Donald Hiscock | Articles | Health Service Journal
With twenty-five languages spoken daily in her workplace, Andrea Biggs, Ethnic Health Service Manager for Pennine Hospitals NHS Trust, is well aware of employee diversity.
Covering Oldham, Bury and north Manchester, the Pennine Trust serves a large
ethnic minority population. For health professionals in such areas the recently
introduced Employment Equality regulations that outlaw discrimination on the
grounds of religion and belief appear to be little more than an official endorsement
of existing good practice.
“In one sense these regulations are not needed in my trust where we
have been valuing diversity for many years,” says Biggs. “However,
I can see that there could be issues in areas of the country where ethnic
minority numbers are small.”
The regulations which came into force last December – together with
a set of regulations covering sexual orientation – seek to end discrimination
directly and indirectly in employment and vocational training. They apply
across Great Britain, with separate regulations being introduced in Northern
Ireland.
"Unfair discrimination in employment must not be tolerated. People should
not be denied jobs, suffer victimisation or harassment, because of prejudice,”
says Jacqui Smith, deputy minister for women and equality.
"It is also damaging for business as they deny themselves access to the
widest pool of talent. A diverse workforce brings benefits - such as increased
motivation, lower turnover of staff, and access to wider
markets” she adds.
With regulations now in place to ensure that staff can have their religious
practices accommodated, health service managers are to be made aware of how
to meet these needs. The Department for Trade and Industry is currently organising
seminars and ACAS has produced workplace guidelines.
“It won’t be easy to do,” says Biggs. “It’s
a good idea to have champions appointed in all areas of the trust. And, as
ever, it’s a question of resources. Providing staff to deliver equality
and diversity training is the expensive part.
“But it can be made to work. We’re all entitled to have our cultures
valued, but it has to be done in way that fits everyone in the trust. For
example, we try to give people time off for religious holidays but in some
areas it doesn’t always work out. However, staff are very good about
this.”
Having flexible working rotas to accommodate religious festivals is something
that Dilshad Khan, Director of Equality and Diversity at Bradford Teaching
Hospitals Trust, is familiar with.
“We’ve been very flexible meeting these needs,” he says.
“If we had a rigid approach we would be in danger of excluding people.”
Dilshad Khan echoes Andrea Biggs’ point about how hospital trusts in
more mono-cultural areas might face a different set of issues. He goes as
far as suggesting that in some places responding too hastily to the new regulations
might even have a negative effect.
“If managers don’t prepare very carefully beforehand and start
throwing in an awareness programme that highlights the separate nature of
the very employees the training seeks to protect then it could awaken prejudices
rather than remove them.”
Khan is concerned that people should not be labelled as having separate needs,
particularly with world events stirring up feelings of Islamaphobia. He feels
that the NHS should be careful to raise awareness through a planned strategy
rather than just react quickly to the regulations.
“This would be my health warning: you’ve got to do a lot of thinking
before you start selling it to all staff,” he says.
Barbara Simpson is the Training and Development manager for Norwich PCT. She
has certainly been heeding Dilshad Khan’s ‘health warning’
as she started developing a diversity training programme over a year ago.
“When you look at Norfolk you realise just how much the community is
changing in its ethnic make-up, so in the trust we need to make sure that
we welcome this.
“However, diversity also about hierarchies. It means that some staff
find themselves looking down at others. We’ve tried to tackle this by
looking at every aspect of inclusion. We’ve got staff to think about
themselves and others as part of their training in the awareness of religion
and belief.”
Simpson is concerned that racism can be an issue in rural areas where there
are few ethnic minority groups. This is particularly important for community-based
staff or those employed by social services.
“We have to look carefully in all areas to make sure that we are not
missing any issues that might arise. As part of this, all new staff will receive
diversity training,” she says.
In rural areas assumptions are easy to make simply by looking at small numbers
of staff from ethnic minorities. Is it right to assume that the beliefs of
the workforce reflect the local demographics?
Sue Behenna, HR manager for Plymouth PCT thinks not: “We ask people
to specify their racial origin on application to a post, but not their religion.
How do we know, therefore, the range of different beliefs across the trust?”
This is one of many issues that Behenna has faced in the drafting of a diversity
training action plan. Other issues have been the provision of a prayer room
on every site. With high demands on accommodation this isn’t easy, but
a bid for funding is underway.
“Uniform is another point,” she says. “We need to review
our dress policy to include the wearing of religious artifacts, and at the
same time balancing the needs of the individual against health and safety
requirements.”
In areas like Oldham, Bradford and London such concerns are
familiar and have largely been dealt with over many years. What the new regulations
will highlight, however, are the opportunities for career advancement.
Sally Storey, Director of HR and Organisational Development
at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Trust in Greenwich, London believes that the new
regulations will have an impact if combined with black and ethnic minority
leadership development. This is particularly the case when it comes to recruitment
and retention, areas the government hopes to address under the regulations.
“People from ethnic minorities tend to bunch in lower
grades, which is why we are putting efforts into leadership development. With
the local Workforce Development Confederation we have just begun to set up
a black and minority network within the hospital,” says Storey.
Andrea Biggs and her team in Oldham would agree: “We’ve always had a moral obligation to provide equality of opportunity, so it’s good that we now have a legal obligation.”
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