International Women’s Day 2023

On International Women’s Day 2023 I’d like to celebrate the achievements of my friend and colleague Bal.  We met working together on the Compassionate City programme in Birmingham and despite us both moving on in our professional lives, we stayed in touch.  We are now working together on an equity, diversity and inclusion project.  Bal qualified and worked as a community pharmacist in India before settling in England in 1988. 

She worked as a Day Centre officer supporting people with Learning Disabilities for several years, whilst also completing a Master’s Degree with Diploma in Social Work.  Bal qualified as a Social Worker in 1998 and is still registered with Social Work England.  She then moved on to a practitioner and middle management career in Adult Mental Health and Commissioning in Local Government and the NHS.  She has been working in Senior Leadership role since 2010 and her first Director role was working as a Interim Director Of commissioning for Newcastle City council. Most recently, she worked for Birmingham City Council and Local Government Association as a Care and Health Improvement Advisor. She is currently an Interim Adult Social Care Director, Health and Care Integration (DASS) in Surrey County Council.    She is one of only a handful of people from ethnically diverse backgrounds to achieve this level of seniority in her field.

Bal is recognised as a national leader on equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and co- chaired the EDI policy network for ADASS in 2021.  She was also a member of the health inequalities task group with the Race Equality Foundation.

Bal has shared some of her experiences with me of systemic racism and discrimination and we work together to try and make a difference in all areas of prejudice.  I really value Bal’s insight, experience and friendship and therefore want to recognise her achievements as part of International Women’s Day 2023

Find our more about our current project Diverse by Design – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (hodgesandassociates.co.uk)