Fellowship Programme

We will use the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership Fellowship Programme to support our system ambition to increase the percentage of leaders from ethnic minority backgrounds. We will also work with the National Improvement Next Programme to address the issue of Board level diversity. We will use the mentoring programme to encourage people with protected characteristics into system leadership positions.

Board Level Diversity

We will explore how the Next Programme will address the issue of board level diversity and we will influence trust boards to recruit in a way that is culturally appropriate.

Health Inequalities

We will implement the recommendations from the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership independent review into health inequalities to ensure these are effective. We will also support the roll out of the best practice toolkit, developed by the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership in October 2021. This toolkit reduces the disparity experienced by ethnic minority colleagues during the recruitment process. We will also support the Core20PLUS5 NHS England and NHS Improvement approach to supporting the reduction of health inequalities. The approach defines a target population cohort based on the Index of Multiple Deprivation, which will receive targeted support. Core20PLUS5 also identifies ‘5’ focus clinical areas requiring accelerated improvement.

Race and Disability Workforce Standards

Our actions and performance on this pillar will be aligned with Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES), Medical Workforce Race Equality Standard (MWRES) and the Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES).

Breaking Barriers

We will work with Breaking Barriers Innovation on workforce entry barriers for different sectors of the community and how the NHS and anchor institutions can support with that.

The purpose will be to identify learning that could be applied across West Yorkshire on co-production of solutions to support people into employment. This work will link into the economic regeneration agenda

The local programme on this pillar will also coordinate a system-wide approach in the following key areas:

• Wakefield Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Pledge signed by partners and progress tracked through the EDI sub group
• Introduction of executive leads for individual protected characteristics
• Offer placement opportunities to West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership Fellowship Programme and encourage staff across the system to become fellows
• Address issues of equality, diversity and inclusion in the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector
• Develop monitoring systems to track Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) recruitment and retention
• Ensure that the Apprenticeship Programme adopts a more inclusive approach

We will also develop supervisory skills around supporting staff from BAME communities.

EDI data

• An initial gathering of workforce EDI data was used to inform our objectives.
• We will be launching our “Proud to be You!” campaign and resources to promote recording of EDI data on HR systems.
• We developed a cross sector “EDI data per grade” matrix.
• We will be populating our “EDI data per grade” matrix to monitor improvement.

Collaboration

• We successfully trialled an LGBQT+ network and led a collaborative event in March 2023. We will now develop a LGBTQ+ Community of Practice.
• We will bring together EDI leads/champions to share learning system-wide and implement shared initiatives, starting with the disabled group.

Outreach to under-represented communities

• We have shared best practice and ideas for outreach in under-represented communities to improve recruitment and employer brand recognition.
• We are holding an inclusive recruitment event in October 2023.

Accessibility passport

• We are developing an accessibility passport to discuss and document reasonable adjustments to use across Wakefield place where such is not already in use.

Armed Forces and Care Experienced

• We will be agreeing an approach for offering Armed Forces and Care Experienced individuals guaranteed interviews and other support inline with Armed Forces and Care Leavers Covenant.

Ethnic minority talent

• We will promote opportunities in the system, including organisational schemes and the Fellowship, to increase the percentage of ethnic minority colleagues in leadership roles.
• In Wakefield District we had the greatest number of successful applicants for the 2023 Fellowship Programme in the whole of West Yorkshire.

Cultural competence training

• We are working with Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to develop and pilot cultural competence training across our partner organisations.