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Equity & Diversity

Equity & Diversity

ELFT has shifted from previously using the term "Equality" to now prioritising "Equity". While equality focuses on treating everyone the same, equity in healthcare recognises and responds to the diverse needs and circumstances of individuals and communities, ultimately leading to fairer and more inclusive healthcare systems.

 

Our People Plan

During 2025, the Trust strengthened its intersectional approach, acknowledging that people’s lived experiences are shaped by multiple and overlapping characteristics.

This includes race, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity, and marriage or civil partnership. It also includes wider determinants such as deprivation, caring responsibilities, migration status, language diversity and experiences of trauma.

This shift is reflected in:

  • Stronger alignment between workforce equality standards and patient equity frameworks

  • Greater focus in annual planning and service user priority setting

  • Increased use of disaggregated data to identify inequities at place and service level

  • Greater involvement of service users and staff networks in co-design and governance

  • Clearer accountability through Executive sponsorship and structured reporting

The Trust has continued to embed robust governance mechanisms to identify disparities, monitor progress and respond proactively where inequities persist. These mechanisms are not solely compliance driven. They are designed to improve outcomes, strengthen trust, and ensure that services are culturally responsive and psychologically safe.

By centring equity within strategy, quality improvement and population health, ELFT aims to reduce avoidable disparities, improve experience across protected characteristics, and create an environment in which all staff and service users feel respected, valued and able to thrive.

View our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Workforce Plan for 2023-2026.

Contact us on elft.edi-team@nhs.net

Implementation of the Equality Delivery System – EDS2 is a requirement on both NHS commissioners and NHS providers. Organisations are
encouraged to follow the implementation of EDS2 in accordance with the ‘9 Steps for EDS2 Implementation’ as outlined in the 2013 ED2 Guidance document.

This EDS2 Summary Report is designed to give an overview of ELFT's most recent EDS2 implementation. Download EDS2 for 2021.

The public sector Equality Duty (PSED), part of the Equality Act, came into force in April 2011. It requires NHS organisations to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations. 

The PSED requires that the Trust must provide evidence that we have given ‘due regard’ to the three aims of the General Duty across all 9 protected characteristics: To eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment & victimisation; To advance equality of opportunity; To foster good relations. 

The Trust demonstrate through the 9 Point Work Force Race Equality Standard (WRES) metric how we are addressing race equality issues in a range of staffing areas; Must demonstrate progress against a number of indicators of workforce equality, including a specific indicator to address the low levels of BME Board representation.

Trust WRES publications

2024/5

2023/24

2022/23

2022

2021

2020

 

2019

2018

The WDES is a set of specific measures to enable us to compare the experiences of disabled and non-disabled staff.  Research shows that a motivated, included and valued workforce helps to deliver high quality patient care, increased patient satisfaction and improved patient safety. 

The WDES enables the Trust to better understand the experiences of disabled staff. It will support positive change for existing employees, and enable a more inclusive environment for disabled people working in the NHS.

2024/25

WDES infographic poster 

2023/24

2022/2023

2022

WDES Action Plan 

2021

2020

2019

2018

 

Accessible Information Standard for people with a disability, impairment or sensory loss
The AI Standard tells organisations how to make information accessible to patients, service users and their carers and parents. 

The standard directs and defines a specific, consistent approach to identifying, recording, flagging, sharing and meeting the information and communication needs of patients, service users, carers and parents, where those needs relate to a disability, impairment or sensory loss. 

 

The information is published on the Government website and is openly available for review. All organisations with more than 250 employees are required to publish their data.

Previous Reports

 

Gender Pay Reports

Infographics

Ethnicity Pay Reports

 

The Sexual Orientation Monitoring Information Standard provides the mechanism for recording the sexual orientation of all patients/ service users aged 16 years and over across all health services and Local Authorities with responsibilities for Adult social care in England in all service areas where it may be relevant to collect this data. 

The standard acts as an enabler for the Equality Act 2010, supporting good practice and reducing the mitigation risk for organisations required to comply with the Act. All public sector bodies have a legal obligation to pay due regard to the needs of (LGBT) people in the design and delivery of services, and to ensure that people are not discriminated against based upon their sexual orientation. 

The Trust offers interpretation services to patients whose first language is not English including face to face language interpreters, telephone language interpreters, British Sign Language (BSL) and Lip Speakers. All our written information is available in different languages and formats upon request. If you have any specific needs please notify the relevant department. 

The Trust is committed to continually improving access to our services and experiences of using our services, and is currently working to meet the requirements of the mandated Accessible Information Standard to ensure we can more effectively identity, flag, record,  share and meet the information and communication needs of people who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss.

See all the Trust's initiatives for the Respect and Dignity @ Work campaign, including Through my eyes, A mile in my shoes, Creating Change, and more - click here to see the slides.

NHS England has launched its first ever anti-racism framework: the Patient and carer race equality framework (PCREF), for all NHS mental health trusts and mental health service providers to embed across England. 

This mandatory framework will support trusts and providers on their journeys to becoming actively anti-racist organisations by ensuring that they are responsible for co-producing and implementing concrete actions to reduce racial inequalities within their services. It will become part of Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections - click here to see the page.

Equalities Annual Reports

 

 

Staff Networks & Contact Details

ELFT Staff Networks

Staff networks offer a place for staff to come together, share experiences and facilitate learning and development.

Freedom to Speak Up

Please contact Anita Hynes, ELFT's Freedom to Speak Up Guardian for more information on elft.freedomtospeakup@nhs.net