Hearts and minds change is key in moving the dial on race equality. By building awareness and understanding of race equality, we can create more safe spaces for ethnic minorities, commit to having difficult conversations, promote change and challenge racism.

One way we have committed to hearts and minds change is through our My journey as a white ally: In conversation with trust leaders series. Here we speak to white leaders in the NHS about their personal journeys in allyship, looking at key milestones and turning points, lessons learnt, what still needs to be done and the challenge ahead. 

Another way we have sparked conversations about race equality is through our Why we need to focus on race article and our bi-annual Can we talk about race? webinars.

We hope events and resources such as these will enable leaders to have conversations about race in their organisations, facilitate peer learning, and catalyse action.

In our insight report we found that 72% of respondents said they wanted case studies and evidence of high impact interventions. 

Providing leaders with examples on 'why' and 'how' to act will give them the confidence and capability to embed race equality as core business within their organisation.

In our events and resources we provide evidenced-based practices and theory to empower leaders to proactively challenge the impact of structural racism and seek out opportunities to advance race equality.

One example is our work with Roger Kline (Research fellow at Middlesex University Business School) and Anton Emmanuel (Head of WRES) on inclusive recruitment and talent management. Here we show evidence-based interventions that have created sustainable change in trusts.

In our insight report we found only 4% of respondents felt that race equality is fully embedded as a core part of their boards business. 

By sharing good practice and building understanding of role specific accountability, our events and resources will enable trust leaders to ask challenging questions of themselves and each other, encourage self-reflection,
continuous education and catalyse action.

Examples of this include our questions for boards, our blog on the role governors can play in building an anti-racist environment, and our events on embedding accountability through data.