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HEE’s anti-racist approach
Our Chief Executive Navina Evans set out HEE's ambition to become an anti-racist organisation during this week's Board meeting (21 September).
In her Chief Executive's Update, she said: "Over the last 18 months in particular, there has been increasing focus, awareness and understanding of the issues that face people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds – as patients, as our people and colleagues, as part of the population we serve and society we live in.
"Within HEE we have also been making consistent efforts to recognise and appreciate the experience of our colleagues from a BAME background, and with it making the uncomfortable admission that we need to do better.
"We have made progress: our staff networks have become more prominent, our organisational engagement with them is improving, and we have strengthened our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team. HEE, and the NHS, can do more.
"Our colleagues in NHS England and Improvement have recently published a bitesize learning module on anti-racist allyship. This follows a handful of other NHS organisations at local and regional level making their own statements of intent to become anti-racist organisations.
"The step from non-racism to anti-racism is meaningful. It isn’t easy, but it is the right step to take and I welcome the efforts of colleagues across the service towards taking it.
"HEE, through our collaborative role nationally and regionally, will support our colleagues on their journey. To do that credibly, we must also take our own next step on our journey towards better diversity and inclusion.
"I am excited therefore to set HEE’s ambition to become a truly anti-racist organisation. This will take concerted effort and time, so it is all the more important that we begin now.
"HEE’s People Committee will take forward our ambition and develop our plan for how we ensure that we change our approach to benefit our own people, all the partners, stakeholders and customers we work with, and ultimately to deliver better outcomes for the population we serve. I look forward to updating Board on our progress."
You can watch a recording of our September Board meeting on our YouTube channel.