UHNM must do more on racial inequality

Staffordshire’s main hospital trust is not doing enough to tackle racial inequalities in its workforce, a new report says. University Hospitals of North Midlands has made improvements in some areas over the last 12 months, with black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) workers now facing less bullying and harassment from colleagues or the public.

But other indicators show the trust is going backwards – the percentage of BAME staff reporting discrimination from a team leader or line manager has increased, while the proportion saying UHNM offers equal opportunities has fallen. Chief people officer Jane Haire told a trust board meeting that rate of improvement had stagnated, and there was ‘work to do’.

The NHS requires trusts to produce annual reports on the workforce race equality standard (WRES) and the workforce disability equality standard (WDES). UHNM’s latest WRES report shows improvements in six areas, while three have deteriorated. The WDES report is more positive, with improvements on nine out of 10 indicators.

Ms Haire said: “Broadly, the national staff survey shows that we’ve made a positive impact and we’ve got some good results. But nationally, and at UHNM, we have seen stagnation around the equality, diversity and inclusion indicators, which absolutely confirms that we’ve got work to do in order to make real change for our colleagues, particularly those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.”

The number of BAME staff at UHNM increased by 574 to 3,347 over the last year, equating to 26.6 per cent of the workforce. But BAME workers are under-represented in upper pay bands, with white staff 1.72 times more likely to be appointed to positions from shortlisting, up from 1.58 in 2023.

Just 41.4 per cent of BAME staff believe the trust provides equal opportunities for career progression, compared to 59.9 per cent of white workers. But the proportion of BAME workers reporting bullying or harassment at work from patients and other members of the public fell from 37.2 per cent to 29.9 per cent.

Ms Haire said there was a ‘worrying gap’ between BAME and white staff in relation to career progress, which would now be an area of focus.

This include ‘de-biasing’ the trust’s recruitment processes, and work to ensure a ‘good talent pipeline’ coming through the organisation. There will also be campaigns to build ‘cultural awareness’ across the workforce, including having ‘difficult conversations’ about race.

Ms Haire added: “In summary, we must challenge ourselves to be even bolder, to take more ambitious steps. We need to ensure our vision is well-communicated. We’ve got strong building blocks in place. We’ve got a good, strong anti-racist statement, we’ve got a real, clear commitment to change, but that’s not landing across the organisation at the rate we would need it to.”

Dr Matthew Lewis, chief medical officer, told the board that work was being done to support BAME doctors to get into leadership positions at the trust.He said: “We now run twice a year leadership events for doctors, for people who are planning on applying for clinical lead or director roles. At the moment I recognise that we’re probably not representative of our whole workforce at the moment.”