The 17 partners will contribute to the NHS Employers organisation's programme of equality and diversity work until March 2012 and will share good practice, learning and expertise and help inform public policy.
Dean Royles, director of NHS Employers, said: "Equality and diversity are already at the heart of the NHS, in the service provided and in the NHS Constitution which states the service must be comprehensive and available to all, irrespective of gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, disability or age."
"We want to continue to provide leadership in this area and support employers to build on good practice and share learning. "With support from the Equality and Diversity Partners, we want to support employers with knowledge, guidance and leadership so they can realise the many benefits that diversity brings, for patient care and indeed for staff."
The partners have already carried out numerous initiatives to develop equality and diversity in their own workplaces, including: Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust developed a number of initiatives, including a City and Guilds accredited training course, to raise staff awareness of issues around sexual orientation and to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees. Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust actively canvasses the views of black and minority ethnic (BME) staff to source current data and track progress against the Department of Health (DoH)'s Standards for Better Health guidelines.
This process would identify any potential problems BME staff have with training or career development and, despite no concerns being noted, the committee agreed to continue monitoring and also fed its results back to each of the survey respondents. Four of the 17 Partners will also be working with the DoH to support the equality and diversity agenda during the transition of the NHS outlined in the white paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, published last July.
These four trusts are: Surrey & Border Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; Leeds Partnerships Foundation Trust; Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust; NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly. The Equality and Diversity Partners programme operates within the programmes and priorities identified by the NHS Equality and Diversity Council and Leadership Council. The 17 new partners are: Kettering General Hospital NHS FT; Salisbury Foundation Trust; Surrey & Border Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; Stockport NHS Foundation Trust; Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust; University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust; Leeds Partnerships Foundation Trust; Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership Trust; Dorset Primary Care Trust; Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust; Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust; Barnsley Primary Care Trust; Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust; NHS Coventry; Central London Community Health Care; South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust; NHS & and Isles of Scilly.
