Equality, diversity and inclusion

West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership is committed to ensuring that equity, diversity, inclusion and justice are at the core of NHS leadership and the delivery of healthcare services and embedded into our way of working.

The Partnership's equity and fairness strategy will help health and care partners focus on progressing equity, diversity, inclusion and justice. It will enable us to build on the positive work already happening with our partners and strengthen our collective commitment to advancing equity, diversity, inclusion and justice.

Power of one power of many, working together for equity and fairness

In addition to our 10 Strategic Objectives for the partnership, our 5 places have all agreed priorities that reflect these any their local priorities.

Equity and Fairness Strategy – Place-Based Objectives

We see the diversity of all communities and colleagues as a strength to help inform the way we plan, design and commission health and care services for people living across West Yorkshire.

Equality is about making sure everyone is treated fairly and given an equal chance to access opportunities. It is not about treating everyone the same way. People may require different things to achieve similar outcomes.
Diversity means ‘difference’. When used in the same context as equality, it’s about recognising and valuing individual as well as group differences. It also means treating people as individuals and placing positive value on the diversity they bring because of a protected characteristic or cultural background.
Inclusion is about making all groups of people feel included and valued within their society or community. Where individuals or groups of individuals are excluded or feel on the margins of society there is often a direct impact on their health and wellbeing.

To make sure everyone can get the best out of health and care, we need to understand who our patients and service users are, and what their individual needs are, so when they access services, they get the right care and have the best possible experience.

We know health inequalities exist across West Yorkshire and that some patients, carers and services users have different access, experience and outcomes. We want to reduce those differences and remove them entirely where possible.

The NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board is the organisation with overarching statutory responsibility for assuring equality, diversity and inclusion in health and care commissioning and provision for West Yorkshire.

These statutory duties include:

West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board is committed to addressing Inequality and improving outcomes for the people of West Yorkshire who use our services and our colleagues. One way we can demonstrate this is by our commitment to the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Section 149 of the Equalities Act is known as the 'public sector equality duty'. The general equality duty applies to all public authorities which includes NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board [ICB]. Those subject to the general equality duty must, in the exercise of their functions, have due regard to the need to:

Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act.
Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

The general equality duty covers the following protected characteristics: age (including children and young people), disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

In addition, the Public Sector Equality Duty includes some specific duties, created by secondary legislation in the form of the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017, which replaced the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011.

In England, each listed authority is required to:

1. Publish gender pay gap information. Since 2017, public authorities with 250 or more employees are required to publish information annually relating to the gender pay gap in their organisation. This must be published for a period of at least three years beginning with the date of publication. Publishing and monitoring pay gaps will help employers to understand the reasons for any gap and to consider whether they need to develop action plans to tackle the causes of any such gap. The deadline for publishing this information is 30 March each year.

2. Publish information to demonstrate its compliance with the general equality duty. This should have been done by 30 March 2018 and each year after, no later than one year after the last publication. This information must include, in particular, information relating to people who share a protected characteristic who are its employees, and people affected by its policies and practices.

3. Each listed authority must prepare and publish one or more objectives that it thinks it needs to achieve to further any of the aims of the general equality duty. This has to be done by 30 March, at least every four years and the objectives must be specific and measurable.

How West Yorkshire ICB meets the Public Sector Equality Duty

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report 2025

This report provides an overview of the work undertaken by the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) to demonstrate and provide assurance that it has discharged its statutory and legislative responsibilities for equality, in particular that it is compliant with the Public Sector Equality Duty.

NHS West Yorkshire ICB Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report 2025 (pdf)

Previous reports

NHS organisations within the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion.

The Equality Delivery System (EDS22) is a toolkit designed by the Department of Health to help NHS organisations to improve the services they provide for their local communities, consider health inequalities in their local area and provide better working environments that are free of discrimination, as set out in the Equality Act 2010. This work must include involvement and partnership working with local partners and local communities. The EDS helps NHS organisations meet their Public Sector Equality Duty.

Since its launch in 2011 the NHS Equality Delivery System 2 has been used across the partnership within the NHS to:

Assess our performance in addressing our Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) priorities.
Provide opportunities for stakeholders to analyse our performance data and input into that assessment.
Assist with identifying our EDI priorities for the future.
Provide opportunities to work in partnership to deliver and assess those priorities consistently.

In 2022 NHS England launched a new Equality Delivery System 22 framework following a review of the EDS2. EDS 2022 is a tool designed for both NHS commissioners and NHS providers.

We remain committed to using the EDS frameworks to support consistent assessment and involvement of all our communities in our EDI work.

The EDS comprises eleven outcomes spread across three Domains, which are:

Commissioned or provided services
Workforce health and well-being
Inclusive leadership.

Each outcome is scored and rated by the ICB, patients, the public, the VCSE sector, workforce and trade union colleagues. The potential scores are as follows:

Undeveloped activity If score under 8, adding all outcome scores in all Domains.
Developing activity If score between 8 and 21, adding all outcome scores in all Domains.
Achieving activity If score between 22 and 30, adding all outcome scores in all Domains.
Excelling activity If score 31 and above, adding all outcome scores in all Domains.

Scores are then added together to provide organisations with an overall score, or an EDS Organisation Rating.

Our Approach in West Yorkshire

Within the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, it has been agreed that organisations will use the EDS22 to assess their performance. Participating organisations have agreed that for EDS22 partners will work together to:

Share and compare data and information.
Engage and involve stakeholders in EDS22 processes together.
Peer-review our assessment processes and outcomes to promote consistency of approach and score.
Share and co-create the materials needed to implement the EDS22 to ensure effective use of our resources.

Completion of EDS22 involved active conversations with patients, public, staff, staff networks, trade unions and Healthwatch West Yorkshire to review and develop our services, workforce and leadership.

Domain 1 assesses commissioned and provider services. The ICB worked in partnership with provider organisations, patients and the public at the five West Yorkshire places:

Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield reviewed the Early Cancer Diagnosis services.
Leeds focused on End of Life care services.
Bradford reviewed Suicide Prevention services.

For Domains 2 and 3, the EDI Team worked closely with the People Team to gather all the data and analyse it effectively. West Yorkshire ICB involved staff and trade unions to provide a robust check and challenge and to identify gaps and potential improvements.

Colleagues from South Yorkshire ICB and Humber and North Yorkshire ICB provided further Independent Review on our Leadership [Domain 3].

Scoring across the ICB, workforce and trade union representatives resulted in some variation, but all were averaged for our overall score.

Evidence Collated

Comprehensive evidence was collated in partnership with colleagues and partners across all the Domains. Check and challenge was provided by partners, colleagues, trade union representatives and for Domain 3, an independent peer review provided by colleagues from South Yorkshire ICB and Humber and North Yorkshire ICB.

The overall score for all Domains is 21 and we are therefore rated "Developing" overall

For a comprehensive collation of all evidence provided against Domains 2 and 3, you can review our Full Reporting Template.

For reports relating to our places for Domain 1, please see our place reports:

Objectives identified across domains

Following the involvement and peer review activity, objectives were identified for each Domain. These will be refined over the coming months.

Domain 1 Objectives - Commissioned or provided services
Domain 2 Objectives - Workforce health and well-being
Domain 3 Objectives - Inclusive leadership

Next Steps

We will continue to refine these actions and ensure they are aligned with other EDI actions from workforce reports, staff experience and improvement plans, (e.g. Workforce Disability Equality Standard, Gender Pay Gap). These will then be prioritised to identify specific organisational EDI objectives and the SMART actions required to deliver EDI improvement.

West Yorkshire ICB will review this first EDS22 implementation to capture lessons learnt, internally and with partners and other stakeholders to help us improve future delivery and participation.

This evaluation will enable the ICB to work more effectively with partners to implement EDS22.

West Yorkshire ICB wishes to thank all those involved in the completion of the EDS22 process.

The Workforce Race Equality Scheme (WRES) requires NHS organisations to demonstrate progress against nine indicators of workforce equality.

The Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) is a set of ten specific measures that supports NHS organisations to compare the experiences of disabled and non-disabled staff.

The Accessible Information Standard establishes a framework so patients and service users (carers and parents) who have information or communication needs relating to a disability, impairment or sensory loss, receive accessible information and communication support when accessing NHS or adult social services.

In 2023 NHS England introduced the NHS EDI Workforce Improvement Plan which include 6 High Impact Actions with a number of specific objectives, for example:

High impact action 1: Chief executives, chairs and board members must have specific and measurable EDI objectives to which they will be individually and collectively accountable.

Current Equality Objectives

NHS West Yorkshire ICB is fully committed to fulfilling the aims of the equality duty in a meaningful way. There are a number of Equality Objectives we are working towards, as identified through other pieces of work, such as development of our Integrated Care Strategy and the Independent Race Review.

West Yorkshire’s Integrated Care Strategy identifies 10 Big Ambitions. Many of them have equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart. Under each of these, specific objectives have been identified e.g.;

Ambition 6: We will reduce the gap in life expectancy between people with mental health conditions, learning disabilities and/or autism and the rest of the population

e.g. We will work towards offering regular Annual Health Checks to every person with a Learning Disability or Autism diagnosis in West Yorkshire.

Ambition 7: We will address the health inequality gap for children living in households with the lowest incomes

E.g. By 2028 we will reduce the number of children in West Yorkshire presenting with dental cavities through reducing inequalities in dental access for children in West Yorkshire.

Ambition 8: We will have a more diverse leadership

E.g. We will ensure the diversity of the leadership of the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board is reflective of the local population

Everyone deserves the same opportunities to lead a healthy life, no matter where they live or who they are. Yet, evidence shows that people from ethnic minority communities continue to face health inequalities, discrimination in the workplace.

In 2020, West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership identified a number of priority areas through the work of the Independent Race Review.

The review produced four themes as areas of focus.

Improving access to safe work for ethnic minorities in West Yorkshire.
Ensuring the Partnership’s leadership is reflective of communities.
Population planning - using information to make sure services meet different groups of people’s needs.
Reducing inequalities in mental health outcomes by ethnicity.

Recommendations and Actions were identified and progress against these has continued ever since. The work has been steered by the Strategic Race Equality Network.

Some of these recommendations have been identified as our Equality Objectives:

Current Equality Objectives:

Recommendation 2

We will work with strategic partners, such as West Yorkshire Combined Authority, to ensure equality of opportunities for ethnic minority groups in all economic development and recovery plans, including work on apprenticeships, job creation and start up grants.

Recommendation 4

The Partnership will support the co-production of an anti-racism campaign. Recognising and appreciating that people from ethnic minorities are not one homogenous population. Communications messages should be amplified at a local level to consider the impact of racism and digital exclusion.

In 2024, Dame Donna Kinnair carried out an Evaluation of the Independent Race Review with refreshed recommendations. In 2025 we will refresh our Equality Objectives in line with this Evaluation and our new Equity and Fairness Strategy

How we will Develop our New Equality Objectives

The ICB, as part of its continued commitment to this agenda, is currently in the process of identifying further specific and measurable equality objectives as part of the development of a new Equality Diversity Inclusion Strategy for West Yorkshire through 2023/24. The equality objectives will also align to and compliment other statutory requirements that relate to Equality Diversity Inclusion. This includes, but not limited to the NHS Improvement Plan, NHS Equality Delivery System 2022 (EDS22), Workforce Race Equality Standard, Workforce Disability Equality Standard and Gender Pay Gap reporting.

Our equality objectives and strategy will be developed with the involvement of the local voluntary sector, staff and public sector partners and will set out equality priorities.

Multi-agency steering groups will be established with partners across West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership and will include representatives from the statutory and voluntary sectors alongside stakeholder groups including staff, staff networks, chaplaincy, Freedom to Speak Up Guardians and trade unions to oversee this work.

Our new equality objectives are delivered over a four-year period, with progress reported at least annually. Action plans to support delivery of the objectives are aligned with the work we are already doing to tackle health inequalities.

To see our Equity and Fairness Strategy, visit here: Power of one power of many, working together for equity and fairness

Root Out Racism

Following our review in 2020 into the impact of COVID-19 on health inequalities and the disproportionate effect on ethnic minority communities and staff, we are now launching an anti-racism movement with our partners at West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit. The movement is part of an ongoing commitment to tackling structural and institutionalised racism.

Through educational resources, real-life images and stories, the Root Out Racism movement will encourage people to better inform themselves on anti-racist behaviours and practices.

In the planning of this movement, over 100 ethnic minority colleagues from across the Partnership come forward to share their experiences of racism and help their colleagues and other organisations to take action.

Make your pledge to Root Out Racism

We pledge to act and show there is no place for racism across our region. We are proud to stand alongside our colleagues and root out racism. Join us. No barriers, no excuses and only one commitment. Whether it’s posting on social media, wearing a pin badge, or having the courage to speak up against racist behaviours, you are the movement. You can root out racism. To publish your pledge and to receive a free Root Out Racism pin badge to wear with pride, email: westyorkshire.stp@nhs.net

#WYHRootOutRacism on social media

Use #WYHRootOutRacism to follow the conversation and join the Root Out Racism movement on Twitter.

We also have a 'Twibbon' you can use on your Twitter or Facebook profile picture to show your support. To get your twibbon, visit https://twibbon.com/Support/wyhrootoutracism and follow the instructions.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)

How West Yorkshire ICB meets the Public Sector Equality Duty

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report 2025

Previous reports

Equality Delivery System (EDS22)

Our Approach in West Yorkshire

Evidence Collated

Objectives identified across domains

Next Steps

​​​​​Workforce Race Equality Scheme (WRES)

Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES)

Accessible Information Standard for health and social care

NHS Improvement Plan

Current Equality Objectives

Our 10 Big Ambitions

Racial Equality

How we will Develop our New Equality Objectives

Make your pledge to Root Out Racism

#WYHRootOutRacism on social media

Accessibility tools