Equality and diversity

Ipswich and East Suffolk is a diverse place. However there are some members of our communities that need our attention so that everyone has accessible, appropriate and sensitive health and care support.

We are also committed to being a fair, inclusive and diverse employer.

To support this commitment, we developed the IESCCG Equality and Diversity Strategy 2012- 2015. We have worked hard in 2019/20 to refresh our approach to public and people involvement, working with our local communities. This was agreed in January 2020.

In the next year we will focus particularly on coproducing how we improve working relationships with black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and migrant populations.

Equality objectives

The CCG equality objectives are:

Objective 1

Patients and carers experience joined-up healthcare, ensuring access to the right services at the right time.

Score: Achieving

Ipswich and East Suffolk Alliance is seeing working relationships deepen. The alliance, which is made up of health and care organisations locally, commissioned a series of place based needs assessments which clearly start the needs of populations.

Work on the local health and care plans are supporting this outcome, promoting collaboration not competition.

Objective 2

The CCG will improve use of equality data and information about East Suffolk’s diverse population and communities to inform its work.

Score: Developing

The CCG has a clear idea of which populations live and work in our area. Economic migrants are a key focus for engagement. All GP practices have been given IT support tools to enable them to deliver services in line with the Information Access Standard.

All of the CCG’s published materials are available to order in braille and ‘easy read’ (large print) on request. Visitors to our website can enlarge print, change language and change colour schemes for ease of reading.

We use a translation policy for our information. NHS England has responsibility for direct translation for patients visiting surgeries.

Objective 3

The CCG will improve the way that the governing body and executive can learn from the healthcare experiences of diverse and marginalised individuals, groups and carers.

Score: Developing

Patient stories are heard at every Governing Body meeting that inform the CCG's transformation work.

Work continues to provide support for the health and emotional wellbeing of young people. Coproduction partners for mental health transformation work .include members of the community, Suffolk Parent Carer Network, Healthwatch Suffolk and Suffolk User Forum. More can be found out on our #verydifferentconversation pages.

Objective 4

Senior leaders and other managers will provide leadership, support and motivation for their staff to uphold the CCG’s value of equality of opportunity to improve the health of those most in need.

Score: Achieving

All staff have equality and diversity training and have had equality and diversity objectives in their Personal Development Plans since 2016/17. In 2020, we plan to launch an NHS rainbow badge, which will be worn by champions who can actively stand up for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender staff.

For more information, email getinvolved@suffolkccg.nhs.uk.

Health care services for everyone - The NHS is available to all, free at the point of delivery.

Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is committed to buying fair, accessible, appropriate and sensitive health services for all. We are also committed to being a fair, inclusive and diverse employer.

We developed an Equality and Diversity Plan to outline our commitment and approach to equality and diversity work. We are reviewing this.

Equality and diversity duties - Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 was introduced in October 2010 to bring together and strengthen all previous anti-discrimination law. The Equality Act protects people with the following nine ‘protected characteristics’ from discrimination:

Age
Disability
Gender reassignment
Marriage and civil partnership
Pregnancy and maternity
Race
Religion and belief
Sex
Sexual orientation

Public sector equality duty

A major part of the Act is the public sector equality duty. There are two parts to this: the general equality duty and the specific duties.

The general equality duty requires public bodies in the course of developing policies and delivering services, to have due regard to the need to:

Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimization and other conduct prohibited by the Act
Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not

The term ‘having due regard’ means:

Removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics
Taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected characteristics where these are different from the needs of other people
Encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low

The specific duties help public bodies meet the requirements of the general equality duty. With that in mind, NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG will:

Publish equality information every year to demonstrate our compliance with the general equality duty: including equality information on Ipswich and East Suffolk’s communities and our staff
Prepare and publish one or more equality objectives every four years, to prioritise our work on equality and diversity

Equality analysis

Understanding the effect of our policies and practices on people with protected characteristics is an important part of complying with the equality duty.

One such process is to embed the process of equality analysis (formerly known as equality impact assessments, or EqIAs). We need to understand the impact of our functions on people with protected characteristics for new and existing:

organisational policies and functions
key decisions, and
policies that set criteria or guidelines for others to use

Assessments should start early in the policy or service development process, or at the early stages of a review. Our toolkit for equality analysis is available here.

NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) 2020

Workforce Ethnicity Information 2018

Workforce Ethnicity Information 2017

Equality and diversity plan

Equality impact analysis template

Equality Analysis Gluten Free