Mohammed (Iggy) Patel

Central Service Equality & Diversity Co-ordinator, Lincolnshire County Council

Born in Manchester, from an Asian background, I started my career in local government in 1985 as a technical officer for Gloucestershire Trading Standards. Staying within Trading Standards, I later moved to Trafford Metropolitan Borough, Hampshire County Council and eventually Lincolnshire County Council, gaining experience and qualifications with each authority. In October 2007, due to my interests in Diversity and Equality, I was asked to take on a secondment role as co-ordinator for the Resources Directorate. This involved looking at the whole spectrum of issues the Directorate faced in trying to reach the Local Government Standard in Diversity and Equality. Having examined a number of Equality Impact Assessments, I noticed that staff were querying the language and disabled services available to members of the public accessing Lincolnshire's services. With this in mind, I redesigned the services available, creating ComLinc to make use of efficient and cost effective local services.