Posted on: 10 February 2022
Root Out Racism – our commitment remains as strong as ever
On 23 August 2021, we enjoyed a memorable day alongside colleagues from across our partnership and members of our communities at our place-based launch of the Root Out Racism movement that has been developed by the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership. Our very high profile and highly visible launch complete with music, dance and sounds from our diverse communities really did demonstrate our commitment to doing all we can to level the playing field for all.
Since then, we have collectively looked at how we can respond to the challenges that all of you have rightly set us. We have remained committed to this agenda despite the considerable pressure facing our services and the re-emergence of Covid that once again disrupted our lives. Tackling Covid has provided us with a constant reminder of the need to tackle to inequalities and challenge any forms of discrimination wherever this happens – implicitly or explicitly.
We have been clear in our commitment to calling out racist behaviour – publicly, loudly, and jointly. We do this in a fair, justified way and where we can do so where we have firm proof. This was demonstrated by our joint statement we issued as a health and care partnership for Bradford district and Craven, following the horrendous abuse directed to England’s footballers after Euro 2020. We won’t hesitate to call out similar behaviours where we can justifiably and legally do so.
We have all taken steps to actively raise awareness of key awareness days and events including Black History Month and we will be using Race Equality Week to remind ourselves of our commitments to being actively anti-racist in what we do. Our unquestionable and relentless focus is on diversifying our leadership across our organisations as well as ensuring we give every voice – internally and externally – a chance to be seen, to be heard and to know that we will listen. This is our shared pledge and commitment, and this is what we want you to help us achieve. We have demonstrated this by creating a new system wide senior level equality and inclusion lead role which has been designed to support our wider health and care partnership and our Act as One vision and will be a key part of our decision-making processes for our partnership.
We have also been one of the most active place based partnerships in giving opportunities to our colleagues to take part in the West Yorkshire Fellowship Scheme for colleagues from ethnically diverse communities. And we are proud to have Professor Udy Archibong as our Pro Vice-Chancellor for the University of Bradford who is a nationally recognised and respected leader in the field of inclusion and a vocal anti-racism campaigner. The University hosts the internationally recognised Centre for Inclusion and Diversity (CfID) which was established in 2005 and continues to influence work locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Our response to Covid has reminded us of the challenges that remain in developing trust among our communities, and this has been demonstrated by the varying levels of people taking up the Covid vaccine. This has provided us with a reminder, if one was needed, as to why it is vitally important that we build trusting relationships with all our communities and our own colleagues. By rooting out racism we will go a long way towards achieving that. It is why we are embarking on a community centred vaccination programme that responds to what people are telling us. We will be learning from this experience to consider how all our services can address deeper inequality issues.
The weather may have turned distinctly chilly since that August day, but our hearts remain warm in the knowledge that we have partners, colleagues and people in our communities who will help us on our anti-racism journey and continue to call us out and challenge us fairly. As leaders of our health and care system we can and will do more.
Co-signed; Helen Hirst, Accountable Officer, NHS Bradford District and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group, Iain Macbeath, Strategic Director of Health and Wellbeing, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, Kersten England CBE, Chief Executive, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, Kim Shutler, Chair of the Bradford District Assembly, representing the voluntary and community sector, Louise Bestwick, Chief Executive of the Bradford Care Association, representing independent care sector providers, Paul Shevlin, Chief Executive, Craven District Council, Professor Mel Pickup, Chief Executive, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Rob Aitchison, Chief Executive, Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, Therese Patten, Chief Executive, Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust, Dr James Thomas, Chair of the Clinical Forum, Dr Richard Haddad, Chair of Clinical Advisory Board (CAB).