You will work closely with the Director of Organisational Development and the Associate Director of Corporate Governance to develop, lead and coordinate the Trust's Equality and Diversity efforts in support of culture change. You will lead and develop the Equality and Diversity agenda and provide strategic advice and guidance on equality and diversity matters to senior leaders at the Trust.

As part of the Corporate Governance Senior Management Team, you will develop and support the delivery of the equality and inequalities strategic plan and lead the Trust in providing an inclusive and supportive culture for all staff, patients and visitors.

You will be responsible for the legal submissions for WRES/WDES and Gender Pay Gap with corresponding action plans and support the health inequalities agenda across the Trust service lines.

Main duties of the job

Develop a revised Trust equality, diversity and inclusion strategy that includes objectives and aligns with the Trust Strategy.

Design and deliver the Trust's health inequalities improvement agenda by working collaboratively across service lines and corporate teams to fully interrogate and map out where health inequalities are affecting patient access, experience and outcomes and formulate an outline Trust strategy.

Ensure that the Trust publishes its response to requirements as specified by legislation e.g. The Equality Act 2010.

To work in partnership with service lines, Trust business intelligence and other organisations, regionally and nationally (e.g. NHS Employers, local partners) in order to effectively identify and deliver best practice in relation to service delivery and employment.

About us

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A& E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics.

You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career.

We have state-of-the art facilities placing us at the heart of cutting edge health care. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. Please ensure that you make your application as soon as possible.

All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering their first six months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Service planning and policy development

Work with the senior management team and service planning and development managers across the organisation to:

• develop effective data collection processes to build and maintain an accurate and up-to-date profile and equality status of the local
• develop effective processes to analyse the equality and diversity impact of current service delivery, policies and
• Work with the local community to support the health inequalities agenda
• analyse the local equality and diversity implications of new national or local policies and develop appropriate implementation strategies to promote
• develop effective communication and engagement strategies to ensure community participation and engagement in service planning and development, in particular for those communities who have been previously under
• liaise with service providers across the community to support the organisation to maintain a whole of community approach to service planning and development.

Establish working relationships with equality and diversity leads across the Integrated Care System and identify key priorities for cross working.
Patient Experience and Health Inequalities
Work with the senior management team and people development managers across the organisation to:

• Compare service use, outcomes and experience across service lines and contribute to the formulation of data driven action plans that support the strategy
• Develop, implement and maintain qualitative and quantitative measures to establish and manage programme progress and performance
• Facilitate clinical teams to make evidence-based changes to services to tackle and remove inequalities in access, experience and outcomes
• Utilise surveys, existing and new audits and other tools to undertake significant Trustwide research into health inequalities

Workforce development
Work with the senior management team and people development managers across the organisation to:

• develop effective data collection processes to build and maintain an accurate and up-to-date profile and equality status of the workforce
• develop effective processes to analyse the equality and diversity impact of current workforce development policies and practices
• partner the Human Resources team in developing and implementing strategies to promote equality across all roles and job bands
• develop effective communication and engagement strategies to promote staff participation and engagement with the equality agenda
• support the development and implementation of appropriate development opportunities for staff at all levels to build their knowledge and capacity to operate effectively to improve ED& HR

Governance and risk management
Work with the Board, senior management team and internal governance group(s) to:

• ensure all relevant internal stakeholders have up-to-date knowledge and information in relation to equality and diversity compliance and reporting requirements develop a robust and deliverable plan to collect and report on relevant equality and diversity compliance matters
• develop a robust process for managing equality and diversity risks and identified actions
• provide expert advice to the equality and diversity governance body on appropriate responses and actions in areas of non-compliance or high
• To ensure that systems and processes are in place, and teams are supported to undertake Equality Assessments for new policies, processes and service changes.

Change, projects and special interest

• Participate wherever appropriate in project or change teams to ensure equality and diversity implications are considered from the scoping of the project through to development and implementation
• Where appropriate initiate and lead project teams to deliver targeted equality and diversity interventions applying sound project and change management
• To lead specific projects which fall within the equality and diversity remit, where

Education and Training

• To develop, deliver and evaluate training to all levels of staff within the organisation in respect of equality and diversity
• To develop packages of training materials to support flexible learning opportunities across the Trust
• To present in both formal and informal settings in order to raise awareness and educate staff
• To establish links with local community organisations to create opportunities for education in order to reduce health inequalities and to participate in the delivery of any such education programmes
• To lead in the development programme for the equality and inclusion champions in order to enable them to have maximum impact in their role in support of the Equality and Diversity agenda
• To seek out opportunities to share learning by presenting at local, regional and national conferences

Personal leadership

• To manage own workload and identify work priorities
• Role model high-level equality and diversity practice in day-to-day delivery of the role
• Maintain an optimistic and professional approach to the day-to-day delivery of the programme of work, dealing with resistance or lack of interest with effective engagement or performance coaching strategies
• Maintain a high level of specialist equality and diversity knowledge and skills appropriate to the role and a general knowledge of change and project management tools
• Actively participate in professional supervision and professional development activities to support own and the organisations capacity building
• To actively participate in annual appraisal and continuous personal development.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Relevant Masters or equivalent experience
• Evidence of CPD

Desirable

• Equality and Diversity Qualification

Experience and Knowledge

Essential

• Experience in managing and leading service improvement initiatives in a health care or other complex service oriented environment
• Experience in delivering projects that addressed inequality and improved the equality outcomes for clients and/or staff
• Well-developed understanding of core Equality, Diversity and Human Rights concepts and an ability to communicate these clearly to a broad range of stakeholders
• Ability to apply a robust equalities analysis to service planning and improvement

Desirable

• Comprehensive knowledge of project principles, techniques and tools, such as Prince 2 Foundation and Microsoft Project

Personal skills

Essential

• Evidence of clear verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated capability to plan over short, medium and long-term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly

Employer details

Employer name

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Luton and Dunstable Hospital / Bedford Hospital

Lewsey Road / Kempston Road

Luton / Bedford

LU4 0DZ

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

418-CORP3347-EH