Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

General Equality Duty

Based on the principles of the Human Rights Act 1998 (as amended 2007), The Equality Act (2010) imposes a general equality duty on the Trust to have due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation, and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Act
• Advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it
• Foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it

To ‘have due regard’ means that in making decisions and in other day-to-day activities, an organisation must consciously consider the need to do the things set out in the general equality duty.

The Act identifies three main areas that should be considered in relation to the need to ‘pay due regard’, these include:

• 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
• Encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low

Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)

In addition to the ‘general equality duty’, The Equality Act (2010) Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) places three specific duties on the Trust:

• Gender Pay Gap – Publication of gender pay gap information on employees
• Equality Information – Publication of information which demonstrates compliance with the general equality duty
• Equality Objectives – Publication of one or more equality objective which it thinks it should achieve to do any of the things mentioned in the general equality duty

The Trust is subject to these duties as a service provider and as an employer and information should be reported and published on an annual basis (EHRC, 2021).

The Equality Act (2010) outlines the following ‘protected characteristics’:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment (trans*)
• Marriage and civil partnership (in relation to eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment, and victimisation in employment)
• Pregnancy and maternity 
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation.

*Trans. The Equality Act 2010 says that you must not be discriminated against because you are transsexual, when your gender identity is different from the sex assigned to you when you were born. In the Equality Act it is known as gender reassignment, which is a term of much contention (EHRC,2021, Stonewall, 2022). To ensure the language we use is as inclusive as possible we have chosen to use the term trans rather than gender reassignment in all our communications. 

In line with the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information Regulations 2017), Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH) publishes an annual gender pay gap report.

GMMH Gender Pay Gap Report 2024.pdf (PDF only, 316KB)

As an inclusive employer we aim to continuously improve on our plans to eliminate pay gaps. This includes working to embed recommendations published in the NHS equality, diversity, and inclusion improvement plan to monitor intersectionality in future pay gap reports.

Previous Gender Pay Gap reports.
 

NHS England oversees and maintains two national workforce equality data collections to promote equality of career opportunities and fairer treatment in the workplace. These are a requirement for NHS Organisations through the NHS Standard Contract. These collections are the:

Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) and Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES)

These frameworks compare staff experience between those who identify as Ethnic Minority and White (WRES) and our Disabled and Non-Disabled staff (WDES). Year on year comparison of a set of equality indicators enables NHS organisations to demonstrate progress in creating cultures of belonging and trust that will improve staff retention, ensure recruitment from the widest possible talent pool, and improve service user outcomes.

At Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH), we recognise that people may belong to more than one of these groups and that when we make improvements for one group of people, we often see benefits for all. To this end, we have a combined action plan for our Workforce Equality Standards and you can see that, plus all the data relating to the WRES and WDES indicators in this report.

Workforce Race and Disability Standards 2025 Full Report (PDF only, 2MB)

Workforce Race and Disability Standards 2025 Easy Read (PDF only, 679KB)

 

 

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Plan 2025-2028 sets out our goals which will ensure compliance with the general equality duty. We are committed to reducing inequalities in health and our workplaces by using data, evidence based best practice and intelligence that we gather by listening to the stories of our staff, patients, service users, carers and communities. By bringing all of this information together we can assess impact guide activity and monitor performance. 

You will find Equality Information in our Board papers, our Workforce Equality Standard reports, on our Gender Pay Gap page and in our quarterly EDI Plan updates, as well as lots of other places. If you are looking for something in particular, please contact us at edi@gmmh.nhs.uk

Our Equality Objectives are defined by the three key pillars of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Plan 2025-2028. They are:

• Becoming an Anti-Racist Organisation
• Creating Equity in Access
• Building Our Capacity to Thrive

You can find more detail on these and the actions that underpin them here.

The Health and Social Care Act, 2012 introduced a duty to have due regard to ‘reduce inequalities between people of England with respect to the benefits that they can obtain from the health service’.

The NHS Contract stipulates that providers should have a named executive board-level lead for tackling health inequalities.   The Trusts Director of Human Resources and Deputy Chief Executive is the named executive board-level lead for tackling health inequalities and advancing equality (NHS, 2022).  They are also a member of the Advancing Mental Health Equalities Taskforce and the Patient and Carers Race Equalities Framework (PCREF) Steering Group.

Core20PLUS5 is an NHS England approach which aims to support healthcare organisations in reducing inequalities at both national and system level. The approach defines a target population and identifies 5 focus clinical areas requiring accelerated improvement.

There is an approach for adults, and an approach for children and young people.

• Core20PLUS5 (adults) – an approach to reducing healthcare inequalities

GMMH has committed to partnering with the GM Integrated Care Board to use the Core20PLUS5 approach and encourages healthcare workers to complete the five free e-learning modules developed to support anyone delivering services in the five clinical priority areas of; hypertension, early cancer diagnosis, chronic respiratory disease, maternity and sever mental illness. The modules take around 30 minutes each to complete and can be found on the Health Education England e-learning for health platform.

An infographic explaining the Core20PLUS5 approach for adults can be found here.

• Core20PLUS5 – An approach to reducing health inequalities for children and young people

The five clinical priority areas in the approach for adults and young people are: asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, oral health and mental health.

An infographic explaining the Core20Plus5 approach for children and young people can be found here.

Some people might be asking what it means to be an anti-racist organisation. These two short videos from John Amaechi, talk about privilege and the difference between being not racist and anti-racist:

What is white privilege?

Not-racist v anti-racist: what’s the difference

In 2023, we published our Anti-Racism Statement; a commitment from our CEO and Chair, to a zero-tolerance approach to racism and a promise to address race related inequality in all its forms. Since then, the Trust has made significant progress in furthering its anti-racism agenda but there is still lots of work and learning to do. Our staff and services users are working together to create an accessible, visual and creative update to our statement and it will appear here as soon as it is ready. In the meantime, here is a summary of some of the things we have been doing.

So far, we have:

• Established an Anti-Racism Steering Group with Executive and Non-Executive sponsorship
• Embedded Anti-Racism as a key priority in our EDI and Professional Plans
• Invested in anti-racism focused training and development programmes for staff and senior leaders
• Developed Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage (REACH), an award-winning Quality Improvement project and Community of Practice with a remit to improve cultural competence and reduce racial abuse experienced by staff
• Appointed Freedom to Speak Up, the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF), Human Rights and Equality and Diversity Leads to drive the anti-racism agenda
• Created Race Equality Staff Integrated Network (RESIN), a supportive staff network focused on racial equality 
• Celebrated diversity through events and learning opportunities

Our next steps will involve:

• Creating an engaging update to our 2023 Anti-Racism Statement in a visual format
• Delivering on the actions outlined in our EDI Plan 2025-2028
• Improving resources available to staff
• Working with local communities, patients, service users and carers to reduce inequalities in mental health
• Embedding PCREF into our everyday practice