At Dorset CCG, we are committed to commissioning (designing and buying) health services that respect and respond to the diversity of our local population.

We are equally committed to attracting and developing a diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve.

We are committed to embedding equality and diversity values into our policies, procedures, employment practice and the commissioning processes that secure health and social care services.

We aim to provide equality and fairness for all, and not to discriminate on grounds of gender, gender identity, race, ethnic origin, colour, nationality, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, religion or age.

Our legal responsibilities are set out in the Equality Act 2010.

The Equality Act 2010 brought a new Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) requiring public bodies to declare their compliance with the duty on an annual basis. This means that we must show compliance with both the general and specific duties of the PSED.

The progress we have made towards meeting the requirements of the general equality duty can be seen in our Annual Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report 2020.

For the general duty we need to show how we are having due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010,
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it,
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

Protected characteristics – in the context of the PSED – are defined as:

We are committed to ensuring that we reduce health inequalities and to keeping the needs of our communities at the heart of our commissioning role.

Dorset CCG takes seriously the particular needs that members of diverse communities or those with protected characteristics that use our services have.  We believe, as is reflected in our planning and ethos, that healthcare provision on an equitable discrimination-free basis is the right of all in Dorset.

We are also committed to ensuring that we reduce health inequalities.

Health inequalities can mean reduced life span, greater vulnerability to colds and infection, living longer than required with physical impairments, etc. They can be caused by language barriers, mental health related communication issues and even fear of experiencing prejudice – such as homophobia and transphobia – as well as not having a good understanding of what NHS services are available and how to access them.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy has at its heart a commitment to keeping the needs of our diverse communities at the centre of our commissioning role. This includes tackling as effectively as possible health inequalities by having appropriate actions to take in place.

Our mission, ‘Supporting people in Dorset to lead healthier lives’, means that we need to work with a range of communities and populations to support them in accessing and using local health services. We need to increase knowledge about healthcare needs to enable our communities to lead healthier lives.

We work closely with local people, patients, providers, staff and voluntary organisations to help reduce inequalities and eliminate any discrimination within our services and working environments.

Find out more about how we work with local voluntary organisations on our Get Involved pages.

We want to make it as easy as possible for people to get involved in our work and find out more about local health services.

If you need information in an alternative format, such as Easy Read, Large Print, Braille, Audio or an alternative language, please let us know by contacting the Communications and Engagement Team

feedback@dorsetccg.nhs.uk or call 01305 368900.

Since 1st August 2016 onwards, all organisations that provide care or adult social care have been legally required to follow the Accessible Information Standard. CCGs are expected to give consideration to the Duty and ensure their providers are meeting this standard. The CCG is monitoring the process through contract monitoring.

The Standard aims to make sure that people who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss are provided with information that they can easily read and understand or have the support needed so they can communicate effectively with health and social care services.

For further information on the Standard can be found on the NHS England website.

We use the Equality Delivery System (EDS) to ensure our work as a CCG is fair and does not discriminate against any group.

The Equality Delivery System describes four goals for NHS organisations:

1. To achieve better health outcomes for all
   2. To improve patient access and experience
   3. To maintain a representative and supported workforce
   4. To promote inclusive leadership.

Our CCG needs to ensure that we achieve these four goals for everyone, which means in some cases carrying out additional work to do so.

Once a year, we produce an EDS Evidence and Grading report which describes the work we have done and we grade ourselves to clearly show how well we are progressing towards these goals.

We also ask members of the public to give their feedback on how well they think we are doing and use this to inform our final grading.

View our latest Evidence and Grading Report August 2018.

NHS England’s website contains lots of information about the Equality Delivery System, including its purpose and an animated video.

Our objectives have been informed by our EDS2 grading exercise, insights from staff and stakeholders, and review of our previous objectives and current priorities. They are aligned to the EDS2 goals and have been developed with and our supported by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group.

Find out more about our objectives and how we plan to deliver them in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2020-2024.

Equality Impact Analysis (EIAs) are used to demonstrate that an organisation is giving due regard to equality, including consideration of the nine protected characteristics covered by the Equality Act 2010, when developing and implementing changes to strategy, policy and practice.

It is desirable and good practice to undertake an Equality Impact Assessment as part of our commitment to patients, staff and the public, to consider the impact that our policies, strategies or plans may have on our equality groups (protected characteristics).

The CCG recognises that this is a continuous process and these assessments are updated to reflect the status of the programmes.

To ensure that EIAs are completed and the correct governance is followed we have undertaken the following:

• continue to provide training to staff on equality, diversity and inclusion and completion of EIAs;
• simplified and refreshed the EIA template and guidance;
• introduced an extra layer of check and challenge, with EIAs being reviewed by an external assessor to provide advice and guidance.

We also include an extra layer of check and challenge, with EIAs reviewed by an external assessor. Our EIA Public Engagement Group lay advisor provides advice and guidance.

View our Equality Impact Assessments in the downloads section.

The NHS Equality and Diversity Council announced in July 2014 that it had agreed action to ensure employees from black and ethnic minority (BME) backgrounds have equal access to career opportunities and receive fair treatment in the workplace.

The CCG has published its local WRES reports:

• WRES Report 2020
• WRES Report 2019
• WRES Report 2018
• WRES Report 2017
• WRES Report 2016

The CCG has incorporated the actions identified from the WRES report into the overarching Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy action plan. Key actions already taken include:

• introduction of unconscious bias learning into the organisation to improve perceptions around recruitment
• BME staff are being encouraged to link with local BME Staff Networks as a safe space to raise concerns
• ensuring that job vacancy lists are widely publicised within our diverse contacts
• ensuring that conversations around development opportunities are carried out during annual appraisals.

The main purpose of the action plan is to take a proactive view in improving on last year’s report.

The CCG’s governing board lead on equality and diversity will be championing the WRES in line with their other responsibilities.

Further information on the WRES can be found on NHS England’s website.

It is mandatory for organisations with 250 or more employees to report annually on their gender pay gap. The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce.

Gender Pay Gap Report

Gender pay gap infographic

The 2018/19 NHS Standard Contract sets out equality related requirements which NHS providers must comply with, including compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty, implementing EDS2 and the Workforce Race Equality Standard and the implementation of the Accessible Information Standard.

The CCG continues to work in partnership with its main NHS providers to ensure compliance with their contractual obligations, through quality review meetings with providers.