Published on: 28 September 2022

It’s a real pleasure to share my thoughts with you in this blog. As vice-chair and non-executive director at the Trust, I am deeply committed to our ambition for Every Day Inclusion as part of our overall vision to deliver excellence in all that we do.

I invite you to think about a time when you have personally felt excluded perhaps because of how you speak, where you’re from, what you were wearing or even your hair colour. Most of us have had such experiences and can relate to how awful that made us feel. Next think about the people who experience this every single day because of their sexuality, age, race or other characteristic. I hope you will agree that we do not want anybody to experience this in our Trust.

I love the quote by Verna Myers that says ‘diversity is about being invited to the party and inclusion is about being asked to dance’. For me inclusion is about ensuring that we have a culture of belonging where everyone feels that their contributions are valued, that their voice is important and that they can bring their full and true selves to work. This means everyone that works for us regardless of their age, gender, race, sexuality, disability or any other characteristic.

We know from the personal stories that we hear from our staff and the Workforce Race Equality Standards (WRES) and the Workforce Disability  Equality Standards (WDES) reports that we have a long way to go to create an inclusive environment for everyone. 16.7% of staff from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic groups said they had personally experienced discrimination at work from a manager, team leader or colleague. Disabled staff are nearly twice as likely to enter the formal capability process as their non-disabled colleagues. I’m sure you will agree that this is not good enough.

It is almost impossible to contribute effectively to our vision of delivering excellence in all that we do if you do not feel that you belong or if you worry about experiencing discrimination. I believe that we have a duty to change this reality for current and future generations of our NHS staff, not next your or the year after but NOW!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful people across our Trust who are already working as allies to create a more inclusive environment for everyone. These are the people who extend a hand of friendship to the people who need it, who examine their own behaviour to manage their biases and who challenge discriminatory behaviour and language whenever they see it.

How about you? We have a real opportunity to do something about this through our Inclusion Week. I believe that we can all do something whoever we are and wherever we work in our Trust to make sure that everyone experiences inclusion … every single day.

I invite you to join Inclusion Week at our roadshows. The Inclusion Team are hitting the road to talk to staff at SRH, STDH, Clarendon, Sunderland Eye Infirmary and St. Benedict’s Hospice. We want to talk to you about our staff networks, the support we can offer and get your views on our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. Come along between 12-2pm on the following dates to learn more, complete your rainbow badge pledge and even grab some freebies:

  • STDH - 26th September
  • Clarendon - 27th September 
  • SEI - 28th September
  • SRH - 29th September
  • St Benedict’s Hospice - 30th September

We are also planning a Staff Network Taster session on Friday 30th September, 4-5pm. Come along to learn more about our staff networks and the amazing work they do. If you'd like to attend we'll post the link to join the session onto the intranet and into the closed staff facebook group. If you can't access the intranet or facebook group then please email stsft.inclusion@nhs.net and we can send you a diary invite and a link directly to your inbox.  

Let’s work together to promote inclusion across our work so that we can all contribute to delivering excellence for our patients in everything we do.  Thank you very much.

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