Barts Health Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessment Report

Merger issuePositive implicationsof the mergerNegative implications of the mergerwww.brap.org.ukMitigationImplications forcompliance with PublicSector Equality DutyImplications forprotection andpromotion ofhuman rightsheart.Equalitytraining forCAG staff willhelp to ensurethis happens.principles upon which astrong organisationalculture can be built.HR and ODworkstreams bothrecognise theimportance of culturechange and resourcesidentified to supportthis process.FBC identifies CEO ashaving primaryresponsibility forequality and humanrights which sends astrong message onimportance of thisagenda.a risk that training of this type will nothelp to embed the seeds required toachieve organisational culture changeof the type that is required.Also the review identified a number ofconcerns that patients have about thelevel of care and compassion shown bystaff (and associated infringements ofhuman rights through poor staffbehaviour). This is also reflected inpatient experience results frominpatient/ outpatient surveys (affectingparticular groups). Thus in addition toembedding principles of ‘equality anddiversity’, organisational culture changealso needs to address some of thehuman rights concerns that patientshave.The role of leadership in embeddingcultural change on equality and humanrights is not explored in much detail inthe FBC. Procedural issues aredescribed (e.g. which staff will haveexecutive responsibility for decisionsand who will be recruited to focus onthis brief/ who they will report to/ whowill receive training etc.) Yet clear plansare required around what leaders willactually do to ensure equality andhuman rights is central to theorganisational culture going forward. Itis not clear what the Trust’s vision andemployer, service deliverer andprocurer) in the local area. Opportunityto develop ambitious plans on healthinequality and influence partners to dothe same.Leadership will need to both ‘walk thewalk’ and ‘talk the talk.’ Strongstatements on the importance ofequality and human rights need to bebacked up by strong actions (e.g.punishing discriminatory activity,rewarding good practice andexemplifying good equality practice intheir own decisions and actions). It willbe important for Senior Management‘repeat’ messages on equality andhuman rights regularly (e.g. everymonth) to ensure it is reinforced inmeetings/ corporate messages.Differences in approaches to equalityEquality and human rightsfocused organisationalculture is an importantfoundation upon which arange of the general dutiescan be implemented.208