North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust has been announced as the winner of a prestigious HPMA (Healthcare People Management Association) Award for its work on leading in equality, diversity and inclusion.
The award, for the Trust’s ‘Delivering on Diversity: Achieving a major shift in our culture of race inclusion’ work, was presented at the HPMA Excellence in People Awards Ceremony on 7 October 2021.
“We are absolutely delighted to have received this recognition from such a distinguished industry awards ceremony,” said Shajeda Ahmed, Executive Director of People, OD & Inclusion, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust. “This award celebrates the hard work of many colleagues across the Trust who have been developing inclusion from the ground up over the last 18 months; we have been addressing the big issues on inclusion in collaboration with our healthcare system partners, at the same time as working through some of the toughest challenges the health and care system has ever faced.”
“We are so delighted to receive this fabulous recognition for our work on developing race inclusion. We have achieved a great deal over the last 18 months despite the pandemic, but we know that we still have a lot of work to do. We were encouraged that in the 2020 Staff Survey, 88 percent of BAME respondents from the Trust said that they believed that the Trust offers equal opportunities for progression and promotion. We believe passionately in this and are determined to keep working to ensure that this is always the case, now and for the long term,” said Lesley Faux, Diversity and Inclusion Lead, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust.
Amina Begum, Trust Equality Network for Race Inclusion and Cultural Heritage (ENRICH) Lead, added: “The Trust’s WRES data tells us that we have made big improvements in workforce race inclusion in the Trust in the last 12-18 months, very substantially reducing a number of gaps in the experience of colleagues with BAME heritage. We also recognise that that there are still differences that we want to improve on and remain committed in building on our inclusive recruitment approach and developmental opportunities.
“Listening to what our BAME colleagues tell us shapes our culture and I would encourage all BAME colleagues to speak up about their experiences through the different mechanisms the Trust has in place, including the NHS Staff Survey and our Trust Staff Networks, as well as directly with service leaders.”
Find out more about the HPMA Excellence in People Awards here https://www.hpma.org.uk/hpma-awards-2021/