Can you tell me why the pilot training for the managers, about hate crime that West Yorkshire Police kindly delivered for us appealed to you?

Yeah, I think one of the biggest appeals was that some of the people I support have shared things that have happened to them in the past and I’ve completed an incident report and tried to flag up various safeguarding issues that that may or may not be present, but it wasn’t always clear what that safeguarding issue was. And now with the introduction of hate crime training and my understanding of it in a much broader sense I feel more equipped to be able to support our individuals to report and to take further action.

So how did you prepare for the focus group that you set up?

I asked all your families whether they felt that it might be something that would benefit you to come along to the focus group.

[Jamie] Yeah.

They said that it would and some of the families gave me examples of things that had happened in the past. And then I spoke to you as individuals to see if you’d like to come along and have a chat about hate crime and what to do and who to tell and what a hate crime might look like.

Would you have been able to have the skills and knowledge to deliver the focus group to the people we support having not had that two and a half hours managers’ training?

No I think because it’s such an important issue I would want to feel informed and educated enough to feel qualified enough to do the training in the first place. And so I wouldn’t have been comfortable going ahead and doing a focus group without that training.

The idea of the resource pack and giving staff the knowledge around hate crime is about actually being able to advocate for people and empower people and give them the rights back in order to be able to report it.

[The discussion then moved to any experiences Jamie or Colin might have had with hate crime.]

[Jamie] Long time in past, our old house has gone and our neighbour, Andrea, in past. I was outside, in the front garden of the house and my mum is hearing things – shouting – and I was talking to my mucker, my nice neighbour.

What Jamie’s describing is what’s happened in the past which mum also described to me. We don’t have to talk about it on camera if you don’t want to Jamie, that’s up to you.

[Jamie] I do actually.

You do want to talk about it?

[Jamie] Yeah.

Do you want me to say a little bit about it, what I know about it?

[Jamie] Please.

Okay, so Jamie has moved since this event happened. But there was quite a number of incidents where the neighbour on one side of the property where Jamie used to live waited until Jamie was in the house on his own and then tried to scare him and intimidate him, and only did it when his mum wasn’t at home which was obviously very distressing for Jamie.

But she did it so much so that the neighbour on the other side of the road noticed that this was happening and tried to offer his support to you. And I think it was quite shocking for the family. There seemed to be no shame in the way that this person was conducting themselves, there didn’t seem to be any guilt or remorse or acknowledgement that they were doing anything wrong. And it carried on didn’t it?

[Jamie] Yeah.

But the good news is that the police listened and cautioned the person and you’ve now moved to a street where you’re much happier, haven’t you?

[Jamie] Yeah. They threatened my sister as well

They threatened your sister? I didn’t know that.

And what did you find, Colin, about the session and the focus-group? About the discussions and pictures. What did you learn?

[Colin] That I can talk to anybody.

What you mentioned earlier is if something did happen would you be able to recognize it and see it?

[Colin] Yep.

And what would you do?

[Colin] Report it.

Report it.

[Colin] A tell everybody around it.

Yeah.

[Colin] Yeah probably get one of those bleeps and do it. Yeah.

But who would you tell first?

[Colin] My family and you guys, and the police.

Yeah and the police, that’s really important.

[Colin] Comes first.

So what would you like to see in the future then? Plans to move forward?

[Colin] A better world.

You’d like to see a better world, would you, from what you’ve heard?

[Colin] Yeah.