We understand the importance of tackling discrimination and promoting equality between different groups of people, whilst addressing the diverse needs of individuals. That is why we are working hard to develop an inclusive culture where everyone is treated with dignity and respect and is contributing to the wider NHS mission to tackle health inequalities.
Promoting equality and fairness for all
Diversity is important to us because different perspectives, ideas, backgrounds, opinions and knowledge create a unique strength for our organisation, better enabling us to support and understand our customers and their stakeholders.
Our commitment
We want SCW – and our customers – to improve access to employment and career development opportunities.
We will support continuing improvements in the quality of health services, action to tackle health inequalities and efforts to improve the experiences of everyone who comes into contact with the NHS, irrespective of their personal characteristics. As such, we are committed to:
- Recruiting, retaining and developing our workforce, making us a diverse group of people with detailed knowledge of, and commitment to, equality and human rights.
- Positively welcoming difference and diverse thinking. Actively encouraging each other to use our individual talent and insight in delivering our services.
- Nurturing our existing partnerships and fostering new ones to deliver service excellence and to promote equality, diversity and inclusion throughout our business.
- Encouraging each other to analyse and understand the implications of equality, diversity and inclusion in our work.
- Supporting our staff to behave in ways that promote a positive and inclusive workplace culture, where everyone feels valued.
Our equality objectives
Since 2017, we have pursued a set of equality objectives that were aligned to our values and our business objectives:
Customers: To enable SCW service teams to integrate equality and diversity into their customer solutions; with a view to adding value to the operations and experiences of our customers and wider stakeholders
Performance: To support the growth of SCW via a clear strategy, and governance and accountability mechanisms for equality, diversity and inclusion
Internal development: To ensure that SCW operates fair and equitable employment practices; delivering positive experiences for everyone, irrespective of who they are
Learning and growth: To create a virtuous circle of learning and knowledge transfer around equality, diversity and inclusion, supporting the continuous development of our capability as individuals and teams
We are now reviewing our equality objectives and our strategy for implementing them, taking into consideration our revised business objectives, the NHS People Plan and our legal and regulatory duties.
Turning our commitments into action
Our new objectives and strategy will be published on this page, along with the following information to demonstrate how we are turning our commitments into action. Specifically, we will publish:
- Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy (PDF), which underpins our approach to promoting an equitable and inclusive workforce culture
- Our most recent Annual Equality Report on our response to the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty
We will also publish our latest responses to the following reporting requirements and standards:
- Gender Pay Gap (see below)
- NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard
- NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard
Gender pay gap reporting
All organisations within the UK with more than 250 employees are required to publish details of their gender pay gap.
You can also find our annual return for 2020 on the Government’s online reporting service.
Workforce disability equality reporting
The NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard is the main tool we use to monitor and report on disability equality in the SCW workforce.
