Workforce race equality standard – 2022/23

Date: October 2023

Summary

The Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) was mandated through the NHS’ standard contract in April 2015: all NHS organisations are required to publish their performance data and action plans against nine indicators of the WRES and make them public. The WRES technical guidance includes the definitions of “white” and “black and minority ethnic”, as used throughout this report and within the narrative for the WRES indicators; the terminology used is therefore reflective of the indicators only and it is acknowledged that they may not be terms our staff prefer to use.

Consequently, this report presents the Tavistock and Portman’s 2022-23 WRES data and associated Action Plan. It provides an overview of the Trust’s scores on workplace inequalities between Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) staff and their White counterparts through nine WRES key indicators that focus on workforce composition and people management, recruitment, bullying and harassment and discrimination as well as BME representation at Board level – see full details of the WRES indicators in Appendix 1. The report identifies where improvements have been made, where more work is required, and suggests countermeasures for ameliorating the gaps.

Key findings from the WRES 2022-23 report

The Tavistock and Portman continues to make incremental progress in identifying and tackling workplace inequalities between BME and White staff that are captured through nine WRES indicators. Though the Trust’s workforce composition does not currently mirror the communities it serves, the number of BME staff has continued to increase gradually over the years. 28.9% of our workforce came from a BME background in 2021/22, in 2022/23 the figure is 30.7%.

Like last year’s report, our data shows changeable trends. This year, progress has been made in four of the nine indicators:

• The BME workforce has continued to increase gradually (by an average of 1.3% per annum over the last 5 years). There has been an increase of 2.1% in the non-clinical cohort and an increase of 3% in the clinical cohort). This is positive progress, and we wish to further redress the balance of BME staff remaining overrepresented in low level, non-clinical roles and underrepresented in clinical roles.
• There is a negligible dip of 0.7% in the number of staff stating that they have experienced harassment, bullying or abuse from their colleagues. This is an area we particularly wish to strengthen further this year.
• There is a noteworthy 7.2% increase in the number of BME staff who believe the Trust provides equal opportunities for career progression or promotion. This remains an area that we wish to proactively improve.
• BME staff continue to be underrepresented at Board level, however the deficit has decreased from -7.9% to -4.4%.

The following areas, whilst showing small regression are still a comparatively positive position at this time:

• There has been a slight regression of 0.10 in the relative likelihood of staff being appointed from shortlisting; however, this remains within the non-adverse range at 0.95. (A figure below 1:00 indicates that BME staff are more likely than White staff to be appointed from shortlisting). We wish to continue to improve parity in this area.
• There has been a small increase in the relative likelihood of White staff accessing non-mandatory training and continuous professional development (CPD) compared to BAME staff. (1.05 this year compared with 1.00 last year). Whilst our position remains non-adverse, we wish to introduce a more formal CPD process this year.
• There has been a regression of 3% in the number of staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from patients, relatives or the public. Our figure (16.5%) is better than national average (31.5%) but as an organisation we wish to improve this position further.

The following two areas require specific further attention:

• For the first time since 2018, BME staff are more likely than White staff to enter a formal disciplinary process. The figure is above the national average and a significantly different score to previous years; therefore, this requires thoughtful consideration and action.
• BME staff at the Tavistock indicate that they are twice as likely to experience discrimination from either their manager, team leader or colleague in comparison to their White counterparts. We have regressed by 3.2% and this places us among the lowest scoring trusts in this indicator (our score is 24.7% compared with a national average of 16.6%). This is not reflected in reporting of issues to the people function and whilst this is not unusual for NHS trusts, this is something we wish to proactively change.