Welcome to the NHS Derby City and NHS Derbyshire County's Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights' web pages

This section of our website contains information that shows how we are meeting the public sector general equality duty. It also explains what we are doing to help make sure that health services in Derbyshire are accessible for all, deliver the best possible healthcare and treat people with dignity and respect.
To the left hand side of this page you will find links that take you to other information which you might find useful.

We want to be accessible to everyone. If you would like any of the information in a different language and/or in large print, easyread, audio, Braille or other format, please contact our PALS team:

Freephone: 0800 032 32 35
Minicom: 01332 369301
Email: pals@derbycitypct.nhs.uk
Text: 07919 466212

Our commitment to equality, inclusion and human rights

NHS Derby City and NHS Derbyshire County are the local Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) for Derby and Derbyshire, with responsibility for health care across the whole area. The job of the PCTs (now often referred to as the Cluster) is to make sure that the right health services and support are available for the people of Derby and Derbyshire. This means finding out what the local population’s health needs are, and then making sure that the total budget of over a billion pounds is wisely spent.

We will ensure that quality remains at the heart of the care that is provided. To achieve this commitment, our aim is to work proactively with all sections of the community as well as service providers to help reduce or remove barriers that can prevent access to health services, make access more difficult or affect the quality of people’s experiences.

We want to promote a culture of support and inclusion for everyone who works for us and accesses health services in Derbyshire. This means taking the actions that help to ensure that employees, service users, carers and their families are treated with dignity, fairness and respect.

Our 2011 – 2013 Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights’ Strategy sets out:

Information on the communities we serve, including the equality profile of Derby City and Derbyshire County.
How we will promote equality in the commissioning/delivery of health services in Derbyshire and the employment of staff.
How we will tackle discrimination, work to address health inequalities and foster good relations between different community groups.

We have involved staff and service users as well as community organisations and forums in the development of this strategy, and want this involvement to continue and be further developed as we begin its implementation.

We want this strategy and its supporting action plans to make a significant difference to the quality of staff experience and users of health services in Derbyshire as well as the experiences of other key stakeholders such as carers and relatives. Therefore, we continue to invite comments and suggestions on actions that need to be considered and any feedback on our progress in implementing this strategy.

Delivering our public sector equality duty

What is the public sector general equality duty?

The public sector general equality duty means that we must have due regard to the need to:

Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act
Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not

The protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act, are: age; disability; gender reassignment; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation; and marriage and civil partnership*.

*The duty to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination covers marriage and civil partnership. However, the duties to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations do not apply to marriage and civil partnership.

In practice meeting the general equality duty means:

Removing or minimising disadvantages experienced by people due to their protected characteristics
Taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people
Encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low

The Act states that meeting different needs involves, for example, taking steps to take account of disabled people's disabilities. It describes fostering good relations as tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people from different groups.

What are the specific duties?

The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011 came into force on the 10th September 2011. In brief, the Regulations require that public authorities must publish information to demonstrate their compliance with the public sector General Equality Duty. For NHS Trusts, this information must be published not later than 31st January, 2012 and then subsequently at intervals of not greater than one year beginning with the date of last publication. The information should be published in such a manner that the information is accessible to the public.

In addition, public authorities must prepare and publish one or more objectives it thinks it should achieve to deliver any one or more of the three elements of the Public Sector Equality Duty. The objectives must be published not later than 6th April 2012 and subsequently at intervals of not greater than four years beginning with the date of last publication. The objective(s) must be specific and measurable.

What do we have in place and what have we done to show 'due regard' with the general duty?

Our 2011 – 2013 Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights’ Strategy

Leadership

Inclusive leadership is key to successfully delivering our public sector equality duty. The Chair and the CEO of the Cluster and the Chief Operating Officer and Chairs of the new Clinical Commissioning Groups in Derbyshire are all committed to delivering inclusive leadership. As part of this commitment, they have signed an Equalities’ Charter for NHS organisations in Derbyshire. This includes pledging to effectively support the equality commitments set out in the Charter:

Promoting and champion equality, diversity, inclusion and Human Rights
Recognising the equality challenges we face and work with our patients/service users, carers, communities and staff to tackle these in a proactive and positive way
Identifying local needs and priorities, particularly those of groups at risk of disadvantage and discrimination
Facilitating the engagement of everyone in shaping local services to meet individual needs and achieve better outcomes
Helping and supporting staff to understand the importance of personalisation, fairness and diversity in the planning and delivery of services
Providing an environment where staff can thrive, are confident to be themselves, feel valued and treat each other with fairness, dignity and respect
Working to ensure that all of our information, services and buildings are accessible for all
Showing zero tolerance towards bullying, harassment, inappropriate language and behaviour, and encourage the reporting of all cases of discrimination
Acknowledging and valuing the work of all forums who help us deliver equality
Recognising and supporting the work of the Derbyshire Community Health Equality Panel in helping us measure progress against the charter.

Consultation, communication and engagement

We have in place extensive consultation, communication and engagement arrangements not only with the communities we serve but also with our staff.

The Cluster’s Patient Public and Involvement team and Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights’ function undertakes not only consultation on specific health topics but also a wide range of community engagement with targeted groups. Some of these networks/groups include but are not limited to:

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Consultation Forum
Learning Disability Partnership Board
Good Health Group
BME North Forum
BME South Forum
Carers’ Forum
50 Plus Forums
Umbrella
Youth Parliament
Equality and Diversity Network
Carers Engagement Network and Carers Delivery Partnership Meeting
New and Emerging Communities Network
Derby City Access Group
Derbyshire Community Health Equality Panel
3 D (Third Sector Network across Derbyshire)

We are committed to fostering good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. As part of this work, we hold engagement events which are targeted at working collaboratively with all sections of the community.

In October 2011 and January 2012, for example, we held community engagement events on the new Equality Delivery System with a diverse range of community members. These events enabled us to work with the communities we serve to find out:

Community members’ experiences of the NHS in Derbyshire
Examples of the good things that are done in Derbyshire to deliver health services that meet people’s needs
What sometimes stops people receiving accessible, good quality health services
How health services in Derbyshire could be improved so they
- Are more accessible
- Provide a better patient experience
What else we can do to help deliver equality for all in health services

The January 2012 event also provided an opportunity to promote health through the provision of health checks and information on health.

The reports, outlining the key findings from these events, is due to be published in February 2012.

How we assess equality impact

The Cluster has a number of mechanisms in place to assess the equality impact of our policies and decision-making, including:

Conducting equality impact assessment screening and, as necessary, full assessments for equality-relevant policies. The assessments can be located on our policies’ webpages
Incorporating the assessment of equality impact within our Board and Governance papers. We have introduced a specific new section in the papers and proposals considered by the Board and Governance Committee which requires that the equality impact is specified. This includes detailing how the report and/or the services described within it aid the Cluster in achieving the objectives of the NHS Equality Delivery System, namely:
- Better health outcomes for all
- Improved patient access and experience
- Empowered, engaged and well-supported staff
- Inclusive leadership at all levels

Our Staff

Together, NHS Derby City and NHS Derbyshire County serve a diverse population. Being an employer of choice for the population we serve and embedding equality into everything that we do, as a commissioner of health services and as an employer, is important to us.

The HR and OD Directorate undertakes a key leadership role, working across all directorates, to help ensure that our policies and people development plans help to advance equality of opportunity and eliminate discrimination.

As an employer we have met the criteria to use the Employment Service Disability (Two Ticks) symbol which means that we meet the five commitments regarding recruitment, training, retention, consultation and disability awareness.

These commitments are to:

Interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for a job vacancy and to consider them on their abilities
Discuss with disabled employees, at any time but at least once a year, what both parties can do to make sure disabled employees can develop and use their abilities
Make every effort when employees become disabled to make sure they stay in employment
Take action to ensure that all employees develop the appropriate level of disability awareness needed to make these commitments work
Review these commitments each year and assess what has been achieved, plan ways to improve on them and let employees and Jobcentre Plus know about progress and future plans

We are signed up to Mindful Employer. The mindful employer is an initiative aimed at increasing awareness of mental health at work and providing support for businesses in recruiting and retaining staff. More information can be found at: http://www.mindfulemployer.net/

We are also a member of the Diversity Champions’ programme which is Britain's good practice employers' forum on sexual orientation. We work with Stonewall and its members to help make our workplace the best it can be. For everyone.

We are members of the Employers' Network for Equality & Inclusion, which incorporates the Employers’ Forum on Age and the Employers’ Forum on Belief. This forum covers all aspects of equality and inclusion issues in the workplace, with a particular current focus on researching unconscious bias across the employment cycle.

The HR and OD team publishes monitoring employment data showing the breakdown of our workforce and the impact key employment policies have on different staff groups. The workforce profile is regularly reported to the Board. These are the summary workforce profiles for NHS Derbyshire County and NHS Derby City. These are the detailed January – December 2011 Employment Equality Monitoring reports for NHS Derbyshire County and NHS Derby City.

Developing capacity and capability

At the heart of delivering the general equality duty is the need for empowered, engaged and well-supported staff who are able to identify and take the actions necessary to help ensure that individual and community needs can be met.

To help achieve this, our Futures 2013 strategy and the emerging Organisational Development plans for the Clinical Commissioning Groups identify how we will build capacity and capability to deliver the NHS’s new Equality Delivery System.

We have an exciting staff development programme to promote equality capability which includes:

Customised briefing sessions on the Equality Act and the NHS Equality Delivery System
Masterclasses on a range of equality topics, tailored to meet the needs of particular groups
On-line equality training covering specific modules on all the protected characteristics
An on-line resource tool which provides extensive resources, guidance and research publications covering not only all the protected characteristics but also key data on health inequalities

Our Promoting Disability Equality training programme won a National Training Award for its innovation and impact

Our Equality Objectives 2011 – 2013

Our equality objectives have been decided by reviewing:

The key findings from the consultation we undertook
Our strengths and areas for development based on analysing a wide range of data
Our areas for further development in meeting the standards set out in the Department of Health’s Equality Delivery System

The equality objectives for 2011 – 2013, mapped against the Equality Delivery System goals are listed below:

Equality Delivery System Goal 1: Better health outcomes for all

Take additional actions so that public health, vaccination and screening programmes reach and benefit all local communities and groups
Undertake an analysis of the health needs and requirements of the LGB&T community in Derbyshire and Derby City to inform the priorities for service developments. (The priorities to be focused on reducing the key inequalities identified.)
Improve the consistency and quality of health care in care homes
Improve health outcomes for the frail and elderly, with effective integrated working across health and social care systems in Derbyshire

Equality Delivery System Goal 2: Improved patient access and experience

Through relevant mechanisms with service providers (e.g. contracts, Service Level Agreements) improve patients, carers and communities’ access to health services so that services are more readily accessible and deliver a better experience. (This action should include strengthening health services’ evidence of anticipating and making reasonable adjustments to meet individual needs)
Work with the regional Inclusion Leads to determine an effective Derbyshire-wide approach to collating and analysing service user equality data, recommending organisational and national system changes as required
Improve the accessibility of health information so that it is targeted, useful, useable and used in order to improve patient experience and health outcomes
Working with partner agencies and service providers, improve the dignity of healthcare experienced by service users, their carers and families
Improve for people with a learning disability their access to healthcare and experience of health services (in line with the agreed priorities set out in the Learning Disability improvement action plan)
Improve the access and experience of BME communities to mental health support

Equality Delivery System Goal 3: Empowered, engaged and well-supported staff

Increase equality, inclusion and human rights’ awareness, knowledge and cultural competence across NHS Derby City, NHS Derbyshire County and the emerging Clinical Commissioning Groups. This work will aim to improve relationships with both healthcare staff and patients and increase staff capability to anticipate and meet individual patient needs (including needs arising from gender, gender identity, disability, age, sexual orientation, race and culture, religion or belief, pregnancy or maternity). This capability development will be achieved through a programme of training, development interventions, and awareness-raising.
Improve bullying and harassment prevention strategies so that staff are free from abuse, harassment, bullying, violence from both colleagues, patients and their relatives.

Equality Delivery System Goal 4: Inclusive leadership at all levels

Increase the capacity of leaders to support and motivate their staff to work in culturally competent ways within an environment free from discrimination
Identify opportunities for using the NHS Equality & Diversity Competency Framework to improve the level of inclusive leadership