Advancing equality and inclusion for people working in health and care services
‘If we as leaders are trying to be successful, we must frame equity and inclusion not as a problem we need to solve, but an opportunity we need to grasp, across our entire organisations.’ – Asif Sadiq MBE – Senior Vice President and Head of Equity and Inclusion, Warner Media International.
The NHS has a rich history of welcoming workers from all over the world, crossing socioeconomic and cultural barriers and values the contribution a diverse workforce brings.
But how does this look in our workplace on a day to day basis, and what can we, as an organisation to support our diverse workforce, and advance the equalities agenda within our organisation.
We recognise that racism, discrimination and more commonplace micro-aggressions play a devastating role in the wellbeing of those affected.
The UK Equality Act 2010 clearly states that it is against the law to discriminate against someone because of:
- age
- disability
- gender reassignment
- marriage and civil partnership
- pregnancy and maternity
- race
- religion or belief
- sex
- sexual orientation
But the Equality Act also legislates where there are situations to step into ‘positive action’ which provides us with meaningful opportunities to address under-representation and challenge the structural inequalities that exist within our institutions and perpetuate unconscious bias.
With a conscious and deliberate step change into positive action, we aim to not only widen understanding of our demographic differences, but to celebrate these differences and ultimately reduce incidences of discrimination within NHS Grampian.
We started our work in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and the Aberdeen Medical Students’ open letter. As a result of this we pledge to embed principles of anti-racism and anti-discrimination at the heart of everything we do, and to promote equality and inclusion at every opportunity.
We have created this website to streamline our approach to issues regarding equality and inclusion, and promote initiatives that embrace positive action within our organisation.
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