- Conference
- 2025 National Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 6 December 2024
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that NHS staff are increasingly accessing training through digital means. This includes online training and training provided via Microsoft Teams. Many NHS training courses have been streamlined to cater for this shift to digital learning and this is supported by e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH).
Conference understands that many NHS staff struggle to find the time to complete all of the available courses and will only focus on mandatory training as a result. Conference believes that the current Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) training provided by the NHS for its employees, lacks depth and fails many of our patients and service users who have protected characteristics as defined by the Equality Act 2010.
It is essential that staff working in the NHS can provide positive holistic care to everyone. For those patients and service users who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender plus (LGBT+), the NHS set out its ‘National LGBT Action Plan 2018’ which aimed to improve the experience of care. And yet 6 years on, LGBT+ people continue to face barriers to accessing appropriate care. For example, Transactual reported that in a recent survey of over 1000 people, 70% of respondents had experienced transphobia whilst accessing NHS healthcare.
In addition, conference notes that, it is felt by many within the LGBT+ community that any training on LGBT+ issues should also include a component related to neurodiversity. Not every LGBT+ person is neurodiverse and vice versa, but this within itself identifies why NHS staff need to have better training opportunities to fully understand the barriers to healthcare LGBT+ people face.
The NHS needs to establish a workforce that understands the health inequalities faced by LGBT+ patients and service users, some of whom will also be neurodiverse.
Conference calls on the National Health Service Group Executive to:
1. Liaise with the National LGBT+ Committee to identify current shortfalls within current NHS EDI training related to LGBT+ people.
2. Seek to engage in a dialogue with the relevant NHS bodies to call for an update on current LGBT+ education and training.
3. Seek dialogue with relevant NHS bodies on why UNISON Health Service Group believes there is a need for mandatory LGBT+ specific training to be provided to all NHS staff.