Planning for Fairness Paperwork

Planning for Fairness paperwork

This documentation should be filled in on an ongoing basis as your piece of work develops.

Basic information (See page 2 of the guidance)

1. Name of piece of work

NHS Highland Learning Strategy
This document will apply to fulfil the EQIA requirement of all NHS Highland learning and development providers, including:
·  Educational development, e.g. educational frameworks and strategies, programmes and activities, and associated materials
·  Quality assurance and management of educational programmes and activities
·  Delivery of education, where NHS Highland is the provider
·  Commissioning of training, education and training for NHS Highland staff.

2. Brief description of the piece of work

To assess the impact of NHS Highland’s Learning Strategy and related learning activities, on different groups of people with protected characteristics, identify how to address areas at risk of discrimination and disadvantage, and to fulfil the statutory requirement for EQIA.

3. Name of person leading this work: Paul Maber

Job title of person leading this work: Learning Support Officer

Email of person leading this work:

4. Name of senior manager who will sign off the process: Anne Gent (Director of Human Resources)

5. Individuals involved in the Planning for Fairness process
Name / Title / Email or telephone contact
Judith McKelvie / Head of Learning and Development /
01463 706870
Paul Simmons / Learning and Development Facilitator /
01463 706885
Paul Maber / Learning Support Officer /
01463 706880
Esther Dickinson / Policy Development Manager /
01463 704791
Lynda Forrest / Policy Development Manager /
01463 704918
Jane Groves / Public Health Network Co-ordinator /
01463 704960

Background Information

6. Briefly explain what information (research/local knowledge/general intelligence) tells us about how people with protected characteristics may be affected by this piece of work. (Consider both staff and service users)

(See page 3 of the guidance)

Brief explanation / Which protected characteristic does the information relate to?
Information suggests that people with protected characteristics maybe affected by this piece of work in the following ways:
·  Access to learning due to living in rural areas
·  Access to learning opportunities due to working part-time and/or unsocial hours
·  Access to e-Learning/blended learning due to limited access to IT and/or limited IT skills
·  Access to learning opportunities due to culture in certain areas where staff have not been encouraged to develop as part of the development review process (may be more prevalent in low paid and female orientated workforce)
·  Delivery methods may not support learners individual learning styles (esp relevant for learning disabilities)
·  Physical access to premises
·  Design issues with learning materials for people; with a disability and/or sensory impairment /and or who speak a language other than English
·  Accessibility of written materials (impact on groups as per above) / ·  People living in rural areas
·  Women, Carers
·  socioeconomic
·  Older people
·  Part-time workers (more commonly women and those with caring responsibilities)
·  People with a disability
·  People with a disability, Black and Minority Ethnic

7. Provide a brief summary of the relevant equalities data you have relating to this piece of work (See page 4 of the guidance)

Very limited data is available on NHS Highland’s employee profile and those with protected characteristics.
Sources of data include; NHS Scotland Information Services Division (ISD), Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO), NHSH Payroll System and Workforce Reports.
Data from ISD refers to age and gender. Data on disability, ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation and transgender status is available on a summary basis only. A high percentage of employees choose not to disclose this information so goes underreported.
As at 30/09/10 ISD reports NHS Highland’s workforce as mainly female (80%), of which 43% work part-time and work mainly in Administrative Services / Support to clinical staff (61%) and Support Services / Hotel Services (85%). Local intelligence suggests there is a high percentage of Black and Minority Ethnic People working within Hotel Services. Females tend to be the primary carer where there are dependants.
Data available from the Scottish Public Health Observatory http://scotpho.org.uk/web/files/profiles/2010/Spi_HBd_H.pdf ‘Highland Health Board Summary’ indicator 48 states; 45.6% of Highland people live in an area that is access deprived, which statistically is significantly worse than the Scottish average.
NHSH Workforce Report provides profiles for those with protected characteristics. The quality of data is limited by high non-response rates in relation to workforce data gathering processes.
Section 1.7 Equality and Diversity of the report, provides workforce data on the following protected characteristics:
·  Ethnicity (77.30% White, 17.16% Prefer not to answer, 3.61% blank, 1.24% Asian (including British), 0.27% Black (including British), 0.31% Mixed, 0.11% Other),
·  Disability (66.02% No, 25.67% Prefer not to answer, 1.74% Yes, 7.57% blank),
·  Religion and Belief (47.96% Christian, 23.50% None, 21.90% Prefer not to answer, 4.04% Blank, 1.52% Other, 0.41% Hinduism, 0.32% Islam, 0.28% Buddhism, 0.06% Judaism),
·  Gender (81.06% Female, 18.86% Male, 0.08% Transgender)
·  Sexual orientation (Heterosexual 89.94%, 8.40% Blank, 0.51% Bisexual, 0.50% Other, 0.42% Gay Man, 0.22% Lesbian/Gay Woman).
A recent NHS Scotland Staff Survey (2010), reported on the Staff Governance Standards. One of the standards is that employees are ‘appropriately trained’, during the reporting period:
·  70% of staff indicated they had a KSF Development Review, performance review, appraisal, Personal Development Plan meeting or equivalent.
·  44% stated this helped them to improve how they do their job.
·  77% received or expected to receive the training that was identified in their Personal Development Plan.
·  92% stated their immediate manager supported them in accessing the training.
·  57% were satisfied with the training they received.
·  Apart from health and safety or mandatory refresher training,
o  28% had received no other training, whilst
o  11% received less than 1 day, 19% between 1 and 2 days, 26% between 2 and 5 days, 11% between 5 and 10 days and 4% had 10 days or more.
Data is available from NHS Highlands Learning Management System, All-Time Learning (AT-L). The quality of the data is limited as not all training is recorded on the system, localised data collection methods are evident and high non-response rates in relation to workforce data gathering processes that populate the system.
·  Training take up by Gender between 01/04/10 and 01/04/11 details:
o  Total Female applications: 10,209 of which 9,023 attended (88.38%)
o  Total Male applications: 1,615 of which 1,415 attended (87.62%).

8. Briefly describe any information, gathered from involvement/participation exercises, that tells us about how people with protected characteristics may be affected by this piece of work. (Consider both staff and service users).

(See page 5 of the guidance)

Brief explanation / Which protected characteristic does the information relate to?
NHSHs workforce is mainly female. Where there are dependants, the female tends to be the primary carer. More females than males work part-time. Access to learning opportunities can be more of an issue for part-time workers than full-time. / Women, carers and Part-time workers
NHSH geographical area represents over 40% of Scotland’s landmass but only accommodates 6% of the Scottish population. This presents particular challenges with accessing services. This will be similar for staff accessing training venues, as not all training will be available on the premises where they work, and require travelling. People living in the Highlands are statistically significantly worse than the Scottish average in relation to living in access deprived areas. This means limited access to public transport, which presents challenges with living in rural areas. / People living in rural areas
There are a number of impairments that may particularly impact on learning, including sensory impairments, specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, communication support needs, mental health difficulties and physical or mobility impairments also affect learning because of the physical access to buildings. Other issues may involve travel, accessibility of facilities and learning materials, e.g. e-learning resources. / People with a disability
Accessibility of written material, where English is not a first language, there may be issues like the use of plain English, clarity and complexity of writing and the use of jargon. / Black and Minority Ethnic
NES undertook a literature review that considered educational needs of older (45+) workforce. Stereotyping is an issue faced by older workers, who at times are assumed to be technophobic, less flexible or less trainable. Older workers tended not to take up training opportunities for a range of reasons, including their assumptions about the balance of cost and value of training. / Age

People with which protected characteristics may be affected?

9. Based on your background information people with which protected characteristic will you particularly need to consider when planning your work?

See page 6 of the guidance and appendix 1 for a full explanation of each protected group.

Gender
(women, men, transgender) / √ / People living in remote and rural settings / √
Age (esp older and younger people) / ü / People living in poverty/ disadvantage
People in religious or faith groups / Homeless people
Lesbian gay and bisexual people (LGB) / Staff and volunteers / √
Black and Minority Ethnic people (BME) / √ / People involved in the criminal justice system
People with a disability (inc mental, physical and learning) / √ / Others discriminated against by association
Carers / √ / Other

10 Which of the following prompts (all of which guide you to consider equality issues) are considerations in the work you are doing?

See page 7 of the guidance (and also pages 9-17 for further explanation)

Finance planning and decision making (FP) / √ / Workforce issues (WI) / √
Transport and rurality issues (TR) / √ / Buildings and physical space (BPS) / Ö
Talking and listening to people (TL) / Immediate care delivery (ICD)
Publicising your work among staff and/or service users (PW) / √ / Other please state below (O)

Other

None

Actions Taken

Generic considerations

11. Please indicate where you are confident that staff involved in developing or delivering this work have/will adhere(d) to the following guidance or policies (See page 8 of the guidance)

·  Yes - staff involved in this work have/will adhere(d) to the following guidance or policies (or scope of these documents where services are procured or delivered in partnership)

·  No – I need to carry out some more specific work to ensure this guidance is followed

·  Not applicable to my work

Y / N / N/A
WI / NHS Highland PIN policies and procedures / Y
TR / Managing access for patients, policies & procedures / X
The Adverse Weather Policy / Y
BPS / DDA Building Regulations / Y
Accessibility Guidance section 2: Accessing Services / X
TL / Interpretation Guidance / Y
Guidance on Translation and Accessible Information / Y
Accessibility Guidance Section 3: Talking and Listening / Y
ICD / Accessibility Guidance Section 5: Flexibility / X
Spiritual Care Policy / X
Best Practice Guidelines: Privacy Dignity and Respect within NHS Highland / X
Multi-faith Handbook / X
PW / Accessibility Guidance Section 4: Written Information / Y
Guidance on Translation and Accessible information / Y
Framework for Communications 2010 – 2012 / Y
Guide to Participation in Service Redesign and Change / X

Actions Taken

Specific considerations

12. Please use the table to provide information about the more specific work you are doing to address disadvantage and discrimination and promote equality that has not been covered by your adherence to the above policies and guidance.

See page 9 of the guidance (and also pages 10-17 for further explanation)

You can add or delete rows to the table as you need to.

Prompt Code
e.g. (FP)
(more than one can be stated) * / Briefly describe all the incidences where you have recognised:
·  the potential for disadvantage or discrimination
·  the potential to promote equality / Describe what you have done to:
·  address the disadvantage or discrimination
·  promote equality / Further
action required?
Y/N
FP / Promote Equality:
·  L&D budget allocated equitably to operational units so all staff can access learning.
Potential for disadvantage:
·  Inadequate monitoring of access to training for staff with protected characteristics therefore lack of knowledge that inequality may exist / ·  L&D Budget allocated per capita. Medics get up to £1k to cover higher education cost associated with job role
·  Emailed managers, and reports to the Highland Partnership Forum and Learning and Development Subgroup.
·  Some data available from L&D systems but not detailed enough to identify if inequality exists / Y
WI / Promote equality:
·  The learning and development needs of all staff are encouraged, supported and met through organisational change and redesign processes. Any staff with any particular need, related to a protected characteristic will be supported.
·  Working together with universities, further education and the wider education sector to encourage and maximise flexible access to education and training (Force for Improvement)
·  Promote all types of learning to all grades of NHS staff and promote the workplace as a learning environment
·  All staff having a Development Review and Personal Development Plan agreed / ·  Ensuring Staff Governance Standards and employment legislation are adhered to
·  NHS Highlands Learning Partnership Agreement and Union Learning Reps promotes the organisation as a learning organisation and learning should be available and accessible for all staff
·  New 2011/12 performance indicator for all staff, not just those with a permanent contract, to undergo the Development Review Process and agree a PDP / N
TR / Promote equality:
·  Support people access training, e.g. those without access to private transport
·  Encouraging training providers to consider alternative delivery methods, e.g. blended learning / ·  Promotion of HITRANS car sharing scheme and Traveline Scotland public transport information websites.
·  Ensure a range of delivery methods are available and/or deliver training closer to home where possible.
·  Implementation of NHS LearnPro e-Learning system and encouraging the use of video-conferencing where appropriate
·  Re-visit the E&D checklist for trainers and ensure all staff who deliver training use it. / N
PW / ·  Using email and intranet to promote learning opportunities has the potential to disadvantage certain groups of staff who are unable to access a computer who are likely to be in low paid employment and staff who do not have IT skills who are likely to be older
Potential for discrimination:
·  People with accessibility requirements and English as a second language / ·  Encouraging the use of posters on notice boards, in staff welfare areas, and targeting training via locality managers and team leaders
·  Ensuring joining instructions has a statement in relation to ‘additional support to undertake the learning’ and whom to contact to ensure support is available to access their needs. / Y
BPS / Potential for discrimination:
·  Staff not able to access buildings / ·  Where possible using facilities that are accessible for all staff
·  All the above is also underpinned by the development of NHS Highland’s Best Practice Toolkit for Learning and Development activities. / N

* The prompt code is taken from the table on page 3 (above) where you have identified where you need to consider equality issues.