2024, Staff Equalities in Review

Staff Equalities Network – 2024, a year in review

The end of the year is always a great time to reflect on progress that has been made, and to say thank you to everyone who has helped to make 2024 such a progressive year.  It has been a busy 12 months and we have made some great leaps and held some fantastic sessions as part of our monthly meetings, including:

• Learning and development opportunities, including the fantastic ‘Understanding Domestic Abuse, the legal context and the Court process’ 
  with Vicki Kerr, Procurator Fiscal Depute (prosecutor) Grampian Sheriff Courts along with Grampian Women’s Aid
• Engaging and thought provoking conversations such as ‘why workplace inclusion matters’ with Hussein Patwa, NHS Grampian Non Exec Board Member
• Training and development including ‘Cultural Competency’ training from our fantastic colleagues at GREC
• Learning from other Boards, with NHS Lothian sharing findings from their research uncovering ‘Historical Links to Slavery’ with Equality and Diversity Advisor, Rakiya Suleiman
• Information on national policy around the updated Hate Crime legislation Sarah Grant, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Police Scotland
• Raising awareness of support available from our new Speak Up Ambassador programme with Anushree Ganguly and Katie Cunningham from the Speak Up Team

Also, not to forget - Opportunities to influence the development of organisational priorities, along with others, co-designing the NHS Grampian Antiracism Plan.

As a result of supporting around this work, the organisation now has new:

• Unconscious Bias and Active Bystander Training which is available on Turas
• NHS Grampian Speak Up Ambassador Programme
• Piloted diverse recruitment panels for senior appointments and increased the diversity of the NHS Grampian Board
• Produced an antiracism video statement from Chief Executive Adam Coldwells
• And much more…

But one of the thing we are most proud of has been has working with colleagues across the organisation to collaborate and spotlight some fantastic ‘green shoots’ initiatives bringing new energy and intensity to the equalities agenda, including:

• Spaces for Listening from our brilliant colleagues in Organisational Development
• Celebration lunch events such as Diwali and Nigerian Independence Day Celebrations from our fantastic catering team
• And of course the amazing Book Blether meet the author initiatives with Barbara Blake Hannah facilitated by our NHS Grampian Libraries team.

We are working hard to continue to trail blaze initiatives and we want to hear from you about the initiatives you are developing so we can help to spotlight through our collective work.

If you or a colleague would like to receive the diary invite for any of the networks, and to be included in our Teams channels, please drop us an email, stating which network/s you would like to belong to: gram.staffequalities@nhs.scot