About our equity, diversity and inclusion journey at North Mid
We are an inclusive organisation Promoting diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion at the heart of everything we do for our patients and how we make our trust a great 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 - NM2422 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 issues health and wellbeing.
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.
North Mid Staff Networks
Our staff led equality networks aim to provide fora to have caring, fair and open discussions about how to address staff issues across the organisation and how they impact on patient care. Currently we have four networks and one in development:
- DiverseAbility Network - northmid.diverseabilitynetwork2@nhs.net
- Ethnicities Network - northmid.bme-network@nhs.net
- LGBT+ Network - northmid.lgbtplus@nhs.net
- Women's Network - northmid.womensnetwork@nhs.net
A faith and spirituality staff-led equality group will be launched in early 2024.
Key issues addressed include making sure we have fair and transparent processes, providing supportive and flexible working arrangements, improving diversity at all levels, tackling harassment and discrimination and developing the skills and talents of all our staff.
Fairness in recruitment
In line with our #FocusOnFairness Campaign, Patient First Strategy and our overall commitment to improving the staff experience of fair career progression within the Trust, adopted a ‘Recruitment Charter’ in 2022.
This is a series of commitments the Trust is making to all those involved in the recruitment process – from applicants to hiring managers.
For more information and the view, the full list of commitments, download the 'Recruitment Charter' ,
While we work for fair treatment and opportunities for everyone, we are focusing on addressing some of the biggest inequalities as a priority.
Disabled people are more likely to experience anti-social behaviour, unemployment, loneliness (Outcomes for disabled people in the UK: 2021) and face challenges traveling (disabled-people-summary.pdf (tfl.gov.uk)) .
Our Disability Charter
A panel of special guests and senior leaders from North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust officially launched our Trust Disability Charter in 2022.
According to the British Disability Forum (BDF), North Mid is one of the first NHS Trusts in England to provide a charter supporting both its workforce and service users.
The five-point charter is a public commitment by North Mid to improve the standards of care experienced by disabled patients and staff who access its services. The charter also aims to better the views and voices of those with disabilities and to harness the talents of disabled staff.