In line with the Equality Act 2010, there is a duty for all public bodies to consider how their activities as employers and service providers affect people who share different protected characteristics covering:

  • Age
  • Disability
  • Gender
  • Marriage and civil partnership
  • Pregnancy and maternity
  • Race, including ethnic or national origins, colour or nationality
  • Religion or belief
  • Sex
  • Sexual orientation

There is also a responsibility for public bodies to consider how the decisions they make affect people who share different protected characteristics. The Trust also looks at how its decisions affect the Health Inclusion groups.

The Trust is determined to continue to be a beacon and leader of enlightened equality, human rights and inclusion policies and practices. We aspire to add to our record of working with, and for, all the diverse communities we serve, to consistently improve standards of care and increase the benefits our communities enjoy.

The Trust’s Equality and Inclusion Strategy 2018 confirms our commitment to workforce and service equality, access, experience and outcomes in reference to delivering personal, fair, diverse and inclusive practices. It sets out the governance arrangements to monitor progress against the Equality Objectives we have established following a gap analysis of work across the legacy Trusts. Governance for the Equality and Inclusion work will be via the Workforce and Development Committee and the Quality Governance Committee; both are sub-committees of the Trust Board.

The Strategy is a dynamic document and is developed and reviewed in partnership with community and staff groups. It is the aim that each objective will have an operational plan linked to it. This enables further analysis on progress and areas for action and development.

MPFT Equality and Inclusion Strategy 2018 (PDF)

Equality Objective 1

The Trust will commit to and deliver effectively on the Deaf Charter Pledges by working in partnership with local community groups. The Deaf Charter Forum will monitor and support the implementation of a compliance plan which will support this objective. This objective links with the EDS2 Goals 1, 2 & 3.

Equality Objective 2

The Trust will achieve and evidence Trust wide compliance to the Accessible Information Standard (AIS). An AIS action group will develop, implement and review a compliance plan which will support this objective. This objective links with EDS2 Goals 1, 2 & 3 and meets all five areas for CQC assessment.

MPFT AIS Compliance Plan January 2019 (PDF)

Equality Objective 3

The Trust will become an Employer of Choice through increasing its diversity profile and staff reporting a good experience of working within the Trust. The Trust believes this will be achieved by the effective delivery of the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) and the Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) action plans which will be established in the Trust and by utilising the support of staff networks to become ambassadors / champions. This objective links with EDS2 Goals 3 & 4 and will support the Trust to meet all five areas of the CQC in particular the Well Led elements.

Equality Objective 4

The Trust will deliver services that are responsive to people’s needs through the improvement of capturing and recording equality data for service uptake and using the information to inform service development. This objective extends to the use of equality data within the Trust’s Equality Analysis Process and within service improvement and re-designs/activities. This objective links with EDS2 Goals 1, 2 & 3 and meets the Safe, responsive and effective elements of the CQC assessment.

Equality Objective 5

The Trust will have an integral and robust approach to undertaking an Equality Analysis (EA) where there is service planning / redesign, within procurement and contracts as well as at the heart of transformation. This objective links with EDS2 Goals 1, 2, 3 & 4. This will support the Trust to deliver on all five areas of the CQC assessment.

Equality Objective 6

The Trust needs to review and develop a robust and inclusive communication involvement and engagement strategy which will provide the opportunity for staff to engage with communities who would not / do not actively present in engagement and involvement activities including in-patient surveys, consultations, membership events, complaints and compliments.

The Trust will utilise the Equality Delivery System 2 (EDS2) to provide assurance on the progression of the equality objectives 1 and 2. The Trust will undertake formal consultation until May 2019. 

Staff, governors, members and service users have an opportunity to become lay assessor members of the EDS2 to support the facilitation and grading during 2019. This will enable the Trust, at the end of its first year, to have a graded EDS2 for objectives 1 and 2 against the EDS2 Goal 2.

The Trust has maintained compliance to the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). The annual workforce data equality analysis was undertaken and findings reported to the subcommittee of Workforce Matters in 2018. The reports were based on the data extracted from the legacy Trusts and a separate report compiled for each Trust. The data used was that held during the period April 2017 to March 2018.

EDS2 November 2018 (PDF)

The Public Sector Equality Duty, part of the Equality Act 2010, is made up of a general duty and specific duties.

The general duty

The general duty has three aims and requires us to have due regard to the need to:

  • Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited under the Act.
  • Advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.
  • Foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

The specific duties

Under the specific duties we are required to publish in a manner that is accessible to the public.

1. Information to demonstrate its compliance with the public sector Equality Duty at least annually.

This information must include, in particular, information relating to people who share a protected characteristic who are:

  • our employees
  • people affected by its policies and practices.

2. Equality objectives at least every four years. All such objectives must be specific and measurable.

Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust will produce its Public Sector Equality Duty Reports, these will be in the format of two separate reports one for Workforce and the second for Services Uptake.

Previous Reports

The NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) was introduced in April 2015. It aims to ensure employees from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds have equal access to career opportunities and receive fair treatment in the workplace.

Previous Reports -

From 2015/16, WRES has been included in the NHS standard contract.

The Trust has submitted the WRES 2021 and a WRES Action Plan is established to capture the actions identified from the WRES data analysis.

NHS England WRES Expert Programme

The Trust has been successfull in becoming a participant on the NHS England WRES Expert Programme. This will enable sustainable actions to improve race equality across the Trust and improve the experience of BAME staff, particularly in development and promotion.

The Trust is part of Together We're Better, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent's Sustainability and Transformation Programme and the Stepping Up Programme (BAME Leadership Programme) has been successfully delivered to a number of Trust staff.

Three of our staff were filmed by the team at Together We're Better. Watch their stories below at the bottom of this page.

The Trust remains part of the Pioneers group for the early development and implementation of the Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES).

This group is led by the NHS Employers' Head of Equality and Inclusion. The Trust has supported the pilot metrics and will comply with the WDES reporting and submissions.

The WDES is now mandatory as of 2019

Previous Reports -

The mandatory gender pay gap analysis requires us to report workforce data across gender and pay bands and plans to address any gaps or over/under representation.

The Sexual Orientation Monitoring (SOM) records the sexual orientation of all patients/service users aged over 16 years across all health services in England. It also covers local authorities with responsibilities for adult social care in all service areas where it may be relevant to record this data using a standardised format.

This standard provides the categories for recording sexual orientation but does not mandate a collection. The SOM has been based on research conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), and on current practice by those organisations which monitor sexual orientation. This is a significant milestone in promoting Lesbian Gay Bisexual equality in England. Recording sexual orientation will allow policy makers, commissioners and providers to better identify health risks and will support targeted preventative and early intervention work to address the health inequalities for people who are Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual.

The Trust will report sexual orientation through its Workforce Equality Data Analysis reports and its Services Equality Data Analysis reports from May 2019. Currently the Trust is using the standard and guidance to support and improve the quality of equality data recorded.

The Trust’s Staff Inclusion Networks are designed to support staff to fulfil their potential in the workplace and empower them to support the development of Trust-wide policies, practices and initiatives to be fair, accessible and inclusive.

There are four networks

  • REACH
  • Faith, belief and Spirituality
  • Differently Abled
  • LGBT+

The Trust undertakes Listening in Action activities with our network to understand their issues and find solutions.

Each network has hosted one Listening into Action workshop and will develop, based on feedback from staff. Their programme of activity will feed into the Trust’s strategic priorities and key strategies.

This will be monitored by the Workforce and Development Committee.

Further information can be obtained from respect@mpft.nhs.uk

The service provides a single point of access for staff, service users, community members and provider organisations to access the support of interpreters, communication support and/or translation. The service provides face to face language interpreters, telephone language interpreters, face to face British Sign Language (BSL) and Lip Speakers and the formatting and translation of documents.

The service can be contacted via:

Telephone: 01782 227772

E-mail: interpreterservices@mpft.nhs.uk

SMS Text: 07972 659493

The organisation is accountable for continuously improving the quality of service and safeguarding high standards of care. For people with specific communication needs, it is imperative that we adopt a robust and sustainable integrated language and communication service across the geographical area we serve in order to reduce risks and improve the equality in health and social care services we deliver.

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Equality and Inclusion Contact Details

Balwinder Kaur