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Workforce race equality standard 2023/24

Date: October 2024

Review date: March 2025

Version 1

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.

Consequently, this report presents the Tavistock and Portman’s 2023-24 WRES data and associated Action Plan. It provides an overview of the Trust’s scores on workplace inequalities between staff from minoritised ethnic backgrounds 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 representation of people from a global majority background at Board level – see full details of the WRES indicators in the summary of findings on page 4. The report identifies where improvements have been made, where data has stagnated or deteriorated and proposes an action plan / countermeasures for ameliorating the gaps.

Key findings

WRES Indicators Workforce Indicators

For each of these four workforce indicators, compare the data for White and staff from a global majority background.

Trend Summary of Key Findings
Indicator 1 Percentage of staff in each of the AfC Bands 1-9 and VSM (including executive Board members) compared with the percentage of staff in the overall workforce Improving Overall representation of ethnic minorities improved by 4.7% to 35.4%.

Improvement was also made in Cluster 4 (AfC Bands 8C – VSM) for both Clinical and Non-Clinical Cohorts. However, there is overrepresentation in the non-clinical cohort (Bands 1-7) and underrepresentation at Bands 8a and above. Underrepresentation in the clinical cohort starts at Band 5.

Indicator 2 Relative likelihood of white applicants being appointed from shortlisting across all posts compared to minority ethnic applicants Improving Improvement made from 0.95 to 0.77. A figure below 1:00 indicates that applicants from racially minoritised groups are more likely than White staff to be appointed from shortlisting. This has been the trend for the past 5 years.
Indicator 3 Relative likelihood of minority ethnic staff entering the formal disciplinary process compared to white staff Regressing A figure above 1:00 indicates that minority ethnic staff are more likely than White staff to enter the formal disciplinary process. The Trust’s figure is 1.76.
Indicator 4 Relative likelihood of white staff accessing non-mandatory training and continuous professional development (CPD) compared to minority ethnic staff Improving The Trust has been within the non-adverse range of 0.80 to 1.25 for the past 5 years.
  National NHS Staff Survey indicators (or equivalent)

For each of the four staff survey indicators, compare the outcomes of the responses for White and staff from a global majority background

Indicator 5 Percentage of staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from patients, relatives or the public in last 12 months Improving A significant reduction (improvement) of 7.3% was achieved this year. Our score (9.2%) is impressive – positions us 22.2% better than national average (31.4%).
Indicator 6 Percentage of staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from staff in last 12 months Improving A slight improvement of 1.6% was realised in 2023-24. However, 28.5% positions us as one of the lowest performers nationally for this indicator.
Indicator 7 Percentage of staff believing that their trust provides equal opportunities for career progression or promotion Regressing There was a slight regression of 0.1%. The Trust’s score (26%) is one of the lowest performers nationally.
Indicator 8 Percentage of staff personally experiencing discrimination at work from a manager/team leader or other colleagues Improving A huge improvement of 4.7% was made this year. However, our score (20%) places the Trust among lowest performers nationally for this indicator.
  Board representation Indicator

*For this indicator, compare the difference for White staff and staff from racially minoritised groups

Indicator 9 Percentage difference between the organisations’ Board voting membership and its overall workforce

*Note: Only voting members of the Board should be included when considering this indicator

Improving Staff from minoritised ethnic backgrounds are underrepresented at Board. However, the deficit continues to be addressed – it was slightly reduced by 0.4% in 2023-24.