31.07.14
NHS workforce race equality standard unveiled
A workforce race equality standard is expected to be implemented across the NHS in April 2015, in a bid to ensure employees from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds have equal access to career opportunities and fair treatment in the workplace.
The standard, for the first time, would require organisations employing almost all of the 1.4 million NHS workforce to demonstrate progress against a number of indicators of workforce equality, including a specific indicator to address the low levels of BME Board representation.
Alongside the standard, the NHS Equality and Diversity Council (EDC) revealed that the NHS will be consulted on whether the Equality Delivery System (EDS2) should also become mandatory.
According to the Council, the toolkit, currently voluntarily used across the NHS, aims to help organisations improve the services they provide for their local communities and provide better working environments for all groups.
To advance these two proposals, NHS England has agreed to consult on incorporating the new standard and EDS2 two for the first time in the 2015-16 standard NHS contract. The regulators – the Care Quality Commission and Monitor – will also consider using the standard to help assess whether organisations are ‘well-led’.
Simon Stevens, NHS England’s chief executive and chair of the NHS EDC, said: “We want an NHS ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’.
“That’s because care is far more likely to meet the needs of all the patients we’re here to serve when NHS leadership is drawn from diverse communities across the country, and when all our frontline staff are themselves free from discrimination.”
Earlier this year research from Middlesex University “snowy white peaks of the NHS” found that the proportion of people from BME backgrounds appointed to NHS trust boards has fallen from a high of 8.7% in 2006 to just 5.8% in 2013.
Roger Kline, author of the report, said: “The EDC has recognised the link between the treatment of BME staff and the quality of patient care and understands the importance of boards representing the diverse communities they serve.
“This proposal to implement a new standard is exactly the kind of decisive action we need to drive improvements and address inequalities across the sector. This innovative approach could have an extremely powerful impact for staff and patients alike, and has the potential to change the face of the NHS.”
The EDC added that it also plans to initiate work to advance equality for other groups protected by the Equality Act.
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