Equality, diversity and inclusion

The aim is for our workforce to be truly representative of all sections of society and people of Kent and Medway, and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best.

NHS Kent and Medway in providing services is also committed against unlawful discrimination of service users or the public.

Under the Equality Act 2010, we have statutory responsibilities that we must deliver. You can read more about our responsibilities under the  Equality Act 2010.

Our equality, diversity, and inclusion policy   makes clear our commitment to   equality, fairness and respect for all in our employment, for example by:

• creating a working environment free of bullying, harassment, victimisation and unlawful discrimination, promoting dignity and respect for all, and where individual differences and the contributions of all staff are recognised and valued,
• making opportunities for training, development and progress available to all staff, who will be helped and encouraged to develop their full potential,
• undertaking equality impact assessments (EIAs) during the initial stages of developing new strategies, policies, functions or services, prior to starting a procurement exercise and before decisions are made, and
• annual monitoring of the workforce by age, sex, ethnic background, sexual orientation, religion or belief, and disability.

We carry out workforce equality analysis, in accordance with our public sector equality duty annually.

In 2024, we  carried out a more detailed review for the reporting period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 and this detailed analysis is being shared with our networks and staff partnership group to enable us to collaborate on the development of our objectives for 1 April 2025 onwards. In the meantime, we have reviewed and updated our EDI objectives, incorporating the NHS's EDI improvement plan's  high impact actions.

We have made some small progress against the objectives set for 2023/2024 and the NHS England high impact actions up to 31 March 2024. Work was impacted by significant organisational change during 2023/2024 resulting from mandated reductions in running costs across all ICBs in England.

In summary our objectives for 2024/2025 are:

Workforce: To improve by reference to protected characteristics, the recruitment, retention, progression, development, and experience of the people employed by NHS Kent and Medway to enable the organisation to become an inclusive employer of choice.

Capability: To improve the capability of NHS Kent and Medway to understand and address the PSED's legal obligations and the interface with our separate health inequalities duties.

We have developed a Culture and OD plan to support our journey towards becoming an inclusive employer of choice. Our Inclusion plan is currently being co-designed with our Staff Partnership Group and is due to be launched on 1 October 2024 after which it can be accessed here.

We have staff network groups in place, which offer workforce colleagues safe spaces where they can have their voices heard and seek support and feel empowered amongst their peers. Each of these networks is championed by a sponsor from our executive team so the concerns, issues and achievements that each group raise are heard and responded to by our most senior staff members.

The organisation has four very active staff representative groups:

• BAME network
• Pride Network
• Disabilities and Long-Term Conditions Network
• Women's Network.

If you already work for us or will soon be joining, and are interested in joining a network, you will be able to find more information about our networks on our intranet.