Sir David talks about...tackling racism in our workplace

Sir David Nicholson KCB CBE, Chair

Hello From The Chair

Welcome to the March edition of Heartbeat.

This month, we're focusing on our people. Pages 14–16 outline our People Plan, launching in April, and we've included a case in which we got it wrong, and how we put in right, on pages 12–13.

We're also celebrating all that our people do and achieve, including Christina Ronayne winning the 2022 Shiela Lorimer award.

You can read about Governance Support Admin Officer Moeen's recent humanitarian trip to Turkey on page five, and learn more about Ramadan from Muslim chaplain Erum on page six. Enjoy J

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From the first day I set foot in this Trust as your Chairman I was overwhelmed by how welcoming everyone was. The friendliness and willingness to support was second to none.

What continues to baffle me is why our staff survey results do not reflect this feeling of friendliness. Don’t get me wrong: I am very aware of my privilege and understand that this would give me a completely different experience to someone else.

At the Annual General Meeting last year, the majority of questions posed to the Board were about racism within the organisation. Sadly, the reality is that not everyone who works here has a good experience and some of our colleagues feel discriminated against. This feeling comes into sharp focus around our processes: for example, unfairness when it comes to personal development opportunities or the fact that non-white colleagues are more likely to face disciplinary action or even dismissal compared to their white counterparts.

The latest staff survey results lay it out bluntly. Of those who responded, 59.6 per cent said they have experienced discrimination based on their ethnic background and 10 per cent said they experienced discrimination based on religion.

This is not the type of workplace that we want SWB to be. Everyone should come to work and be able to fulfil their full potential, with every opportunity to contribute to making this a great place to work.

We have the privilege of serving a diverse population and this should be celebrated. The most successful organisations always embrace difference: not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it gives them a real competitive edge. Diversity improves decision making and experience, that is a fact. This is exactly what we should be leading the way on at SWB. Each one of us has a different lived experience and only when we are able to share these differences can we be successful at attracting the right talent and ensuring we deliver the high level of care for our patients.

I’m pleased that Chief People Officer Frieza Mahmood has now launched the People Plan, which has a central focus on fairness. Through the lens of a number of high priority equality, diversity and inclusion actions, this will help us tackle these issues head on.

I am further delighted that a few months ago, we introduced the cultural ambassador role into the disciplinary processes as part of our commitment to eradicate discrimination and ensure all colleagues are treated with fairness, dignity and respect.

At the heart of all this are our values.

Ambition – I recently visited the Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Centre and was delighted to meet such a dedicated team who are ambitious for their patients by providing a specialist and ground-breaking service to our population. In February last year we became the first Trust in the region to administer the crizanlizumab drug to sickle cell patients – a new treatment that reduces chronic pain and dramatically improves the quality of life for patients.

Respect – The period of Ramadan has started and will see many Muslim colleagues participate in a daily period of fasting. It is also a time of great personal reflection, intensity in worship, charity and kindness to others. We must show respect by accommodating religious beliefs and practices during Ramadan.

Compassion – This is a key value underpinning the creation of the Trust’s new Leadership Framework which has been successfully trialled over the last few months on a pilot basis and will be launched in April. All leaders and managers in the organisation will go through this programme which will eventually be rolled out to all colleagues. This is a part of our commitment to showing how we can all put our empathy into action on a regular and ongoing basis.

From page 14 there is further information about the new People Plan, what this means for you, how we can learn from mistakes and support for you on raising a concern at work. Please let us know when things are not going well for you.

White colleagues, I ask for your support in being an ally, helping us to tackle racism by speaking up and challenging it when you see it. It's very important to our Trust to be proactively anti-racist. This also means taking time out of your day to listen, find out the lived experiences of our non-white colleagues and ask what you can do to support them.

The Board are absolutely committed to ensure everyone in our organisation feels listened to. We regularly receive stories from staff and patients which show us this is an important area we need to continue to develop in achieving our ambitions, in partnership with you all.