Time the NHS in Scotland took equality out of the 'too difficult' box

Those not too hungover from the ritual of seeing off the old year and welcoming in the new may well have missed a landmark moment, at least for those people who have to deal with the effects of prejudice and discrimination every day.

I refer to the announcement by Channel 4 that, in its own words :

"In the past, some elements of diversity have been put in the “too difficult” box. Our 360° Diversity Charter sets out to smash that box, by using all the talent available – both inside and outside our industry."

The C4 Diversity Charter sets out some ambitious goals and commits to being open and transparent about how it performs in meeting these.  Instead of seemingly forever working towards equality, C4 has decided it is long overdue that the journey was brought to an end and the product delivered.

One of the more obvious areas where equality can be made to happen is in its function as an employer.  Here C4 commits to moving from employing, currently, 15% of the workforce as Visible Minority Ethnic people [C4 uses BAME] to a level of 20%, all by the year 2020.  C4 wants to reach 6% of people with disabilities, from the current 1.9%.  And for people identifying as LGB, it wants to reach 6% by 2020, from the current 2.4%.

This C4 announcement was made just as I was analysing data provided by NHS Boards in Scotland on their employment equality performance as at March 2014.  When looked at side by side, one could be forgiven for concluding that C4 is on another planet from Scotland's NHS.

While C4 wants to increase the VME proportion of its workforce from 15% to 20% by 2020, the NHS in Scotland has managed, as at March 2014 to reach an average employment rate across all Boards of just 2.81%.  

In looking to provide equality of employment opportunity for disabled people, C4 currently has 1.9% of its workforce identifying as disabled and aims to increase that to 6% by 2020.  Scotland's NHS manages just 0.8% of the workforce identifying as disabled at March 2014.

C4 has an honourable if sometimes controversial track record in using drama output to reflect the lives and experiences of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual [LGB] people.  It wants to ensure that in its function as an employer it matches that track record.  Currently it has 2.4% of the C4 workforce identifying as LGB and wants to increase this to 6% by 2020.  The NHS in Scotland currently has 1.2% of the workforce identifying as LGB.

C4 admits the challenges of making equality and diversity happen have often been put in the "too difficult" box.  It has set out a journey towards equality and diversity which smashes that box, maps out what the workplace should look like when it gets there, and has committed to an explicit timetable for arrival at the journey's end.  It has also made explicit a link between making that journey and the pay of senior staff, acknowledging that without that motivator the journey would remain stuck in the "too difficult" box.

The NHS ... has no vision of what the NHS workforce should look like, now or in the future, in terms of people's protected characteristics

The NHS in Scotland has no such plan.  It has no vision of what the NHS workforce should look like, now or in the future, in terms of people's protected characteristics.  It has no timetable for when measurable equality of employment opportunity will arrive for all people from all protected characteristics.  It has no carrot/stick with which to motivate senior NHS staff to make equality happen.

"the NHS’s continuing failure to act decisively on institutional discrimination means that some disabled people, VME people, and LGB people alive today will live out their lives and die before demonstrable equality of employment opportunity exists in the NHS"

In the same way that the NHS’s failure to eliminate health inequalities means that the man in Shettleston continues to die years before the man living in Barnton, so too does the NHS’s continuing failure to act decisively on institutional discrimination mean that some disabled people, VME people, and LGB people alive today will live out their lives and die before demonstrable equality of employment opportunity exists in the NHS.