An examination of why the NHS needs a diverse workforce to satisfy customer needs

An examination of why the NHS needs a diverse workforce to satisfy customer needs

Chapter 1

Introduction

Equality and diversity are at the heart of the NHS strategy. Investing in the NHS workforce allows us to deliver a better service and improve patient care in the NHS. “Equality is about creating a fairer society in which everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their potential. Diversity is about recognising and valuing difference in its broadest sense.” NHS Employers NHS needs a diverse workforce to place increasing value on equality and inclusion, and to reap the rewards of a diverse workforce. In line with the NHS Improving Working Lives standard, a blueprint by which NHS employers and staff can measure the management of human resources, NHS Trusts are kite-marked against their ability to demonstrate a commitment to improving the working lives of their employees. Equality and diversity are central to the Improving Working Lives standard - one of its central aims is that staff should feel valued and have a fair and equitable quality of working life, whatever their differences.

The Trust's enthusiastic workforce development team had responded swiftly to the standard and taken an innovative approach to achieving its aims. The trust had involved trade unions from an early stage, created a staff charter, a race equality scheme and a range of incentives and rewards, including flexible working and help with child care. (Storey, J. 1997, pp.3-33)

In order to build on its existing success in this area, the Trust wanted an equality and diversity staff development program that would:

challenge staff to acknowledge any subconscious biases and tendency to stereotype;

help staff to understand how prejudices manifest themselves as active discrimination;

highlight any inappropriate actions; and

lead to sustainable changes in behavior.

The solution

As part of the equality and diversity workforce-development program, encourages learners to explore issues around stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination. In order to engage participants in what could be a potentially difficult activity, this was done in an interactive and enjoyable way. National Health Service (NHS). In particular, it assesses the extent to which a key characteristic of empowerment, i.e. the devolution of responsibility and accountability to management and non-management workforce, has been instrumental in securing improvements in employee commitment and motivation. The paper focuses on findings from two acute NHS Trust hospitals located in the west of Scotland. It is divided into four substantive sections. The first examines the nature of empowerment and the reasons for its introduction to the NHS. The second presents a detailed analysis of the impact of empowerment within the two NHS trusts, focusing particularly on line management and non-management reactions to its implementation. The third section reviews the difficulties encountered by these organizations in introducing and managing empowerment. The final section broadens the discussion to consider the wider applicability of the results in the context of contemporary health service employment relations.

Chapter 2

Literature Review

Increased competition in domestic and overseas markets, and government deregulation, have led ...