White candidates still 50% more likely to be recruited, says new NHSE data

White applicants remain 54% more likely to be appointed from NHS job shortlistings compared to ethnic minority candidates, a metric that has hardly budged since 2016, a NHS England report has revealed.

The 2022 NHS workforce race equality standard report, revealed a significant rise in the proportion of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds. And while there had been progress on some key targets since last year, others have stagnated.

NHSE’s report showed ethnic minority staff comprise 24.2% of the workforce in 2022, up from 22.4% last year and from 17.7% six years ago.

However, it also revealed the likelihood of white applicants being appointed from shortlists was 1.54 in 2022 than minority ethnic applicants – only a very small improvement on 1.57 in 2016, when WRES began

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Source: HSJ, 22 February 2023