Health Management and Policy Alert

Understanding LGBT+ employee networks and how to support them

NHS Employers -
This report looks at how LGBT+ employee networks operate within the NHS. It presents a picture of what they do and some of the challenges that networks face. Recommendations made within the report are aimed at helping NHS organisations develop the long term capacity for networks to flourish and add value.

• Report
• NHS Employers - news

Ageing in place for minority ethnic communities: the importance of social infrastructure

Ambition for Ageing - 

This research project was developed to explore the types of social infrastructure that people aged 50 and over from ethnic minority communities use in specific places. The aim of this project is to understand how organisations working with ethnic minority groups engage with older members from their community and how this might have changed over time. The research demonstrates the importance for older people with a shared cultural identity to have places where they can meet together, not only to maintain their sense of identity but also for bonding social connections.

• Report
• Ambition for Ageing - projects

Workforce race and equality standard (WRES): indicators for the NHS medical workforce

NHS England -
The WRES was introduced in 2015 to ensure employees from black and minority ethnic backgrounds have equal access to career opportunities and receive fair treatment in the workplace. A bespoke set of WRES indicators have been developed for the NHS medical workforce. There are eleven indicators for the medical workforce. Four of the indicators reflect variation in career progression and pay, six represent medical staff perceptions of how they are treated by colleagues, employing organisations and patients, and one highlights the diversity of the councils and boards of medical institutions.

• Indicators
• NHS England - publications

Action for equality: the time is now

NHS Confederation -
According to this report, NHS leadership that more fairly represents women in senior roles is “essential, overdue and needed now”. The Health and Care Women Leaders Network has found that while progress has been made to increase the proportion of women in leadership roles across the health service, there is much more to do to meet the NHS’s target for 50:50 representation this year, as set by the NHS regulator in 2016.

• Report
• NHS Confederation - news

Getting it right for everyone: meeting the needs of people with a learning disability and autistic people in NHS services

NHS Providers - 

Based on extensive interviews with the leaders of seven trusts in the NHS providing good or outstanding care to people with a learning disability and autistic people, and broader ongoing engagement with trusts providing these services, the report sets out in detail the common themes behind high quality care, offering detailed case studies of how they have succeeded.

• Briefing
• More detail

Hear us: the experiences of refugee and asylum-seeking women during the pandemic

Sisters Not Strangers - 

Sisters Not Strangers, a coalition of eight organisations, surveyed over 100 asylumseeking women from England and Wales to hear how they are surviving during the Covid-19 pandemic. The survey was completed by women seeking and refused asylum, as well as those with leave to remain. These responses were supplemented by a survey of 24 staff and volunteers who have been supporting asylum-seeking women since the outbreak.

• Report
• More detail

Over-exposed and under-protected: the devastating impact of COVID-19 on black and minority ethnic communities in Great Britain

Runnymede Trust -
This report illuminates why BME groups are at greater risk from Covid-19: they are more likely to be working outside their home, more likely to be using public transport, more likely to be working in key worker roles, less likely to be protected with PPE and more likely to live in multigenerational, overcrowded housing, so much less able to self-isolate and shield.

• Report
• Runnymede Trust - press release

Gender recognition and the rights of transgender people

House of Commons Library - 

This briefing paper considers the current law relating to gender recognition; the medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria; the current protections from discrimination; consultations by the UK government and the Scottish government on reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004; and the 'self-identification' debate.

• Briefing
• More detail

The Public Sector Equality Duty and Equality Impact Assessments

House of Commons Library -
This briefing outlines the Public Sector Equality Duty contained in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, which requires public authorities to have due regard to several equality considerations when exercising their functions. It also provides an overview of Equality Impact Assessments. These are assessments that public authorities often carry out prior to implementing policies, with a view to predicting their impact on equality.

• Briefing
• House of Commons Library - publications

Workforce race inequalities and inclusion in NHS providers

The King's Fund - 

Despite having one of the most ethnically diverse workforces in the public sector, there are long-standing race inequalities issues in the NHS workforce, including a lack of ethnic minority representation at senior levels, ethnic minority staff being much more likely to report they have experienced discrimination at work than white staff, and fewer ethnic minority staff reporting their trust offers equal opportunities for career progression. This research explored how three NHS provider organisations have sought to address workforce race inequalities and develop positive and inclusive working environments.

• Report
• Lived experience stories
• More detail