Three years of action on race equality recognised with HSJ Awards shortlisting

Overview

We’re delighted to be a finalist for the NHS Race Equality Award at the HSJ Awards 2026, recognising our work to tackle racial inequality and embed anti-racist practice across our organisation.

We launched our Unity Against Racism strategy in 2023, with a commitment to address inequalities affecting our patients, communities and colleagues.

Three years on, anti-racism is increasingly embedded in how we work, shaping how we listen to communities, design and improve services, support our colleagues and make 

• Unity Against Racism

Listening and acting

Listening to people with lived experience and our local communities has been central to our approach.

Our Anti-Racism CommUNITY Forum provides an ongoing space for communities to share their experiences and influence change.

Alongside this, our Equity Partnership Group provides independent challenge and scrutiny, and we work with grassroots organisations to reach and involve communities whose voices are not always heard.

Importantly, we are using what we hear to make practical changes to care. Examples include:

• Making clinical assessments more inclusive – developing a skin tone bias toolkit and training to help staff recognise how clinical assessments, treatment decisions and care can be affected by skin tone, particularly where darker skin tones have historically been underrepresented in clinical training and resources.
• Providing more culturally appropriate inpatient care – introducing Black heritage hair care guides, staff education and hair care products, recognising the importance of hair to people’s identity, dignity and wellbeing.
• Supporting faith-sensitive care – working with communities and faith partners to develop multi-faith education and practical resources that help staff have respectful conversations about faith and understand its importance to people’s care.
• Improving access to services – strengthening translation and interpretation so people can access care in more than 100 languages, and identifying where people from different ethnic backgrounds experience longer waits so we can understand the reasons and make services fairer.
• Addressing inequalities in mental health care – using learning from our work on the disproportionate use of the Mental Health Act for Black people, alongside lived experience, to shape improvements in care and staff learning.

• Anti-Racism CommUNITY Forum

Making a difference for our colleagues

Unity Against Racism is also focused on creating a fairer and more inclusive workplace.

Over the past three years, we have strengthened recruitment and development processes, resulting in more ethnically diverse colleagues being appointed to senior roles.

We have also seen improvements in how colleagues view opportunities for career progression and access to development, alongside a reduction in the disparity between ethnically diverse and white colleagues experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from other staff.

Support for colleagues experiencing racism has also been strengthened through clearer guidance, improved reporting and feedback routes, wellbeing support and practical training.

Continuing the work

While we are proud of the progress made, we know there is more to do.

Inequalities remain in areas including patient access and outcomes, racist abuse towards colleagues and the representation of ethnically diverse colleagues in senior roles.

Our next phase will focus on making improvements more consistent, continuing to listen to communities and colleagues, targeting areas where inequalities remain greatest and strengthening accountability.

Alex Gild, Deputy Chief Executive, said:

“We’re delighted that our work has been recognised through this HSJ Awards shortlisting. It reflects three years of commitment from our communities, colleagues and partners to turn our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation into practical action.

“What matters most is that we continue to listen to people’s experiences and use what we learn to improve care. We have made important progress, but we know there is more to do, and we remain committed to tackling racial inequality wherever we find it.”

The winners of the HSJ Awards 2026 will be announced on Thursday 19 November.

Find out more about the progress we have made with the delivery of our anti-racism strategy: