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Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
28 November 2022
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion oversight group
Introduction
Our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) oversight group is responsible for delivering Health Education England's (HEE’s) Diversity and Inclusion agenda. We will implement the HEE Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Framework 2018–2022, any subsequent strategies, and the NHS People Plan.
The main principles of the framework include:
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Our people: we are committed to delivering change to enable an inclusive culture that recognises differences and celebrates diversity.
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Our influence: we support a world-class approach to education and training that creates opportunities for people in every setting and from every background. We will use our influence with stakeholders to promote diversity and inclusion in the wider healthcare system and within medical and clinical education.
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Our business: we will ensure that diversity and inclusion is embedded through the setting of organisational, directorate, team, and individual objectives, as well as business planning and performance management processes.
The GMC workforce report 2022 shows the number of Specialty and Associate Specialty (SAS) and Locally Employed Doctors (LED) on the register has grown by 40%. If this trend continues, SAS and LED doctors will form the largest group in the profession by 2030. Around 42% of doctors on the register come from ethnic minority backgrounds, as do 64% of new registrants. There has also been a 121% increase in medical graduates joining the UK workforce from overseas, compared to a growth of just 2% among UK graduates over the same five-year period.
Multiple studies have shown that as a group both International Medical Graduates (IMG) and ethnic minority UK trained medical graduates perform less well in their examinations and ARCP outcomes. This is known as differential attainment, which is the unexplained variation in achievement between groups who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share the same characteristic, for example, ethnicity, gender, and disability.
IMG is one of our primary areas of focus within differential attainment, including those in specialty training, foundation training, and SAS doctors. We are also looking at how we can support locally employed doctors.
- Kirsty Weaver, Programme Support Coordinator for primary care
- Claire Fox, EDI Associate Dean for primary care
- Eng Ong, EDI Associate Dean for secondary care
- Bijal O’Gara, outgoing EDI and DA Fellow
- Hana Bashir, due to start EDI Fellowship in January 2023
The oversight group meets quarterly and consists of 18 members including a lay representative. You can contact the group.
- Sent a welcome letter packed with useful information to help them settle in.
- Invited them to our bespoke welcome to UK practice day, run in partnership with the GMC.
- Promoted the IMG specific personal learning and development plan.
- Provided communication skills and exam support in primary care.
- Organised a pre-induction webinar to introduce NHS prior to shadowing.
- Offered enhanced induction and shadowing for postgraduate doctors in training who are new to the NHS.
- Produced a series of videos, where IMGs describe their experience in different specialties.
- Created a booklet for preparing for life as a south west postgraduate doctor in training.
There is an IMG network which is run by postgraduate doctors in training as well as training, which includes peer support and advanced communication skills for IMG.
We also offer faculty training which covers unconscious bias, civility workshops and train the trainer-enhanced support for IMG.
To find out more or to take part in our differential attainment workshop, you can contact us.
- Sexual harassment awareness raising and facilitated training using immersive technology in partnership with Digital Future at South Devon. See this video as an example from the training.
- Active bystander workshop to find out the tools to tackle unacceptable behaviours.
- EDI champions appointed for School of Surgery working across Peninsula and Severn with potential workstreams on Parents in Surgery, Less Than Full time Training and more.
- EDI champion network – if you are an EDI champion for your trust or training programme get in touch to join our network. This is for postgraduate doctors in training as well as an EDI lead network for trainers.
As a first point of call, you can speak to your clinical and educational supervisors, who will assist and direct you to the appropriate resources and support.
You can also find more information on our EDI webpage.
If you’d like to get involved with our EDI activities, please email us.