West Yorkshire is incredibly diverse with the percentage of diverse communities being higher than the national average. This brings a wonderful mixture of cultures, backgrounds and perspective which we value at West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership.
Unfortunately, this diversity is not represented in our leadership. We know that diverse leadership and leaders that represent the communities that make up West Yorkshire allows more insight, more innovation, improved working environment, better use of the spending of public funds and better outcomes for our colleagues and those people that seek support from our services. Valuing diversity improves experiences for everyone.
There are many pieces of research that show that racism is a real problem throughout the health and care services with national recommendations challenging us to do something meaningful to allow equity in access to services, outcomes and opportunity for everyone.
Appreciating diversity is important to us in West Yorkshire. Having a more diverse leadership' is one of the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership's 10 Big Ambitions. 'We will have a more diverse leadership that better reflects the broad range of talent in West Yorkshire, helping to ensure that the poor experiences in the workplace that are particularly high for Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff will become a thing of the past.'
The fellowship was born from the thoughts and involvement of many different people. Conversations were had with leaders and colleagues from diverse backgrounds from across West Yorkshire. But racism is a very difficult problem to address. Where do we start? Where could we add the most value? We know the importance of leadership and we consistently hear the lived experience of colleagues from diverse backgrounds when attending interviews. Many of those who were unsuccessful at interview had the feedback, “You just didn’t have enough experience.”
