WIREDGOV

Statement given recently on tackling racism within health and social care.

We stand against all forms of racism and are committed to equality of access, experiences and outcomes for people accessing health and social care services and for our staff.

We set high standards on equality, diversity and inclusion for both the services we regulate and for ourselves as an organisation. As part of our Well Led assessments we look at how organisations are performing on race equality across their workforce and if we find poor practice, it impacts on the rating we give. Where it is within our legal remit, we also take enforcement action to make sure providers of health and care services take action to improve.

When we do not have legal powers to act ourselves on workforce equality in regulated services, we work with others to resolve issues and we welcome closer joint working on racism, bias and inequalities across all health and social care regulators.

We have made clear in our new Strategy our commitment to looking at how the care provided in a local system is improving outcomes for people and reducing inequalities in their care. This means looking at how services are working together within an integrated system, as well as how systems are performing as a whole. We also commit to understanding how local, social factors can impact the experience of providers and people using services, as well as the role that we play as part of that system and to asking the same questions of ourselves around bias as we do of those providing care.

Everyone in health and social care has a role to play in ensuring that all colleagues can thrive in their workplaces and in tackling the inequalities in health and care that sadly still exist for some people. We know issues around race and inequality provoke strong emotions for people having to report their experiences and we must hear it, learn from it and act on changing it. We would encourage anyone aware of racist or discriminatory behaviour to raise those concerns directly and with us via Give Feedback on Care.