Equality and diversity

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust is committed to promoting equality and encouraging diversity to ensure that we provide an excellent service to our patients and remain a model employer.

Our aim is to ensure that all of our services are accessible, appropriate and sensitive to the needs of the whole community and that we have a workforce representative at all levels of the population we serve, which is managed fairly and equitably. We are committed to eliminating discrimination and ensuring equality in care, and continue to embed our equality and diversity values into our policies, procedures and everyday practice.

What does equality and diversity mean to us?

Equality means that we recognise that different people have different needs, which need all need to be accommodated to the same high standards. Our equality values are embedded in:

  • Healthcare provision: access to services are sensitive to individual needs, irrespective of age, disability, ethnic origin, gender, marital status, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, and social background;
  • Employment, promotion, training, and development: opportunities are open to all on an equal basis;
  • Service developments: all decisions take into account the needs of the community;
  • Behaviours: patients, staff, volunteers and all other service users and providers are treated with dignity and respect.

Diversity is about creating a culture and developing practices that recognise, respect and value differences for the benefit of the organisation and the individual.

Wallace Sampson, Non-Executive Director at HDFT describes his career path and how he is committed to supporting equality and diversity at HDFT as part of our KITE (kindness, integrity, teamwork and equality) values.

The Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act protects people from discrimination, both in in the workplace and in wider society. All public sector organisations are required to ensure equal access to employment and services, regardless of the protected characteristics. These are:

  • Age
  • Disability
  • Gender reassignment or Trans status
  • Marriage and civil partnership
  • Pregnancy and maternity
  • Race
  • Religion or belief
  • Sex
  • Sexual orientation

Workforce Race Equality Standard

The Workforce Race Equality Standard requires organisations to demonstrate progress against a number of indicators specifically related to the experience of black and minority ethnic (BME) staff.

The standard has been introduced in order to address inequalities related to BME staff, their representation in the workforce and their experience. The Trust’s Action Plan (contained in the document below) supports this.

Workforce Race Equality Standard Annual Report 2023

Workforce Disability Equality Standard

The NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) is designed to improve workplace experience and career opportunities for Disabled people working, or seeking employment, in the National Health Service (NHS). The Trust action plan supports this. The WDES follows the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) as an enabler of change.

Workforce Disability Equality Standard 2023To open a PDF you may need to download Adobe Reader

Equality Delivery System 22

The Equality Delivery System (EDS22) aims to help local NHS organisations:

  • Improve the services they provide for their local communities;
  • Improve the experiences of people using the services;
  • Consider reducing health inequalities in their locality; and
  • Provide better working environments, free of discrimination, for those who work in the NHS.

At the heart of EDS22 is a set of outcomes covering patient care, access and experience, working environments and leadership. NHS commissioners may analyse their performance against these outcomes for each group afforded protection under the Equality Act 2010, as well as Inclusion Health groups (i.e. refugees, asylum seekers, homeless, and sex industry workers). Ideally this should be done in discussion with local stakeholders including patients, communities and staff, and using the best available evidence.

As a result of this analysis, organisations with local stakeholders are able to select their equality priorities. This analysis can go a long way to providing the information required by law to demonstrate compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Further information on EDS22 can be found on the NHS England website.

Click here to view the Trust’s EDS22 report for 2019/20.

Accessible Information Standard

The Accessible Information Standard tells organisations how they should ensure that disabled patients receive information in formats that they can understand and that they receive appropriate support to help them to communicate.

It directs and defines a specific, consistent approach to identifying, recording, flagging, sharing and meeting the information and communication support needs of patients, service users, carers and parents, where those needs relate to a disability, impairment or sensory loss.

The aim of the Standard is to establish a framework and set a clear direction such that patients and service users (and, where appropriate, carers and parents) who have information or communication needs relating to a disability, impairment or sensory loss receive:

  • Accessible information (information which is able to be read or received and understood by the individual or group for which it is intended); and
  • Communication support (support which is needed to enable effective, accurate dialogue between a professional and a service user to take place) such that they are not put ‘at a substantial disadvantage…in comparison with persons who are not disabled’ when accessing NHS or adult social services.

Staff Networks

  • LGBT+ Staff Network
  • BAME and Ally Staff Network
  • Disabilites and Long-Term Conditions Staff Network
  • Men’s Staff Network
  • Neurodiversity Staff Network
  • Menopause Staff Network
  • Armed Forces Working Group

For more information about our Staff Networks, you can visit our careers page.

External Partners and Resources

  • Public Health Team – North Yorkshire Council
  • SEND Local Offer – North Yorkshire Council
  • Early Help – North Yorkshire Council
  • Early Years – North Yorkshire Council
  • North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Partnership
  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
  • Children’s Autism Resources – Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust (hdft.nhs.uk)
  • ICON
  • ERIC UK
  • In Our Place – Solihull Approach online antenatal course
  • Lullaby Trust
  • The Healthy Start Scheme

Infant Feeding, Family Diet and Nutrition Pillar

  • UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative
  • Breastfeeding group at Harrogate Library run by HDH midwives
  • The Breastfeeding Network
  • La Leche League
  • First Steps Nutrition
  • NHS Start 4 Life, NHS Healthier Families
  • Brimham Active Healthy Families

Supporting Dads

  • Andys Man Club
  • DadPad
  • Families Need Fathers

Equality Impact Assessments