Revealed: the NHS’s plan to protect BAME staff from COVID-19

The NHS faces a new set of wide-ranging requirements as part of a comprehensive plan to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on black, Asian and minority ethnic staff, HSJ has discovered.

A draft NHS England/NHS Improvement document, seen by HSJ, proposes trusts ensure every staff member has “a risk assessment to keep them safe”. It says the centre will provide: “Guidance and support to employers on creating proactive approaches to risk assessment for BAME staff, including physical and mental health.”

The document, Addressing Impact of Covid-19 on BAME Staff in the NHS, will call for five actions:

1. Every member of staff, current and returning, will have a risk assessment to keep them safe.

2. Every organisation with a CEO, and for primary care CCGs and ICSs, needs a BAME co-leader.

3. Diversity at every level of the health and care system starts with the podium, through our senior decision-making forums and across all organisations and at all levels of the workforce.

4. A bespoke health and wellbeing (including rehab and recovery) offer for BAME staff will be developed and rolled out for the system.

5. Every part of the system will use guidance on increasing diversity and inclusion in communications will be produced, led by the system.

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Source: HSJ, 6 April 2020