News

Pride Season 2023

Pride Season celebrates LGBTQ+ people in all their diversity, raises awareness, and combats prejudice with education.

1 June 2023

Every June, the LGBTQ+ population and their allies come together to celebrate and recognise the influence LGBTQ+ people have had around the world. This begins what has grown to become Pride Season, a series of events that highlight current challenges faced by LGBTQ+ people and celebrate the progress made toward equality.

This year we have seen an increase in hostility toward LGBTQ+ people; intense negative media and public discord, particularly around trans people, has led to increases in hate crimes, vandalism of LGBTQ+ venues and disruption of LGBTQ+ events. Society has come a long way since the Stonewall Riots of 1969, but with the UK slipping down to 17th place in the Rainbow Europe Map And Index and we clearly need to continue to raise awareness, challenge negative attitudes, and celebrate inclusiveness.

For LGBTQ+ people, Pride Season promotes their dignity, equal rights, self-affirmation and is a way of increasing society’s awareness of the issues they face.

Supporting our LGBTQ+ workforce

The NHS People Plan recognises the urgency of NHS leaders acting and creating an organisational culture where everyone feels that they belong – in particular, improving the experience of staff from diverse and minority backgrounds.

Today, barriers to equal rights and opportunities remain and contribute to some of the negative experiences that the LGBTQ+ population face. We are yet to see all forms of so-called conversion therapy banned for example. It is therefore crucial that NHS organisations have open conversations at work about the experience of their LGBTQ+ staff inside and outside of the workplace.

NHS organisations should strive to create a culture and environment that allows LGBTQ+ staff to be themselves at work and to contribute fully to the wider organisation. It's important that employers educate colleagues so that they can help to create a more welcoming working environment.

Access information and resources 

  • Inclusive leadership pledge - The NHS Confederation developed an inclusive leadership pledge, with nine behaviours you can adopt to model inclusive leadership. Find out more and sign the pledge now.

  • Health and Care LGBTQ+ Inclusion Framework -  The framework is built on six pillars to enable health and care leaders to ensure their working culture and services are LGBTQ+ inclusive. 

  • Dr Layla McCay on the experiences of LGBTQ+ NHS staff - In this blog, Dr Layla McCay, executive lead of the NHS Confederation's Health and Care LGBTQ+ Leaders Network, shares her thoughts on the inequalities of experiences of LGBTQ+ people as reflected in the NHS Staff Survey.

  • Join the NHS Confederation's Health and Care LGBTQ+ Leaders Network - If you're an LGBTQ+ leader or ally, be part of a diverse network of people from across health and care, supporting and influencing  change across the system.

  • Peter Molyneux on authentic leadership - Peter Molyneux, chair of the Health and Care LGBTQ+ Leaders Network shares the challenges of being authentic while in a leadership role, and what it means to be an authentic leader.  

  • Supporting your LGBTQ+ workforce - Access tools, resources, and best practice to help you create a culture and environment that welcomes LGBTQ+ staff, allowing them to be themselves at work and to contribute fully to the wider organisation. 
     
  • NHS Employers and the Health and Care LGBTQ+ Leaders Network held a webinar in December 2021 'Embedding and empowering LGBTQ+ staff networks webinar'. This session covered the latest good practice on LGBTQ+ staff networks in the NHS and what can be done to ensure they operate effectively, access the recording.

Download the promotional resources

If you are looking to run your own campaign, download the promotional resources which include: 

Get involved

The Health and Care LGBTQ+ Leaders Network would like to hear what you are doing this year to support Pride season. Please let them know of any events or initiatives and they will share across the network. Or if there’s anything else, please contact LGBTQnetwork@nhsconfed.org.