Equality and diversity

Compliance with the Equality Act 2010 is a key requirement of all NHS organisations and the NHS constitution is based on the principles of equality and fairness. This is particularly important for Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust because of the incredible diversity of our local population and our goals to provide seamless access to the best quality services, for all of our local communities and to be the best place to work.

There is documented evidence that getting equality right has a direct link to outstanding care.

In our Trust the equality, diversity and inclusion work is led by the People Matters Directorate and our Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion can be contacted by emailing EDI@bdct.nhs.uk

Our Trust has a set of equality objectives 2024 – 2028 which guide our EDI work over the next four years. They flow from our Ambition to action strategy, 2023-26 and enable us to fulfil our public sector equality duties and our NHS EDI requirements. The Trusts EDI Strategy is our Belonging and Inclusion Plan which is being updated in 2024. These equality objectives will be the overarching priorities of that refreshed plan due for relaunch in October 2024.

Documents which are key to this are:

These documents ensure that we:

Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010;
advance equality of opportunity between people from different groups; and
foster good relations between people from different groups.
Linked to this, there is a focus on the nine ‘protected characteristics’ within the Equality Act that cover: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and marriage and civil partnerships. We also give due regard to health inclusion groups, which covers a number of traditionally excluded populations including but not limited to; people who are experiencing homelessness, asylum seekers and refugees, single parents, people living in rural isolation and people involved in the criminal justice system.

Gender Pay Gap Click to Toggle

The Equality Act 2017 Regulations require all organisations that employ more than 250 staff to publish their gender pay gap annually by 31 March 2018. A summary of all of the results published so far can be found here gender pay gap web pages.

In March 2024 we published our most recent gender pay gap and bonus gender pay gap information. Our committee report on the Gender Pay Gap is available here.

As part of our commitment to the NHS England equality, diversity and inclusion improvement plan we have published our ethnicity and disability pay gap information. The data has been analysed using the same calculation methodology as the gender pay gap.

The Trust aims to stay in the top performing quartile of NHS organisations and to reduce the bonus gender pay gap over time. Analysis of the pay gap by pay band, care group directorate and staff group is carried out regularly to identify areas of the organisation where the pay gap is higher and lower than the Trust average so we can target interventions to reduce our overall pay gaps.

Our priority actions for 2024 – 2025 are as follows:

Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) Click to Toggle

In April 2015 the NHS launched the Workforce Race Equality Standard. A requirement of the standard is to publish a set of data and action plan which can be compared nationally with other NHS organisations. The documents below contain the priorities, reports of our progress and data for our Trust. For more information please contact EDI@bdct.nhs.uk.

Archived WRES documents from the past 8 years can be found here. (Then include the below)

Workforce Disability Equality Standard Click to Toggle

In August 2018 the NHS launched the Workforce Disability Equality Standard. A requirement of that standard is to publish a set of data and our action plans which can compare experiences and representation of NHS Disabled Staff with other NHS organisations. The latest annual reports of progress, action plans and data are included below. The data and actions are discussed and approved by the Trust Board via the Workforce and Equality Committee.

Archived WRES documents from the past five years can be found here. (Then include the below)

Equality Delivery System 2022 (EDS22) Click to Toggle

In 2024 we assessed our equality, delivery and inclusion performance using the NHS England Equality Delivery System 22. More information on this framework can be found here NHS England » Equality Delivery System 2022.

The process provides our BDCFT workforce, voluntary, community and faith and health sector partners, carers and people using our services the opportunity to comment on our equality performance. There are three domains within the EDS22:

Domain 1 – Provided and Commissioned Services (focusing on access, safety, meeting health needs and patient experience)
Domain 2 – Workforce Health and Wellbeing
Domain 3 – Inclusive Leadership

The summary of the outcome of that assessment is listed below. Click on the domains to see the detailed evidence collected and shared as part of the assessment process.

EDS Domain	Score
Domain 1: Provided and Commissioned Services School Nursing, Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Perinatal Mental Health.	Median Score 10
Domain 2: Workforce Health and Wellbeing	7
Domain 3: Inclusive Leadership	5
Total	22 ‘Achieving’

Following the completion of this assessment the following action plans and reporting templates have been completed. These actions will become part of EDI priorities for 2024 / 2025 and will be embedded into our Belonging and Inclusion Plan.

The Board reports associated with this work are:

People and culture committee.

Quality and safety committee.

For more information contact EDI@bdct.nhs.uk

Reducing Health Inequalities Click to Toggle

Health inequalities are unfair, avoidable and systematic differences across different groups of people. This includes how long people are likely to live, the health conditions they may experience and the care that is available to them. As a Trust, we are committed to our role in reducing health inequalities for those in our community. Across the organisation, we are working hard to improve in this area, including through our work to comply with the Accessible Information Standard, Sexual Orientation Monitoring Standard and the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework.