Posted on: 4 April 2021
A think peice on supporting ethnic minority colleagues from Rob Webster and Fatima Khan-Shah. Rob Webster (CBE) is the CEO Lead for West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership. He is also the CEO for South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and in March 2021 was named 'CEO of the Year' by the Health Service Journal. Fatima Khan-Shah is our Partnership's Programme Director for Carers and Personalised Care.
Our Partnership won 'System Leadership System Leadership Initiative of the Year' at this year's Health Service Journal awards.
Our Partnership is based on a shared desire to address the shocking inequalities that persist across West Yorkshire and Harrogate. In every area of life there are issues that we need to collectively address, including poorer life chances for people with learning disabilities, early deaths of people with severe mental illness and the differential experiences of our diverse communities.
Reminded by George Floyd’s murder and the Public Health England report into the COVID-19 experiences of ethnic minority communities and colleagues (should we ever need a reminder), we’re tackling these issues head on with collective force, will and determination to make life better with and for those most impacted.
We have not shied away – indeed we have done the opposite. Together we are making progress on an important area of life that has often been ignored – one that is complex, historical, societal and systemic due to decades of persistent inequality and inequity.
We are proud to be home to 20% of people from ethnic minority backgrounds, and have a sense of pride in the richness, heritage and diversity of our communities. The diversity of our communities across our towns, cities and villages is one of our greatest strengths, but we also face widening gaps in healthy life expectancy and entrenched inequalities. COVID-19 has reinforced these inequalities for our minority ethnic communities and colleagues and our urgent need to ‘get a move on’.
Long before the pandemic began we seized the opportunity to strengthen the way we support colleagues from minority ethnic communities through our system leadership programme. We knew that fundamental changes were needed in our health and care system, such as the diversity of our leadership and the crucial need to tackle existing longstanding inequalities facing colleagues.
One of the 10 big ambitions in our Five Year Plan is to have ‘a more diverse leadership that better reflects the broad range of talent in West Yorkshire and Harrogate, helping to ensure that the poor experiences in the workplace that are particularly high for ethnic minority colleagues will become a thing of the past’. This was full supported in the work of our review last year and the recommendations agreed by our Partnership Board.
We are actively listening and leading, whilst being fully aware of the responsibility to demonstrate by our actions that we can be part of the solution. Our excellent relationships we have other key players including the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and our local universities mean we can ensure that action on developing a more diverse leadership now and in the future is a major part of our current work.
Supported by a fantastic group of ethnic minority network chairs; they are influencing our approach across leadership and priority programme areas, including preventing ill health, cancer and maternity care. With representation on our Shadow Executive Leadership Board and our People Board we are determined to have their incredible voices heard – and above all acted upon.
This commitment and ambition is demonstrable through both the success to date and continued planning on how we further create an equitable, fair and safe environment that promotes ethnically diverse talent. An example can be seen in our Fellowship Programme. This is all about developing future systems leaders working in health and care across our area’s six local places.
Importantly, the programme was built from colleagues’ insight, experiences and input. Three leadership development streams enable people at different stages within their careers to progress to the next stage, with a clear aim to break ‘glass ceilings’ of career progression. As a result this will help to ensure our Partnership priorities are designed to meet diverse needs and ultimately deliver better care for all. We know that having role models to aspire is important in ensuring colleagues feel that they belong (which they do).
In response to the heightened COVID-19 related risk facing our ethnic minority colleagues, we rapidly co-produced a plethora of resources focused on safety, health and wellbeing - ranging from risk assessments to management information that enables culturally competent discussions. Though COVID-19 catalysed the inception, it is not intended that the utility, production and sharing of resource will end.
Work underway includes developing a racial inequalities webpage, where we can promote diversity, educate and raise awareness – featuring unconscious bias and racial micro-aggression to help employees learn how their behaviour is influenced by stereotypes and bias. White privilege, language for inclusion and creating an inclusive work environment are also aspects of the training available. All areas covered in our ‘Can you hear me’ podcast series.
Our work to date has influenced our response to COVID-19 and recovery with one example being seen in the West Yorkshire Vaccination Programme, where a health inequalities subgroup was established and equality impact assessments carried out at a local place level.
Yes we have made a start. There is much more to do. Working together as a Partnership is our best chance of succeeding if we are to level up what we know has been an unequal playing field for far too many of our colleagues for far too long. Progress has demonstrated clearly that if you change the people in the room, you change the conversation. It has also shown that we have talented leaders across West Yorkshire and Harrogate who we need for a different and better future.