As one of the largest NHS organisations in the country, we encourage involvement in regional initiatives aimed at promoting equality and inclusion best practice.
Below you’ll find information about three current programmes running across Greater Manchester. Each one offers an exciting opportunity to get on board and make a difference.
RECAP invites people to submit ideas or change projects aimed at reducing racial inequalities or improving the workplace for staff from ethnic minority backgrounds.
The programme will lead to the development of a dedicated dashboard to monitor up to 60 change-based projects across Greater Manchester.
The aim is to translate the work delivered as part of the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) Experts Programme at a local level, allowing the learning to benefit all partner organisations.
Successful participants will receive specialist coaching from leading academics and professionals to help support implementation of their ideas. Five places are reserved for third sector organisations working towards improving health outcomes within Greater Manchester.
Who can apply?
Everyone is welcome to join RECAP, not just existing EDI leads or colleagues specifically employed to lead on inclusion activity. We’d like to hear from managers, decision makers and staff that want to make small changes to their workplace within the scope of their current job role or influence.
All we ask is that you have a passion for equality and inclusion (you don’t have to consider yourself an expert) and a drive to make a difference.
To apply for RECAP, just make sure you can meet these criteria:
- have approval from your line manager
- commit to attend 75% of the six one-day-a-month learning days
- be able to attend at least two coaching days over the second six months
- have an idea or change project aimed at reducing racial inequalities or improving the workplace for staff from ethnic minority backgrounds
- your change idea must be within the scope of your day role or something you’ll be able to influence with support from our team
What sort of projects and ideas are we looking for?
Here’s an idea of the kind of projects we’ll welcome:
- reducing bias within recruitment processes, either large scale as an organisation or at a local level, in how you or your team recruit people
- helping enable more people to ‘bring their whole selves to work’
- introducing activities designed to reduce the number of ethnic minority staff being victims of bullying and harassment at work
- improving your disciplinary process to reduce inequalities
- developing inclusive leadership skills across your team, service or organisation
- helping share the lived experiences of ethnic minority colleagues more within your organisation
- expanding your colleagues’ awareness of other communities and cultures
- creating opportunities to celebrate and develop ethnic minority role models
- ensuring access to flexible working is fair for ethnic minority staff
Got any questions or need support to generate ideas?
If you want some help coming up with a change idea/project, we recommend speaking to your organisation’s Equality & Diversity Lead who’s often based within HR, learning/OD or community engagement/experience.
Where your organisation doesn’t have a local Equality Lead or you’d prefer to speak to us direct, please contact us at equality@pat.nhs.uk or on 0161 604 5893.
We’ll be more than happy to arrange a call to support people considering applying to join RECAP.
The Greater Manchester Inclusive Lives Matters Programme aims to harness the diverse and powerful experiences of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds through the power of storytelling and intentional conversations.
Within a ‘living library’, they’ll be able to share their lived experiences with colleagues and leaders across the public and third sector in the region.
By bringing together people who might not otherwise meet, in a safe and supportive environment, we hope to improve awareness of issues which impact diverse communities and start to break down barriers that currently exist across our workplaces.
The programme, which aims to build cultural competency and awareness, forms part of a much larger piece of work to deliver the pledges made by senior leaders to prioritise the reduction of workforce race inequalities.
What is a living library?
Stories will be told and heard through the concept of a regional living library, an equalities movement that challenges prejudice and discrimination through the sharing of lived experience.
Just like in a real library, a visitor to the Living Library can choose from a range of titles. The difference is that the books are people and reading is a conversation.
The library will be filled with a diverse range of ‘human books’, accessible via attending a face-to-face event, booking a session with a human e-book online or by listening to a catalogue of human audiobook stories.
A conversation at the Living Library will be an interactive experience that engages two people – a human book and a library visitor – and promotes a short conversation that’s both positive and respectful.
These unique human books share life experiences that can challenge prejudice towards issues such as ethnicity, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion/belief, lifestyle, or other aspects which they feel leads to stigma or discrimination.
Could you be our next human book?
We’re looking for members of the ethnic minority community who are interested in colleagues from across the public and third sector hearing their stories and experiences.
We’re particularly keen to hear from members of the ethnic minority community who are also:
- LGBTQ+
- disabled
- from an underserved faith community (Jewish, Sikh or Muslim etc)
- carers
- care leavers
- in a senior leadership role
- unemployed
- in roles with few visible ethnic minority colleagues
- have faced discrimination or barriers at work
All human books will be provided with a free development session to support them in shaping their story. For individuals not employed by the public sector, reasonable travel expenses will be available when attending face-to-face events.
How do I access a human book?
We’ll be sharing dates of our Living Library events shortly.
Join us and you’ll have the opportunity to meet and talk with our human books and hear their stories through the power of positive conversation and engagement.
We’re in the process of launching a new inclusion hub website which will allow you to book an online Skype chat with one of our human ebooks or listen to pre-recorded human audiobooks. The launch of this new web portal will be announced via this page and shared with public sector organisations across the region.
Contact us
- Tel: 0161 604 5893
Email: equality@pat.nhs.uk
The Greater Manchester Inclusion for Excellence Mentoring Programme aims to support leaders across the public and third sector to become visible and intentional about their approach to inclusive leadership.
Ethnic minority colleagues can also access it to help accelerate their career development. This is especially important where they’re underrepresented across different levels of leadership in those professions across the region where institutional discrimination still exists.
The programme forms part of a much larger piece of work aimed at delivering on the pledges made by senior leaders across Greater Manchester to prioritise the reduction of workforce race inequalities over the next few years.
What mentoring pathways are available?
We’ve developed two specific mentoring pathways. This allows us to have a positive impact on both senior leadership culture and how our ethnic minority colleagues can better navigate the existing inequalities across local organisations.
Reverse Reciprocal Mentoring
Our Reverse Reciprocal Mentoring Pathway is aimed at senior leaders and frontline ethnic minority colleagues across the public and third sector in Greater Manchester.
The aim of the pathway is to link up every senior leader who joins the programme with a frontline ethnic minority colleague so they can have regular one-to-one mentoring conversations. By sharing lived experiences and diverse perspectives, we hope to begin having a positive impact on the views and approaches taken by senior leaders across the region.
The programme has also been designed to ensure that ethnic minority colleagues involved are not asked to contribute without receiving anything in return. ‘Reciprocal mentoring’ means senior leaders will share their wealth of knowledge and experience which we hope will also support ethnic minority colleagues with their own career development.
Underserved Community Mentoring
Our Underserved Community Mentoring Pathway facilitates joining up existing ethnic minority leaders at every level of the public and third sector with more junior colleagues from a similar background.
The pathway recognises that across the region data shows how structural and institutional discrimination is still a reality for many organisations. While there are a number of programmes aimed at changing this over the next few years, there’s a need to support ethnic minority staff now who are working within the current environment.
By harnessing the knowledge and experience of the often small but talented group of existing ethnic minority leaders in our system, they can support more junior ethnic minority colleagues in similar professional groups.
We’ve designed a programme which will allow ethnic minority leaders to support their mentees, navigate the existing inequalities and barriers that still exist, and share their own experiences on how they’ve advanced within the current workplace environment.
Development and Support
Under the programme, all mentors and mentees will:
- receive a half-day induction session providing advice and support on how to be a good mentor and make the most of the experience if they’re a mentee
- receive a best practice resource guide on having positive conversations and the power of mentorship to support them with their one-to-one meetings
- have access to a dedicated equality professional to provide advice, guidance and support if they need it
- be given an informal framework to structure their mentoring relationship to try to support the programme achieving the desired outcomes
How do I find out more?
The Programme was launched with an event at the end of 2019 involving leading experts on Inclusive Leadership from across the country offering workshops and information that aimed to help organisations develop their own inclusive leadership culture. The event also shared more detail of the aims of the two Mentoring Pathways available.
You're also welcome to speak to any member of the EDI Function at the Northern Care Alliance Inclusion Centre of Excellence where we'll be happy to help
Contact us
- Tel: 0161 604 5893
- Email: equality@pat.nhs.uk