Meeting the Public Sector Equality Duty (Equality Act 2010)
Accessibility of information
We have made reasonable adjustments to make access to information and our services open to all. This includes our 'easy read' information which can be access by clicking here; the Emergency 999 text service for people who have a speech impairment, are deaf or hard of hearing - get more details by clicking here; a facility to translate this website into another language - click here to read about this service; and making improvements to our website to reduce the barriers experienced by people with disabilities - you can read more about the improvements made by clicking here.
Equal Opportunities Policy
Our Equal Opportunities Policy helps us to make sure that our policies and procedures take account of equalities as well as setting acceptable standards of behaviour. The policy emphasises zero tolerance to any form of bullying, harassment or victimisation and promotes equality of opportunity and access. Click here to view the latest grievances and bullying report or click here to read the 'Update on Specialist Harassment Advisors - One Year On report'.
We are revising our Equal Opportunities Policy to ensure that any decisions, new or revised policies are informed and consider the impact they will have across communities and staff. You can read the Equal Opportunities Policy by clicking here.
Equality Impact Assessments (EIA)
We undertake EIAs to identify and respond to any access issues. A cover sheet asking if an EIA has been conducted is required for all policy proposals to ensure that decisions are informed and take account of actual or potential impact on our staff, communities or stakeholders. You can view examples of our EIAs by clicking the following links:
Workforce
EMAS is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to improving representation from all sections of the community in our workforce. Basic information about the people we employ is monitored and reviewed, and an action plan produced (click here to view the latest plan) so we can encourage people from an array of backgrounds (for example, age, disability, ethnicity/race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and belief etc) to join our team. You can see our workforce breakdown by clicking here.
We collect various data to help us identify the support given and needed by staff, for instances such as maternity and paternity leave. Click here to view information in this area.
To read more about career options at EMAS, please click here.
Training
Learning is an essential part of everything we do at EMAS - continually learning to improve what we do and how we do it, to benefit both ourselves and our patients.
Our Organisational Learning Team aim to support and build upon talents and commitment and continually develop all staff to help us achieve our vision and objectives.
Our Essential Education programme has been designed with our Equality Manager to embed equality and diversity in our core learning. The Essential Education programme includes face-to-face training and observed practice, and ensures that all staff are educated in key areas appropriate to their role – such as clinical skills, infection prevention and control, safeguarding and patient safety. Click here to view our Education report.
Patient Experience
We aim to provide a high quality service to our patients so it is important that we continually improve our service as a result of feedback from patients. We welcome feedback whether it is to say 'thank you' for a positive experience, or you feel that we could have done better. Click here to read more about our Patient Experience team, who has responsibility for our PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service), compliments, formal complaints and results from our surveys, or to read patient stories.
Safeguarding
We have a responsibility to report any incident where there are grounds to suggest that a vulnerable adult or child is at risk of suffering abuse or where there are concerns about individual's circumstances. Click here to read more about our work in this area and to view our Safeguarding report.
Community Engagement
True involvement of local communities is the ethos that underpins everything we do. We actively seek to involve patients and the public (and those who represent them) in our decision making, ensuring that we engage with Health Scrutiny Committees and community and patient representative groups so that our services reflect local need, and are fair and equal. Click here to read more about our Community Engagement activities.
Diversity Inclusion Group
Our Diversity Inclusion Group includes staff of different levels from across the service. They monitor and review progress on equality and diversity for both staff and the people who use our service. The group meet throughout the year and work to achieve the Terms of Reference, which can be read by clicking here.
Department of Health Pacesetters
The Pacesetters Programme is a partnership between local communities who experience health inequalities, the NHS and the Department of Health. The overall aim of Pacesetters is to deliver equality and diversity improvements and innovations resulting in patient and user involvement in the design and delivery of services; reduced health inequalities for patients and service users; working environments that are fair and free of discrimination.
To support the Pacesetters programme, we hosted a Religion and Belief Summit in our Leicestershire and Rutland Division, to address inequality arising out of direct or indirect religious discrimination; nurture community cohesion through raised awareness of religious and non-religious communities, their beliefs and lifestyles; engage local communities, our staff including the EMAS Chaplaincy team and other emergency services to seek their views on religion, belief and health as part of a multimedia project which is used as a training tool; and to improve partnership working with key groups such as the Council of Faiths, local authorities, and the voluntary / community sector. Click here to read more about the Religion and Belief Summit.
Publications and news
We publish key documents such as our Annual Report, Quality Account, Patient Experience Report and Patient Information leaflets to demonstrate the work we've undertaken, achievements made and work to be progressed to enable us to provide a better service. Our publications can be viewed by clicking here.
The EMAS communications team promote latest news including developments to service, achievements and initiatives launched to help us provide a fair and equal service which delivers quality care. To read our latest news click here.
Contact
For more information or details about our commitment to providing an equal and fair service, please contact Mukesh Barot, Equality Manager on 07813 432405 or mukesh.barot@emas.nhs.uk
