Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

UHBW Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Strategy

At UHBW, we are committed to inclusion in everything we do. To achieve this, we have developed an ambitious Workforce Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for 2020-2025, that focuses on supporting our colleagues across all nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.

View the Trust's Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2020-2025

Each year we produce an action plan that sits under the strategy. Please view the EDI 2023 - 2024 Action Plan.

This action plan also incorporates our actions, in response to our Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES), Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) and Gender Pay Gap (GPG) report. 

View our Equality Report 2023 

View our WRES Action Plan 2023

Biannual Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Integrated Performance Report and Action Plan 

Quarterly progress on our action plan is monitored by our Workforce Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group and reported in our Biannual EDI Reports, which are presented to our Trust Board meetings.

Please view the biannual EDI report April 2023 - September 2023

Please view the biannual EDI report October 2022 - March 2023

Please view the biannual EDI report April 2022 - September 2022 

Please view the biannual EDI report October 2021 - March 2022 

Call me by my name – Trust-wide Equality Diversity & Inclusion Policy and Awareness Training

All our names deserve to be treated with honour, dignity and respect. Our names are unique identifiers that tell a story – a snapshot of a place and time in history based on traditions, culture or religious beliefs. Often we pay homage to our ancestors and role models by naming our children after them. Therefore, name-calling, assigning uncalled for nicknames and deliberately mispronouncing names is demeaning and morally unacceptable – these are unwelcomed microaggressions and have no part to play in our Trust. This short video is a simple guide on how we can all make a concerted effort to ensure all members of our diverse workforce are allowed to come to work as a ‘whole’ person in an inclusive and welcoming place.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Duties

Under the Equality Act 2010, the Trust has a duty to meet the needs of people with protected characteristics and reduce and eliminate the disadvantage that such groups suffer.

The Equality Act covers the following nine protected characteristics:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race (includes ethnic or national origins, colour or nationality)
• Religion or belief (includes no belief)
• Sex
• Sexual orientation 
• Marriage and civil partnership

Public sector organisations such as the NHS have duties referred to as the Public Sector Equality Duty.  It consists of a general duty for public sector organisations to have due regard for the need to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• Advance equality of opportunity between different groups
• Foster good relations between different groups

Guide to Personal Pronouns

As part of our contribution to PRIDE Month 2021, The Trust has produced a short video guide to using Personal Pronouns 

Celebrating LGBT history month

The Trust marked LGBT history month with a successful and generative mini-conference with over 60 people attending including the exec team with commitment to work with Bristol’s Freedom Youth and  ShoutOut Radio. To celebrate LGBT history month, the Trust also produced an engaging 3-minute video on the key events that shaped the lives of the LGBT community.

Staff networks

The Trust recognises that the passionate and dedicated people who work for us are our greatest asset. Currently, three staff networks meet regularly to offer a safe place for under-represented and disadvantaged individuals/groups to come together and share experiences, discuss and support career and personal development opportunities and also help change organisational culture to be more inclusive.

ABLE+ staff network supports staff and volunteers with physical, sensory or mental impairments to raise awareness of reasonable adjustment solutions to issues encountered at work.

The Race Equality and Inclusion staff network (REIN) is a group of UHBW staff from multi-disciplinary backgrounds across the Trust.

The LGBTQIA+ network is a safe space for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members of Trust staff and supporters within UHBW to discuss LGBTQIA+ related issues within the organisation.

The Women’s staff network is committed to providing women a forum to discuss the issues that are important to them.

COVID 19 Staff Risk Assessment

Without our amazing and dedicated staff, there would be no NHS service to serve our local populations’ healthcare needs. The COVID pandemic has been and continues to be a challenge for staff to stay safe, but at the same time, provide the same level of professional and compassionate care for patients. To that end, the Trust’s risk assessment process aims to holistically assess all staff’s individual risk and put in place steps to mitigate the risk.

We are pleased to say that by August 2020, we had assessed 91% of our staff with a personal and/or workplace risk assessment. This included 94% of our ethnic minority colleagues who had completed mild, high or very high risk assessment.