Race Equality Week (Monday 6 – Sunday 12 February) is a UK-wide initiative uniting thousands of organisations and individuals to address race equality barriers in the workplace.
Its aim is to unite employees and encourage senior leaders to continue their activity and drive race equality all year long. The theme for this year is ‘It’s Everyone’s Business’ because tackling race inequality is everyone’s business.
The Black Country ICB has adopted the Black Country Integrated Care System’s (ICS) Race Equality Pledge, which sets out how improvements will be made to the annual collection and analysis of system-wide workforce equality data.
This data will then be used to identify inequalities, reduce inequality experienced by colleagues that work in health and care in the Black Country and address any areas of underrepresentation of colleagues from a Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority background.
As part of the pledge, the ICS has also committed to publish an annual ethnicity pay gap report at a system level by March 2024 and take action to reduce any pay disparities between white and ethnic minority colleagues through the development of a system-wide ethnicity pay gap action plan.
Shajeda Ahmed, Chief People Officer for the NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board, said: “Race Equality Week serves as a timely reminder that we must continue to drive race equality all year long to make meaningful and impactful change.
“We are proud to adopt the Black Country ICS Race Equality Pledge, to show our commitment to taking definitive action to ensure that we are an inclusive, anti-racist system for the benefit of colleagues that work for us and for our diverse communities that access healthcare services in the Black Country.”
You can find more information about the pledge on the Black Country ICS website here.
