Medway NHS Foundation Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity. We aim to ensure that respect for equality, diversity and human rights are embedded in all areas of our service delivery, patient care, planning and employment.
We will make sure that the services we deliver are accessible, responsive and appropriate for the diverse community that we serve. We will treat patients, visitors and staff with the fairness, respect, equality and diversity that they deserve.
As a Trust, we will:
- involve patients and their families in decisions about their treatment and care. Patients should expect to be treated with dignity and respect and 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.
- ensure that staff members are treated fairly in recruitment, in their work and career progression. We continue to build a working environment where diversity is valued and equality of opportunity is promoted. Staff will not be bullying, harassed, abused or discriminated against on any grounds including age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief or sexual orientation.
- ensure that our practices are embedded within the Trust’s policies and procedures.
Our vision can only be realised through engagement of our people, our patients and our community and by tackling health inequalities and by promoting a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion.
Medway NHS Foundation Trust anti-discrimination statement
Medway NHS Foundation Trust has committed to becoming an anti-discrimination organisation, with a dedicated area of focus on anti-racism. Events such as the murder of George Floyd, and the renewed sense of injustice that followed, combined with the racial disparities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and a number of high level Employment Tribunal cases within the NHS, have put race equality on the agenda across the whole of the NHS in a way it has never been before. This prompted the Trust to reflect on how racism affects the organisation, our staff, our patients, and our visitors, and to consider what improvements we need to make.
This work does not sit in isolation from other forms of discrimination, or our duty as a public sector organisation to meet the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 to:
(a) eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act 2010;
(b) advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it;
(c) foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.
These duties apply across nine protected characteristics:
- Age (all ages over 16 under the Equality Act 2010, Children up to 18 have protections under the Children Acts)
- Disability (including carers of disabled people)
- Gender reassignment (normally expressed now as gender identity)
- Race (ethnicity, nationality, national origin)
- Religion or Belief (including no religion or belief)
- Sex (Gender)
- Sexual orientation
- Marriage and Civil Partnership (equal treatment between these two legal statuses)
- Pregnancy and maternity (including all birth parents, such as non-binary people and transmen who become pregnant; also including pregnancies not carried to term, or stillbirth)
We have begun a programme of work on inclusion and anti-discrimination, which included commissioning a report in autumn 2022 on organisational culture. We have been holding a series of staff events on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), focusing on racial, LGBTQI+, disability, and gender justice. This took the form of seminars with keynote speakers and interactive participation by staff, which forms the basis of ongoing discussions with staff that will inform our new People Strategy in 2024 and EDI Action Plan. While the strategy will have an important focus on priorities for making the Trust positively inclusive for staff, patients, volunteers, visitors, and community, we feel it is essential to be explicit, at this stage, about our commitment to becoming an anti-discrimination organisation. This is about being inclusive by design so when we start working on policies and projects, we consider inclusivity, adjustments and positive impacts that can be made, at the very start.
Being actively anti-discriminatory in all that we do means we will acknowledge the impacts of discrimination in our own organisation, and the impact we can have on the communities we serve. We will be conscious how structural and systemic discrimination is perpetuated. It means we will not tolerate illegal discrimination where we see it, and we will challenge and proactively change policies, behaviours and beliefs that perpetuate discriminatory impacts, ideas and actions. To be explicit, this means this means ensuring we as a Trust and our employees take action wherever we see ageism, racism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, ablism, religious discrimination, misogyny, misandry, sexism or any form of gender discrimination. It also means being proactive not only in challenging discrimination, but in preventing discrimination.
This is a top priority and long-term commitment for the Trust.
We recognise the times we have been late in taking decisive action on inequality, for example: we have not done enough to support staff who have experienced racism at work and beyond, and who have suffered the effects of structural racism. In addition, we recognise similar failures in relation to other protected characteristics. We apologise for this, and are committed to learning from our mistakes and making the improvements we need to as an organisation, and as individuals. We are a work in progress: we will reflect, we will learn, and we will take action so that we can improve. We are committed to doing better and are ready to be held to account for our progress.
We believe we must actively tackle discrimination. This is important for our staff, volunteers, patients, and visitors, as well as our community, because of the impact we can have on wider society. This is much more than a legal obligation, it is a moral imperative, and has positive impacts on patient outcomes, with staff better able to thrive, and therefore perform, at work.
For our staff and volunteers: We must create an environment where every member of staff feels safe and valued, and can thrive. It is the right thing to do by our team. We will benefit as an organisation because welcoming everyone’s contributions, perspectives and experiences will give us a richer understanding and insight. Becoming an organisation where everyone feels welcome, supported and listened to will help all of our colleagues to give their best and will make us more effective and happier in our work.
For patients and visitors: We see the impact racism has on patients and our staff alike. We recognise that we need to do more to tackle any form of illegal discrimination towards, and by patients, just as we would with staff and volunteers.
For our local community: As a major and diverse employer which has contact with everyone in our local communities, and beyond, we recognise our leadership role in modelling anti-discrimination and inclusion to others. We know that there are wide disparities in health outcomes and life expectancy between different ethnic groups, men and women, and for disabled people and LGBTQI+ people; and there is strong evidence of their differential access to and experience of services. We therefore have a responsibility to use our profile and influence to make a difference to the world we live in.
To underpin our work, we have chosen to set out, clearly and simply, what we mean when we say we are an anti-discrimination organisation. This sits alongside our organisational values and, our EDI Action Plan. It is not a static statement: we expect it to be fluid and to have to update it over time.
This is our statement to staff, volunteers, patients, visitors, and the wider community of our commitment to becoming actively anti-discriminatory.
Each staff and volunteers is expected to share this commitment and take personal responsibility for it.
Our five commitments
1 – We will recognise that structural discrimination within the NHS and Medway NHS Foundation Trust exists and is harmful
Discrimination, injustice and inequality are blights on our society. The effects of discrimination can be seen across society, in our community and also at Medway NHS Foundation Trust.
2 – We will acknowledge the impact of discrimination and we will support patients, visitors, staff and volunteers, especially those who experience, or are most likely to experience, discrimination
Every member of staff must be committed to supporting colleagues, patients and visitors to ensure the burden of tackling discrimination does not fall on those who already experience its injustices.
We will train and encourage our leaders to intervene early so that when issues arise, they are taken seriously, acted upon promptly and in a way that builds confidence that any form of discrimination is seen as a serious issue.
3 – We will act to redress and call out discrimination
We will seek out, identify, and redress discrimination and strive for equality, and justice, and embed this thinking in all our processes, policies, outputs, and interactions.
We will set standards of behaviours that challenge ‘everyday’ discrimination and will act on early warning signs of discrimination by tacking it proactively when evidence might suggest that there might be a problem. This will enable us to address concerns at the earliest possible stage.
4 – We will be transparent and accountable, and we will measure our progress
We will be open and honest about our progress on equality, and we will set measurable goals against which our progress can be judged.
We will use evidence to inform our strategies to tackle disparities in our processes e.g. career progression, compliant or bullying rates.
5 – We will use our position to influence the wider community
Medway NHS Foundation Trust has an opportunity and a responsibility to make a positive difference on opposing discrimination and promoting equality in Medway and Swale.
Protecting our staff
The vast majority of patients and families are appreciative of our staffs’ efforts to care for them and their loved ones, but too often colleagues experience abusive, intimidating and threatening behaviour from those they are trying to help.
Equality and Diversity documents
The Trust has an obligation under the Equality Act 2010 to publish workforce statistics annually and to have Equality Objectives in place. Steps are being taken to improve the completeness and robustness of the Trust’s underlying reporting data.
The Trust reviews its performance against the NHS’s Equality Delivery System through our People Strategy and Clinical Strategy. The next EDS audit is due in 2025. The Trust’s latest Gender Pay Gap Report, Workforce Race Equality Standard and Disability Equality Standard were reported in July 2024, and their action plans published in October 2024.
NHS Rainbow Badge
Different Not Less
