We strive to be a great place to work and a great place to be cared for. We continue to work towards becoming a truly inclusive employer and health care service provider; creating an environment and culture that celebrates inclusion and diversity, dignity and respect, which values, nurtures, and harnesses difference for the benefit of our patients and their families and carers, our colleagues, and the communities we serve across Morecambe Bay.
Our ambition as an employer and a health care service provider is to be inclusive by default which means that everything we do, such as when we design services or review and develop policies, we do this with a co-design mindset, to ensure that it works for everybody on an equitable basis.
Our latest five-year inclusion and diversity strategy 'Positive Difference' has been developed with our colleague inclusion networks and was approved by the Trust Board in November 2021.
All colleagues are encouraged to actively participate in making a positive difference for each other, our patients, and citizens across Morecambe Bay. Our executive Directors also sponsor our colleague inclusion networks. Our leadership team for inclusion and diversity take responsibility for steering our action plans across both workforce and service inclusion.
Chief People Officer - Ali Balson
Deputy Chief Nurse - Lynne Wyre & Dan West
Head of Culture, Inclusion and Organisation Development - Carolyn Wright
Annual Reporting
The Equality Delivery System (EDS) is a national toolkit that supports us to provide better working practices and environments, free of discrimination.
It helps us understand how well we are responding to the equality issues that matter most to patients and staff. It also tracks our performance against national benchmarks.
The EDS helps local NHS organisations, in discussion with local partners, including local people, review and improve their performance for people with characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010.
In 2022, NHS England launched a new Equality Delivery System 2022 framework following a review of the existing EDS2 toolkit. EDS 2022 is designed for both NHS commissioners and NHS providers and places a heavier focus on partnership working between ICS system partners.
The Trust is following the implementation of EDS with our Partners across the ICS. The EDS Report is a template which is designed to give an overview of the organisation’s most recent EDS implementation and grade.
We have now undertaken our domain 1, 2 and 3 assessments, with support of the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board. We are awaiting final feedback and system-wide actions to be agreed before our final report template is reviewed and approved by the Trust Board. We anticipate this process will be completed by Early June.
Equality Delivery System 2 summary 2017
Equality of Access to Health Network 2017 - 18 plan on a page
Equality Delivery System 2 summary 2018
Equality Delivery System 2 summary 2019
Equality Delivery System 2 summary 2020 - 21
Equality Delivery System 2 summary 2022
Equality Delivery System 2 Report 2022 - 23
Understanding the experiences of our employees is important so that we can see where we need to make improvements, and make sure we provide a supportive and inclusive working environment for everyone.
The Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) ensures effective collection and analysis of workforce data to address the under-representation of BME staff in the NHS.
The Trust’s latest WRES report.
The Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) ensures effective collection, analysis and use of workforce data to address the under-representation of staff with a disability in the NHS.
We have created a local workforce sexual orientation standard to help us understand the differences in experiences of our colleagues based on their sexual orientation.
It is the law that organisations with more than 250 employees report on their gender pay gap.
See our latest Gender Pay Gap Report
The Equality Impact Assessment process encourages all of our colleagues to recognise that people are different, and to look at what we do from different perspectives. The guidance sets out a process to help understand the impact that our decisions might have on different people and to improve them where we can. See our equality impact assessment guidance here.
Staff Networks
Our staff networks are run by staff, for staff. Each of our networks brings together people from different professions and departments who have a common interest in developing and improving equality in our Trust.
Our BAME staff network aims to create a supportive working environment for BAME colleagues, and encourage all staff to understand the needs of the BAME community.
Contact
General Enquiries
BAME.Network@mbht.nhs.uk
Our disability staff network is open to all UHMBT employees, volunteers and students with a disability, and colleagues who want to help support people with a disability. The network aims to make sure that our Trust is a safe and inclusive environment for people with different disabilities, and to encourage all staff to understand the needs of different individuals.
Improvements that have been made because of the disability staff network include hand rails being fitted at the main entrance of Westmorland General Hospital and at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary Education Centre.
Contact
The LGBT staff network aims to maintain a supportive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender colleagues, and make sure that all staff understand the needs of LGBT individuals.
The group also make sure that policies and decisions made across the Trust consider the LGBT community, and provide confidential support and advice to all staff, not just those who may identify as LGBT.
Contact
Having signed the Armed Forces Covenant, achieving the Employers Recognition Scheme Silver award and being a Step into Health advocate, the network provides support to the Armed Forces community. Working with colleagues and service users to ensure we understand the needs of everyone to help provide the right support and advice as well as participating in national and local events such as Armed Forces day and Remembrance Day parades.
Contact
The UHMBT Carers Staff Network is working together to help create a supportive and responsive environment to improve the experience for everyone with caring responsibilities. A carer is anyone, who looks after a family member, partner or friend who needs help because of their illness, frailty, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction and cannot cope without their support. This care is usually unpaid.
Contact
Network for Inclusive Healthcare
We are committed to improving access to our services by making them more accessible, safer and reliable for everyone.
The Access to Equality group was created to address unfair discrimination experienced by members of protected characteristic groups.
Things like disabled parking spaces, wheelchair access, hearing loops and accessible toilets all help to make access to our services equal for everyone.
Contact
Barry Rigg, Head of Patient Experience
Barry.Rigg@mbht.nhs.uk