Equality & Diversity
The Equality Act in NHS Sheffield

The government announced in the White Paper “Liberating the NHS” that Primary Care Trusts would not exist by 2012, with a transition to GP Commissioning Consortia.

We will therefore focus attention in our remaining time as an organisation on continuing to deliver work on equality and diversity, whilst preparing our successor organisation for taking forward this work

We recognise that the Equality Act signals a move away from a tick box approach to publishing schemes towards publishing intended and actual equality outcomes.

We reviewed our SES, and realised that the detail in our action plan masked some of the good work we are doing.

We have therefore developed a summarised version of the action plan and are now focusing on preparing for implementing the equality act.

NHS Sheffield and the future GP commissioning consortia

We need to identify where we have adequate data about the “protected characteristic groups” on which commissioning and policy decisions are made, and demonstrate this transparently. (Public health and information role with support from strategy leads)

We need to identify where the data is missing, and take the “reasonable steps” as required in the Act to address gaps. (Public health and information role with support from strategy leads)

We need to review all relevant policies relating to employment to ensure compliance and identify data required for publication. (HR and information)

We need to identify the organisational priorities around addressing the inequalities faced by the protected characteristic groups. (Executive Team, public health, Corporate Equality and Human Rights Group, strategy leads)

We need to develop briefings for Executive Team, Board, Transitions Board, GP consortia, staff, providers and the public ( Equality Act lead/CEHR)

We need to consider training implications and communications information about the act for all staff. (Training, Corporate Equality and Human Rights Group, Communications Team)

We need an implementation strategy/action plan. (CEHR group) in partnership with the public through engagement.