Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (AHP Workforce).

Building on the existing work of Julie Mills (EDI lead for our AHP council and regional link for the CAHPO Ethnic Minority Strategic Advisory Group), the EDI workstream will provide a focus to implement the Black and mixed ethnic minorities roadmap to success and aspire to the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer’s vision (2021) to:

• Reach equality in ethnic minority representation by 2028
• Ensuring leadership is representative of the overall BME workforce by 2028
• Monitor and benchmark data and progression for continuous improvement over time.
• Improve black and mixed ethnic minorities representation across the workforce pipeline of the NHS, as well as creating more inclusive cultures that value the contributions of all staff – as highlighted in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Currently, the Southwest is estimated to have only 4% of workforce being of Black and mixed ethnic minorities background, no black and mixed ethnic minorities Band 8c’s, and the largest percentage of black and mixed ethnic minorities staff (still only 5.1%) are in the band 5 positions. This puts the South West lower than the national average of black and mixed ethnic minorities representation in England in the AHP workforce (NHS Digital, 2019).

It has been identified from the Devon AHP council black and mixed ethnic minorities Roadmap meetings that access to black and mixed ethnic minorities champions, signposting and resources is limited across the region. In addition, this correlates with findings from the ‘Taking action to improve health and care experiences for people from ethnic minority backgrounds – Integrated Care System for Devon (icsdevon.co.uk)’. Specifically, this work will map provider organisations’ existing black and mixed ethnic minorities workforce to explore any geographical inequity across Devon. Engagement and listening to the stories of existing black and mixed ethnic minorities workforce colleagues and students will prepare a narrative of real barriers and opportunities. Identifying, obtaining and sharing existing EDI resources with current EDI leads of organisations will provide a grasp of the scale of the problem, whilst benchmarking and allowing specific focus on resolution planning. By specially identifying, mapping out and signposting to support measures, black and mixed ethnic minorities staff in the region are more likely to be supported to have equal opportunities for development progression and promotion.