The practical information and tools on this site are designed to support NHS organisations on managing equality and diversity, and its fundamental role in how the NHS operates.
This section will help you to ensure your organisation meets its statutory obligations under equality legislation – but will also challenge and support you to move your organisation beyond compliance.
The guide also makes the links to the wider NHS agenda on engaging all staff and the NHS Constitution and staff pledges, to ensure that the NHS is good place to work and secures a diverse workforce for the future.
This resource will help ensure your organisation improves services to patients, through staff who feel respected and valued. It will help you:
- promote equality
- eliminate discrimination
- ensure equitable outcomes for staff, and in turn patients, across all equality target groups.
It follows on from, and draws on, the knowledge and experience gained through NHS Employers’ Positively Diverse programme. It is designed to be useful for all NHS organisations - those that are just beginning to address equality and diversity, as well as those that have progressed further and might it a useful tool to support other members of staff.
We recommend that you begin by using the audit tool before doing a more detailed baseline assessment, to answer the key question: Where are you now?
Project report template
We have also created a project report template in which you can record your findings and analysis at each step of the way. Download the report template and save it to your computer. The different sections match up with the sections of this guide. However, the introduction and recommendations will probably need to be completed last.
Top ten tips
Before you get started, and to remind yourself throughout the project, take a look at our top ten tips for equality and diversity in practice.