year tenant feedback contributed to and helped us develop:

• our Contractors Code of Conduct
• our Customer Service Standards and Customer Comms and Engagement Policy
• our Individual Needs Policy
• improvements to our web content
• our Local Lettings Policy and our policy on how we let new-build council homes
• support for tenants considering downsizing
• our approach to charging for avoidable repairs and maintenance

The Housing Leeds Feedback site brings together all our consultation and feedback activity in one place, including pages that promote the work of the Tenant Scrutiny Board and Tenant Voice Panel.

We continue to see improvements in our Tenant Satisfaction Measures related to how we listen to tenants, and keep them updated:

• how we listen to tenants’ views and act on them (+4%)
• how well tenants feel kept informed about things that matter to them (+4%)
• how we treat tenants fairly and with respect (+2%)

• Deliver mandatory training on the Individual Needs Policy to all staff, alongside updated Customer Care and Inclusion training (the content of which will be developed with tenant input) as over 3,000 tenants told us on home visits that they have access, health, or support needs.
• Continue to monitor and improve data quality through staff training and system improvements.
• Strengthen our communication of service standards and performance against service standards as identified in our recent regulatory inspection outcome.
• Continue to deliver training to improve the quality of complaint responses to tenants and our responses to Ombudsman cases.
• Update complaint and KIM objectives for all staff for 2026/27.

The Stronger Leeds Strategy was endorsed by Executive Board in mid February and sets the strategic direction for the period 2026–2030. This is being strengthened by a refreshed Hate Crime Strategy, which is currently progressing through Executive Board approval. Together, these strategies provide a strong and coherent framework for advancing the city’s cohesion and community safety agenda. The list of strategies supporting the Stronger Leeds Strategy is exhaustive and the programme is now in its initial phase of implementation, with a focus on establishing the delivery architecture and governance needed to support effective delivery.

The cohesion agenda is structured around 4 core priorities: Safe, Strong, Understanding and Thriving. To support delivery, a new cross sector cohesion network has been established, bringing together partners from the statutory sector, faith communities, VCSE (Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise) organisations, education, and governance. The network is designed to share intelligence, coordinate messaging, and develop and test new approaches. It will operate through both a smaller core group and a wider partnership forum, with the first held on for 23rd March 2026. Alongside this, multi agency meetings have been developed to monitor emerging and ongoing community tensions, enabling early intervention, shared insight, and coordinated action where required.

Progress has also been made across a range of equality, faith, and intercultural initiatives. The council continues to work closely with the Intercultural Cities Network and delivered the Rainbow Connections project between May and November 2025. This project used the LGBT+ Staff Network to facilitate intercultural dialogue on LGBT+ experiences and challenges in Leeds and the partner city of Oeiras, Portugal, and resulted in the development of a comprehensive bilingual training pack on LGBT+ inclusivity. Additional capacity has been added to the interfaith agenda through a new convening role within the Faith Forum, strengthening trust, engagement, and shared leadership across faith communities. Leeds has also been formally recognised as a Local Authority of Sanctuary and continues to embed learning from the City of Sanctuary movement across council services and the wider city.

Significant progress has been made in awareness raising and engagement. In February, Leeds held its first Antisemitism Awareness Week for staff and partners, providing education on recognising, challenging, and reporting antisemitism. The programme included training sessions, and a synagogue visit and marked the first initiative of its kind in the UK. This will now run annually alongside the city’s established Islamophobia Awareness Month programme each November. The council also launched the anti discrimination campaign “What makes us different, makes us Leeds”. In addition, almost 90 participants from the city’s Equality Hubs and partner organisations attended the Equality Assembly Conference in November 2025, where facilitated roundtable discussions gathered valuable feedback and insight to inform both the Hate Crime Strategy and the Cohesion Strategy.

Targeted training and engagement activity has strengthened staff understanding of the barriers experienced by diverse communities in Leeds and identified how services can better respond to their needs. A range of awareness sessions have focused on migration, sanctuary, faith, and LGBT+ inclusion, supporting more informed, inclusive, and culturally competent service delivery.

In January, training sessions commenced. They were delivered by City of Sanctuary, alongside people with lived experience of seeking sanctuary in Leeds, to Leeds Housing Options staff. The session enabled participants to gain practical insight into the challenges faced by people seeking sanctuary when accessing housing and public services, and highlights opportunities to improve responsiveness and accessibility. This training is due to be rolled out more widely to all housing staff. In addition, several council staff and external partners have attended migration and asylum training to deepen understanding of the cross cutting challenges faced by new and emerging communities and to support more inclusive practice across services.

Further sessions have focused on equality and identity based inclusion. Twenty-four staff and external partners from the higher education sector and Leeds Minster attended a session delivered by the council’s LGBT+ Staff Network, which explored the lived experiences of LGBT+ people in Leeds and outlined practical steps to foster greater inclusion. Antisemitism awareness training has also been delivered to staff and partners, broadening understanding of antisemitism and its impact and reinforcing the council’s commitment to addressing hate and discrimination

Alongside training, work is underway to build trust between communities and public services. This includes delivery of an 8-week MAP (Migrant Access Programme) training programme, the development of new Migrant Community Networks (MCNs), and the establishment of the Lived Voice Forum, all of which aim to strengthen participation, shared learning, and collaboration with migrant communities to strengthen outcomes. 

Targeted engagement has also improved understanding of hate crime within migrant communities. Forty-three individuals, predominantly refugees and asylum seekers from new and emerging migrant communities attended an awareness session delivered by the Hate Crime Officer from Safer Stronger Communities, alongside partners from West Yorkshire Police. Hosted at Leeds Refugee Forum, the session covered what constitutes a hate crime, how incidents can be reported, and the role of third party reporting centres. The informal format enabled open discussion and questions, supporting greater confidence and clarity around reporting and access to support.

Delivery will continue in line with the priorities set out in the Stronger Leeds Delivery Plan, with a sustained focus on fostering cohesion, shared identity, and inclusive participation across the city. Activity will be rooted in local priorities, using the Community Committees model to ensure that actions reflect neighbourhood needs, build on local strengths, and enable meaningful community involvement.

A key element of this work will be engaging children and young people, including schools and students, in cohesion focused activity. This will support the development of shared values from an early age and encourage active participation in shaping cohesive and inclusive communities. Alongside this, positive storytelling will be prioritised, with a focus on promoting community champions and role models who reflect Leeds’ diversity and demonstrate the benefits of strong, connected communities.

The programme will also support the creation of visible celebrations of local identity, shared values, and collective achievements, helping communities to build pride and connection ‘in place’. This will be complemented by activity that actively challenges harmful attitudes, tackles prejudice and celebrates the city’s diverse population in an open and inclusive way. Opportunities to bring people together across age, culture, and belief will be expanded through the facilitation of intergenerational and interfaith events, supporting dialogue, understanding, and the building of stronger relationships.

Interculturalism will continue to be strengthened through Leeds’s active membership of the Intercultural Cities Network. This includes leading and participating in projects that align with the priorities of the Stronger Leeds and Migration strategies, as well as ongoing engagement with the Intercultural Cities Index to benchmark progress, identify areas for improvement, and inform future activity.

To strengthen governance and strategic oversight, a new Thriving Leeds Board will be established. The Board will provide joined up leadership across key cohesion related strategies, incorporate and build on the work of the existing Hate Crime Board, and create a single forum for oversight, coordination, and strategic challenge. Crucially, it will also provide structured opportunities to embed lived experience into decision making, ensuring that policy and delivery are informed directly by the voices of Leeds’ communities.

Procurement and Commercial Services (PACS) aims to promote equality and diversity in the procurement process by using the National TOMs framework to measure the social value of its awarded contracts with the goal of reflecting the demographics of the City of Leeds. The framework provides a set of themes, outcomes and measures that PACS can use to set clear social value objectives for each contract, monitor and report on social value, and encourage innovation and collaboration among suppliers. By adopting this framework, PACS can ensure that its contracts have a positive impact on the community this may include measuring the impact of a contract on different groups of people, such as those from disadvantaged backgrounds or minority groups, and assessing its contribution to broader social and environmental outcomes.

The Social Value team has been in place since June 2023 and the documentation was changed last year so that the data relating to the performance indicator/measures could be collected. As these are relatively new data captures, work is ongoing to ensure that this can be captured by our existing Social Value platform rather than manually relating to Modern Slavery and the Real Living Wage.

Good industry/working practice is best or common practice that includes standards, practices, methods and procedures conforming to the contractual obligations and all applicable law and regulatory requirements. Comprehensive and detailed service specifications are the foundation of good industry working practices and should conform to contractual obligations as well as all applicable laws and regulations. PACS provides guidance on drafting specifications that reflect equal opportunities legislation and good industry practices. For example, to consider and reflect legislation, guidance and good industry practice in respect of equal opportunities and in the preparation of Equality Plans should be set out in the service specification.

There is an ongoing requirement for suppliers to provide an Equality Plan and for Equality Impact Assessments to be completed prior to procurement commencement as part of the Contract Procedure Rules.

Over the past 12 months, further work has been undertaken to strengthen the link between procurement and inclusive economic growth outcomes. This has included embedding EDI considerations within the council’s wider social value approach, including improved contract pipeline planning to ensure social value and equality objectives are considered earlier in commissioning.

PACS has continued to work collaboratively across the city through the Leeds Anchor Network and regional partnerships to promote inclusive procurement approaches and share best practice.  

Targeted work has also been undertaken to improve access to procurement opportunities for diverse suppliers, including engagement with community business networks and the development of approaches to support culturally diverse businesses.

Initial work has been developed with the Yorkshire Asian Business Association (YABA) to design and deliver a supplier support masterclass model aimed at increasing participation from culturally diverse businesses in public sector procurement. This is intended to act as a template for wider work with other underrepresented groups.

The Social Value platform has allowed the team to capture information relating to equality measures for reporting purposes.

Awarded contracts (completed procurements) which included the updated Equality measures are located on the Social Value platform. The council’s new Social Value partner, on PACS request, has modified the Social Value platform to enable PACS to report on the equality outcomes that will be managed by the new Social Value team. The data will be entered into the new platform for reporting purposes. The Real Living Wage and Modern Slavery reporting is also managed by the same team with appropriate management information available in the future.

The council’s Terms and Conditions and Selection Questionnaires have recently been further amended to reflect that the contractor shall comply with all relevant Equality legislation as set out in our terms and conditions (including the 2023 amendments).

PACS supported Leeds City Council’s Stonewall submission which focused on what the organisation does to ensure that our processes and systems are inclusive.

Suppliers are contractually obliged to adhere to the legislations and specific requirements as detailed in the service specification that should cover (as a minimum) the following:

• the contractor to identify the specific equality activities they will undertake
• the contractor to identify how compliance with the Equality Plan will be evidenced
• the contractor to identify which equality issues are specific to the contract or the council, which the contractor is required to follow as per the provision of the contracted service

The service lead is responsible for ensuring compliance with the above requirements.

An equality and diversity procurement workshop pack has been developed to run workshops on how equality and diversity specifically relates to procurement. On specific schemes, suppliers are invited to bidders’ events where we share our knowledge of equality and diversity to encourage best practice and to ensure that suppliers are aware of expectations in being an equal opportunities employer and delivering a fully diverse and inclusive service.  

The Head of Procurement chairs the regional Yorkshire and Humber Ethical Procurement Group which is focused on driving best practice across procurements within the region.

In terms of specific projects that the Social Value and Procurement team has been involved within:

• promoting Foster4Leeds across Leeds and contractors in the city
• promoting Age Friendly pledge for organisations who contract with Leeds City Council
• brokering Social Value commitments to directly support community protected characteristic groups (for example, funding for Price of Place) to ensure that this is 
• attending key events relating specifically to EDI
• increased delivery of Social Value commitments

Work is being undertaken within the procurement team to review and simplify our documents to make it easier for SMEs/VCSE organisations to tender for contracts. This includes understanding the barriers to bidding for council contracts; and providing potential suppliers with training, support, and guidance regarding bidding for public contracts.

• Confirm the plan for extracting and reporting on existing data to ensure there is a clear picture of EDI measures across the contract. Head of PACS to confirm by mid-July.
• Develop a structured programme of engagement with diverse suppliers, building on the upcoming YABA pilot, and expand this approach to other underrepresented groups
• Embed learnings from supplier engagement activity into procurement design, including reducing barriers within tender processes
• Improve data quality and consistency within the Social Value platform to enable more robust reporting on EDI outcomes
• Strengthen links between procurement, commissioning and community priorities to ensure social value commitments are aligned to local needs
• Continue to work with regional partners through the Yorkshire and Humber Ethical Procurement Group to develop consistent approaches to ethical and inclusive procurement
• Report on local/SME figures for 25/26.