Equality, diversity and inclusion
What is equality and diversity?
Equality is about creating a fairer organisation in which everyone can fulfil their potential.
Diversity is about recognising and valuing difference in its broadest sense.
As a Trust we must continuously improve and develop our services. Using inclusive approaches to communication, involvement and engagement. By working with our local communities, we will develop services that are person-centred, culturally sensitive and appropriate and better than they were before.
As a Trust, we must continuously improve and develop our services. Using inclusive approaches to communication, involvement and engagement. By working with our local communities, we will develop services that are person-centred, culturally sensitive and appropriate and better than they were before.
Meeting our statutory responsibilities:
- Helping create a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion
- Supporting compliance with the Equality Act
- Making sure we are meeting the Public Sector Equality Duty
- Ensuring we meet our obligations set out in the NHS Constitution
- Support compliance with the Accessible Information Standard
The Equality Act was introduced in 2010 and the main aim of the legislation is to protect our employees and service users/patients from discrimination irrespective of their protected characteristic i.e. age, disability, gender reassignment status, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, ethnicity, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.
Our general responsibilities are to have due regard to the need to:
- Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation
- Advance equality of opportunity between people or different groups
- Foster good relations between people or different groups
9 protected characteristics
The first 9 protected characteristics listed below have been defined by the Equality Act 2010. Carers are not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, however, the Trust has identified carers as a group of people who need to be considered. 
- Age
- Disability
- Race
- Religion and Belief
- Maternity and Pregnancy
- Marriage and Civil Partnership
- Sex (gender)
- Gender Reassignment
- Sexual Orientation
- Carers
Our purpose as an organisation is to help people reach their potential and live well in their community. It is important to us that we help EVERYONE to achieve this – the people we serve, our colleagues and our communities. We understand that there are differences in power, experience and opportunity which can lead to inequity, discrimination and inequality. We are committed to doing everything we can to address this for the communities we serve and for our colleagues. For us this is not just about being ‘compliant’ with our statutory duties, we know that a clear and proactive approach to equality diversity and inclusion means that the care we deliver will be better for our patients and service users and carers.
The Trust, through coproduction of the refreshed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy 2025 – 2030, has set the following six EDI objectives:
- We will strengthen our approach and weave Equality Diversity and Inclusion through everything that we do so it is easier to do the right thing
- Consistently address health inequalities across our services, ensuring we are inclusive and working to minimise the impact of deprivation
- We will actively address equality for the people we serve and our colleagues
- We will ensure we recognise and value diversity through the systematic collection and analysis of data (both numbers and voice) according to protected characteristics to develop understanding and as the basis for decisions
- We will ensure inclusive practices with #allofusinmind so that our colleagues feel they belong, are proud to work here and want to stay
- We will truly listen to all our communities and demonstrate the difference we make to those we serve
We know that running our organisation where everyone feels valued and included will make us a more effective organisation for EVERYONE, which in turns means we deliver better care.
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