Building boards accountability for the Workforce Race Equality Standard

Chair:

• Miriam Deakin, interim deputy chief executive/director of policy and strategy, NHS Providers

Panellists:

• Professor Anton Emmanuel, head of Workforce Race Equality Standard, NHS England
• Ingrid Barker, chair, Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
• Junior Hemans, non-executive director, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS and chair of Workforce committee and Seacole group member

At this event, the panel reflected on:

• The need to use disaggregated data to target actions for recruitment and promotion, and reduce disparity of ethnic minority representation within the formal disciplinary processes.
• The mindset shift needed.
• The need to focus on implementing substantive change to processes, particularly in HR processes.
• The importance of having a collective board focus and need for perseverance to drive improvement.