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Summary of equality and diversity strategic plan
Progress update and work priorities
March 2008
Introduction
This document provides a summary of the strategic aims of the equal opportunities committee (EOC) and the equality and diversity strategic plan. The plan is updated regularly and sets out key areas of work for the EOC over the three year period 2007-2010. The strategic plan is guided by the five strategic aims for the EOC which are:
- Promote equality and diversity for the medical workforce in relation to ethnicity, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion and belief.
- Improve equality and diversity teaching within medical education and training.
- Promote equality of representation amongst BMA committees including professional and branch of practice.
- Enable the BMA to present itself as an organisation that values diversity and supports members in all areas of discrimination.
- Ensure that the BMA’s policies, policy development processes and procedures are fair, objective and free from unlawful discrimination.
BMA's strategic objectives:
- To represent the interests of doctors and medical students locally, nationally and internationally, and to provide services to improve their professional lives.
- To promote the delivery of the highest quality, patient-centred services in UK healthcare, to advocate for health and thus improve the health expectation and experience of individuals and of the UK population.
- To influence governments’ policies and decisions on health and health service issues, in the UK, and where appropriate internationally. To communicate and represent BMA views and policies to members, the public, parliaments and other stakeholders.
- To recruit and retain a high level of membership.
- To exercise sound stewardship of the BMA’s assets, including the British Medical Journal Publishing Group (BMJPG), enabling the BMA to advance its broad strategic aims.
The equal opportunities policy sets out the BMA’s commitment to equality in the provision of its services to its members and stakeholders. [Read the equal opportunities policy here]
BMA equal opportunities policy guidelines:
The guidelines outline how the BMA will deliver equality in accordance with the equal opportunities policy. [Read the equal opportunities policy guidelines here]
Equal opportunities committee remit:
The EOC remit contains the terms of reference for the committee. [Read the EOC remit here]
The strategic plan is divided into two areas: the part A focuses on external priorities within the healthcare environment over which the BMA wishes to have an influence. Part B focuses on policies, practices and procedures within the organisation.
Part A: Priority areas within medical careers and education
Strategic aim 1: Promote equality and diversity for the medical workforce in relation to ethnicity, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion and belief.
Trust equality compliance
In February 2008 the EOC co-chairs wrote to Secondary Health Authorities (SHAs) about monitoring and auditing work on diversity and equality amongst NHS trusts. This letter referred to findings of the Trust equality audit by the Healthcare Commission in November 2007. [Read more here] The EOC co-chairs will meet with Trish Pashley, Head of Equality and Human Rights at the Healthcare Commission in April 2008 to discuss next steps.
Tooke review
The EOC contributed to the BMA’s response to the 'Health Committee Inquiry into Workforce Planning' in March 2006 [Read more here] and to the interim report of the Tooke Inquiry into 'Modernising Medical Careers - Aspiring to excellence' in November 2007. [Read more here]
Medical women
The EOC secretariat web resource on 'Medical Women' was published in July 2006 with links to key resources and examples of good practice. The resource is updated regularly.
International medical graduates
The EOC maintains close links with the International Doctors Advisory Group (IDAG), which is supported by the BMA International Department. The EOC co-chairs are co-opted representatives to the group. At the request of IDAG, the EOC is investigating the provision of information to orientate International Medical Graduates (IMGs) to the UK healthcare system.
Disabled doctors and medical students
The equality and diversity section of the BMA website now contains a main page for disabled doctors and medical students. This page includes a number of resources including the 'Disabled doctors and medical students’ web resource, [Read more here] which is updated regularly, together with two reports published in 2007 entitled, 'Disability equality in the medical profession' [Read more here] and 'Disability equality within healthcare: The role of healthcare professionals' [Read more here]. The secretariat is investigating making the latter report available on the website in audio format.
In February 2008, 'Testing for blood borne viruses: BMA guidance for medical staff' [Read more here] was published following a joint meeting between representatives from EOC, junior doctors committee, medical students committee occupational medicine committee, medical ethics and the Medical foundation for AIDS and sexual health. Further work to develop a single web-portal for information on bloodborne viruses is under consideration.
Strategic aim 2: Improve equality and diversity teaching in medical education and training
E&D education
The EOC report 'Examining equality: A survey of royal college examinations', [Read more here] published in 2006, recommended that examiners should be provided with regular training in equality and diversity. This training should include information relating to ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion and belief, and disability. In addition, Royal colleges should implement formal processes to monitor and evaluate examiner performance and behaviour, in relation to all aspects of diversity.
In April 2007 a joint Equal Opportunities Committee and Medical Education Sub-committee briefing document, 'Equality and diversity education' was published [Read more here]. The briefing considers how equality and diversity education in medicine could be delivered, and demonstrated to be effective. It was revised in March 2008 to include additional comments and examples of current practice from the General Medical Council (GMC), the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB), the Medical Schools Council (heads of medical schools), medical royal colleges, faculties and postgraduate deaneries.
MTAS confidentiality
In May 2007, the EOC co-chairs wrote to Patricia Hewitt to express concern over the handling of personal sensitive information, including diversity monitoring data, and asked for reassurance that this had been kept confidential throughout the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) process, particularly with respect to the selection panel.
Part B: Priority areas within the organisation
3. Promote equality of representation amongst BMA committees including professional and branch of practice BMA committees
Monitoring committees
The EOC monitors the representation of all diversity groups on BMA committees, analyses the results and reports to BMA Council on an annual basis. The monitoring exercise for 2006-07 included race, age, gender, disability, religion and belief. A separate, anonymous survey was conducted for sexual orientation. The results revealed under-representation particularly in relation to race and gender. In response, Council requested branch of practice, professional committees and regional councils to prepare action plans to show how each committee intends to address the under-representation identified within their committee monitoring data. EOC will assess these action plans, give advice and report to Council in July 2008. The 2007-2008 monitoring round will begin in March 2008.
Inclusive committees
The secretariat maintains the web resource entitled, 'Getting involved in BMA committees' [Read more here]. The aim is to encourage members to participate in BMA committees. It includes information about how committees are run, their remits, and facilities that are available including committee mentors. The resource is updated at the start of each session (July) to reflect any changes to election procedures, dates of elections and contact details for each committee.
The EOC secretariat produces and updates a number of guidance documents for committees to help them become more accessible, eg by considering locations of meetings, access to venues, times of meetings, consideration of religious holidays/practices, document font size and accessibility, creche provision, dietary/other requirements. The guidance documents include, 'A guide to mentoring for BMA committee', guidance on 'Religion and belief: best practice guide for arranging meetings', and 'Guide to effective communication: non-discriminatory language'.
Diversity role models
In order to increase the external visibility of committee members as role models an introduction from the EOC co-chairs has been added to the website, including photographs and biographies of the co-chairs and other committee members. [Read more here]
Strategic aim 4: Enable the BMA to present itself as an organisation that values diversity and supports members in all areas of discrimination
BMA website
The secretariat is in the process of revising and restructuring the equality and diversity area of the BMA website. This will include more guidance and information for BMA members on each diversity strand, additional links to contacts and resources, as well as updates on the EOC’s work. [Read more here]
Discrimination cases
Regional services conducted an audit of discrimination cases handled over the last 12 months and the findings were reported to the EOC in March 2008. Following the meeting the committee will consider working with BMA News to publish a short article about legal support for discrimination cases, including some statistical data on cases handled.
The guidance 'Dealing with discrimination: a guide for BMA members' [Read more here] is reviewed annually by EOC and regional services to ensure it remains up to date. It is published on the website and in BMA News.
Positive images
The 'BMA branding and corporate identity' manual was updated in October 2007 and includes a section on “diversity” which gives guidance on the avoidance of stereotypes, and incorporates the latest version of the EOC’s, 'Guide to effective communication: non-discriminatory language'.
Working with others
The BMA, through the EOC, is represented on a number of stakeholder groups which are working to promote equality, including the NHS Employers’ Diversity Forum, PMETB Equality and Diversity Reference Group and the joint GMC/NHSE/BMA equality group. The EOC liaises with other diversity groups and experts in relation to specific projects.
Strategic aim 5. Ensure that the BMA’s policies, policy development processes and procedures are fair, objective and free from unlawful discrimination
Diversity training
The BMA recognises that diversity training is important for chairs, committee members and key secretariat staff. A number of council and committee members have received diversity training over the last three years and members of regional services staff are provided with regular training on equality aspects of employment legislation. Equality training for staff is available via human resources. In February 2008, the EOC secretariat arranged two equality awareness raising sessions for key staff and two further sessions for both staff and committee members have been arranged for 9 April. An equality and diversity knowledge-sharing session took place on 6 February which was webcast and is now available on the BMA website. [Read more here]
Equal opportunities policy statement guidelines
The BMA’s equal opportunities policy statement [Read more here] is backed up by 'Valuing diversity: BMA equal opportunities guidelines' which sets out how the BMA will deliver equality in accordance with the policy statement. 'Valuing diversity: BMA equal opportunities guidelines' will be revised in 2008 to reflect changes to the equality legislation and the updated equality and diversity strategic plan.
Membership monitoring
In 2007, the EOC secretariat performed an analysis of the equality data held on the membership system and submitted a report to Council. Further work is planned to develop the capacity of the new database so that it can hold, and produce reports of, diversity information on the membership. This will be facilitated by the introduction of the website self-service functionality. The EOC will report progress to Council in July 2008.