Congratulations to Sarah Feather, our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead, who recently won a Diversity in Health and Care Partners Programme award for the trust.
The programme supports health and care organisations to create more inclusive workplace cultures, where difference is welcomed and celebrated.
“We were lucky enough to be accepted on the very first programme cohort following an application to express our interest and describing what we wanted to gain from the programme,” said Sarah. “There were opportunities to showcase our work nationally as well as developing relationships with peers and networking with health and social care leaders, industry experts and the expert diversity and inclusion team at NHS Employers.”
The award was given for attending and participating in four modules over the course of twelve months. Each module focused on a different theme:
- Effecting change
- Inclusive leadership
- Inclusion and health inequalities
- Impact and engagement
“We are one of only 56 NHS trusts who joined and completed this new programme,” continued Sarah, “and I was able to invite colleagues to attend and learn alongside me. This gave me valuable time to develop relationships and working practices with our network chairs. The time and experience we had together is something that we would have not had on other programmes. The connections we all made with different colleagues means we can continue to learn and share best practice.
“We were also introduced to some incredible speakers who we have since invited to take part in our own events. Author and spoken word artist, Jaspreet Kaur, was our guest speaker at our first ever South Asian Heritage Month event, held on 19 July. It also allowed us to influence NHS Employers on the support they offer to us.
“I have loved being part of this programme. The opportunity to network and to be introduced to some inspirational people is unmatched on any other programme for inclusion.”
(Dis)Ability network chair, January Newton-Baxendine, who also attended, said, “It was great to be given the opportunity to attend an external event and it was nice to meet other inclusion teams across the country. I also appreciated bring approached to record a video to advertise our (Dis)Ability Network to NHS Employers and I enjoyed taking part in such a positive programme.”
LGBTQ network chair, Rob Tricker, said, “Having the opportunity to experience and attend an event with likeminded colleagues around diversity and inclusion was an excellent time to show case what we have achieved at our trust, and what our plans going forward are. It allowed us the time to collaborate with NHS people from across the country. It was such a positive and productive programme.”