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Workforce Equality and Inclusion

Newly established Greater Manchester Workforce Inequalities Working Group to identify and address inequalities within our workforce

Greater Manchester (GM) Cancer has recently established a GM Workforce Inequalities Working Group of which members include Provider Trust Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) leads, GM Cancer Business Intelligence, leads involved in the current Race Equality Change Agents Programme (RECAP) cohort, EDI project managers linked to the cancer workforce, and an executive from the NHS BME Network.

This working group will feed into the GM Cancer Workforce & Education Board and focus on an agreed remit of work with the aim of reducing workforce inequalities and will also link in with the GM Cancer Inequalities Group chaired by Dave Shackley and Ali Jones.

The group met for the initial meeting on Tuesday 18th January to discuss and agree the remit of working group, planned activity for consideration and working group membership as outlined below:

Workforce and education events

Working Group Remit: 

  • Initial focus on workforce race equality until March 2023 in alignment with national and GM People Plans
  • A focus on the barriers between band 5 and band 6 roles – reduced representation in band 6 roles and above
  • Race equality outputs predict to have a positive impact on other protected characteristics
  • Focus on the non-medical workforce with the potential to narrow the scope to one particular workforce group to effectively measure impact
  • Explore linking in with Higher Education Institutions
  • Explore a blend of quantitative and qualitative data for both baseline measures and measuring impact of work

Planned Activity to Consider: 

  • Ringfence secondments with wrap around support
  • Reciprocal/reverse mentoring
  • Explore current recruitment process’ across Greater Manchester
  • Mobilisation of the workforce to gain exposure to upskilling and development opportunities

Working Group Membership:

  • Invites to the working group have been extended to representatives of the MFT BAME Staff Network, the Christie Ethnic Diversity Staff Network and NHSE/I Policy Leads, leading the work on ethnicity and diversity at a National level.
  • EDI leads acknowledge their ability to contribute expertise in relation to EDI but not specifically to the cancer workforce – there is a need for the working group to recruit members who can offer cancer workforce specific expertise. We have put out an ask to the GM Cancer Workforce & Education Board to recommend potential members

Next Steps:

  • Working group members to review and approve the terms of reference
  • Trust representatives to approach Trust workforce information teams to gain access to a breakdown of the cancer workforce data and bring to the next working group meeting. This data will provide an existing view of representation within the workforce and may influence appropriate workforce groups to be a focus for this work
  • Group to work closely with NHS BME Network to review National action plan with preparations for action planning on a local Greater Manchester level

Jess Docksey, Project Manager, MDT ReformIf you’d like to know more about this work, or feel you’d make a great addition to the working group, please get in touch with Jess Docksey, Workforce & Education Project Manager and Working Group Chair

Contact Jess