Lancashire Care marks Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Week 2017

Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust is marking ‘Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Week’ next week with a series of events for its ethnic minority staff to talk about opportunities for the Trust to have an even more inclusive workforce.

‘Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Week’ is marked every year, and runs from 15 to 19 May with NHS organisations across the country celebrating the week with events. As part of this year’s week, which is being run for the sixth time, Lancashire Care has organised four events for Black, Minority Ethnic (BME) staff to join a conversation about how the organisation can increase opportunities and foster a more inclusive workforce.

An electronic survey has also been distributed to all ethnic minority staff to gather information about their experiences of working Lancashire Care, and the results of this and the conversations with staff will be used to inform how the organisation ensures that it is a diverse and inclusive NHS employer.

Damian Gallagher, Director of Human Resources at Lancashire Care, said: “As part of Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Week this year, we’ve distributed a survey to our ethnic minority staff and organised a series of events to hear what our ethnic minority staff say. What we are doing is all about valuing individuals, ensuring equal access and opportunities for all and working towards removing discrimination and other barriers to development.”

Julie-Ann Bowden, Associate Director of Compliance and Assurance, who is leading the project, said: “The NHS is a caring organisation that considers race equality a priority for its staff. Equality, engagement and motivation leads to better health for our staff and better health outcomes for patients, communities and the wider population that we serve. Ensuring we have an inclusive workforce at Lancashire Care is not an optional extra.”

Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Week is a national platform for organisations to highlight their work to create a fairer, more inclusive NHS for patients and staff. This year’s theme ‘diverse, inclusive, together’ was chosen to reflect the move across the health and care sector towards collaboration and integration.