One in 10 black and minority ethnic (BME) CCG staff members personally experienced discrimination from a manager or other colleagues between 2017 and 2019, the latest data shows.
This compared to 4.4% of white staff who experienced discrimination over the same period, the 2020 Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) report found.
It also found that more than quarter (28%) of BME staff in CCGs across England had reported experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from other staff members in the last 12 months.
The 2020 review, which was the first to report data for CCGs, found that BME staff in CCGs are ‘significantly more likely’ to enter formal disciplinary process compared to white staff.
It also found that just 40.7% of BME staff believed that the CCG they work for provides equal opportunities for career progression or promotion, compared to 88.3% for white staff, and that 16.8% of CCG board members were from a BME background.
Only 66 of 191 CCGs took part in the NHS staff survey in 2019, the report added.
Prerana Issar, NHS Chief People Officer, said in the report’s foreword: ‘The publication of this report is a moment for humble reflection for national, regional, and local leaders alike.’
She added that ‘the events of 2020, show the need for equality and inclusion to be intrinsic to everything we do in the NHS and the People Plan clearly sets out the need to give these issues the same emphasis as we would any other NHS priority’.
Ms Issar said that the evidence presented in the report indicated that BME staff ‘have measurably worse day to day experiences of life in NHS organisations, and have more obstacles to progressing in their careers’, and that ‘the persistence of outcomes like these is not something that any of us should accept’.
Steps to resolving these issues include requiring management to focus on improving how appraisals and performance assessments are undertaken, the report said.
It also suggested services develop a ‘civility and respect toolkit’, alongside written policy on reporting abusive behaviours at work.
As of March 2020, around 270,000 staff working in CCGs and NHS trusts were from a BME background, constituting 21% of the workforce, according to the WRES.
The WRES requires all organisations employing NHS staff to self-assess against nine indicators of race equality. For CCGs, this included percentage of BME staff, likelihood of white applicants being appointed compared to BME applicants, equal opportunities for career progression, and discrimination experienced from colleagues, managers and the public.
