Equality and Diversity

NHS Forth Valley's vision is to be a just and inclusive organisation where everyone who receives services or works for us has the opportunity to fulfil their potential.  

This cannot be achieved if there is prejudice, discrimination, or alienation, or whilst people in our community are excluded.  Services need to be accessible, appropriate and sensitive to the needs of all service users.  No-one should be excluded or experience particular difficulty in accessing and effectively using our services due to their age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage/civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity, race/ethnicity, religion or belief, sex or  sexual orientation.

As an Equal Opportunities employer we will strive to have staff with the right skills to deliver equitable and quality services.  We are committed to ensuring that our employees are not discriminated against and are appropriately supported in the workplace.

NHS Forth Valley is committed to developing an organisational culture that promotes Equality and Diversity.

The current NHS Forth Valley Integrated Health Care Strategy sets out the Board's vision and objectives for the period 2011 to 2014.  The Board's strategic vision is in line with the Scottish Government's 20:20 vision and the objectives and values are as follows:

Vision: 

• Improve health & provide high quality healthcare to the people of Forth Valley

Objectives:

• Improve Health, address inequalities & modernise services
• Improve the quality of care, experience & safety for patients in a person centred way
• Maximise efficient & productive use of resources focusing on integration and partnership and shifting the balance of care closer to home
• Financial stability, living within our means ensuring best value

Values

• Be Person centred - Treating people as individuals - staff and patients
• Be Ambitious - High expectations to deliver world class healthcare
• Have Integrity - Be accountable open and honest
• Be Respectful - Treat each other, our partners and people who access our service with dignity and respect.

What is Equality and Diversity?

Equality is about creating a fairer society where everyone has an equal level of opportunity to participate and to fulfill their potential as an individual member of society. The nine protected characteristics are:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender
• Gender Reassignment
• Marriage & Civil Partnerships
• Pregnancy & Maternity 
• Race and Ethnicity 
• Religion and Belief
• Sexual Orientation

Diversity is about recognising and valuing differences to be found between individuals. Diversity results from differences including age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, marriage & civil partnerships, pregnancy & maternity, race/ethnicity, religion/belief, and sexual orientation, employment circumstances or background. All of these factors provide different experiences, perspectives and knowledge, which in turn can be of value to other people or organisations.

Equality Duty 2010

The public sector equality duty in the Equality Act 2010 came into force in April 2011 - this is often referred to as the general duty. Scottish public authorities must have 'due regard' to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations.
Under the public sector equality duty specific duties we have published: NHS Forth Valley Equality Delivery Mainstreaming Report 2013 - 17

• Includes information on how we are mainstreaming the equality duty
• Award criteria and conditions in relation to public procurement
• Separate Mainstreaming Appendices Report which includes evidence collated and hyperlinks to additional information used to inform our equality outcomes
• Evidence from involvement activities completed
• How we complete ongoing assessment and review of policies and practices

• NHS Mainstreaming Report 2013-17 Appendices

NHS Forth Valley Outcomes are:     

Long term NHS outcome 1: Within NHS Forth Valley, everyone has the best start in life and is able to live longer and healthier lives,

Outcome 1: LGB &T, Disabled, ethnic minority and people of various ages have a positive experience of services that are equality informed and are sensitive to their diverse needs and potential impact of discrimination

Long term NHS outcome 2: Within NHS Forth Valley everyone has a positive experience of health care.

• Outcome 2a: NHS Forth Valley promotes and delivers on patient centred care to people meet best practice standards in relation to equality and diversity.
• Outcome 2b: All healthcare developments, polices and plans are informed by information on profile/protected characteristics of patients in the community
• Outcome 2c NHS Forth Valley is equitable in the way it employs and supports its workforce.

Long term NHS outcome 3: Within NHS Forth Valley, people are able to live well in the community.  

• Outcome 3: a People in Forth Valley are confident that diversity is respected; discrimination challenged and actively encouraged to report hate incidents motivated by malice or ill will based on racism, religious discrimination, homophobia, transphobia
• Outcome 3 b. In collaboration with partner agencies, NHS Forth Valley will improve the early identification of women and men experiencing Gender Based Violence within local health services; particular focus on A&E, Mental Health, Substance Abuse, Community Care, Sexual Health and Women and Children's Services
• Outcome 3c: NHSFV Employees (women and men) affected by GBV, including those with protected characteristics, are confident that they will receive support in the workplace and improved safety, health and well being
• Outcome 3d Through the 'Keep Well' health promotion initiative, NHS Forth Valley in partnership with other agencies will increase opportunities for health improvement and disease prevention in deprived and vulnerable populations

• NHS Forth Valley Equality Outcomes 2013-17

NHS Forth Valley Mainstreaming Report 2013 - 17 Employee's

NHS Forth Valley is committed to ensuring that all our employment policies and practices for staff are fair, advance equality of outcome, eliminate discrimination and foster good relations.

To inform our areas of improvement we gather quality monitoring data covering all our staff.

We will publish an annual summary on line of the employment monitoring data we have collated and considered in our workforce equality and diversity reports.

We are delighted to publish our mainstreaming report which reflects work completed to date to mainstream equality within our working practice.
This report includes details on:

• NHS Forth Valley Mainstreaming Report (Employees) & Workforce Diversity Monitoring
• Gender Pay Gap Comparisons 
• Equal Pay Statement    

Easy Read Version - This information is currently under development and will be made available in the near future.

Equality Impact Assessment Screening completed on the: NHS Forth Valley Equality Delivery Report and Outcomes 2013-17

NHS Forth Valley Equality Delivery Annual Reports

As required by the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 we will publish information about our Equality outcomes, the action we have taken and the progress we have made to achieve them to enable us to provide evidence that the public can use to assess our performance on equality.

Although the legislative requirements are that we must  publish a report on the progress made  no later than 30 April 2015, NHS Forth Valley has decided to update the public on an annual basis. The first Report will be made available in March 2014.

The report will highlight our achievements and reflect the progress made regarding our equality outcomes and action plans.

Archived Materials

Information on previous Equality Schemes and Annual Reports can be found within our archived section of the Equality and Diversity web site. Please go to NHS Forth Valley Equality and Diversity Archive