Racial ‘disparity ratios’ created for each trust to root out ‘racist practice’ in NHS systems

‘Disparity ratios’ highlighting how staff with minority ethnic backgrounds are represented at different levels in each trust have been created by the national workforce race equality standard programme to help tackle ‘racist practice’ in the NHS.

NHS England head of WRES Professor Anton Emmanuel said the data had been created to indicate the differences in progression between white people and those from an ethnic minority background through the ranks of each organisation.

Detail of the methodology used to calculate the ratios has not been published, but it appears they have been determined by comparing the share of staff by ethnicity in different bands. 

Speaking at the Ambulance Leadership Forum last week, professor Emmanuel, said: “We have gone through each of the seven regions of the country and presented to them the local disparity ratios for each trust and put that into a heatmap…The whole point is to make that data digestible and actable on.”

The data can be adapted to look at different points in a trust’s progression routes and can also be used with other groups, such as disabled staff. 

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Source: HSJ, 24 May 2021