Becoming an anti-racist organisation
Our commitment to becoming an anti-racist organisation is part of our work to create an inclusive culture across the ICS, where our behaviours and attitudes will embrace the diversity of all lived experience.
As an Integrated Care System, we know that it is not enough for our organisation to condemn racism through our words alone. We are committed to actively playing our part in the fight against racism and work to become an anti-racist organisation through our actions.
This means that we all take ownership of our responsibility to further equality and inclusion across the health and social care system, both individually and collectively. Every member of the ICS is responsible to improve equality and inclusion across the health and care system.
Together we will make the ICS a truly anti-racist organisation, here to better the health and wellbeing of everyone in our local communities.
At the foundations of our anti-racism programme is the NHS East of England Anti-Racism strategy, which was launched in August 2021 and can be read here. We are putting this strategy into practice in our area in a number of ways, with a few core principles at the heart of this work.
First, we have adopted a “nothing about me, without me” approach – which means that we will not design strategies and plans on anti-racism without the active involvement of Minority Ethnic patients and staff. Secondly, we want to deliver sustainable and measurable change – evaluating the impact of our actions to hold ourselves to account on our commitment to anti-racism.
We will focus our anti-racism programme on those areas where the biggest positive difference can be made for our population, delivering better health outcomes and tackling health inequalities both within our local communities and our workforce.
We know anti-racism starts close to home, so we are investing in an ongoing programme of work focused on improving the experiences of our Minority Ethnic colleagues. This includes eliminating discrimination in recruitment and progression opportunities and ensuring that Minority Ethnic staff have the support they need for their health and wellbeing.
Although we are still in the early stages of our journey to becoming an anti-racist organisation, our commitment to this goal is clear. We will regularly update our Board at Public Meetings and would invite anyone keen to get involved to get in touch with us, as we welcome the input of our Ethnic Minority community members who have lived experience of racism and discrimination.
To find out more about the importance of the NHS East of England anti-racism strategy, and the crucial nature of our work to become an anti-racist organisation, please watch the video below which was produced by NHS East of England.