The Equality Act 2010 provides stringent protection to ensure equality becomes embedded into society. Public Sector bodies, including Integrated Care Boards, have specific proactive duties under the Public Sector Equality Duty to ensure proper consideration to equality is taken in all activities including decisions relating to services and employment practices.
Our dedicated Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team is committed to ensuring patients, staff members and communities have equitable experience and access to healthcare - irrespective of their background, identity or circumstances.
We provide a range of expert advice and services that empowers your organisation to deliver your equality requirements and to support inclusive cultures both in communities and across your teams, in line with legislation. Our work enables NHS organisations to create a supportive environment where everyone can thrive and receive the highest standards of care.
Our skilled team of practitioners have extensive experience in providing pragmatic and efficient approaches to implementing this challenging legislation within complex public sector organisations and large-scale NHS programmes. We provide our clients with the reassurance they are meeting their legal requirements but also enhancing how well they deliver services and treat their staff.
Whilst we can provide bespoke support to meet your needs. Our support spans six key areas of EDI service delivery:
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Strategy development and implementation
We support organisations to implement EDI strategies that can grow an inclusive culture, increase morale and motivation, improve recruitment and retention, enhance patient experience and outcomes and meet legal obligations. Our support includes:
- A ‘critical friend’ to provide fresh, objective insight
- Collation of intelligence to benchmark your current strategy
- Analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of your current strategy performance
- Collation and analysis of the necessary dependencies, evidence and data
- Identification of the recommended strategic focus and objectives
- Assistance with communicating the EDI strategy to a wide range of stakeholders
- Support with strategy implementation.
Equality Impact Assessments
Equality Impact Assessments are essential in ensuring compliance with the latest laws and regulations and empowers organisations to maximise the impact of equality and inclusion strategies, provide essential support for service transformation and build trust with patients. When administered effectively, Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) can provide a powerful tool to make continuous improvements in service outcomes as well as insuring you meet all legal requirements. Our support includes:
- Comprehensive diagnostic assessment: Evaluation of your existing EIA process, identifying any opportunities for improvement
- Bespoke training packages developed around your needs
- Drop-in sessions for one-to-one support on specific EIAs
- Executive and senior management development to support EIA implementation
- Embedding new pragmatic EIA systems, processes and practices.
Data intelligence and analysis
Access to robust data is a fundamental requirement in meeting all workforce and service user EDI requirements. We obtain, collate and analyse demographic data to provide essential EDI insights that improve decision making - such as highlighting priority areas, understanding the needs of your workforce and local population, reducing risk and planning and delivering accessible, fair and inclusive services. Our support includes:
- Comprehensive data collection, collation and analysis
- Bespoke reporting
- ‘At scale’ insightful conclusions and recommendations to strengthen your EDI approach
- Multi-method presentation to engage your audiences with the data
- Legal compliance advice.
EDI training
Ensuring your staff have up-to-date skills and expertise to meet the stringent requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty is essential in mitigating against potential risks and costly legal challenges. We can help you to understand where your staff have EDI skills and knowledge gaps, provide specialist development programmes, improve efficiency and generate corporate buy-in. Our support includes:
- Training needs analysis and training programme development
- Delivery of engaging online or face-to-face training
- Bespoke training packages to meet your organisational needs and values
- Provision of reference material
- Executive and Board development to refine your EDI approach.
Equality and diversity reporting
Ensuring an organisation fully meets legal and mandated EDI obligations can be challenging. Understanding Equality Law, the reports you need to produce, what they need to include, and when you need to publish them, all requires specialist expertise. We can help to protect your organisational reputation, ensure all EDI duties are fully met and provide clarity on potential risks. Our support includes:
- Instant access to expertise with the cost benefits associated with shared services
- A choice from our suite of legal and mandated products
- Products specifically designed to meet your legal and mandated duties
- Strategic support and guidance
- Engaging reports, presentations and training that generate organisational buy-in.
EDI procurement support
Health and care organisations have a legal duty to meet the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and compliance should be integral to each stage of the procurement cycle. We can help you to protect procurements from legal challenge, enhance performance via inclusivity, and make robust service decisions that have EDI at their core. Our support includes:
- End-to-end procurement support to ensure you are fully compliant
- Development of procurement exercises that embed EDI principles
- EDI evaluation of the essential elements of the procurement cycle
- Moderation of procurement exercises to clarify scores for those bidding
- Support in developing your specification and technical questions
- Training to support those involved in procurement processes.
Our EDI solutions are made by the NHS, specifically for the public and voluntary sectors and can help you to::
- Understand your workforce, your service users and your customers
- Save time and money by increasing efficiency
- Meet all your legal and statutory obligations
- Ensure you focus your resource effectively
- Ensure EDI work fits well against other priorities, challenges and agendas
ADDITIONAL EQUALITY SERVICES
RELEVANT READING
Find out more about our equality, inclusion and human rights services by accessing the resources below.
Finalists for the Investors in People Health and Wellbeing Award
Arden & GEM has been shortlisted in the Health and Wellbeing category at the Investors in People Awards 2024.
Arden & GEM awarded ‘We invest in wellbeing’ Platinum accreditation
NHS Arden & GEM has become just the third organisation in the UK to achieve ‘We invest in wellbeing’ Platinum accreditation following an assessment by Investors in People.
Sharing the importance of accountability in EDI with NHS England’s Midlands Workforce, Education and Training Team
Sharing the importance of accountability in EDI with NHS England’s Midlands Workforce, Education and Training Team
NHS Coventry and Warwickshire ICB joins Social Value Network as part of commitment to addressing health inequalities
NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) has joined the national Social Value Network, hosted by NHS Arden & GEM, as part of its ongoing commitment to deliver social value in the services it commissions.
Inclusive innovation: using community co-innovation in digital healthcare to tackle health inequalities and digital exclusion
Fran Ward, Project Manager, NHS Arden & GEM CSU and Dr Paulina Ramirez, Academic, Birmingham Business School explore how community co-innovation could be used to develop digital healthcare that works for diverse communities and reduces the risk of exclusion in this article for the Integrated Care Journal.
Investors in People Health and Wellbeing Award shortlisting success
Arden & GEM has been shortlisted for the fourth consecutive year in the Health and Wellbeing category of the Investors in People Awards 2023.
Supporting jobseekers into the NHS
Carla Smith, Apprenticeship and Career Development Manager at Arden & GEM, explains how the sector-based work academy programme and apprenticeships are helping jobseekers into careers with the NHS.
Reinforcing our commitment to the armed forces community through the Armed Forces Covenant
Arden & GEM is now a proud signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant, as part of its commitment to supporting the armed forces community.
Delivering a leadership programme for black and minority ethnic staff to improve career opportunities at Newcastle Hospitals
We worked in partnership with Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to deliver bespoke leadership training for black and minority ethnic staff which has resulted in improved confidence, morale and new career opportunities.
System-wide workforce planning sets the foundations for sustainable healthcare
ICBs have access to a large, talented workforce which can unlock opportunities to improve health and social care explains Head of Service for Workforce Planning and Consultancy, Fiona Grove, in our latest blog for Healthcare Leader.
CONTACT US
If you’d like to find out more about equality, inclusion and human rights please contact us here: