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At DCHS we are committed to fairness, equity and inclusion in our employment policies and practices.

We are working hard to make sure that everything we do is fair, equitable and that we treat people with dignity and respect.

Our Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights strategy shows some of the good work we have done so far and what our main equality priorities are for the future.

Strategy, reports and resources - equality, diversity and inclusion

Our strategy demonstrates our commitment to fairness, equity and inclusion in our employment policies and practices.  It communicates how we'll ensure all our services are accessible, meet people’s individual needs and are delivered with compassion and respect.

  • 2017-20 Equality and Inclusion Strategy

If you would like to comment on this strategy, please contact the team via E: dchst.equality@nhs.net.

These reports are produced annually to provide detailed analyses of our workforce by the protected characteristics of age, gender, disability, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation and marital status as set out under the provisions of the Equality Act 2010. 

Some of the reports show how representative our workforce is of the local population and communities, including our patients/service users; and other reports set out wide-ranging workforce metrics by pay band, recruitment activity, employee relations, training & development, staff group, etc broken down by the protected characteristics. 

The workforce equality data reports make year-on-year comparisons to provide insights into the pace of change at DCHS as well as to drive improvements.

A good understanding of the diversity as well as the needs of our workforce is a key priority area, hence our commitment to improving the declaration rates of our colleagues’ protected characteristics and also our workforce equality data analysis through communicating why these are necessary and what difference these could make to our colleagues.

Other reports

2022

NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES)

NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES)

2021

NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES)

NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES)

2020

NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES)

NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES)

2019

More about the standards

NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES)
Introduced in April 2015, the WRES is a set of metrics against which NHS organisations, including Community Trusts such as DCHS, are required to demonstrate progress against 9 workforce race equality performance indicators over time. It intends to improve BME people’s employment chances, career opportunities and workplace experiences, including those who want to work in the NHS. Further information about the WRES is accessible via the NHS website.

DCHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES)
Introduced on 1 April 2019, WDES is a set of metrics against which NHS organisations, including Community Trusts such as DCHS, are required to demonstrate progress against 10 workforce disability equality performance indicators over time. It intends to improve disabled people’s employment chances, career opportunities and workplace experiences, including those who want to work in the NHS. Further information about the WDES is accessible via the NHS website.

The LGBT+ network are working with Derbyshire LGBT+ and the NHS Rainbow Badge accreditation organisations to ensure DCHS is working alongside partners on topics that are key to the community. If you'd like to find out more, please contact the network chair Tracey Brailsford .

It is a requirement of the Equality Act 2010, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Department of Health's NHS Equality Delivery System (EDS) that we collect, analyse and publish our equality monitoring data for both employees and service users.

Monitoring is an important aspect of DCHS' commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. DCHS is dedicated to ensuring that its employment practices operate in a fair and equitable way and that its services are designed to meet service users' needs.

Collecting and analysing equality data enables us to recognise trends, identify any barriers facing specific equality groups and check if our policies or practices are affecting people differently.

What is an EIA, and why do we do it?

  • Undertaking EIA's (sometimes referred to as Equality Analysis) helps us to understand how our decisions may affect people. 
  • We use EIAs as a policy and service improvement tool – they help us to identify what we need to do to better meet people's needs.
  • An EIA helps us to think clearly about how what we do may impact on all communities or groups.
  • It involves anticipating what the consequences of our actions may be and considering what we need to do to make sure that any negative consequences are removed or at least minimised.
  • It also provides us with an opportunity to consider how we can further promote equality, diversity, inclusion and Human Rights in everything that we do.
  • The requirement to undertake EIAs is clearly communicated in our Policy Development Framework. No significantly revised or new policies are approved by any one of our main committees without sight of a completed EIA. Currently 92% of all policies requiring approval by committee contain a completed EIA.

How do we do an Equality Impact Assessment?

Our EIA process has 2 stages. 

Stage 1 – assessing equality relevance

We need to ask the following questions to determine whether the policy, procedure, service, project or proposal is relevant to equality:

  • Does it affect service users, employees or the wider community?
  • Is it a key decision, significantly affecting how functions are delivered?
  • Will it have a significant effect on how other organisations operate?
  • Does it relate to functions that previous engagement has identified as being important to particular protected groups?
  • Does it or could it affect different protected (equality) groups differently?
  • Does it relate to an area with known inequalities?
  • Does it relate to an area where equality objectives have been set by our organisation?

Stage 2 – full equality impact assessment or equality analysis

If it is relevant to equality, we undertake a full assessment which asks:

  1. Which of the protected (equality) groups is it relevant to?
  2. What impact does/could it have? Could it disadvantage anyone? Could it address or tackle current inequalities?
  3. What relevant equality information/evidence is available? What does this tell you about the equality groups? Have any barriers/issues been identified?
  4. Have you consulted with equality groups? What has this consultation identified?
  5. What actions need to be taken as a consequence of the assessment?

Completed EIAs are attached to each of our policies.

What is the Equality Delivery System or EDS?

On 29 July 2011, the Department of Health (DoH) launched the NHS Equality Delivery System (EDS).

The EDS helps NHS healthcare organisations to meet their legal duties under the Equality Act 2010 and to make equality a reality for everyone.

It focuses on delivering better outcomes for patients and communities.  It is also about promoting better working conditions for staff.

There are 18 outcomes in the EDS, grouped under the four goals of:

  1. Better health outcomes for all
  2. Improved patient access and experience
  3. Empowered, engaged and included staff
  4. Inclusive leadership at all levels

How is DCHS performing on the EDS?

Healthcare organisations need to use evidence to show how they are achieving all of the 18 outcomes.

This evidence will be judged by patients, staff and other stakeholders including representatives from the local voluntary and community sector.  We have produced a Self-Assessment to show how we think we are meeting the requirements of the EDS. 

Based on the evidence provided, healthcare organisations will be rated as either ‘Excelling’, ‘Achieving’, ‘Developing’ or ‘Undeveloped’.

DCHS has been judged by the Derbyshire Community Health Equality Panel (DCHEP) - a group of people from the voluntary and community sectors representing the equality strands - as meeting the requirements of ‘Developing' during a rigorous assessment process.

We have since put in place an action to move us from ‘Developing' to the ‘Achieving' level of the EDS, which we are aiming to show compliance with by April 2014.

A copy of our self-assessment report presented to DCHEP is available here:

A copy of our Action Plan is available here:

Guides to EDS

In the videos below you can hear the views of people working in non-typical gender roles and challenging misconceptions. 

 

DCHS NHS Foundation Trust strives to ensure all published information is widely accessible. All publications and documents are available on request in other formats (for example, large print, easy read, Braille or audio version) and languages.

NHS England have provided the following Accessible Information Standard Update video in British Sign Language and subtitles.

For free translation and/or information in other formats please call 01246 515224, or email us DCHST.communications@nhs.net