Equality and diversity
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The NHS Constitution
The NHS Constitution has been created to protect the NHS and make sure it will always do the things it was set up to do in 1948 - to provide high-quality healthcare that's free and for everyone.
"You have the right not to be unlawfully discriminated against in the provision of NHS services, inlcuidng on the grounds of gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, disability including learning disability or mental illness or age." NHS Constitution March 2010
The Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 replaces previous equalities legislation with one Act. This organisation is required by law to comply with the Act:
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Act.
- 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.
The act covers nine protected characteristics. Every person has one or more of the protected characteristics, so the act protects everyone against unfair treatment. The protected characteristics are:
- age
- disability
- gender reassignment
- marriage and civil partnership
- pregnancy and maternity
- race
- religion or belief
- sex
- sexual orientation
Find out more about the Equality Act:
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Trust plans
Oxford University Hospitals' equality objectives were agreed in March 2012.
They are the result of engagement activities, both internal and external to the Trust and EDS grading activities. These objectives will be reviewed periodically, at least annually, to ensure progress is being achieved and determine whether additional objectives should be added. All feedback regarding these equality objectives is welcome. If you have any comments please contact either:
The Single Equality Scheme 2009 - 2012 is available on the former Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals website:
Core values
Trust reports and information
Equality analysis
The Trust is required to consider the impact of all its activities on the different groups covered by the Equality Act. In order to do this the Trust uses the following form which has to be completed before a new policy or plan is approved.
It is current practice to complete an equality analysis whilst writing policies and plans. Examples are available on the former Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals website.
Positive about disabled people
The Trust is positive about the employment of disabled people and continues to promote this through the use of the 'two tick' disability symbol. In doing so the Trust has adopted the following five disability symbol commitments:
- Recruitment: to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for a job vacancy and consider them on their abilities
- Consulting employees with a disability: to ensure there is a mechanism in place to discuss at any time, but at least once a year, with disabled employees, what can be done to make sure they can develop and use their abilities and review progress
- Retaining people who become disabled: to make every effort when employees become disabled to make sure they stay in employment
- Developing awareness: to take action to ensure that all employees develop the appropriate level of disability awareness needed to make these commitments work
- Reviewing progress and keeping people informed: each year to review the five commitments and what has been achieved, to plan ways to improve on them and let employees and Jobcentre Plus know about progress and future plans.
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Information we are required to publish
The Trust is required to publish information analysing the effect of its actions on people from protected groups. The Trust Equality Delivery System grades will be published in March 2012.
Workforce
The Equality progress report 2010 - 2011 is based upon workforce data, including promotions and appraisals information, recruitment activity, employee relations cases, leavers and training data for 2010 - 2011 according to protected characteristics (gender, ethnicity, age, disability, religion and religious belief and sexual orientation). This report illustrates the diversity of the workforce within the Trust and identifies areas of note.
The above report is to be updated in July 2012, based on 2011 - 2012 data and will include more information on
- Return to work rates after maternity leave
- Appraisal data in relation to more protected characteristics
- Employee survey feedback (2011 survey)
A preliminary review of equal pay has been undertaken for a sample of Agenda for Change bands. A further more detailed equal pay review, including other protected characteristics is to take place in July 2012.
The electronic staff records system (ESR) has fields for all protected characteristics except gender re-assignment. This is a national system and it is anticipated that improvements will be made to ensure it is possible to record this data in ESR in future. A data collection exercise is being undertaken to improve the quality and quantity of the equality and diversity data held in ESR.
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Healthcare services
The Trust is required to publish:
- the number of people with different protected characteristics who access and use services in different ways
- satisfaction levels and informal feedback from service users with different protected characteristics and results of consultations. Patient survey results can be accessed from the Care Quality Commission surveys website: Care Quality Commission: surveys
'Let us know your views' leaflets are available across the Trust; individual departments also produce periodic surveys for patient satisfaction or audit purposes.
Summaries of key issues are available monthly, but are not yet analysed by protected group. This information is available on request from PALSJR@ouh.nhs.uk
Patient complaints information is available on our Comments and complaints page.
Demographic detail of patients is collected to inform future planning and development of services. The information is analysed and reviewed with the general population data, to detect any potential exclusion or inequality of access to services. The analysis of the demographic information will improve as the demographic information becomes more reliable.
The plan is to compare attendance at out patients and inpatients within different departments and specialist services. In the long term primary care data will also be included.
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Trust plans and documents
The Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust equality objectives and plans 2012 - 2015 were published in March 2012.
For documents relating to the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust prior to their merger on 1 November 2011 please use the links below.
Comments and complaints
Formal complaints received by the Trust are investigated with a customer focused approach, with the aim of being open and accountable. Complaints are used not only to put things right, but to seek continuous service improvement and identify organisational learning.
For our Complaints Report and complaints data please use the link below.
Quality Accounts
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Feedback
We welcome your views. If you would like to tell us about your experiences in our hospitals please contact us.
In addition to ongoing public involvement activity and seeking views, NHS Trusts in Oxfordshire worked together to hold a listening event. The themes that came from this event were:
- access to services
- attitude of staff and improvements needed in communication
- training of staff to increase understanding
- more information for patients.
You can read an Easy Read version of the report from this event at the link below:
Patient experience reports
Interpreting and translation services
Interpreting and translation services are provided by the NHS. It is very important that you understand and are fully involved in making decisions about your care and treatment.
Please ask ward staff if you need help with:
- Easy Read or different format versions of patient information
- language interpreting
- British Sign Language
- communication assistance for people who are deaf.
To find out if assistance has been booked, please contact the department, or the Patient Advice and Liaison Service.
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Get involved
If you would like to get involved with the Trust or become a Foundation Trust member please use the links below.
Oxfordshire facts and figures
The Oxfordshire Data Observatory website offers information about the population of Oxfordshire.
Equality links
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