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Fair Play South West has developed its unique regional presence as a gender equality organisation over the past eight years. It was originally set up as part of a national initiative to promote equality for women with core funding from the DfEE and project funding from the local Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs).

Over this period Fair Play South West has built up:

• A reputation as the expert witness on gender issues where it has contributed to policy development in the region
  
• A track record in project delivery which has included research such as:

• Regional conferences, workshops and consultations on such issues such as equal pay, mainstreaming, part-time working directive
• Sponsors of the science festival event, 'Science – It’s a man’s world?'
• School competitions, such as 'Design a Gadget for your home' aimed at school children
  

The close working relationship with the South West TECs, their project funding and partnership working meant FPSW could assist them to develop and to deliver their emerging equalities agendas.

At the end of the TECs era and of the core funding which had been made available through the DfE , some Fair Play consortia were transformed into regional umbrella equality organisations as companies limited by guarantee, for example, in the North West and North East regions.

Fair Play South West kept its focus on gender equality. Its Board attracted, and now includes, women and men who hold key positions in NHS, TUC, GOSW, local government, education and private enterprise. They are supported by a strategy group drawn from a wide spectrum of influential women in further and higher education, local government, private enterprise and the voluntary sector. In addition there is a membership of more than 250 interested individuals and organisations across the South West region.

Since 2001 FPSW has continued to work to represent the interests of gender equality in a variety of fora and to deliver specific projects. The available funding has been a mixture of legacy funding from the TECs, and core and project funding provided by several statutory agencies.

Fair Play South West now sees itself as one of the key pillars in the new regional strategic approach to equality currently being developed as Equality South West. In this Fair Play stands alongside other key equality groups and emerging networks whose focus is on race, disability, sexuality, religion and age.

Changes in existing and forthcoming equalities legislation, the prospect of a single equality and human rights commission, new and explicit remits for many public authorities to promote equality as employers and partners in the delivery services and strategies, have amplified the need for a regional strategic approach to equality.