November 2023: Where we are now?

When we published our Anti-Racism action statement a year ago, we committed to publishing regular updates on our progress against the commitments we made.

You can read more about what we have done in the last year here. We are pleased with the progress we have made against our list of priorities, which was developed with input from Trinity’s Board, Senior Leadership team and Anti-Racism Action Group, but we also acknowledge that there is still more to do.    

As outlined in the update, in the areas where we are yet to take action, plans are in the pipeline to ensure we meet our commitments. Many of these plans will be included in Employer of Choice: People Plan II, which will be published in January 2024 as a continuation of the first People Plan which covered the period May 22 – December 2023.

Emily Carter, Chief Executive and Prof. Suzanne Shale, Chair of Trustees

Read our November 2023 update

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November 2022: Where we are now?

1. We recognise that there is a problem of race inequality in society, in healthcare and in our organisation, and this affects our patients and families, our staff, customers and volunteers
2. Trinity has a history of championing equality, diversity and inclusion, through our FREDIE work, and in 2020, in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, we committed to asking questions of ourselves and to address racism
3. The answers to these questions tell us that our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic colleagues have experienced racism at work
4. We acknowledge that in the past we have failed to do enough to identify and actively tackle racism in our organisation and that this must change
5. Our mission includes aims to challenge and overcome barriers to equity, diversity and inclusion in our services and to be true to our values and a good employer
6. Showing dignity and respect to everyone and delivering better outcomes are at the core of Trinity’s DNA
7. It is with renewed vigour to make positive and authentic change that we make a commitment to become an organisation where racism is not tolerated, and our differences are celebrated
8. Trinity’s Board and Executive team commit to own this process jointly and to give it high priority.

Our commitment to becoming a genuinely anti-racist organisation

1. Understanding and addressing racial bias

We commit to understand and proactively address racial bias that affects our patients, our staff and our organisational structures.

What we will do:

1. All Board members will undertake education on anti-racism
2. All staff and volunteers will undertake mandatory training on anti-racism
3. All managers will be trained on inclusive recruitment practices and how to enact our policies for responding to incidents of racism
4. All staff will be asked to identify a personal objective, as part of their regular appraisal process, to support anti-racism and our FREDIE principles
5. We will scrutinise our internal organisational policies and processes with the intention to remove any potential bias
6. We will introduce reverse mentoring, initially at Executive team level, as a way to build understanding of barriers that our patients and staff may face
7. We will have regular conversations within the organisation in order to recognise, accept and celebrate our differences better.

2. Listening, learning and taking action in response to racism

We commit to listen and learn from everybody connected to our organisation, including patients and their loved ones, staff, volunteers and customers, and to take swift and decisive action to address any racism that is experienced or witnessed. We commit to working to ensure Trinity is a fully inclusive environment for our patients and staff alike.

What we will do:

1. We will make sure that we regularly and proactively ask everyone connected to Trinity about their experience of racism and discrimination
2. We will provide and clearly communicate multiple options for patients, staff, volunteers and customers to report any racism they may experience
3. We will always promptly investigate allegations of racism by or against patients and staff
4. We will ensure that there is support for those who experience or have experienced racism
5. We will steer our work through listening to voices from across the organisation in our Anti-Racism Action Group reporting to the Board’s People Committee (see below)
6. We will work with staff to develop an Anti-Racism Action Plan.

3. Strengthening our accountability

We commit to ensuring that our decisions are anti-racist and to give our anti-racism work the resource and prominence it needs to lead to genuine change.

What we will do:

1. All policy and decision-making papers submitted to the Board and Board committees will include an Equality Impact Assessment
2. We will establish a new Board committee (“People Committee“) to focus on our people, culture and anti-racism, where patient and staff feedback and follow-up action will be scrutinised
3. We will amend the Board’s regular information dashboard to include data on any incidences of racism
4. We will only work with third party providers who can demonstrate that they have inclusive policies and practices and will specify this within our contracts
5. We will continue actively to recruit from a diverse candidate shortlist for Board and senior staff positions with the intention that our leadership reflects appropriately the diverse communities that we serve
6. The Board will discuss and review progress with our anti-racist commitments and the Anti-Racism Action Plan at least twice a year
7. We will publicly report progress in delivering these commitments and our Anti-Racism Action Plan in our Quality Account and on our website
8. We will continue to submit our actions and processes to external scrutiny and certification.