The purpose of this paper is to provide an update on progress against the Workforce Disability Equality Standard indicators and propose future actions.
Gateshead NHS Trust is continuously working to improve everyday experiences for patients and staff who are BME as well as those who are disabled. From a variety of national information and data collected, it is clear that the lived experiences of colleagues from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background, have poorer experience of working within the NHS.
Gateshead Health is committed to improving those lived experiences and strive towards creating a culture where race and ethnicity are not barriers to progression, individuals feel safe in the workplace and difference is embraced. As a Trust we want to focus on working in partnership with our patients, service users and workforce, to change our workforce systems, our mentality of one size fits all, and embrace the individuals lived experiences to ensure equity in its own right.
Gateshead Trust wrote its Equality strategy which is in the process of being reviewed and will be updated later this year. The Strategy will also incorporate the High Impact Actions that all Trusts are mandated to follow. The importance of race equality is embedded into the NHS People Plan 2020 where it states ‘The NHS must welcome all, with a culture of belonging and trust. We must understand, encourage and celebrate diversity in all its forms’. The People Promise declares ‘a commitment to creating and maintaining a compassionate and inclusive culture where diversity is valued and celebrated as a critical component, and not just a desirable one. The Trust must also meet its legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and The Human Rights Act 1998.
Each year the Trust is required to publish Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) and the Workplace Disability Equality Standard (WDES). These standards provides a framework for NHS organisations to report, demonstrate and monitor progress against specific indicators to ensure equity for all. The indicators are a combination of workforce data and results from the NHS national staff survey and help to ensure that employees receive fair treatment in the workplace and have equal access to career opportunities.
We recognise there is ongoing need and continuous focus on ensuring that aspects pertaining to bullying, harassment, and discriminatory behaviours are checked, challenged and appropriate actions are undertaken. Utilising the data from WRES/ WDES / Staff surveys will help in leveraging, enhancing and prioritising the individual, as well as the intersectional Equity agenda. Mainstreaming the Equity agenda is supported and endorsed by the Board and through various accountability mechanisms. We want to ensure that all of us working at Gateshead are part of the Gateshead family and believe in our EDI commitment: Diversity enriches, Inclusion empowers, United we are Gateshead Health.
Kuldip Sohanpal
Equality Diversity Inclusion and Engagement Manager
Gateshead Trust
WDES (Workforce Disability Equality Standard) – 2024 25 (872kB pdf)