Equality Act Evidence

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust [ the Trust ] provides secondary care hospital services for a local population of approximately 400,000 people. Acute care is provided in the two Trust hospitals, Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and the Calderdale Royal Hospital. Some specialist services are also provided as out reach services in various community settings. In 2011 the Trust became an integrated care provider in Calderdale with the transfer of primary community services into the organisation.

In line with the Equality Act 2010 the Trust needs to demonstrate having paid due regard to : -

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010;
• Advance equality of opportunity between people from different groups; and
• Foster good relations between people from different backgrounds.

By :

• Removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics;
• Taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people; and
• Encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low.

This legislation applies to both services delivered to patients and the employment of staff who identify with the following protected characteristics : -

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage or civil partnership
• Pregnancy or maternity
• Race     
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation

The Trust’s vision ‘Your care, our concern’ is at the heart of everything we do and our success in achieving high quality care for all our patients is driven by four key themes :

Patients : We will continuously transform care and improve the patient experience

People : We will attract, retain and develop the best staff

Partnerships : We will create a sustainable future and develop effective external relationships

Pride : We will be recognised for our achievements and aspirations as a highly successful organisation.

The Trust aims to design and implement services, policies and measures that meet the diverse needs of our service, population and workforce, ensuring that none are placed at a disadvantage over others.  We therefore aim to ensure that in both employment and services no individual is discriminated against by reason of their gender, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or religious/philosophical belief or marital status.

In November 2010 the Trust was recognised as the Health Service Journal Acute Trust of the year – a testimony to the Trust’s commitment to continuous quality improvement.

The Trust quality improvement programmes focus on the key areas of safety, effectiveness and experience. Priorities for these programmes are informed by users and progress is reported regularly to the Board of Directors. Commitment to this work supports the Equality and Human Rights framework which indicates that acute organisations should pay particular attention to the standard and quality of care provision. The Trust Quality Accounts can be accessed via the following link

http://www.cht.nhs.uk/fileadmin/trust_publications/annual_reports/CHT_Quality_Acc_2010_11_Web.pdf

In addition the Trust Board of Directors regularly receive a ‘Lessons Learned’ report, that collates information from patient complaints and clinical incidents

http://www.cht.nhs.uk/publications/board-papers/

The Trust is registered with the Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator of health and adult social care, and we comply with the Government’s standards on quality and safety. These standards have at their heart, the duty to provide individualized care to patients, which meets their individual needs and supports their rights, including human rights.

Next >>