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In Summer 2000, the DoH
Circular The Vital Connection: An
Equalities Framework for the NHS set a priority “to ensure that the NHS is a good
employer, achieving equality of opportunity and fair outcomes in the workplace”.
To this end “All NHS Boards should undertake training on
managing equality and diversity” and “Leaders and managers must be
developed and trained to manage for equality and diversity.”
In Spring 2001, the Race Relations (Amendment) Act took effect, requiring all NHS providers “to take
the lead in promoting equality of opportunities and good race relations…in
policy making and in service delivery”.
To this end “Trusts have
to prepare and publish a Race Equality Scheme (REC)…Conduct Impact Assessments, Monitoring and Consultations…Train their staff on their new duties”
Managers may feel understandably overwhelmed by the
torrent of anti-discrimination legislation and Codes in recent years – the
introduction of laws against discrimination related to religion, belief or
sexual orientation in 2003; against age discrimination in 2006; and the
introduction of public sector duties regarding gender and disability in 2007
and 2008.
And there have been DoH circulars/guidance
‘Tackling Racial Harassment’ and ‘Working Together’; being Performance Managed
by the SHA and the Health Care Commission; and of course, meeting the
requirements of Core item 6, Equality and Diversity, NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) …
…..and there’s more in the
pipeline for 2009, with the proposed Single Equality Act, currently in an
advanced stage of consultation as a Bill, bringing together all equality
legislation and the probable introduction of a single public sector equality
duty across all the discrimination strands.
These
have all added to the agenda of induction and in-service training in NHS
Trusts, especially for managing a diverse workforce.
However well
an NHS Trust’s Board, SMT and HR circulates information about the new laws to
managers and staff, and however good the Trust’s written policies, procedures,
‘Positively Diverse’ strategies, Race Equality Scheme, monitoring schemes, and
frameworks of organisational development, none of these by themselves produce
the behavioural changes needed to ensure equality of race, age, sex,
disability, orientation, religions in mainstream practice both in the workforce
and in service delivery.
Busy NHS
managers and front-line teams need more than information, ‘awareness’ and good
intentions to comply with the laws, and to respond professionally to diversity.
They need to be equipped with due competencies - the practical ‘tools for the
job’ – to be able to implement, or ‘operationalise’, Trust diversity policies
and anti-discrimination laws in their everyday practice.
à see Law
and Policies into Practice: report of a
felt-needs survey of 400 NHS managers, and 8 HR Directors
A. Law and
Policies into Practice: Managing Diversity
We have
provided hundreds of workshops on Managing Diversity for NHS Boards, Senior
Managers, Clinical Practitioners, Team Leaders and HR. Our training doesn’t
just set out what the laws say, but what they mean in terms of practical
managerial skills they require for compliance in the NHS. We
equip team leaders with agendas, action checklists and materials to cascade
learning in continuing team development. All
Trusts are different – so our training is customised collaboratively to match a Trust’s
specific needs and local situation.
à contact us if you’d like
to see a sample Workshop Outline on Managing Diversity, run for over 30 NHS
Trusts, together with full data feedback reports on its effectiveness
à for list of our NHS
clients
Age
discrimination
Age
discrimination became unlawful in 2006. This workshop deals with both the law
and policy implementation.
Recruitment
interviewing across cultures
Tribunals draw adverse
inferences when managers and recruitment panels are not equipped with skills of
cross-cultural communication to ensure fair interviewing.
à
to see sample workshop
outline: Recruiting across Cultures
(run for 18 NHS Trusts; independent evaluations available). Also links
to
à
for sample of Culturally
Competent Recruiting: full data evaluation report by participants in Avon
Performance
Appraising a diverse workforce
A workshop to identify and dismantle glass ceiling
barriers; covers gender, disability, race, both in relation to competencies
frameworks and performance measuring, and covers gender and race discrimination
in appraisal interviewing.
à see sample
outline for recruiting
and performance appraising across cultures
Harassment
Policy implementation, whether of race, sex, or
disability; with skills for handling and advising complainants, and strategies
for prevention of harassment – as much from patients and relatives as from
other staff.
“NHS organisations must take action to ensure the NHS
is free from harassment … Each local employer should be able to demonstrate a
year on year increase in the level of confidence that staff have in their
ability to tackle harassment at work”
Government NHS Circular, The Vital
Connection
à see outline
of Workshop on Harassment
(run for 22 NHS Trusts; independent evaluations available)
Leadership skills for diversity and
facilitating team working
Developing teams in understanding and preventative
practical action on any or each of the overlapping discriminations: race,
gender, disability, sexual orientation, age. Includes skills for resolving
internal team tensions and for drawing on diversity within teams for creative problem-solving.
Disability
The Disability Discrimination Act in detail, and how
it is being interpreted in NHS cases. Includes the Code; Employers’ Duties;
practical examples on documentary video of how equality has been achieved in a
range of public services. Plus sensitivities needed for team leading with
disability diversity. Workshop outline
used for NHS Trusts in Norwich, East Midlands, the West Country, together with
independent evaluations, available.
Sexual orientation
Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation was
made unlawful in 2003. Our workshops have been used by the Employment Service
and by many Police Forces.
Training Trainers to handle Diversity
Workshop to
help internal trainers adapt the content of their Induction, IT or other
courses to build in the diversity dimension, and also to adapt training methods
to take account of culturally different learning styles.
B.
Workshops for equality of access and treatment in patient care/customer
service
“Service providers must train and support staff to
dismantle communication barriers that stop users from getting the services they
need”
Government NHS Circular, The Vital Connection
“It is important that professionals recognise the cultural determinants of communication and the different ways in which people from different backgrounds behave and respond. Overcoming Communication Barriers includes … training programmes that teach staff to improve their communication skills, examine their expectations of minority ethnic patients and give them the knowledge and awareness needed to work effectively with patients from all ethnic groups.”
CRE Code of Practice in Primary Health Care Services
Front-line cultural sensitivity and
communication skills for fulfilling Statutory Duties under RR(A) Act
We develop the cross-cultural communication
skills needed for front-line service interactions by doctors, clinical
practitioners, reception and administrative staff with public/patients from
different cultural backgrounds.
à
sample outline of workshop: Cross-cultural
communication in Front-line service / Patient care (as conducted at over 30 NHS Trusts)
à
see list of our NHS Client Trusts
We are uniquely well-placed to provide
training in this field, having pioneered the training materials most used
worldwide on this topic. Full data response reports on all NHS training
workshops are available on request.
à
see
Who we are
Religions
Comprehensive law against religious
discrimination came into force in 2003. This workshop was first developed for training
NHS Hospital Chaplains and Volunteers in the
Mental
health
Workshop explaining the implications of
cross-cultural misunderstandings in both diagnosis and treatment. The workshop was
first designed for the National Association of Educational Psychology and
Psychiatry and built around the documentary video “All in the Mind?”. It has
been run over 50 times at Mental Health Trusts including the South London and
Maudsley, and Trusts in
Sample outline of workshops for Mental
Health Advisers, for psychiatrists, for mental nursing staff, plus Independent evaluations, are available.
The
titles below are a selection from Diversity Works’ library of documentary
training productions, originally made for broadcast within the BBC TV MOSAIC Project.
All feature real NHS case-studies, or are directly applicable to NHS work
settings. All have powerful credibility as genuine documentary, since they do
not feature actors or simplistic, stereotyped dramatised scenes; all feature
world leading experts; all have print support manuals with background
information and interactive group exercises.
Documentary evidence (from London NHS Trust areas) on
why and how to identify physical health needs of different racial and cultural
communities, and working collaboratively to meet these.
Video
evidence (from London NHS Trust areas) demonstrating how misdiagnosis in mental
health (and so less effective treatment) commonly results from cross-cultural
misunderstandings and misperceptions. Film made with NAFSIYAT.
Illustrates authentic case of promotion grievance within
a Health Authority.
Demonstrates what kinds of facts can found a case of
unlawful race discrimination. Illustrates the facts of an authentic tribunal
case concerning promotion of a senior black (male) nurse, brought against a
Health Authority.
30 mins., with integral 32-page manual.
Demonstrates awareness
and skills needed by managers if they are to avoid unintentionally (but still
unlawfully) discriminating in conduct of workforce appraisal, and so ensure
equal chances for promotion for minority ethnic staff.
"These
videos on Recruiting and Appraising across cultures contain appropriate
training messages and convey them most effectively. They tackle a subject often
found difficult by trainers: they are very rich in terms of content" (Bryan Rynn, Chair of Awards Judging
Panel)
§
Developing Empathy
30 mins,
with print manual. Made for training of doctors/health practitioners. Directed
for Celia Roberts of King’s College,
London for Guy’s and St Thomas’ on skills for clinical interactions with
patients ‘difficult’ because of personal attitudes or differing cultures.
§
Doing the Lambeth Talk is a related
film and notes by Celia Roberts for GPs/PCTs on interacting with
culturally diverse BME patients.
§
Fair Access: 60 mins DVD
(2007) + Training Notes, on Wider Participation in University and
§
Counselling and Advice Across Cultures
50 mins, with 32-page manual. "Fly on the wall" local advice
service case-studies, featuring South Asian cultures.
§
Attitudes to Islam
45 mins, with 48-page
training/teaching manual. Examines misunderstandings through eyes of European
non-Muslim community health workers working in an Islamic society – and how
they apply their insights here in
30 mins, with training manual. Illustrates common
misperceptions of meaning and intentions in formal interview situations
involving British African-Caribbean people.
Includes sequences analysing good and bad practice in
patient consultations. Made in Toxteth, with Liverpool University Department of
General Practice.
Made originally for the BBC’s Panorama slot, these 3 x
60 minute documentaries illustrate the nature of stereotypical thinking and its
damaging effects in public services (plus book).
Illustrates the subtle ways minority black staff
perspectives may be marginalised in meetings; demonstrates need for whole-staff
involvement from start of any process of Diversity / EO policy implementation.
Videopack on subtle race and gender biases in usage of
‘objective’ Competency Frameworks in appraisal. [Made for Australian Public
Service Commission.]
Sets out the ‘business case’ for Diversity, with case-studies
from public services.
Awareness
and skills for teams including disability diversity (Film originally made for The Employment
Service).
Awareness
and skills for handling diverse teams: Race/culture, age, gender, disability,
sexual orientation, family-friendly.
(Two x 60 mins videos made for The Employment Service)
Includes UNISON officers in 4-part examination of
cross-cultural communication in the workplace.
§ Diversity Works Ltd made 3 training DVD/videopacks on legal issues with and for UNISON (details available)