TranslateTrust named in Top 5 Mental Health and Community Trusts for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Published: 11 May 2021
Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Week (#EQW2021) provides the Trust with an opportunity for to promote, showcase and celebrate the amazing work going on across the organisation for equality, diversity and inclusion. Here we celebrate the Trust being been placed in the Top 5 of Mental Health and Community Trusts for the theme of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).
This placement has been decided based on our National Staff Survey results and is a significant achievement for us, as the Trust has risen from 19th position and to just 0.1 points away from the top spot in our category. You can find an overview of the results here.
We are thrilled with the result and believe that this provides evidence of how we are leading a culture of continuous EDI improvement, by facilitating plans and performance frameworks which enhance access, experience and health outcomes for our patients and visitors, as well as improving fairness, inclusion and respect with our staff.
The outcome also demonstrates clear development and implementation of our strategic EDI plans for our patient services and our workforce, which are aligned to current legislation, Trust objectives, NHS standards and best practices.
Through collaboration and coproduction, the Trust has been able to explore the core issues driving diversity and inclusion strategy, from changing demographics to unconscious bias in the workplace, visible leadership commitment, and accountability for results.
Over the past two years, we have been extremely busy in improving our goals and overall mission.
We have seen new staff networks established during this time, including for BAME, LGBT and Disability staff groups. These groups provide an opportunity for feedback and a clear voice in building inclusion in the Trust.
We have also partnered with Stonewall, Europe’s leading LGBT+ campaigning organisation, as a Diversity Champion, to support our existing Rainbow Alliance, a group for LGBT+ members and allies. As part of this work, we have developed policy and procedure to support staff who are transitioning and provide the very best patient care for transitioning service users. We have also refreshed equality and diversity training, policy and procedures, held virtual Pride events during lockdown.
Inclusion of all of our staff and patients is paramount to us. This is why we continue to celebrate and promote awareness of key dates annually, including Black History month and LGBT History month. During these dates and others throughout the year, we developed and promoted a range of resources and hosted interactive events online, which were well attended by both staff and the public. As a result, we also partnered with Yorkshire MESMAC to provide LGBT mental health awareness training.
Importantly, this provides the Trust with impetus to have open, guilt-free, blameless conversations about the need to be open and empathic in understanding how we talk about different topics, such as race, disability or sexual orientation, at work.
We believe that this dedication to our EDI goals will help us build high functioning teams, especially in an increasingly global workplace. It will also give our staff and patients the confidence that there is a space to unpick uncomfortable conversations, so we can improve our cultural competencies at work. In turn, these changes will make for healthier, more innovative and collaborative workspaces that we can be proud of as an organisation.
Overall, we are absolutely delighted to be in the Top 5 of Mental Health and Community Trusts for the theme of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. However, we also acknowledge that there is still work to be done.
We are committed to continuing our work towards enhanced access, experience and health outcomes for our patients and visitors, and fairness, inclusion and respect for our staff.
What’s next for equality, diversity and inclusion at the Trust?
We are working to become a Disability Confident Leader, to better support carers across our patch through the carer confident benchmark. We are also aiming to improve the accuracy of our ESR data for protected characteristics, shape inclusive policy and procedures and to share bespoke, localised EDI data with directorates and teams to support best practice.
To find out more about the work we do, you can find our EDI reports on our website:
