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Successful DEI training within organisations can foster innovation and creativity as well as attract and retain top talent.
To explore this topic, host Charmain Bucho, Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at City & Guilds, is joined by Taye Training, Director, Consultant & Facilitator Tammy Banks. Tammy's personal history, academic achievements, and work experience have driven her to champion effective, achievable solutions to prevent abuse and poverty. Leading with passion and commitment, she recognises the importance of advocating for change while delivering practical solutions.
As the Founder and Director of Taye Training, Tammy leads a socially focused company that delivers essential training to key service providers such as the Police, charities, and the NHS. She developed the Training 4 Influence methodology and quality standard, which is detailed in her Amazon bestseller, Transform Your Training. This methodology comes to life in her flagship Train the Trainer programme, which won a Princess Royal Training Award in 2023.
The esteemed author and TED Talks speaker discusses the transformative impact of quality training on individuals and communities, emphasising the importance of embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) and fostering partnerships and collaborations.
Key Points Discussed:
- Embedding DE&I in Training Programs
- Addressing Training Needs in Social Care and Criminal Justice
- Partnerships and Collaborations
- Advice for Increasing Inclusion
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Charmain Buchoo
Welcome everyone to our Foundation and Friends podcast. I'm your host, Charmain Buchoo. I'm so thrilled that we have Tammy Banks joining us to discuss how investment in skills opens opportunity for staff in the social care and criminal justice sector, the impact it has on individuals and communities.
How to embed diversity, equity, inclusion, and importance of partnerships and collaborations. Tammy, welcome.
Tammy Banks
Oh, thank you so much for having me, Charmain.
Charmain Buchoo
Oh, absolute pleasure. Let's dive in. So in a few words, who is Tammy Banks? Give us a snapshot of your career.
Tammy Banks
Oh gosh. So if I do a few words, I would say I believe that quality training can transform lives.
So actually my career where I'm at at the moment and the mission I'm on is all about making the very best of every single training opportunity. And that stems from working within. Social care, criminal justice and charities for the last 20 years, where the training opportunity is so important because the people working within those sectors need to have the skills, the resilience, the values, the, the contacts, the connections, and the confidence to be able to deliver services sometimes to some of the most vulnerable people and in the most complex of situations.
Charmain Buchoo
Thank you. In 2023, you won a Princess Royal Training Award (PRTA). . For upskilling staff across the social care and criminal justice sectors alongside A DEI commendation. How was your investment in skills at your organisation that opened opportunities for your staff in the sector?
Tammy Banks
That was such a proud moment for us because, as I'm sure you can imagine, the, the sector that we deliver training in is quite a high pressure, high need sector.
And so to have the recognition, it was something that we're really proud of. Our organisation is all about transforming your training. So we literally exist. To help people to deliver the very best training. So in particular, we won the award for our train the trainer course and our methodology. And that methodology has been derived from the training that we delivered and the impact that we had.
So for us, it has opened opportunities because people recognise it and understand it and know that the process that you go through to win one of the royal awards It's
such a stringent process.
Charmain Buchoo
Massive congratulations. And I really loved reading about your methodology. And I wondered if you wanted to say a little bit more about that.
Tammy Banks
Oh yeah. So our methodology, gosh, don't get me started because this is, so I guess the, the thing to say at first is that we are an operating training company. So we have facilitators based nationally who deliver frontline training. So EDI training or leadership training, safeguarding training, risk management, that type of training.
And that's All of them deliver using our methodology and we do that so that we have a consistent quality and evidence based approach to the way that we deliver everything. What we believe is that every single training session should be delivered to the very best ability of the facilitator and we come from a perspective of delivering training is a privilege.
You know, the people in the room or on the Zoom or Teams are never ever going to get that time back. So our methodology derives from the impact that we were having, and then a lot of analysis of the difference it was making. So it's four parts. So the first part of the methodology is experts. And that is about helping people recognize their innate expertise from either their lived experience or their professional experience.
We then help them to learn 12 facilitation skills and we believe very strongly in these facilitation skills. We talk about facilitators rather than trainers because it isn't, to us, it isn't about standing there and telling people things. It's very much about taking them on a learning journey and facilitating that journey.
The second part is tailored, and that is all about ensuring that the training that you're providing is exactly what the people in front of you need. The third part is engaging, um, and that is about learning styles, that is about equity, that is about accelerated learning, and that is about saying, yes, we've got all of this information and we've got a passionate and skilled facilitator ready, but it's not about expecting people just to kind of understand what we understand as facilitators.
It's about really engaging them in the ways that work for them, that recognize their differences, that give them that equitable opportunity and delivering and developing training in that way. And then our golden thread of our methodology that we are very proud of and came out really strongly when we were developing the methodology through the analysis is values led.
And that is that every single training session that we have ever run comes from a values led perspective. And I think if I'm honest Charmain, that was a little bit accidental from the perspective that we started delivering training because we couldn't find training that met our needs. We couldn't access it.
So we started delivering ourselves. So. All of our training now and within the methodology, you know, we start off by connecting the subject to the individual's values, to the organisation's values, to the landscape, depending on what we're talking about, recognising and connecting the subject, the things that matter to the people in that, that room.
So our methodology is really special to us because that's what we use to deliver everything. All of our trainers at Taye Training they are qualified in our methodology, and actually we run an external train the trainer qualification to teach other people our methodology, which is where the PRTA award came in.
Charmain Buchoo
Lovely. And I really love the values aspect of that.
So I wonder if you could share a story or an example of where your training has significantly impacted an individual or a community?
Tammy Banks
Oh, yeah. So if I'm talking about the train the trainer course that I've just mentioned last year, the same year that we won the PRTA, I won a Women in Innovation Award with Innovate UK.
And as part of that award, we were awarded £50, 000. And we use that money to give people with lived experience of domestic abuse scholarships to our Train the Trainer qualification. And what happens as they go through this three months is that they have a support group, they have a mentor, they follow the four steps of the qualification, they develop a course themselves, and then at the end they do a micro teach and submit an assignment.
And they own that qualification. But in addition to that, they then are able to use that qualification themselves within their internal organizations. And so the ladies who came through on the Innovate UK scholarship, they're now, I've talked about one of them. She's set up her own business, she delivers.
Her own training under her own small freelance company, and she delivers training two or three times a month for us at Taye Training as well. And she's got some additional consultancy roles within ED& I based on the fact that she's been through this programme.
Charmain Buchoo
That really comes across clearly that enabling others to develop their capability and skills.
And then when you talked about quality training, how that really impacts on the community, I really love the approach that you're taking at Taye Training. What approaches then did you take to embed that? DE & I in your training programmes?
Tammy Banks
So I guess for us, it is about, it comes back to the methodology and it comes back to that consistency, because I think what we experienced was that training has got quite a bit of a poor rap at the moment, you know, people can be quite, despondent, people can kind of sigh a little bit and say, Oh, it's just, it's just a waste of time and it's uninspiring or it's boring.
So people come to training. Quite often not expecting much. And so for us, the DE& I part within our methodology is that actually it's part of that values golden thread. It's about recognizing that your delegates in the room are all going to be different all of the time. So within the methodology and within the framework, we're teaching that DE& I is a consideration at every level.
It is part of the fabric of it. And that's why it's entwined with those values. So if we think of the engaging part and the learning styles and the accelerated learning, that's all about ensuring that there's an equitable delivery of the training. So that's why I say it's just part and parcel of every single aspect of the methodology because it is so key.
And I think because within the sectors that we work, the diversity is part and parcel of what we recognise is often. Causing multiple disadvantage. So we're always looking at the difference and the possible disadvantage that may cause.
Charmain Buchoo
No, absolutely. And I love that. It's ingrained, it's embedded, but you're modeling it as you go as well.
And that's where it sort of really holds true. And just thinking about the kind of training needs in the sector. Can you talk about specific training need in social care and criminal justice sectors?
Tammy Banks
Yeah, so I would say really honestly that a lot of the training isn't different to any other sector. You know, they need to have really good leadership skills, they need to have really good communication skills. So the foundation training courses are the same across sectors, but these specialist training courses around things like being trauma informed in your approach, around things like risk management and safeguarding and things like that, they're the things that are more specialist within the sector.
What they all have in common is this unfortunate underexpectation of training. So the biggest need I would say across the sectors is for them to be able to access consistent quality training because they haven't got time to waste being in a room where the training doesn't meet their needs. I think the biggest training need across the sectors is probably for the trainers Transcribed They'll be able to deliver really good quality, engaging training that meet learning styles.
But also, and I know this, I laugh, I laugh about this now, but you know, it's a real, real thing. Also that, that delivery online, you know, it's, we all move to online delivery during COVID. And everybody was very forgiving of each other and that it warms my heart. We needed that forgiveness. Trust me, the amount of mistakes technology causes, but we were a good four years on now.
And I think that if you're going to deliver training online, you now need to be meeting people's learning styles. You now need to be ensuring that you know how to use the technology and that it is a safe training space.
Charmain Buchoo
Yeah, absolutely. So that it's tailored, really good quality and done well is so crucial.
Enjoying the podcast. Great. Don't forget to subscribe to it on your favorite podcast platform and leave a review. It'd be greatly appreciated. And now back to the episode. And I wonder if you could talk about any sort of partnerships that you have with other organizations that's emerged and how you collaborate to enhance your work.
Tammy Banks
Yeah, I would say that we're quite unique, that we are a training company, but we regularly share openly everything that we've kind of developed and we're developing. And so collaboration and co production for us. It's just absolutely key. The current landscape means that with our customers, but equally with our facilitators, there's so many other kind of organizations and people involved, whether that's from local authorities to businesses, to charities, everything that we're doing, we're doing in partnership with other people.
And then. Sharing anything that we create because we very much believe that what we're sharing is about helping as many people be as good at training as possible. We have a community and people are very welcome to join our free community where people are in there sharing different resources because it's hard.
To keep up to date as a facilitator on things like what are the new changes on teams or inclusive language or giving constructive feedback to delegates and things like that.
Charmain Buchoo
That sharing to reach more people, it just helps to enhance and grow more partnerships and collaborations. So that it's that cycle, isn't it?
Tammy Banks
Yeah. Absolutely.
Charmain Buchoo
So what one piece of advice would you give then, based on your experience and the great work that you do to employers and organisations trying to increase inclusion?
Tammy Banks
I'm going to start, Charmain, by saying, and this bit might be cut out, but I'm going to start by saying, step away from the tokenistic, because that's one of the things that I think people can see a mile off.
And it really, really frustrates me if we're doing it for the right reasons, there is an acceptance that this is a journey that never ends. So my biggest thing would be just get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And actually inclusion isn't about one strategic plan you do here. And now, and you tick the boxes, inclusion is about true equity.
It's recognising and treating people in the way that enables them to have the same opportunities as other people. And that's why it needs to be in partnership and in collaboration and through discussion. And that's most importantly, why you just need to continue learning. And I can honestly say we have the most amazing team within Taye who have lived experience specialists who develop and deliver DE& I training and they do it nationally for local authorities, for the Welsh government, for charities, etc.
They do things like anti racism, social model of disability, microaggressions, etc. They are phenomenal. I can also say that what they go out and deliver to other organizations, we now have a project where we're looking internally at Taye and that's what I mean about that continual growth.
Charmain Buchoo
So it's amazing, Tammy, the incredible work that you do.
So how can our listeners contribute to or get involved with your organisation and the great work that you do?
Tammy Banks
I'm going to say my first choice would be that they contact me on LinkedIn at the moment. But we are, in the next few weeks, launching our new website, which is transformyourtraining. org. uk, where everything will be under our new banner, which is also the title of my book as well.
Charmain, do you mind if I ask you a question? You're head of DE & I at City & Guilds. And I'm aware that I've been talking about DE& I all the way through this.
Charmain Buchoo
No, absolutely. Go ahead.
Tammy Banks
Fantastic. I just wondered about, I guess, your reflections on some of what I've said about what's important in DE& I, but also why you work in DE& I. Why is it important to you?
Charmain Buchoo
Wow, no, great question and I think everything that you've said really resonates with me and it's the values piece that really sticks with me, what we value as individuals, what other values and how we can connect that because that's where the inclusion work really begins. You know, hearts and minds and then into the actions as well.
And why do I work in DE & I? Interesting question. I think for me, I've always been focused on kind of that justice and fairness for all, leaving no one behind. And I think you talked about this, really, this, the link between the connections, the human connections and interactions. and the right opportunities in the right environment allows people to thrive.
And it's all within our gifts to enable that. And I've always wanted to support individuals and organisations in any way that I can to kind of be a better version of ourselves. We all have opportunities to thrive and the barriers get in the way often are systems, the processes, and the fact that people's awareness needs to really grow.
And when their awareness grows and that curiosity grows, there's enough to go around. And that's what I really love about your organisation, because you are a charity and you're commercial. You create your own blueprint and your content, you collaborate with others and you share so you don't keep it all to yourself because you're helping to elevate others.
And I think that's probably why I'm passionate about DE & I, that actually it's on us, it's down to us to make that change.
Tammy Banks
Right, this podcast should have been with you Charmain, that was like the best answer. And yeah, the hearts and mind part for me is so key.
Charmain Buchoo
Thanks. For our listeners, do please have a look at Tammy's book and her TED talk.
Thank you so much for your time. It's been an incredible conversation. Much appreciated.
Tammy Banks
Brilliant, Charmain. Brilliant.
Charmain Buchoo
Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you for checking out the episode. Remember to share it with friends or colleagues. Until next time, bye for now.
