Award winning BME career programme praised as one to follow | Our news

Our award-winning career development programme for BME and female staff has been praised as a model for the rest of the NHS to follow.

The initiative by the Barts Health inclusion team is one of a handful of pioneering NHS projects said to be closing the gap between BME and white staff.

More than 350 employees at Bands 5 to 7 have taken part so far, and over a quarter have been promoted or moved up a pay band as a result.

The Trust is one of five NHS providers piloting new ways of using a quality improvement approach to “shift the dial” on performance against the national Workforce Race Equality Standards.

This was endorsed by the internationally-renowned Institute for Healthcare Improvement, which has now entered into a partnership with the Trust to help us further develop our own WeImprove approach across the board.   

NHS England said in a report on best practice: “The trust has come a long way in its improvement journey; embedding the model for improvement approach to improving WRES performance is one of the many strides the Trust is taking as part of its improvement journey.”

Participants in the programme undertake a series of workshops on personal effectiveness, career planning, and job interviews. The report attributed its success to the way the ingredients were continually tested and refined to maximise results. For example, inviting an external guest speaker made a significant difference to experience of participants, so is now a regular feature.

Maureen Bisognano, honorary president of the IHI, noted that an engaged and inclusive workforce is the foundation of safer and more effective care, and improved patient and staff engagement.

“The work of these leaders means taking on some challenges that have been recognised for some time, but in a new way, using quality improvement to build and test new models and measure results,” she said.