I met Patricia Farrell in May 2000, when I took up a leadership post with Leeds City Council’s Education Department. Patricia was an active member of the LCC’s Race Equality Advisory Forum.(REAF) representing Black and Minority Ethnic communities. I was immediately struck by Patricia’s warm smile, intelligence and her thoughtful manner of asking pertinent questions about the continued underachievement of Black and Minority Ethnic pupils to the LCC Education officers. The Education Department had a difficult and turbulent relationship with REAF, who wished to hold officers accountable for their actions. The REAF meetings were held twice a year, and not much progress was made between meetings. The atmosphere in the meetings was that of frustrations, mistrust and a drive by REAF members to hold Education officers to account for their actions. I had come from London, where I had always worked in partnership with the Black and Minority Ethnic communities and spent my adult life challenging racism and injustices. I got to know Patricia, well as I set up a sub group of REAF to meet regularly to work in partnership om issues of Education. I developed a great respect for Patricia and a friendship between us grew.
I discovered that Patricia was a magistrate dealing with youth and she made a phenomenal contribution shaping the training programme to make bench members aware of racism in their dealings with black youth. The burning issue was the high number of custodial sentences which were given to black youth.
Through REAF and the Education sub group, Patricia became involved in my initiative of shaping the Stephen Lawrence ‘s Award into an Education Standard for race equality for schools and colleges of further education. Patricia often co-hosted the annual ceremony when schools celebrated their achievement of receiving one of the three levels of the Standard. The event was where pupils expressed what they had learnt by their school’s engagement with the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard. The experiences of schools and the community were well captured with photos in the newsletter Harmony. The 10th Edition of Harmony has an article written by Patricia. She represented the Black community partnership in the training the Authority offered to schools in the Region and nationally.
Patricia, was one of the pioneers of the Leeds Black Achievers Award for school pupils. Her drive to empower young people was tremendous. The events were held by young people who were mentored to facilitate workshops and to speak publicly, an opportunity which was rare for most Black pupils. Patricia was a talented poet and supported my drive to make the Leeds Peace Poetry more inclusive at a time when the founding members leading the initiative perceived poetry as an elitist art form.
I am aware that Patricia worked hard and contributed to many initiatives to make Leeds proud of the rich cultural heritage. I want to conclude with an acknowledgement of the personal support and comradeship Patricia gave me in  April 2001, when Capita had taken over the LCC Education Department and established a non for profit organisation Education Leeds. I had been in post since May 2000. The mission of the new Capita leaders was to get rid of the existing leadership team and hire new recruits to take forward their vision of Education. My office was on the 10th Floor in Merrion Centre where all the leadership team was based. The new Director and her deputies decided that I was no longer part of the leadership team and should be moved to Elmet with the Advisory staff. The administrator, recently promoted to business manager was to find a suitable office space for me to reflect my demoted status. She did not fail her new masters, and set about emptying a store cupboard, with a small high window which directly faced the toilets. This was to be my new office. When I arrived at Elmet with my boxes, my heart sank seeing what was to be my new office. I phoned Patricia and told her about my new office, she immediately drove down to Elmet to give me support. We put up my photos and paintings and Black history artefacts and books turning a smelly unloved space into a work space which beamed with pride. Patricia had lunch with me and reminded me that I had earned the respect and support of the REAF members in a short space of time and helped me to hold my head up high with dignity.
Patricia was a great comrade, friend and great education activist for equality.