- Conference
- 2020 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 18 September 2019
- Decision
- Carried
The NHS in England and the rest of the NHS across the UK is dependent on Black workers in all types of roles, it’s time that they put in place policies and procedures that will not just deal effectively and fairly with their Black staff, but also in 2020 it’s time to have effective scrutiny in place in all areas of their employment activities.
The NHS England Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) 2018 Data Analysis report for NHS Trusts, states that Black staff were 1.24 times more likely to enter the formal disciplinary process than white staff. The report also states that there has been year on year improvements on this indicator since 2016, which shows that more can be done in this area. This provides a real opportunity for our union to organise around this issue.
The NHS already requires all Trusts in England to comply with WRES data on an annual basis., Public Health Wales has a Strategic Equality Policy, NHS in Scotland has an Equality framework which enables each trust to monitor equality impact on their workforce and there are similar policies for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This motion will merely enhance the procedures that are already in place.
Conference calls on the National Black Members’ Committee to work with the Health Service Group Executive:
1)To encourage UNISON Health branches, seek appropriate facilities time and support for Black Members Branch Officers to assess patterns of discrimination in disciplinary processes affecting Black workers.
2)To seek the support of UNISON Health Branch Secretaries to request that the NHS start publishing race discrimination statistics on a quarterly basis, on all internal and external forms of communication. In addition, this data should be sent to all Health Branch Secretaries to review at their monthly Branch Leadership meetings.
3)Urgently raise the issues so that they can support all Health Branch Secretaries to request that the NHS retrain HR staff in the NHS, and any member of staff taking part in disciplinary panels so reducing the potential for bias in investigations and disciplinary processes.
4)Work to ensure UNISON Health Branch Secretaries and Equality Officers are consulted before the retraining of NHS staff and managers involved in the disciplinary procedures.
5)Raise these issues so that they can work with local and regional Health branches to change the entire approach, to disciplinary action against Black members and Black staff so that in general the NHS will focus on learning not blame.
6)Begin proactive communication through their regional representatives with Health Branch Secretaries about how their Branch Black Member Officers need:
a)To be supported by their Branch Secretary to request that the NHS as a whole implements ‘cultural awareness’ training on race discrimination for all their staff
b)To be encouraged to raise awareness about when a Black member of staff asks for help from the security staff they respond in a non-discriminatory way; that all levels of staff in the NHS is trained to not treat Black staff or Black visitors to their premises differently due to them being Black.
7)Recommend that all UNISON Health Branch Secretaries read Roger Kline’s article on ‘Rethinking Disciplinary Action in the NHS’ and how his approach might apply to disciplinary action against Black staff, using an approach now tested in the NHS.
8)To enable UNISON Health Branch Black Members to be supported to raise awareness within the NHS, so that we may effectively address ‘unconscious bias� in all aspects of the disciplinary procedure decision making.
This conference further asks that the National Black Members Committee regional representatives discuss and agree with their Regional Black Members Committees/Networks, how to support Health branches recruitment, election, participation and development of more Black Members Officers within our Health branches.