Our commitment to equality and diversity
We are committed to equality and diversity for our staff and patients. This means that we aim to create a fairer society, that is equally accessible to all, while recognising and valuing difference in its broadest sense.
By working closely with community groups and Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group we are continuously looking at ways we can improve our services to meet the needs of the local community. We believe that any form of discrimination whether it is based on age, gender, disability, race, sexual orientation, faith or religion is unacceptable and will be dealt with swift and appropriate action.
We have a zero tolerance culture to any form of abuse and violence (verbal/physical) and any violation of this policy may effect employment for staff, and ability to visit or be treated for general members of the public.
More information
Equality Act 2010
Introduced in October 2010 and simplified and harmonised previous equality legislation. The Act provides a frame work for removing discrimination in UK society. The Act places public sector organisation under duties to demonstrate how they are promoting and delivering equality.
Click here to see the wording of the Act.
Click here for guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, in relation to codes of practice for employment and service delivery.
Human Rights Act 1998
Fully enacted by 2000, the Human Rights Act ensures that a minimum standard of living can be guaranteed for all those residing in the UK. This Act localises the rights written in the European Convention on Human Rights (1950), and all UK laws must be compatible with the Act.
Click here to see the wording of the Act.
Gender Recognition Act 2004
The Act provides people who are transitioning from their birth gender to their acquired gender, full legal recognition and safeguards to protect their privacy.
Click here to see the wording of the Act.
Health and Social Care Act
The Act details how health and social care will be delivered in the UK.
Click here to see the wording of the Act.
Professional codes of conduct
he values of Equality, Diversity and Human Rights have been enshrined into the ethos and conduct of all health professionals and promotes delivering practice that meets the patient’s individual needs. For further information on the codes of conduct for registered professionals, please click on the links below.
- General Medical Council: Good Medical Practice
- General Pharmaceutical Council: Standards of Conduct, Ethics and Perfomance
- Health and Care Professions Council: Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics
- Nursing and Midwifery Council: The Code – Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics for Nurses and Midwives
NHS Constitution
The NHS Constitution brings together in one place details of what staff, patients and the public can expect from the National Health Service.
It also explains what you can do to help support the NHS, help it work effectively, and help ensure that its resources are used responsibly.
The constitution is underpinned by existing legislation, regulatory requirements and professional standards.
Click here for an easy read version of the constitution
Watch this video: How does the NHS work?
Our equality policies
- Equality, diversity and human rights policy
- Supporting staff and patients’ language and communication needs policy
- Privacy, dignity and chaperone policy
Our guidelines
- Accessible communications guidelines
- Meeting the NHS Accessible Information Standard
- Disability and reasonable adjustments
- Due regard: guidance for managers and service deliverers
- Due regard assurance flow chart
- Supporting trans staff and patients
- Ten tips for improving services for Trans people
Acas guidelines
The below guidelines are produced by Acas and relate to our role as an employer.
- Equality and discrimination: understand the basics outlines the fundamentals of what employers, and employees and their representatives need to know to comply with equality law.
- Prevent discrimination: support equality explains where discrimination is most likely to arise in the workplace and how to stop it happening.
- Discrimination: what to do if it happens is a step-by-step guide covering how an employee should raise a complaint of discrimination and how an employer should handle it.
Objectives
- Our objectives can be found in our 2020 annual report
2021
2020
- Annual Equality Report 2020
- WRES 2020 Report
- WRES Action Plan – 2018 -2021
- WDES 2020 Report
- WDES Action Plan – 2019-21
- BSUH Gender Pay Gap Report 2020
2019
- Annual equality report 2019
- Workforce disability equality standard (WDES) 2019 Report
- WDES Action plan
- Workforce race equality standard (WRES) report 2019
- WRES Action plan
- BSUH Gender Pay Gap Report 2019
2018
2017
- Annual equality report 2017
- Gender pay gap report
- Workforce race equality standard (WRES) report 2017
2016
2015
As an NHS trust, we have a responsibility under the Accessible Information Standard to offer reasonable adjustments to support people with disabilities or sensory loss to fully understand the information we give to them.
We continue to work to meet the core requirements of the standard for everyone we provide care for: patients, service users, carers and parents.
What we offer
We offer a range of services to help you get the most from your appointment or stay in hospital:
- Interpreting services, including British Sign Language interpreting for appointments
- Information in a range of formats, including Braille, overseas languages, Easy Read, large print and audio
- Appointment letters in different languages
- Textphone and SMS text messaging
- Learning disabilities liaison team
- Hospital passports
- Patient advocates
- Sonido listening devices
- The Hospital Communication Book
- Deaf/blind (dual sensory) support
- BrowseAloud on our website
More information
- Your rights under the Accessible Information Standard
- Steps BSUH staff can take to meet patients’ information needs
Contact
If your requirements are not being met, please let us know so we can fix this. Please contact your clinicians in the first instance, or contact barbara.harris7@nhs.net, or olivia.king6@nhs.net if you require more support.
About monitoring and why we do it
Monitoring is a process of collecting and analysing diversity data for service user / patients and workforce. It provides clear indicators as to how equitable an organisation is. Under equality legislation, we are duty bound to undertake this process.
Monitoring data is held in the strictest of confidence and bound by strict data protection laws and guidelines. The data is reported on a purely statistical basis and will not be traceable to the originating source.Public sector organisations can use monitoring to ensure they are targeting their services correctly; this also has a huge impact on funding by ensuring that the correct amount of funding is diverted to relevant services. It also helps us to measure whether our workforce is reflective of the communities we serve, and to assess the impact of our policies and procedures on certain groups of people.
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The team
The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team are responsible for looking at current equality and human rights legislation, and making it real by incorporating it into everyday practice. This takes the form of comprehensive training packages, trustwide projects, initiatives and a specialist advice service.
The team deal with fair practices, discrimination and human rights issues relating to: age; disability (including mental health); gender reassignment (transgender people, non-binary people and gender diversity); maternity and pregnancy; marriage and civil partnership; race (including ethnicity, nationality and heritage groups); religion or belief; sex and sexual orientation (lesbian, gay, bisexual and heterosexual).
Contact details
Barbara Harris
Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
01273 696955 extn. 67251
barbara.harris7@nhs.net
Olivia King
Equality and Inclusion Advisor
01273 696955 extn. 64685
olivia.king6@nhs.net
