Equality and Diversity

The organisations and people in the health and social care system in Bradford District and Craven are committed to promoting and upholding the values of equality, diversity and inclusion.

We want our district to be a fairer and more equitable place where everyone can achieve their potential and have a good quality of life regardless of who they are. 

We consider our workforce to be at the heart of acting as one to us achieving this ambition.  If we act as one we know we can create fantastic places and organisations for people to work in and deliver great health and care for our district. As such workforce is one of the key priorities for our Bradford District Equality Group, chaired by Udy Achibong (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion). 

We want to ensure that our employees are supported to reach their full potential, are not subject to any unfair disadvantages regardless of their background and are representative of the communities that they serve.  We are currently delivering and planning for a broad range of programmes to help us achieve this ambition, some of which are listed below.

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Social inclusion in health and social care

Sandra Knight – OWH – Equality and Diversity

Our District's Diversity

Bradford is a diverse district, home to around 540,000 people, a third of whom are Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME), two in ten are of Pakistani heritage and, at the 2011 census, 25% of people were of the Muslim faith. The district is home to significant numbers of people from Eastern Europe. Some 150 plus languages are spoken here. It is the UK’s youngest city with almost a quarter of people aged under 16 and a third aged under 20 years-old. 

Our district is geographically diverse, two thirds rural, with a large city and towns and villages each with their own often very strong identities. Work with and between our diverse communities has led to Bradford being assessed as among the world’s leading intercultural cities. 

Our Health and Social Care Workforce Diversity

Individual organisations publish statistics on the diversity of their workforce through reports such as the Workforce Race Equality Standard and the Workforce Disability Equality Standard.  These can be found on each organisations’ website. 

We are aware that our health and social care workforce does not mirror our local population, and that as roles get more senior the difference becomes even greater.  Organisations are working towards improving this situation through a number of projects and good practice approaches. 

For example, fantastic work by Bradford for Everyone has provided all our organisations with a useful Employer Toolkit  (launched in December 2020) to help each of us achieve our ambitions.  However, this will be even more effective if we work on it together. 

Equality, diversity and inclusion example projects

There are a number of pro-active projects in place and in development to support increasing our workforce diversity at all levels.  It has been recognised that one of our biggest challenges is our BAME representation in our workforce.  As such,  there is a current drive to focus on projects to support our BAME colleagues.  However, we are aware of our other diversity issues and these remain important to us.  Some of our BAME focused initiatives are listed below.

Did you know that you can also have a career to promote and uphold the values of equality, diversity and inclusion and other related work. Hear from Kez Hayat in his role as the Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the BTHFT, here he talks about his passion for work and the great progress that he is making.

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The Fellowship Programme

Our workforce is more diverse than it has been at any other time in the past. Unfortunately, across some levels of our organisations particularly in leadership positions, our workforce does not reflect our population.

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There is a lot of evidence that suggests tackling workforce race and equality improves staff experience, organisational efficiency and most importantly improves the outcomes for the people using those services. It is of course very important that our staff should be able to look at the leadership and see themselves represented.

In response to this, the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership are running The Fellowship Programme to provide opportunities for colleagues from ethnic minorities  to get the experience of working at a senior level and progress their careers. Find out more about the programme here.