Equality and diversity – North Central London CCG

For further information about anything you read in this section, please contact Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team at nclccg.inclusion@nhs.net

Our Equality, Diversity and Human Rights commitments

North Central London CCG is committed to commissioning the best care for the diverse population we serve, recognising that services need to be designed with equality, diversity, and human rights at the core of business and decision-making.

We are committed to fulfilling our equality duties and obligations to reduce health inequalities in all aspects of our roles and functions. The values underpinning equality, diversity, and human rights are central to policy making, service planning, employment practices, and commissioning.

For our staff, we aim to create a working culture that recognises, respects, and values differences for the benefit of the organisation, the individual, and the community.

The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. It sets out the different ways in which it is unlawful to treat someone.

General equality duty and the CCG policy response:

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.

To meet the general duty, the CCG will publish its equality objectives and produce the annual equality information report. In doing so, the CCG will:

Ensure policies and services are routinely assessed to eliminate and minimise any negative impact and remove barriers.
Take steps to meet the differing needs of people.
Encourage participation of patients and the public in decision-making.

The Equality Act covers nine protected characteristics, which cannot be used as a reason to treat people unfairly. These characteristics refer to the groups of people who are specifically offered protection by the Act.

Age

A person belonging to a particular age or age group. People of different ages include children, younger people and older people.

Gender

Both men and women are protected under the Equality Act 2010.

Gender Reassignment

People who are proposing to undergo, are undergoing or have undergone a process (or part of a process) to reassign their sex by changing physiological or other physical attributes of sex.

Disability

People who have a disability or a physical or mental impairment and it has substantial and long term adverse effect on an individual’s ability to carry out normal daily living activities.

Race

People characterised by shared ethnicity, colour, nationality (including citizenship) and ethnic or national origins.

Pregnancy and Maternity

The law covers pregnant women or those who have given birth within the last 26 weeks, and those who are breast-feeding.

Marriage and Civil Partnership

In the Equality Act marriage and civil partnership means someone who is legally married or in a civil partnership. People do not have this characteristic if they are single.

Religion/Belief

In the Equality Act religion or belief can mean any religion, for example an organised religion like Christianity, Judaism, Islam or Buddhism; or a smaller religion like Rastafarianism or Paganism, as long as it has a clear structure and belief system. The Equality Act also covers non-belief or a lack of religion or belief.

Everyone in the UK is protected under the Human Rights Act 1998. The CCG, as a public authority, is obliged by law to respect the basic human rights of all citizens. As a public body we must at all times act in a manner compatible with the rights protected in this Act and safeguard these for patients and staff in our care and employment.

Human Rights are underpinned by a set of common values and have been adopted by the NHS under the acronym FREDA.

The FREDA principles represent:

Fairness (e.g. fair and transparent grievance and complaints procedures)
Respect (e.g. respect for same sex couples, teenage parents, homeless)
Equality (e.g. not being denied treatment due to age, sex, race etc.)
Dignity (e.g. sufficient staff to change soiled sheets, help patient to eat/drink)
Autonomy (e.g. involving people in decisions about their treatment and care)

Consideration of human rights is also given in our Equality Analysis process, to ensure that our policies and strategies are compatible with the rights afforded by this Act.

Publishing equality information every year is a specific duty under the Equality Act. Our Equality Information Report provides information about how the CCG (ICB) is meeting its commitment to making continuous improvements in advancing equality for our patients and staff.

Our Equality Information Reports:

We have co-produced with our stakeholders a two-year Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for 2021-23. The strategy has been developed based on the public sector equality duty, current and future health inequalities, and workforce priorities. It includes two specific equality objectives on health and workforce inequalities with particular outcomes and four system enablers to ensure robust and effective implementation. We have engaged internal and external stakeholders in developing these objectives and enablers and have developed an annual action plan. The strategy is available here.

Change Key equality priorities for 2020-2025 to Key Equality Priorities 2021-23

Patients and communities priorities:

Reduce mental health inequalities
Reduce cancer inequalities
Reduce inequalities in access to primary care and out-of-hour services

As a CCG, we continuously explore ways to improve equality in health outcomes for all our populations. We put equality, diversity, and human rights at the heart of our commissioning decisions.

We want to ensure all our decisions are equality impact assessed (equality analysis) and they are robustly completed focusing on three key components: equality and equity, engagement, and health inequalities. Outcomes of our equality analysis are fed into the equality action planning process and be shared with our stakeholders and providers as appropriate.
We engage with our patients and carers from diverse backgrounds in commissioning.
We will continue to work collaboratively with our partners, the voluntary sector, and providers to advance equality.

Workforce priorities:

Address bullying and harassment
De-bias recruitment and ensure fairness and just culture.
Workplace support including reasonable adjustment and safe space

We recognise that promoting and supporting diversity in the workplace is an important aspect of good people management – it’s about valuing people in the organisation as unique individuals and offering them equality of opportunity in career progression and promotion.

We aim to have a workforce that reflects the local community we serve. To achieve this, we will offer every staff member opportunities so that they can be the best they want to be – and they help us make our organisation a better and more inclusive place where every staff can thrive and feel a sense of belonging.

We will set up Staff Networks to support staff and help the CCG address issues facing our staff. Our People Plan will include specific measures and interventions on how the CCG can advance equality of opportunity for all and will consist of actions to improve staff experience.

Key priorities for 2020-2025

Based on local needs analysis, the CCG has identified the three key service priorities for equality duty. These areas will be the key focus for the annual action plan and Equality Delivery System (EDS2) grading.

As a CCG we are continuously exploring ways to improve equality in health outcomes for all our population. We put equality, diversity and human rights at the heart of all our commissioning decisions.

We will ensure all our decisions are equality impact assessed (equality analysis) and they are robustly completed focusing on three key components: equality and equity, engagement and health inequalities. Outcomes of our equality analysis will be fed into the equality action planning process and be shared with our stakeholders and providers as appropriate.
We will engage with our patients and carers from diverse backgrounds in commissioning. Our 2019-20 EDS2 grading and several EQIA outcomes have identified this as an area that needs further focused work.
We will continue to work collaboratively with our partners, the voluntary sector and providers to advance equality.

Our aim is to have a workforce that reflect the local community we serve. To achieve this we will offer every staff member opportunities so that they can be the best they want to be – and they make our CCG a better commissioning organisation.

We are focusing on three key workforce areas:

Recruiting staff from diverse backgrounds across all bands.
Supporting staff in employment so that they can give their best and feel valued.
Engaging staff in decision-making.

Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES)

The NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard was developed and introduced in 2015. Organisations are required to review and report against nine indicators.

The indicators are a mix of NHS staff survey data and the workforce data comparing the experience of BME and White staff. It also compares the governing body data with the workforce and local population data to show how representative the governing body is compared with the ICB workforce and the local population. We publish a progress report with an action plan every year. Our latest report is available below:

Our HR/OD and Equality and Diversity Teams work together to implement the WRES in the CCG. Currently, the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Working Group and the Executive Sponsor are responsible for developing the action plan and advising the ICB on assurance. The BAME Staff Network plays a crucial role in co-producing and implementing the WRES Action Plan. In addition, we work with our system partners and NHSEI to learn from best practices and share our experience of how WRES has helped us address racism and discrimination.

We set our priorities to advance workforce race equality in the ICB and influence the agenda across our provider landscape on an ongoing sustainable basis. This is why we are working collectively with our providers to share experiences and ideas to develop common priority areas. For the next year (2022-23), our WRES priorities are:

Accessible Information Standard (AIS)

The Accessible Information Standard (AIS) aims to make sure people who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss get the information they can access and understand, and any communication support they might need.

This includes making sure people get information in different formats, for example, large print, Braille, easy read; and support such as a British Sign Language interpreter, deafblind manual interpreter or an advocate.

The AIS means that organisations providing health or social care need to ensure five things:

Ask people if they have any information or communication support needs, and identify how to meet them.
Record those needs in a set way on the patients’ records.
Highlight or flag in the person’s file or notes, so it is clear that they have information or communication support needs and details of how to meet those needs.
Share information about a person’s needs with other NHS and adult social care providers when they have consent to do so.
Make sure that people get information in an accessible way and communication support if they need it.

CCGs are exempt from meeting the standard. However, we are committed to the AIS, and we ensure that whenever we communicate with the public that we consider the requirements of the standard.

Our Communication and Engagement Team is responsible for making sure any information we produce is accessible – and they make reasonable adjustments for people who have an information or communication need. This applies to our published information on the website and all printed materials produced for engagement and consultation.

We also work closely with our member GP Practices to provide the necessary support to enable them to meet the requirements of the standard. The CCG continues to seek assurance from provider organisations about their compliance with the standard, including evidence of how they are planning to meet the standard.

More information on the AIS can be found on the NHS England’s website https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/accessibleinfo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3VC7VF8iio