BAPIO Meets Yvonne Coghill OBE, Director Workforce Race Equality Standards Implementation Team NHS England. WRES Team to be a partner for BAPIO Mid-Year Conference on 25th June at Leicester
BAPIO President Dr Ramesh Mehta had a meeting with Yvonne Coghill OBE, the director of Workforce Race Equality Standards Implementation and Dr Mala Rao the deputy director advisory committee on 18th February in London to discuss collaboration to support the WRES agenda.
The Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES), for the first time, requires organisations employing almost all of the 1.4 million NHS workforce to demonstrate progress against a number of indicators of workforce equality, including a specific indicator to address the low levels of BME Board representation.
The WRES Standard and the EDS2 for the first time have been included in the 2015/16 Standard NHS Contract. The regulators, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), National Trust Development Agency (NDTA) and Monitor, will use both standards to help assess whether NHS organisations are well-led. The Standards will be applicable to providers, and extended to clinical commissioning groups through the annual CCG assurance process.
Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, said: “The Five Year Forward View sets out a direction of travel for the NHS – much of which depends on the health service embracing innovation, engaging and respecting staff, and drawing on the immense talent in our workforce.
“We know that care is far more likely to meet the needs of all the patients we’re here to serve when NHS leadership is drawn from diverse communities across the country, and when all our frontline staff are themselves free from discrimination. These new mandatory standards will help NHS organisations to achieve these important goals.”
BAPIO has agreed to have close collaboration with WRES. Dr Mehta Said “We are pleased with forward thinking leadership of WRES implementation team. We look forward to working closely with them. I welcome WRES team as a partner in our Midyear Conference (25th June) in Leicester.
Following partnership agreement with University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay to support implementation of WRES in the trust BAPIO has been in discussion with many other trusts to provide similar support.