About Us : Associates

Our team of associate consultants and trainers have in-depth knowledge of both the housing sector and equality and diversity issues and offer a high level of professional involvement to help deliver the results you need.

• John Dembovskis - Senior Associate
• Kate Smyth
• Kusminder Chahal
• Mushtaq Khan
• Sarah Clement
• Tony Gordon
• Deborah Kelly
• Yvonne Davies
• Adele Baumgardt
• Yvonne Prendergast
• Len Harris

John Dembovskis - Senior Associate

John specialises in the field of inclusion, diversity, governance and scrutiny in social housing together with providing expertise in community/neighbourhood policy development and implementation. He plays, in his consultancy work, a significant role in shaping, remodelling and delivering clients housing related support services for older people and the most vulnerable, to meet the public equality duty (PED) and sector led good practice, as well as excelling in training and learning development design and delivery for board members, senior and junior housing managers, tenants, stakeholders and front line staff in the above areas. He is a postgraduate with an M.Sc. from Warwick University in 1987 and from 1994 to 2001 worked for Coopers & Lybrand in organisational development.

He currently advises both ALMO's and RSL's to enable them to have increased accountability to their boards and senior management in peer review/peer challenge to the SHEF (Social Housing Equality Framework) requirements.

Kate Smyth

Kate has been working as a freelance regeneration / economic development / housing and disability consultant since 1992 and joined the Housing Diversity Network in early 2007. In recent years, as Kate’s own impairment has become more obvious, she has worked on disability related projects for a wide range of clients especially in the public sector and social housing sector. She is a Board member of Calico Housing (Burnley’s LSVT) where she is the Diversity Champion, and also Calico Enterprise. Kate specialises in:

• Involving disabled people. She has set up and supported boards, working groups and networks of disabled people and trained and empowered them. Most of these groups have developed and implemented detailed Action Plans and worked in equal partnership with decision makers in a critical friend or scrutiny role.


• Designing and delivering Disability Equality Training.


• Assisting organisations to prepare Disability Equality Schemes and Action Plans - in 2007 she worked with a number of RSLs.Preparing Disability Strategies for regions, local authority areas and organisations.
  
  


• Preparing generic wellbeing strategies to improve the quality of life and life chances of disabled people.
  
  


• Undertaking research in relation to disabled people, eg. housing and support needs and preparing appropriate strategies.
  
  


• Undertaking disability health checks for organisations covering all aspects of their role including employment and service delivery.
  
  


• Working as an advocate for disabled people.Preparing Disability Guides for organisations.

Kusminder Chahal

Kusminder has over 16 years experience of undertaking research, delivering training, and offering consultancy across the public and voluntary sector. His main areas of work include equality and diversity, hate crimes, racist harassment and community cohesion, health and housing needs assessments. Kusminder’s recent commissions have included writing a guidance manual for racial harassment/hate crime officers, researching the extent and level of non-reporting of racist harassment, facilitating senior managers learning on equality and diversity, researching and writing an equality and diversity policy, facilitating staff groups on their experiences of equality and diversity.

Kusminder’s published work includes “We can’t all be white!” Racist Victimisation in the UK (1999, funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation), co-authored Black and Minority Ethnic Housing Strategies: A Good Practice Guide (2000, Chartered Institute of Housing) and more recently Racist Harassment and Housing Services (2007, Race Equality Foundation).

Mushtaq Khan

Sarah Clement

Sarah Clement is an independent consultant and trainer focusing on equality and diversity in the housing sector. Sarah is a qualified housing professional and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing. As well having a proven track record in equality and diversity, her experience includes frontline housing management and tenant, resident and service user involvement and participation.

Her employment background includes Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs), Local Authorities, Housing Associations and Co-operative/Voluntary sector organisations. Sarah’s most recent work includes equality consultancy, training and workshops with a range of housing organisations.

Sarah is an experienced and thorough project manager. She has proven skills and abilities at keeping projects on track and at collaborative working that ensures a good team approach to each commission.

Tony Gordon

Deborah Kelly

Deborah is an accomplished senior executive having several years experience at Director Level. She has worked for the Audit Commission, HQN, and TPAS to prepare organisations and tenant groups for excellence and inspection. Deborah has been providing housing and performance management consultancy to a range of clients over the last six years. She is the Independent Chair of Scrutiny at First Choice Homes Oldham, establishing co regulation processes for them and driving service improvement, and a Board Member at Housing Pendle, and Ashton Pioneer Homes. Deborah brings dynamic challenge, and innovation to each of these organisations. 

Deborah brings excellent leadership, team working and interpersonal skills, built upon a wealth of incomparable experience in law, social housing, and regulation. She has a real ability to bring the best out in people to transform strategy and business processes to achieve outstanding business results and a vibrant customer and colleague focused culture. She is driven by success, quality and making a difference to the organisations she works in.

Yvonne Davies

Yvonne, one of our newest Associates, is an experienced professional, formerly a Managing Director of a Liverpool HA and Head of Housing and Economic Development for the Audit Commission. For the last 27 years, she has worked for regulators and inspectors of Housing and for large & small Housing Associations, Groups and Metropolitan Local Authorities in areas of significant deprivation. Yvonne is now a self-employed consultant and trainer. Her current projects include Diversity Training for staff and tenants; Tenant inspection and tenant scrutiny; Health Checks, Mediation, Governance and Policy review and interim management.

Yvonne is a Board member of a Social Enterprise, Blackburne House, where she Chairs Quality & Audit Committee and is the Director of the Women in Construction Company. Yvonne is Company Secretary at a Leasehold Management Company.

Adele Baumgardt

Adele is an independent consultant having previously worked in Equal Opportunities Commission. Now a self employed consultant on all aspects of equality and diversity, Adele’s experience includes delivering equality strategies in public, private and voluntary sectors with particular expertise in the new ‘positive’ equality duty.

Adele is an associate consultant with Housing Diversity Network and has delivered a range of training and consultancy services to a wide range of housing sector organisations.

Adele was the Wales Commissioner for the Women’s National Commission until December 2010 when the Commission was closed as part of the Westminster Government’s quango review. She was elected chair of the Wales Assembly of Women in March 2011 and is actively campaigning for both the Welsh and UK Governments to support systems to engage with Welsh women.

Adele is a Board Member of Sport Wales and the Chair of the Public Transport Users’ Committee for Wales.

Adele has been active in gender budgeting for many years and was co-chair of the Women’s Budget group for 3 years and chair of the Wales Gender Budget Group for 5 years.

Adele has a Masters Degree in Equality and Diversity from Cardiff University 2006 and holds a public appointment to the Sports Council for Wales for whom she has conducted action research on gender equality and budgets.

Yvonne Prendergast

Yvonne brings extensive experience as an independent equality consultant over the past 10 years. She has undertaken a range of training, research and consultancy projects across the public, private and third sectors. These include delivery of equalities training, at all organisational levels, for ALMOs, North Trafford Primary Care Trust, Construction and Engineering Companies, Universities, professional institutes, and housing support organisations. Consultancy work includes developing equality strategies for local authorities, professional institutes, and engineering companies; undertaking equality ‘health checks’ for housing providers; and developing national good practice guidance for the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science and Engineering (UKRC).

Prior to working independently, Yvonne had a range of front-line and management roles. This included an early career in engineering; delivering an equalities case work service for Salford Law Centre, supported by post-graduate equalities study; and a role as Training Officer for the Big Life Company. Yvonne has particular interest and expertise in the practical application of equality principles, gained from a breadth of local, national and transnational experience. She believes in the power of training to enable change and to build the capacity of individuals and organisations to confidently promote equality and diversity.

Len Harris

Len is able to offer a unique perspective on housing matters with specialist housing knowledge as both a town planner and housing market renewal strategy officer. He has an interest in, and practical experience of, addressing equalities/cohesion issues in relation to private, social and mixed tenure housing developments. He has worked closely with housing associations for over 20 years, gaining a good understanding of development and stock management functions, objectives, policies, structures and internal working practices.

Len is particularly interested in continuing to develop learning and good practice in relation to the achievement of cohesive, sustainable communities. In his most recent role he had management responsibility for a major arts project that sought to use creativity to address complex cohesion issues and break down barriers within local communities. He furthered this interest by recently passing a Masters level course “Advanced Making it Happen with Community Arts” with Staffordshire University.

Len possesses a strong and transferable skill set with an ability to adopt different roles including project manager and that of a critical friend. He has a demonstrable ability to work positively with a wide range of organisations, including housing associations and community groups.