Who we are
NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB) was formed on 1 July 2022, serving a population of ~1.9 million people working alongside:
- Nine healthcare providers
- 41 primary care networks with 190 GP practices covering 30,000 to 50,000 people
- One upper tier and one unitary authority.
Collectively, these organisations are known as the Integrated Care System.
As an ICB, NHS Kent and Medway is committed to delivering better, more integrated care for our local population, providing a radical transformation in the people of Kent and Medway’s health and wellbeing, the quality of the care they receive and the sustainability of the system.
Our diverse workforce
NHS Kent and Medway is made up of approximately 750 staff from a rich tapestry of backgrounds and cultures. It is our intention to make sure that all members of staff who identify as being from a marginalised group feel that they belong at the ICB and have a voice that is heard.
Our workforce is:
- 75% female.
- 4% have a disability or long-term condition (this is marginally higher than the NHS workforce nationally).
- 75% white.
- 17% BAME.
- 8% choose not to declare their ethnicity.
- comprises 24 different nationalities.
- comprises 6 different religions, with 34% identifying as Christian, 20% of our staff chose not to disclose their religion.
- 2% identify as LGBTQIA+ (this is marginally lower than the NHS workforce nationally).
- 26% of our workforce work part-time, 87% of our part time workforce are women.
Our Board has 16 members of which:
- 50% are female. This means in relation to our workforce; women are under-represented as members.
- 61% identify as white and 32% identify as being from an ethnic minority background. This means that people of non-white heritage are over-represented compared to our broader workforce.
A seat at our table
NHS Kent and Medway knows that a happier, more motivated, kinder health and care workforce will deliver better services for people. Also, by creating an inclusive culture enriched by diversity of perspectives, cultures and backgrounds where no one is excluded, everyone will have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and experience joy in work.
At the point of our formation, we set ourselves a set of Diversity and Inclusion Priorities. These priorities were treated as transitional ones to support us in our initial year as an ICB.
Priorities and actions
Develop and engage with our internal networks to ensure that they have a voice within the organisation and build a truly inclusive environment for everyone.
- Assigned Executive Sponsors to each network so that each of our staff networks have representation at the most senior level of the organisation
- Supported networks to deliver cultural events across our local ICS and highlight their achievements as a system
- Developed a toolkit that supports ambitious staff network leads in identifying actions and activities to help them use their collective voice, build an engaged membership and drive forward our Diversity and Inclusion agenda.
Develop and implement inclusive development and educational offer for all people in the organisation to ensure fair and equitable access and opportunity.
- Overhauled our appraisal system, including monitoring process to ensure that staff met with their line manager to discuss opportunities for progression.
- Improved our diversity monitoring of career development opportunities to track potential trends in the groups of people being approve/turned down for opportunities.
Pilot and evaluate a fully inclusive recruitment model overhaul our internal and external processes to remove bias and improve diversity.
- Rolled out a system-wide Debiased Recruitment programme and supporting training to our most-frequent hiring managers. Attendee group to broaden after the pilot finishes and is reviewed in Sept 2023.
Building on Freedom To Speak Up and cultural change, introduce Civility and Respect policy and approach.
- Our Freedom To Speak Up Guardian has attended staff network meetings to reinforce messages around the importance of speaking up
- Plans to recruit Freedom to Speak Up Champions from marginalised groups within the workforce
- Launched Civility and Respect Policy.
Collaborate with our system partners to design and deliver a set of inclusive interventions to address inequality for our workforce, our population and our communities.
- Launched Debiased Recruitment model and training
- Launched Development Centres and talent pools for nurses from minority ethnic groups
- Offered a system-wide mentoring programme
- Collated, analysed and reporting against the Workforce Race Equality Standard as a system for the first time.
Some of these programmes are ongoing and therefore the impact has not yet been assessed.
In addition, this year we launched our organisation’s visions, purpose and values and are currently co-creating a behavioural framework to underpin these. This includes a value dedicated to Inclusion, which demonstrates the importance of providing a fully inclusive and supportive working environment to our workforce members irrespective of how they choose to identify and made the same commitment to our local population too.
- Caring for all
- Including everyone
- Building trust
- Doing what's right
- Being courageous.
Our staff survey results 2022
Feedback from BAME colleagues has continued to improve from 2020 and 2021 but remains lower than the national average for ICBs (details are shown on the table overpage)
The ICB hosts a Staff Network aimed at supporting colleagues from ethnic minorities, and this year we have been able to triangulate this feedback with lived experiences of members of the network. The network has been supporting the ICB in its design of programmes focused on improving the experience of BAME staff.
|
National 2022 |
White 2022 |
BME 2022 |
White 2021 |
White 2020 |
BME 2021 |
BME 2020 |
|
|
Question |
n = 572 |
n = 476 |
n = 88 |
||||
|
In the last 12 months how many times have you personally experienced harassment, bullying or abuse at work from…Patients / service users, their relatives or other members of the public |
5.8% |
5.9% |
4.6% |
6.90% |
9.30% |
9.80% |
13.90% |
|
Percentage of staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from staff in last 12 months |
16.9% |
15.6% |
22.7% |
10.70% |
25.60% |
24.10% |
33.30% |
|
Does your organisation act fairly with regard to career progression / promotion, regardless of ethnic background, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or age? |
54.5% |
59.0% |
33.7% |
59.40% |
79.40% |
32% |
24.00% |
|
In the last 12 months have you personally experienced discrimination at work from any of the following? Manager / team leader or other colleagues |
72% |
6.1% |
12.8% |
7.40% |
8.60% |
13.10% |
37.10% |
This table shows our 2022 National Staff Survey results comparing feedback from White and Ethnic Minority staff.
The experience of disabled colleagues is disproportionally worse than colleagues who do not have a disability. Our staff network group aimed at supporting colleagues with a disability has been engaged in designing our programmes that are aimed at improving their experience at work.
|
National |
No |
Disability |
No |
No |
Disability |
Disability |
|
|
Description |
n = 572 |
n = 419 |
n = 148 |
|
|||
|
Percentage of disabled staff compared to non-disabled staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from Patients, Managers or Colleagues |
21% |
17.2% |
31.1% |
|
|||
|
In the last 12 months how many times have you personally experienced harassment, bullying or abuse at work from…The last time you experienced harassment, bullying or abuse at work, did you or a colleague report it? |
33.6% |
31.8% |
37.2% |
52.30% |
40.20% |
46.50% |
45.20% |
|
Does your organisation act fairly with regard to career progression / promotion, regardless of ethnic background, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or age? |
54.5% |
57.2% |
47.6% |
58% |
78.30% |
48.80% |
57.40% |
|
Have you felt pressure from your manager to come to work? |
14.4% |
12.5% |
18.5% |
9% |
11.90% |
20% |
19.70% |
|
The extent to which my organisation values my work. |
48% |
50.6% |
42.6% |
52.80% |
38.40% |
40.20% |
33% |
|
Has your employer made adequate adjustment(s) to enable you to carry out your work? |
76.8% |
* |
76.8% |
n/a |
n/a |
70% |
71.10% |
|
Staff Engagement Score |
6.8 |
6.9 |
6.4 |
|
|
|
|
Table 3 shows our 2022 National Staff Survey results comparing feedback from those who have/do not have a disability.
Examples of our equality programmes in 2022-2023 include:
- Successfully undertaking a procurement process and developing a Culture &Inclusion (C&I) Programme Supplier Framework for the ICS
- Designing and showcasing a system-wide Aspiring Development Programme for Band 5 Nurses (180 places in Phase 1)
- Designing and delivering a system-wide De-biasing and values-based recruitment programme to make recruitment fairer and more transparent (~900 participants from Providers, Primary and Social Care in Phase 1 2023/24)
- Developing a Staff Network Development Toolkit to upskill staff network members across the ICS and delivered lunch and learn sessions including taking a staff network from surviving to thriving, developing a proactive membership, communication, engagement and events management
- Establishing an EDI Asset Repository, including a library of EDI assets that can be accessed by colleagues across the system via the FutureNHS platform
- Updating our Equality Impact Assessment tool.
As an employer of over 250 staff. We are required to submit an annual Gender Pay Gap Report. The results of which can be found on our ICB website. We are pleased to see that we have begun to reduce our gender pay gap but there is more that we can do.
In 2022 we set ourselves several actions to meet the needs of the women we employ, and we will continue to develop this further as we move into 2023/2024. So far, we have worked with our Women’s Network to:
- Introduce a new appraisal process for 2022 that ensured a quality focus on career aspirations, personal and professional development, learning opportunities, health and wellbeing and flexible working
- Actively promoted learning and development opportunities that already exist and are fully inclusive
- Introduced a flexible working policy that encourages women to return to or remain in work following life events such as maternity leave, long-term illness, the menopause and taking on caring responsibilities
- Updated our recruitment processes to ensure inclusivity with managers attending Debiased Recruitment Workshop and a toolkit in circulation
- Supported women through menopause by offering a range of events (workshops, education sessions, allyship programmes, guidance toolkits) aimed at improving knowledge and therefore the culture in the ICB.