Healthcare Partnership Network South, 27 – 28 June 2024

Developing an organisation-wide culture to drive improvement requires a diverse and engaged workforce. Our differences make us stronger, but in order to harness this strength, it’s important that we celebrate the diversity of our workforce and create an environment where everyone feels safe and accepted.

On 27-28 June, we hosted our latest HPN South event, inviting a wide range of senior healthcare leaders and solution providers to come together, exchange ideas and find ways to drive positive change within the NHS. Over the two days, we held several panel discussions with speakers from across the healthcare system to discuss the sectors’ most pressing issues.

In one particular session, “Supporting a diverse workforce – bringing your whole self to work”, we heard from a diverse group of experts as they discussed inclusivity, past experiences, and strategies for supporting a diverse workforce.

Want to find out why inclusion’s like KerPlunk, if the US use green pens in their pharmacies, or how much bullying and harassment cost the NHS in 2019 (the figure will shock you)? Watch the video to see the full panel discussion or continue reading our round up below.

Feeling psychologically safe

So, how can you make sure people are comfortable bringing their whole self to work?

Kicking off the session, Group Chief Delivery Officer at NHS Humber Health Partnership, Paul Bytheway , said it’s all about psychological safety. “It’s about being comfortable in your surroundings; it’s about being comfortable in who you are.”

So, have we created that safe environment in the NHS? When we think about diversity and inclusion, we often think about how far we’ve come, but as Paul quickly pointed out, we might not be as far ahead as we think.

After becoming a Chief Operating Officer in 2015 and creating his own Twitter account, Paul himself didn’t feel comfortable sharing certain aspects of his life online out of the fear or being trolled or abused. “For a year I never put a picture of me and my husband online. Fundamentally that was about psychological safety… and that was only nine years ago. So, although we think that things have changed, for many of us, there are still challenges that we have to face today, and that’s why this session is so important.”

If you can’t see, you can’t achieve

As the conversation continued, Clinical Digital Lead at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Sharon Price , talked about her start in the NHS 25+ years ago, and the difficulties of balancing work and motherhood. After returning to work after her then 12-week maternity leave, Sharon said she wasn’t able to find a suitable place to feed. “I remember trying to express milk in a store cupboard, with people coming in and out… I stopped feeding very quickly because I felt that I couldn’t work and feed.”

Fortunately, the NHS has made major strides when it comes to things like maternity leave, but Sharon still remembers the struggles she had when she first started as a nurse, and the lack of support she felt from management. “If you can’t see, you can’t achieve. I looked around me as a newly qualified nurse and a young mother, and I couldn’t see where I was going to achieve anything because every day was more of an effort to come to work.”

This inspired Sharon to take on a more empathetic approach when she became a manager. “I’ve watched other women and men destroy themselves by not being able to just come to work and it be a safe space. Whatever your problems are… when you’re in your team, you should feel safe to say, I’m having a really bad day.”

Invest in your people

Although psychological safety is becoming more common term in the UK, the same can’t be said for the US. Chief Pharmacist and Clinical Director of Medicines Optimisation, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Samuel Bundu-Kamara, who has experienced working across the pond, spoke about the differences between the US and UK when it comes to working in healthcare. “Focusing on people, wellbeing and flexible working, we don’t see that as much in the US… as we know, we have to invest in our people to get the best out of them.”

The US work longer hours, so stress levels are extremely high, and the disparity between the US and the UK ultimately shows us that we need to continue investing in wellbeing, supporting flexible hours, and recognise the amount of work that has gone into investing in staff.

When you get it wrong, get it right

So, how can the NHS continue its climb towards inclusivity? Inclusive Health Co-founder, Ellen Edenbrow, spoke about the importance of everyone doing their part, and urged us all to take responsibility for inclusion in our roles.

Some might think “I don’t know the right thing to say” or “I’m scared about getting it wrong”, but as Ellen said, “No matter your job here and anyone’s job out there, you all have a responsibility to have inclusion in your role. It might not be written there, but it’s people skills.”

They continued, “You don’t have to know everything. I always say my pronouns and people look at me and they call me woke and they roll their eyes. You don’t have to understand every element of me. You just have to respect me. When you get it wrong, get it right.”

Small things make a big difference

When it comes to creating psychological safety, Head of Digital Transformation at Health Innovation Network South London, Ambra Caruso, spoke about small but important ways her team celebrate their diversity, “In my team, we’re very diverse. We are, Spanish, Bangladeshi, Nigerian, Korean, and Italian. So, whenever we go out on a team social, we go to eat some food from one of our countries and talk about the food… it sounds like something really small but it’s something that’s created a huge amount of psychological safety for all of us.”

And this idea didn’t come from the top either. “It was the most junior person on the team who just asked us for the first time, “Oh, can I take you to a Korean restaurant that I know and tell you about the food?”

This goes to show, there are things any one of us can do to celebrate diversity and create safe spaces in and out of work. “We know that actual change leadership is not vertical, it’s horizontal, and there will be people in a range of roles at all levels of the organizations that will be able to have a huge impact.”