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Intercom has had a really positive and encouraging meeting with the new Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner, Tony Hogg. He has asked us to encourage our communities to comment on his draft policing plan. You can find it at: http://www.devonandcornwall-pcc.gov.uk/Take-Part/We-Want-Your-Views.aspx

We were also delighted to meet the new Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner, Martyn Underhill, at the launch of the new Dorset Police Equality Champions at Canford Magna. Our warmest thanks and good wishes to Martyn, to Karen and Teri and the equality team at Dorset Police HQ, and above all to the twelve Equality Champions for taking on this role. We'll do a follow-up piece about their work another day.

Meaanwhile, Intercom looks forward warmly to a future that includes working with both Police and Crime Commissioners. Both those meetings left us with the most positive feelings about the outcome of those two elections.

There's a new magazine being launched this month called We Are Family, "for any family unit that has one or ore LGBT family members". You can find out more (and subscribe) on their new website, www.wearefamilymagazine.co.uk.

Intercom held a South-West-wide conference for our colleagues in the public sector in November, to raise awareness of the community-profiles and of the issues that we find LGB and Trans people are turning to us for help with.

There were 63 attenders from the public sector, including 17 with high-level policy and strategy roles, 15 Equality and Diversity officers, 9 consultation and engagement officers, and others with scrutiny, data-analysis, or partnership responsibilities. There were representatives from virtually every county or unitary authority-area in the wider South West region. The only local authority in the peninsula which was unrepresented was the Borough of Poole.

The evidence-base

Sarah Aston from the Eddystone Trust introduced an extremely moving DVD made by young LGBT people in Torbay and South Devon in 2011. This was unforgettable. It raised many concerns about the needs of young LGB and Trans people and the environments in which they are growing up—and not solely in Torbay and South Devon. Our warmest thanks to Sarah and to the young people of the Kushbai youth group for having made this film.

Two service-users gave accounts of the sort of problems that had led them to seek help and support from an LGBT community-led agency. Their stories were moving and invigorating: thank you very much for being there, Jay and Billie, and for telling like it is.

Jon and Mat who created the phenomenally successful Proud2Be project talked about the local and national needs they were responding to when they set up Proud2Be.

Paul Roberts of the national Consortium of LGBT Voluntary and Community Organisations (and formerly of Intercom and the LGBT Collective!) gave a keynote speech on the place of consultation in the new NHS. Paul, and the Consortium, have a lead role on these issues nationally through the LGBT Health Partnership, which is funded by central government.

Michael Halls and Andy Hunt from Intercom gave presentations (thoroughly anonymised) about Intercom's strong evidence-base accumulated over these many years: LGB and Trans community profiles; numbers; levels of confidence; the kinds of issues people bring to us in the urban and rural localities, etc. The central message was that while LGB and Trans people are not in ourselves victims, nevertheless when something does go wrong we can sometimes find that the basic systems are not working for us the same way they work for the general population.

There were workshops around mental health and mental illness, crime and the CJS, children and young people, community consultation and engagement, strategic planning, and much more.

Intercom took the opportunity of telling the conference about our new Community Consultation system, LGBT Voices In Action, which goes live in the New Year! Watch this space!

For fuller coverage of the conference (and pictures!), have a look at Intercom's website.