Nine national health and social care regulators have signed up to new principles committing to help tackle racism experienced by health and social care staff, an independent body has said.
The NHS Race and Health Observatory (RHO) said that the General Medical Council (GMC), Care Quality Commission (CQC), and Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) had signed up to its nine shared principles Advancing Workforce Race Equity in Health and Social Care: Shared principles across regulators.
The other signatories are the Health and Care Professions Council, Social Work England, General Optical Council, General Pharmaceutical Council, General Chiropractic Council and the General Osteopathic Council.
RHO chief executive Professor Habib Naqvi said the announcement marks a ‘landmark step’ towards regulating for workforce race equality across the healthcare system.
He added: ‘By strengthening their collective commitment to race equality, healthcare regulatory bodies are actively dismantling barriers and ensuring that our healthcare system is a place where talent thrives regardless of background.
‘This is a crucial step in the journey to build a truly inclusive, high-performing culture for everyone, and we look forward to working with the regulatory bodies as they progress on this journey.’
The new principles build on the RHO’s seven principles of anti-racism and commitments made following a regulatory roundtable held last year, the organisation said.
Headline commitments of the nine shared principles include:
- Naming racism
- Valuing lived experience
- Showing leadership
- Collaborative working
- Data and insight development
- Empowering approaches
- Using our powers effectively
- Influencing progress together
- Transparency and Accountability
The announcement that the regulators have signed up to the new principles coincides with an RHO event today in London to address the long-standing issue of racism and race inequalities in the workplace.
Charlie Massey, chief executive of the GMC, said: ‘These shared principles are significant, and the collective commitment to them by regulators is powerful.
‘It reflects a common purpose and a shared intent to act, and to make a meaningful difference to the lives of people working in health and care services, as well as those they care for.’
Paul Rees, NMC chief executive and registrar, added: ‘When it comes to tackling persistent, unacceptable racism and inequities we’re stronger together – taking collective accountability for making lasting and meaningful change.
‘At the NMC we’re also on track to deliver our own new anti-racism principles, specifically for nursing and midwifery education and practice, in late May – to help tackle the black maternal health crisis and wider black health disparities.’
‘We’re also rolling out concrete measures to eliminate bias and disparities from our regulatory processes by 2030 – including eliminating the disproportionate pattern of Fitness to Practise complaints received from employers in relation to ethnicity.’
