Annual Equality Report

We recognise the importance of ensuring our services are fair and equitable to all.

The diversity of staff, service users, partners and any visitors to our services is celebrated.

We expect everyone who visits our sites, comes into contact with any services, or works for the Trust to be able to participate fully and achieve their full potential in a safe and supportive environment.

We welcome all service users and members of staff inclusive of race, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, age, religion or belief.

The Trust meets all of its requirements from within the Public Sector Equality Duty (which forms part of the Equality Act 2010). The requirements and how these are met are detailed below:

Interpretation and translation service

As a Trust we have a duty to provide a range of interpretation and translation services to patients and service users. We currently have two providers for interpretation and translation services depending on requirements.

One provides the Trust with:

• Telephone interpretation
• Face to face interpretation
• Document translation
• On demand video interpreting service

Another provides:

• Sensory impairments interpretation and translation e.g. British Sign Language/ Sign Supported English/ Braille/ audio/ text relay/ SMS.

Stonewall membership

We are now in our tenth year of being a Stonewall Diversity Champion. Stonewall is a leading national charity which stands for lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, questioning and asexual (LGBTQ+) people everywhere. They imagine a world where all LGBTQ+ people are free to be themselves and can live their lives to the fullest.  Inclusive workplaces have a huge part to play in making this world a reality, but inclusion is not a given. Ensuring our workplaces are truly inclusive without exception is an important step towards this vision.

As a Trust have entered the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index (WEI) for the last 11 years, and in 2023 were awarded the Stonewall Gold award for commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion at work.

As part of the Stonewall’s ‘Bring yourself to work’ campaign, highlighting the importance of inclusive work environments, this award recognises organisations for their commitment and efforts to becoming an LGBTQ+ employer.

In 2022 we fell just outside the Top 100 in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index benchmarking assessment, ranking 105^th out of over 400 entries. This rating is often seen as an indicator of an organisation’s approach to equality and inclusion and can further increase all diversity in the workplace.

Part of our work for LGBTQ+ equality in 2022-23 has included hosting a successful series of webinars for staff during LGBTQ+ History Month instead of the usual multi-agency conference, which was accessed by over 100 staff from within the NHS Lincolnshire system, along with the launch of new progress flag stickers for Trust buildings and promotion of the NHS Rainbow badge programme along with rainbow lanyards newly purchased by the Trust for staff.

Inpatient wards were also all supplied with activity packs and resources to be able to complete activities with our patients regarding LGBTQ+ inclusion. 

Staff networks

The staff networks provide a platform for staff to voice their opinions and support us in improving working practices and services. It has been an invaluable resource and led to the development of a number of positive outcomes.

There are currently six active staff networks:

• MAPLE (mental and physical lived experience) and allies disability staff network.
• LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi and trans) and allies staff network.
• REACH (race, ethnicity, and cultural heritage) and allies staff network.
• Women’s and allies staff network
• Men’s and allies staff network
• DAISIES- Domestic Abuse: Improving support in every service- staff network

These networks are open to all staff who have an interest in supporting these areas. They do not have to identify with the area, just have a desire to champion within their own working area.

Meetings take place monthly and continue to be held virtually since the pandemic, which has increased engagement and attendance.

To allow an opportunity for peer support a pre-meeting takes place for the first 30 minutes for those members who identify as a protected characteristic, followed by a break before all members and guests join the meeting.

Each staff network has an executive sponsor who is committed to championing that group at Board level. They attend at least one meeting a year to understand the issues being raised by the group.

Staff networks also have visible leaders. Visible leaders are people who identify with that equality area and are willing to champion on behalf of the group and talk about their own experiences.

Equality and diversity training

In 2022/23 our compliance for mandatory equality and diversity training was 93.92% (from 91% in 2021/22).

Training in equality and diversity is a mandatory e-learning module for all staff and a key component of the staff induction process. The training has a three-yearly refresher to ensure that all employees are equipped with the appropriate knowledge and awareness to provide consistently fair treatment towards colleagues and patients/service users alike. 

In addition, team development sessions are offered by the equality and diversity lead for services who would like further information and training around equality and diversity. This has particularly focused on the issue of equality monitoring data collection.

Longer term ambitions

The regional priorities from NHS England provide the Trust with four key priorities for workforce equality, diversity and inclusion, which we will be focussing on:

• Overhaul of recruitment processes
• Reducing the disciplinary gap
• Supporting and resources for staff networks
• Using the Model Employer to support tackling race inequality and career progression
• Addressing bullying and harassment, violence and aggression

In addition, NHS England have introduced six high impact actions (HIA) which also include:

• Board members having EDI priorities in their annual appraisal
• Improvement plans to address total pay gaps
• Onboarding, induction and development programme for international recruits
• Retaining the skills of the over 50’s

The primary aims of these actions is to:

1. Address unfair treatment experienced by staff from diverse background who may be disadvantaged in recruitment and promotion practices.
2. Embed accountability and make workforce diversity an organisational priority by tackling institutional racism and reducing bias.
3. Increase diversity of talent pools, particularly those from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
4. Grow awareness and commitment by senior leaders.
5. Address pay gaps.
6. Ensure our international recruits are well-received and provided with pastoral care and integrated into our workforce.

From the Trust’s Equality Annual Report 2021-22, the following objectives were set for 2022-2023. These objectives have been worked on through 2022-23 and are still ongoing.

Gender pay gap

We continue to submit our Gender Pay Gap data which can be found on the Government Equalities Office (GEO) website by using this link.

The Trusts women’s and allies staff network have reviewed the results and devised an improvement action plan using the NHS Employers toolkit.

Modern Slavery Act 2015

In accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the Trust ensures that Modern Slavery for example, slavery and human trafficking, is not taking place in any part of its business or any of its supply chains. This is achieved through ensuring that services are procured through approved providers only or tendered through robust procurement processes.