About our equity, diversity and inclusion journey at North Mid
About our equity, diversity and inclusion journey at North Middlesex University Hospital
We are an inclusive organisation. Equity, accessibility and inclusion are at the heart of everything we do for our patients and how we make our Trust a wonderful place to work.
We welcome people from all backgrounds. Our fair recruitment practices offer equal access to employment opportunities and our staff networks enable everyone's voice to be heard.
Reflecting our communities
We serve a range of diverse local communities, especially in Enfield and Haringey. This diversity is reflected in the profile of our patients and workforce and brings many benefits.
We promote all aspects of diversity, access and inclusion and are widely recognised for our achievements.
We are proud to serve one of the most diverse parts of the world, and we do it with a diverse workforce. Equity, inclusion and respect for human rights are fundamental to the care we provide and the workforce we have and underpin every aspect of the Trust’s work. We work to ensure every patient and member of staff experiences fair treatment and the best support we can offer to meet their specific needs.
We have set this vision out in our strategy document - A fairer North Mid - our equality, diversity and inclusion strategy.pdf [pdf] 3MB .
- We aim to create the most positive and efficient work environment that embraces differences and meets the diverse needs of our all patients and staff because we recognise, they are all different.
- We have a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination and have well-established processes to deal with discrimination effectively.
A key element to achieving our equity, diversity and inclusion goals is putting in place systems to collect data and information, to review and analyse this information and act on this information to improve access, experience and outcome for both our patients and staff. That includes, but is not restricted to the nine protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010 –
- age
- gender reassignment
- married or in a civil partnership.
- pregnant or on maternity leave
- disability
- race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin.
- religion or belief
- sex
- sexual orientation
We understand that levels of access and different outcomes can also be associated with the neighbourhood that people live and work in and index of multiple deprivation, which can include housing status, employment status and immigration status, lifestyle factors such as tobacco use, alcohol consumption, exercise, and obesity also play a part in health and wellbeing issues.
One way we engage with our staff and their experience is through staff networks. The networks focus on improving services and delivering better outcomes for staff and patients.
Anti-racism
North Mid is committed to being an anti-racism organisation which actively tackles racism in all its forms. Our anti-racism statement sets out this commitment for our patients, staff, visitors and partner organisations.
We are working closely with teams across the Trust to develop an ongoing improvement plan which will enable us to deliver on this anti-racism commitment. The plan will build on our existing work and ensure we are held accountable and judged on our progress towards being an actively anti-racism organisation.
No one should be treated unfairly because of the colour of their skin or their ethnic background.
Our anti-racism statement.
We will identify and take action to tackle structural racism and wider health inequalities, embedding reflection and learning at all levels.
We are committed to embedding a strong strategic anti-racism approach in London’s Health and Care System:
- In the places our people work in
- In the provision of the care we provide
- Across all systems of health and care we deliver for the people of London
We openly acknowledge the repeated negative experiences of staff from multiple ethnic groups within our NHS health and care system.
We recognise that these lived experiences arise from embedded policies, practices, and processes, many of which have become normalised and unchallenged in our systems, representing (for staff) institutionalised racism.
We further acknowledge that racism serves as an issue in and of itself, but also, as a surrogate for discriminatory practices against other characteristics such as gender, sexual orientation, religion, belief, disability, and others that can detrimentally intersect for individuals.
As set out in the London Workforce Race Strategy (2020), we will create environments where all our staff can be their full, true, and authentic selves and thus deliver to their best potentials and progress to their ultimate goals. We commit to actively seeking to identify, measure and call out discriminatory practice and to take steps to deal consistently and effectively with poor behaviour where present in any of our staff or organisations. We will not be complicit by silence.
The NHS England – London Promise
- We will listen and hear when staff raise concerns.
- We will choose to be curious, humble, and considerate and avoid defensive thinking.
- We will take action where discrimination is evident.
- We will pro-actively co-design new systems with staff and stakeholders and institute polices, practices and cultural expectations for belonging and inclusion.
- We will embed a strategic approach to commissioning to help reduce systemic bias, focused on creating the right environment for reducing systemic bias in commissioning that will improve patient care and experience.
- We will hold ourselves accountable, individually, and collectively, as leaders to delivering to these commitments.
In partnership with other NHS bodies, we are developing service measures that give an insight into how well we are doing on meeting a range of health service access, experience and outcome for different communities. This is a major project, and it will help us meet the Government’s levelling-up agenda in health (NHS England » Core20PLUS5 (adults) – an approach to reducing healthcare inequalities).