Workforce Race Equality Standard 

The most recent CNTW WRES and WDES Annual Report (22/23) was published in August 2023. The data compiled within this report is from a snapshot taken on 31 March 2023, as well as findings from the most recent NHS Staff Survey which took place in Autumn 2022. 

CNTW WRES 2023 Key Findings

• Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) staff made up 9.06% of the total CNTW workforce.
• 3.2% of staff in non-clinical roles were from BME background and 82.5% were employed at band 5 or below, 77% of White non-clinical staff were employed at band 5 or below.
• 8.6% of staff in clinical (non-medical) roles were from BME background and 73.5% were employed at band 5 or below, 47.6% of White clinical staff were employed at band 5 or below.
• 50.2% of medical staff were from BME background with 43.1% employed at Consultant Grade and 56.8% of White doctors employed at Consultant Grade.
• White job applicants are 2.12 times more likely to be appointed from shortlisting compared to BME applicants (down from 2.5 in 2022).
• BME members of staff are 1.57 times more likely to be in a formal disciplinary process compared to White staff (down from 2.69 in 2022).

CNTW WRES 2023 Recommendations

• Continue Trust-wide rollout of Respectful Resolution Framework
• Implement ongoing support package for Cultural Ambassadors in partnership with Capsticks to continue overall improvement for staff entering formal disciplinary processes.
• Trust Board to review relevant data, identify EDI areas of concern, and prioritise EDI actions in annual appraisals.
• Develop a Race Pay Gap Report to identify actions and eliminate race pay gaps.
• Develop centralised Cultural Competency and Awareness training package to create inclusive team cultures and ensure psychological safety.
• Launch awareness/ allyship initiatives. 

Workforce Disability Equality Standard 

The most recent CNTW WRES and WDES Annual Report (22/23) was published in August 2022. The data compiled within this report is from a snapshot taken on 31 March 2023, as well as findings from the most recent NHS Staff Survey which took place in Autumn 2022. 

CNTW WDES 2023 Key Findings 

• Disabled staff ​​​​​​​made up 8.2% of the total CNTW workforce from ESR data, despite 33.5% of staff stating they live with a long-term condition in the NHS Staff Survey.
• The recruitment of non-disabled staff to disabled staff when expressed as a ratio is 0.54:1. Disabled applicants are more likely to be appointed compared to non-disabled shortlisted candidates (the ratio was 0.91:1 in 2022).
• All figures for bullying and harassment by patients, public, colleagues, or managers experienced by disabled staff demonstrate an improvement over the last 2 reporting periods.
• There are more disabled staff employed at band 5 or below in both clinical and non-clinical roles. There are more non- disabled medical staff at consultant grade than disabled staff.
• 81.9% disabled staff said adequate adjustments to carry out their work were made by the Trust (an improvement over the last 2 reporting periods).
• There was a 5.1 percentage point decrease in disabled staff believing the organisation provides equal opportunities for career progression, compared to the last reporting period.

CNTW WDES 2023 Recommendations

• Develop Managers’ Toolkit for staff with disabilities and reasonable adjustments (WDES Innovation Fund).
• Specialist training for HR Staff (WDES Innovation Fund).
• Trust Board to review relevant data, identify EDI areas of concern, and prioritise EDI actions in annual appraisals.
• Review flexible working policy.
• Develop and implement an improvement plan to address health inequalities within the workforce.
• Work with Capsticks to improve availability of data for capability measures. 

National WRES Benchmark 

The data is taken from the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard 2023 Analysis Report, which gives a national picture across all NHS Trusts. The data is compiled from a snapshot of 31 March 2023 and responses from the NHS Staff Survey 2022. 

NHS England WRES 2023 Key Findings 

• 26.4% of the workforce across NHS Trusts are BME (an increase of 13% from last year).
• The North East and Yorkshire region has a 15.8% BME workforce.
• Across all staff groups, the highest proportion of BME staff (38.5%) are employed at band 5, with the lowest proportion of BME staff (11.2%) employed at band 9 or VSM. However, 6% of staff at VSM level did not disclose their ethnicity.
• Across non-clinical staff groups, the largest proportion of BME staff (19.8%) are employed at band 6, with the lowest proportion of BME staff (10.7%) employed at VSM.
• Across clinical staff groups, the largest proportion of BME staff (41.6%) are employed at band 5, with the lowest proportion of BME staff (11.7%) were employed at band 8D (13.3% VSM).
• Across medical staff groups, the BME representation is 46.8%. Of 129,143 medical staff, 40.5% BME staff were employed at Consultant grade, with 53.3% white staff employed at Consultant grade.
• Nationally, white staff are 1.59 times more likely to be appointed from shortlisting compared to BME applicants.
• Nationally, BME staff are 1.03 times more likely to enter formal disciplinary processes compared to white staff.
• According to the NHS Staff Survey 2022 results, more BME staff (30.4%) than white staff (26.8%) experienced bullying, harassment or abuse from patients, relatives or the public in the last 12 months.
• According to the NHS Staff Survey 2022 results, 16.6% BME staff experienced discrimination from other staff in the last 12 months, compared to 6.7% white staff.
• 10.8% executive directors recorded their ethnicity as BME, an increase from 9.7% in 2022 and 8.9% in 2021.
• 20.3% non-executive directors recorded their ethnicity as BME, an increase from 18.4% in 2022 and 16% in 2021. 

National WDES Benchmark 

The data is taken from the NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard 2023 Analysis Report, which gives a national picture across all NHS Trusts. The data is compiled from a snapshot as of 31 March 2023 and responses from the NHS Staff Survey 2022. 

NHS England WDES 2023 Key Findings 

• Across ​​​​​​​all NHS Trusts, only 4.9% of staff reported having a disability on ESR (Electronic Staff Record), however 23.4% staff reported having a long-term illness or condition in the NHS Staff Survey 2022.
• Across all NHS Trusts, the disability status of 16.6% staff is ‘unknown’. This encompasses a declaration of ‘prefer not to answer’, ‘not declared’, or ‘unspecified’.
• In the North East & Yorkshire region, the declaration rate was slightly higher (5.1% on ESR and 26.1% on NHS Staff Survey 2022).
• According to the NHS Staff Survey 2022, more disabled staff than non-disabled staff reported experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from patients and the public (7.2% disparity), managers (6.9% disparity), and other staff (8.3% disparity).
• The relative likelihood of disabled staff being appointed from shortlisting is 0.99, which means disabled staff were slightly more favoured over non-disabled staff (1.0 represents equity).
• In 2023, the disability declaration rate for band 8C and above was 3.9%, and 5.2% for bands below 8C. 5.7% board members declared a disability.
• Disabled staff were 2.17 times more likely to enter a formal capability process on the grounds of performance, compared to non-disabled staff.
• According to the NHS Staff Survey 2022, 52.1% disabled staff and 57.7% non-disabled staff believe their organisation provides equal career progression or promotion, slightly higher than the previous reporting period.
• 27.7% disabled staff said they felt pressure from their manager to come to work, despite not feeling well enough (compared to 19.9% non-disabled staff). This is a marginal improvement from the last reporting period.
• 73.4% disabled staff said their employer made workplace reasonable adjustments to enable them to carry out their work. 

Gender Pay Gap 

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Objectives 2024 -2025 

In November 2023, we set three key objectives for the coming year. These are:

• A programme of actions to address progression within the Trust for staff protected under the Equality Act 2010. We know from analysis of our Workforce Race and Disability Equality Standards that the distribution of staff from these protected characteristics is skewed towards Agenda for Change Bands 5 and below.
• Actions to eliminate the conditions in which bullying, discrimination, harassment and physical violence at work occur. Our staff survey results regularly show a gap between the experiences of staff that have a protected characteristic and those who do not. The challenge is therefore to eliminate the gap between the experiences of staff, whilst bringing down the overall levels of bullying, discrimination, harassment and physical violence. We will utilise techniques highlighted as best practice in the EDI Improvement Plan Repository on NHS Futures and build upon existing work taking place within the Trust – particularly to extend pilot work on Hate Crime, Safe Spaces and Cultural Allyship Trust-wide.
• A baseline assessment to establish how we will engage with racialised and ethnic minority communities to identify and agree core organisational competencies requiring further development, then agree measurable and practical actions to develop them in local plans.

These objectives and actions have been determined by a mapping exercise of our existing position to two national initiatives that have been launch in the last year, the NHS Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Improvement Plan and the Patient Carer Race Equality Framework.

The NHS Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Improvement Plan was launched in June 2023 by NHS England. It sets out targeted actions to address the prejudice and discrimination, direct and indirect, that exists through behaviour, policies, practices and cultures against certain groups and individuals across the NHS workforce. It is based on the premise that equality, diversity and inclusion is a key foundation for creating a caring, efficient, productive and safe NHS. It details 6 High Impact Actions required to make the changes that NHS staff and patients expect and deserve and who is accountable and responsible for their delivery. It outlines how NHS England will support implementation and a framework for integrated care boards to produce their own local plans.

The Patient Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) was one of the key recommendations of the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act (MHA). The MHA African and Caribbean group was established to support with the aims of the Independent Review, focusing on the inequalities faced by racialised and ethnically and culturally diverse communities. At its core, the PCREF aims to support NHS Mental Health Trusts to:

1. Improve their interaction with racialised and ethnically and culturally diverse communities
2. Raise awareness of organisations’ own cultural and racial bias and provide a framework to reduce them
3. Improve governance, accountability, and leadership on improving experiences of care for racialised and ethnically and culturally diverse communities.

We look forward to being able to report progress on these important pieces of work in our next annual report. ​​​​​​​