Anti-Racism Strategy

Our vision is to deliver exceptional care provided by exceptional people and we are very proud of the diversity of our workforce – which includes people from more than 50 nations across the world.

The Anti-Racism Strategy took over a year to produce, working directly with colleagues from across the organisation - including members of our Race Equality and Cultural Inclusion network who represented views of their racially and ethnically diverse colleagues, as well as our system and partners. It was welcomed by Board and fully supported in January 2024.

The Strategy is a practical step in making the changes we need to see to ensure that being anti-racist becomes ‘the way we do things around here’ and is absorbed into the Trust’s culture.

It outlines five key themes intended to help and support all colleagues to understand the different forms of racism, and how each of us as individuals and as managers can take practical steps to support change. Each theme will be delivered through a three-year implementation plan which will be share in more detail across the organisation and beyond.

The Trust has also demonstrated its commitment through the ongoing work of a staff network group called the Race Equality and Cultural Inclusion Network, which has supported the work of the Anti-Racist Strategy and what it means for colleagues, patients and visitors.

Our goal is to ensure this is integrated into Trust policy, culture and to support the sense of belonging.

Our message is clear: We will not tolerate any form of racism – we heard at Board how even flippant remarks and the pronunciation of people’s names can have such a detrimental impact on their lives.

We want to empower our colleagues.

We want to empower our colleagues to work collectively in addressing racism at all levels in our Trust and support each other to building inclusive teams.

It is not enough for us to just be ‘not racist’ – we want to demonstrate and work towards being an actively ‘anti-racist’ organisation, where colleagues feel protected, safe, and supported to flourish in their career.

We know there is work to be done in this area and this is a big step towards our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. This piece of work is something we’re particularly proud of, as we have engaged and involved hundreds of colleagues from across the organisation in shaping its content, look and feel. Thank you to everyone involved.

Among other things, the strategy contains information about what people can do to report instances of racism, how we can improve education and our commitment to action and how we will work towards embedding anti-racism into our standard processes.

The Strategy can be viewed online – https://bit.ly/CRHAntiRacismStrategy – and will be rolled out across the Trust and communities going forward.