Equality and Diversity
Airedale serves a diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone
As a public sector organisation we are committed to inclusive approaches to recruitment, training and developing our staff.
The Trust believes that equality should be embedded into all aspects of what we do. Our vision for an inclusive organisation for our staff, patients and their families is summarised in the points below:
- You and your family can expect to be treated fairly with respect and dignity and to be routinely involved in decisions about your treatment and care.
- You can expect to see us challenge discriminatory behaviour and practice
- We will recognise and embrace diversity, appreciating and accepting individual difference and not seeing differences as barriers
- We will ensure equal and easy access to health services, you will not be discriminated against on any grounds including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.
- We will develop and implement inclusive approaches to recruiting and retaining our staff
- We will consult and engage with our staff, patients and families to ensure that the services provided by the Trust meet your needs.
About our workforce
The document below provides a demographic breakdown of our staff here at Airedale and their roles. As part of the public sector equality duties, we publish this information annually.
Workforce Equality Monitoring Report – 30 November 2021
Creating equality across our workforce
Airedale NHS Foundation Trust (ANHSFT) is committed to ensuring equitable outcomes for all in line with the Equality Act 2010. The organisation is committed to working towards eliminating any form of discrimination on the grounds of age; disability; gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sexual orientation.
The principles of equality and diversity align with the Trust’s Right Care behaviours. Inclusion must be embedded into our work, whether it is with patients, relatives, visitors or staff to ensure that individuals are treated with dignity and respect.
Our equality and diversity work is done in partnership with:
- Airedale NHS Foundation Trust
- Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group
- West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership
Our strategic vision and objectives on inclusion for our people is to:
- Value our people by promoting a positive culture and work in environment that allows everyone to thrive and flourish
- Have people who want to work for us because of our positive reputation and who are reflective of our diverse population
- Ensure people have the right skills and resources to develop and be able to succeed
We will do this by:
Developing an inclusive culture that embraces difference and recognises its relevance in the delivery of high quality care
- Ensuring our workforce is reflective of our local population at every level
- Embedding the organisation in our local community, playing our part in economic development
- Creating opportunities to hear “our peoples voice” and embed feedback into everything we do
- Developing and retaining talent within the system by providing opportunities for varied career pathways
In April 2015 the NHS launched the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES). A principal part of this standard indicates that all NHS organisations must publish a set of data which can be compared nationally with other NHS organisations.
The documents below contain the data for our Trust and an action plan around how Airedale NHS Foundation Trust aims to achieve an inclusive workforce
The NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) came into force on 1 April 2019 and is a set of specific measures (metrics) that will enable NHS organisations to compare the experiences of disabled and non-disabled staff. This information will be used by our trust to develop a local action plan and enable us to demonstrate progress against the indicators of disability equality.
The WDES is important, because research shows that a motivated, included and valued workforce helps to deliver high quality patient care, increased patient satisfaction and improved patient safety. The implementation of the WDES will enable us to better understand the experiences of our disabled staff.
Our WDES data and action plan can be found by clicking the documents below.
Our equality objectives
The Equality Act 2010 specifically requires public sector organisations to:
- Prepare and publish equality objectives that are specific and measurable.
- Publish details every four years of how we have engaged with local communities in developing the objectives
- Publish the objectives in a format that is accessible.
The Equality Delivery System (EDS) was commissioned by the national Equality and Diversity Council in 2010 and launched in July 2011. It is a system that helps NHS organisations improve the services they provide for their local communities and provide better working environments, free of discrimination, for those who work in the NHS, while meeting the requirements of the Equality Act 2010. The EDS was developed by the NHS, for the NHS, taking inspiration from existing work and good practice.
Airedale is part of a district wide Equality group consisting of Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, Bradford District Care Foundation Trust and the Clinical Commissioning Groups. This group is working on a shared set of equality objectives for 2020-2024 as well as some local ones for individual organisations.
The Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. It replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act, making the law easier to understand. It sets out the different ways in which it’s unlawful to treat someone. The ‘protected characteristics’ are:
- Disability (linked to any aspect of inequalities associated as a result of any disability)
- Gender reassignment
- Age
- Transgender people (transgender is where someone has changed, is changing or has proposed changing their sex – called ‘gender reassignment’ in law)
- Race
- Religion or belief
- Sex
- Sexual orientation ( refers to individuals being lesbian, gay, bisexual or heterosexual)
- Marriage and civil partnership and
- Pregnancy and maternity
Incorporated into the Equality Act 2010 are the Public Sector Duties. These duties outline the responsibilities of a variety of organisations, including the NHS.
The duties include:
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010
- Advance equality of opportunity between people from different groups
- Foster good relations between people from different groups
Gender pay gap report
Gender pay reporting legislation requires organisations with 250 or more employees to publish statutory calculations showing how large the pay gap is between their male and female employees. The following 6 measures are required in a published report:
- average gender pay gap as a mean average
- average gender pay gap as a median average
- average bonus gender pay gap as a mean average
- average bonus gender pay gap as a median average
- proportion of males receiving a bonus payment and proportion of females receiving a bonus payment
- proportion of males and females when divided into four groups ordered from lowest to highest pay.
Airedale NHS FT and AGH Solutions have both completed the gender pay gap process.
The full reports for 2020 (published in March 2021) are available to download by clicking on the links below.
Item 9 Gender Pay Gap Action Plan
Airedale NHS Foundation Trust gender pay gap report 2021
item 9 Gender Pay Gap Report 2022
Gender Pay Gap Report 5 April 2022
Staff network and equality, diversity and inclusion charter
We value the equality and diversity of everyone at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, and have four staff networks to support this. They all offer a forum where people can come together, share ideas, support each other, and raise awareness of challenges being faced. Each staff network has an executive sponsor, who attends meetings and is actively involved in the work that the networks do.
For more information on our equality, diversity and inclusion charter, go to the page here.
Race equality staff network
Airedale’s Race Equality Network has been established to help support the organisation’s strategic priorities for inclusion. We need to create an environment where colleagues from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds feel valued and included thus enabling them with confidence to become more productive and challenge the differences they experience in comparison to non-BAME colleagues. Inclusion is key in creating a productive, happy workforce that feels valued. In achieving this, in line with the Trust’s People Strategy, we can deliver a safer and higher quality of care for our patients.
Airedale’s Race Equality Network provides a safe and confidential space for to raise concerns, provide an open and transparent forum and offer mutual support.
For more information on the group go to their page here.
Enable staff network - supporting staff with a disability
Our Enable Network aims to create an environment where colleagues with disabilities and colleagues affected by disability feel valued and included, enabling them to have confidence and challenge the differences they experience in comparison to non-disabled colleagues.
The meetings are welcoming, safe and supportive and are also open to those supporting anyone with a disability or allies. The group are collectively passionate about improving the experience of our staff with disabilities and supporting a more diverse future workforce.
For more information on the group, go to their page here.
Rainbow staff network
Our Rainbow Staff Network exists to ensure that views and concerns around the LGBT+ communities are represented and considered at organisational level, and that their interests continue to form a part of the Trust’s wider equality and inclusion agenda. It provides a safe, welcoming space and group for LGBT+ identifying staff and colleagues, regardless of their orientation, with an interest in LGBT+ equality and inclusion to meet, socialise, and/or benefit from mutual support.
For more information on the group go to their page here.
Gender equality staff network
Gender equality in the workplace means that employees of all genders have access to the same rewards, opportunities and resources at a company, including:
- Equal pay and benefits for comparable roles with similar responsibilities
- Equal opportunities for promotions and career progression
- Equal consideration of needs
This group will not be addressing the gender identity issues which should be addressed in the LGBTQI staff Network.
Multiple reports show that there is a gender divide in workplace progression (ONS Reports, Government Equalities Office Reports). Reports suggest that women’s progression in the workplace continues to be held back by tensions between current ways of organising work and caring responsibilities. The Trust recognises the need to address the differential experience of staff related to gender, whether that be positive or negative.
The priorities for the Gender Equality Staff Network include:
- The gender pay gap
- Women’s health issues
- The differential impact of COVID on women
- The Zero Tolerance policy- with a specific focus on the tolerance of gender-related issues/comments.
For more information on the group go to their page here.
Zero tolerance approach
Our people come to work to care for others, and it is important for all members of the public and the people who work for us to be treated with respect. We expect our people to demonstrate the highest standards of behaviour in carrying out their duties and responsibilities. We aim to treat our patients respectfully at all times and expect our patients to treat our people in a similarly respectful way.
We are committed to providing our people with a safe and supportive environment, which does not tolerate unacceptable behaviour, bullying or harassment of any kind. We expect all our people to treat each other with dignity and respect and demonstrate behaviours which are in line with our Trust Values. We take seriously any threatening, abusive or violent behaviour against any of our people or patients. We will not tolerate any form of discrimination or abuse against anyone based on a characteristic such as age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.