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“Our chief executive is our diversity champion, so she is personally driving the diversity agenda and everyone that works here can see for themselves how personally committed she is to bringing about change. Without senior leadership and cultural change, diversity goals simply cannot be realised.”Rob Sutton, diversity manager for the Environment Agency – one of the top performers in the public sector in the RfO report – agrees. I’ve worked in organisations where this hasn’t been the case and true diversity just doesn’t happen.” The organisation’s involvement with RfO helps them find ways of improving diversity not only in employment, but in service delivery, he says.Among the most dramatic changes revealed in this year’s survey is the number of organisations who have effectively integrated race into their key performance indicators for senior management. “We track employee satisfaction and it has improved with our focus on race diversity. In turn, we have a statistical link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction and profit. So we know it affects our bottom line.”But the business case for diversity cannot be won without leadership commitment. The RfO report cautions: “It is not by pure chance that the overall top scoring organisations have established race champions at board level.

“Music is the nearest thing that we know to magic: its powers have still to be understood,” said the composer James Wilson, British-born but resident in Ireland from 1948. I was pretty excited about it until I had it for the first time last night. It’s got a mashed potato consistency, but has no flavour, not to mention any healthy qualities It’s maize. But our feeling is that giving out module grades is inevitable..

Does the thought of September fill you with dread because it’s time to equip your offspring for school? Many parents would answer yes. But a little bit of planning can save you the queues – and the arguments. School clothes
Get school uniform and/or new clothes as soon as possible. Some schools demand that you buy their own items rather than off-the-peg clothes from the high street, but if it’s just a white shirt or a black skirt you’re after then shop around and take advantage of the mid-summer sales. Lou, the parent of two boys, has already bought clothes in bulk and says, “I just hope they don’t grow too much in the coming weeks.”Government guidelines are supposed to ensure that school clothes are not too costly, but they can still be a financial burden. Tom, a head of Year 7, says it is important for children starting secondary school to have a new uniform, however “It represents a chance of a fresh start. New clothes help to reinforce this.”Stores like Debenhams, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer have a range of hi-tech school clothes that are Teflon-coated, apparently making them longer lasting and easy to wash.

Places like Woolworths also stock “non-iron” and “easy-iron” school clothes.Some schools run second-hand stores where parents sell on clothes their children have outgrown. Whatever you choose, make sure you label everything.ShoesWhile the uniform may be straightforward, what about shoes? “There’s a growth spurt during the summer and they need shoes to last them through the winter,” says Jenny, a mother of one “But get in and out of the shop as quickly as possible. Go two weeks before school starts, or, better still, buy them on holiday.”A school may want shoes to be”black and plain”, but try telling that to your 13-year-old daughter who wants heels Fights over shoes remain embedded in many parents’ memories. One mother says she sat in a shoe shop for an hour, only to have her daughter throw a tantrum with the shop assistant. They were asked to leave.”Have you ever been to John Lewis the week before school starts?” asks Colin, a father of three.

“I made the mistake of going at the last minute and I won’t do that again.” His eight-year-old son wanted a particular pair of trainers because “he wants to be like a rapper, he already knows what’s cool and what’s uncool.”Peer pressureThis can be an awesome phenomenon.”It really kicks in after the first year at secondary,” says one mother “My daughter wants the latest thongs and bras. I’m buying her things I wouldn’t buy for myself which is lovely but I’m buying her things I wouldn’t even buy for myself.” When it comes to shoes, trainers or school bags, children want ones that will make them fit in. There are important issues of identity here: children want to belong to the tribe, and the appearance of the tribe is always changing But try to resist the pressure. See why it is important to them, but set a limit on what you are willing to spend.