There are several sources of data/evidence for you to use when gathering information for your baseline assessment, which are outlined in the table below.
This page also has links to key national diversity forums where you can see how other public and private sector organisations are tracking where they are on equality and diversity, as well as good practice, and details on next steps once you have completed your assessment.
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National staff survey results
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This annual survey allows you to assess how well you are doing as an employer in the eyes of your staff. The results for your trust can be compared to other trusts and aggregated by gender, age, ethnicity and disability.
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National patient survey results
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This annual survey allows you to assess how well you are doing as a provider of services in the eyes of your patients. The results for your trust can be compared to other NHS organisations and aggregated by gender, age, ethnicity and disability.
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Census information
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This data from the 2001 national census gives you a profile of your local area by age, gender, disability and ethnicity. This can also be compared to the national profile. You can also find information on the profile of your area by religion / belief.
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Public health information
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The information will give you a profile of the health of your local population and can be compared nationally and internationally against various indicators. |
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Equality impact assessments (EqIA)
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Any previous EqIAs conducted within your trust should be used to assess whether there are patterns of inequity or inequality in your organisation's policies or practices. EQIAs should cover all the strands of diversity. |
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Independent investigations, eg, by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) or Monitor |
You should review any independent investigations on your trust to see if they have highlighted any specific groups or sections of the community that are under represented or less well served by your trust. |
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Annual health check
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Check your trust’s annual health check ratings and evaluations in the CQC's annual report (above) to see if there are any specific areas that have been highlighted as needing to be addressed. |
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Workforce analysis data
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This provides local, regional and national data for you to compare with your trust’s data. It also aggregates some data by gender, ethnicity and age. |
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Patient profile analysis data
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This Department of Health guidance covers ethnic monitoring of patients and service users in health and social care. |
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Equal pay audit data
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You should track details of any equal pay audits undertaken by your trust. This toolkit, developed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, outlines a five-step process for organisations to carry out an equal pay audit. |
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Health inequalities tools and resources available from the Department of Health
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These are tools that you might want to consider for your organisation to carry out health equity audits. They cover the national and local picture eg.
life expectancy in each Spearhead local authority, and have a ready reckoner to estimate the potential effect on life expectancy gaps by increasing certain interventions, eg, support for people to give up smoking. |
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Area profile guidance from the Audit Commission
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This tool helps strategic partners such as Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) profile the quality of life and service provision within a particular area. It provides a range of data and assessments about your area and how it compares to others.
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Health inequalities indicators from the London Health Observatory
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These indicators have been developed on behalf of the Department of Health to help trusts determine their priorities in tackling health inequalities. They cover key areas such as employment, poverty and deprivation; housing, and homelessness, education and crime. |
National diversity forums
You may also want to look at the work of other private and public sector organisations through the following national forums, that focus on specific diversity strands:
Next steps
Your overall findings from this baseline assessment will need to be discussed at board level within your organisation before providing feedback to staff. Providing feedback internally is crucial to retaining buy-in across the organisation.
Having built up a picture of the main themes and concerns, you need to document your findings and produce a project report that will summarise activity and progress throughout the process. You might produce this for your board once you have worked out your plans for tackling the gaps within your organisation. To help you do this, we have developed a project report template.
The results can be compared with other similar NHS or public sector organisations and, crucially, will help to inform the answer the next question: Where do you want to get to?