North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust is proud to have published its annual Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) and Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) reports this week.
The reports set out the progress the trust has made on developing greater race and disability inclusion, as well as identifying the improvements that are still needed. They also include summary versions of Combined Healthcare’s action plans to deliver further change.
The trust has seen significant improvements made in both its WRES and WDES data. Highlights from the reports include the trust has improved representation in both areas, through increasing declaration of protected characteristics and through further improved recruitment and selection processes. Combined Healthcare’s recruitment score for both work programmes has again improved substantially. The trust has also seen an improvement in staff belief that it offers equality of opportunity for development and progression in both reports. Unfortunately, Combined Healthcare has seen an increase in staff with Global Majority ethnicity and staff with disability, neurodiversity or long-term health conditions experiencing harassment, bullying and abuse from patients and the public.
Speaking at the trust’s Black History Month ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ event, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust’s Chief Executive Dr Buki Adeyemo said:
“Ensuring we have an equitable and fair approach to recruitment and promotion is a vital foundation for any organisation to build on. People need to know that when they go for a job the decision is based on merit. It is great that we have one of the best scores of any trust for this in the country however there is still much to do to get to that position of equity and to eliminate racial bias.”
Pauline Grant, Associate Director, Organisation Development, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust and the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System (ICS) said:
“It is great to see the very significant improvements that have been made and that the trust is among the top performing trusts nationally on these key work programmes. We await benchmarking data for the overall WRES, but it was fantastic to learn that the trust was 7th out of the 212 trusts nationally for our overall performance in the WDES. We don’t underestimate the extent of the work we still have to do to create much better and more equitable experiences for all members of our diverse workforce.
“We are always mindful that a respectful and compassionate culture for all staff correlates with improved patient satisfaction, infection and mortality rates, CQC (Care Quality Commission) ratings and financial performance, as well as turnover and absenteeism. We are committed to maintaining our focus and ramping up the rate at which staff feel tangible change outcomes impact positively on their day-to-day experience at work and their career progression journeys.”
Combined Healthcare’s Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) and Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) report 2023 are now published on the trust’s website on the Diversity and Inclusion pages.
The reports convey Combined Healthcare’s absolute commitment to delivering outstanding inclusion as an organisation and to breaking down all barriers to equity, and they outline the significant improvements we have made in 2022/23.
