Hello
I’m delighted to be writing this week’s leadership message for the Partnership ahead of the launch of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Anti-racism Movement on Monday 23 August. And equally sad that we should be having to still do this across society.
The movement is one of many recommendations from the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership review into the impact of COVID-19 on health inequalities and support needed for ethnic minority communities and colleagues published last summer. You can read the report which sets out the next steps here.
The review panel sessions, chaired by Professor Dame Donna Kinnair, Chief Executive and General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, a leading figure in national health and care policy, included Partnership leaders, members of the Partnership’s Race Equality Network and voluntary and community social enterprise sector (VCSE) partners. As one of the leaders on the Partnership Board I fully support the action plan put in place to implement these important recommendations. The Board has been monitoring progress ever since to ensure change takes place. The recommendations include:
- Equality of opportunities for ethnic minority groups of people in all economic development and recovery plans, including work on apprenticeships, job creation and start up grants.
- Inclusive leadership standards which leaders pledge to personally uphold within their organisations, starting with recruitment and selection processes
- Monitoring of service access, uptake, and outcomes by ethnicity to identify health inequalities
- Work to address the determinants that lead to ethnic inequalities in mental health
- And of course, the coproduction of an anti-racism movement.
I’m very proud to be the lead for the movement and delighted that 500 organisations and community allies have got behind it – including the West Yorkshire Mayor, the Deputy Mayor for Deputy Mayor for Police and Crime, all NHS organisations, councils, leading sports clubs, and the voluntary community social enterprise sector (VCSE), to name a few. Co-created by over 100 WY&H HCP ethnic minority colleagues to proactively challenge racism across all aspects of society, the movement is part of an ongoing commitment to tackle structural and institutionalised racism, as well as addressing health and social inequalities across the area. It’s staggering to believe that racism still exists. You only need to read the movement’s insight report and the quotes from our colleagues for the evidence. For example…
“I’m getting way more stares, people looking at you just because of your skin tone. I’m being faced with racism from kids who are 5-6 years old. Of all racism I’ve encountered, that’s probably the most shocking, that’s the racism coming from kids.”
“Stereotypes, assumptions that are made about me as a Black man, professionally or socially. Simple things like when I go on a bus, being the last person to be sat next to, or when the cashier puts the change into people’s hands but when it comes to you, she puts it in the counter.”
At both a West Yorkshire and Harrogate level and closer to home in Kirklees we have big ambitions to tackle all forms of inequalities. I’m extremely proud to say that in the coming months we will be launching the ‘Kirklees Inclusion Commission’. We believe everyone should have an equal chance in life. The pandemic highlighted inequalities in Kirklees and we now have an opportunity to make sure no one is left behind in our recovery. By listening to and working with our residents the commission will instigate long-term change by better understanding inequalities and developing solutions to address these. The pandemic has brought these issues into even sharper focus.
If we stand together as one, we have more chance of rooting out racism. I for one am determined to make this happen and make what is a vision for many, a reality for all. The time to change and the opportunity to act is now.
Moving forward, we need to do much more. The movement with our collective force is a good start. It will be crucial over the coming months (and years) to continue to focus on ensuring visible diversity on decision making boards and in our wider organisations at all levels are truly reflective of the communities we serve.
I would personally like to thank everyone for their hard work and involvement in this movement – it’s a huge team effort from many. Our job now is to share the philosophies of the movement with everyone we talk to so they too can stand with us - freely and without hesitation.
If you haven’t joined the movement, you can still do so at bit.ly/3zmxEGd
Thank you and have a good weekend