ICS’s ‘disgraceful’ racism report goes unpublished for over a year

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care Board commissioned a report into racism across its main health providers in 2022 and received its findings in November 2022.

However, the report’s headline figures were only included on the ICB’s board agenda last month following repeated requests since April 2023 by non-executive director Meredith Vivian for executives to discuss it publicly.

The ICB has still not published the report in full and did not respond directly when asked by HSJ to explain the delay in publishing the report. It also did not provide specific details of its own action plan.

However, HSJ has seen a copy of the report, carried out by Wolverhampton University, which included non-white staff members reporting they were “shunned by white colleagues who avoid interacting with them” (see box below). 

Key findings included that 79 per cent of non-white staff and 56 per cent of white workers agreed racism between colleagues was a problem in their workplace, while 85 per cent of non-white staff and 50 per cent of white employees agreed racism from patients and families was an issue.

Nearly three-quarters of non-white staff interviewed expressed “a reluctance and a fear to discuss, challenge or report racism, whether experienced or observed”.

David Sidaway, Telford and Wrekin council chief executive officer told the recent board meeting: “If these kind of results were driven from a staff survey I was responsible for, I would have to have an action plan that followed it within seconds.

“And I would say as an [ICB] board member…it’s incumbent on all of us to get an action plan in place and put this right because it’s nothing short of a disgrace.”

ICB CEO Simon Whitehouse rejected suggestions that his organisation and providers did not have action plans in place. He told the meeting the situation was improving with Shropshire’s NHS chiefs “absolutely actively working on this”.

However, Mr Vivian appeared to undermine this claim. He said he “wasn’t absolutely sure what the work driving the improvement was”, adding he hoped an upcoming ICB board development session on the topic would shed more light.

According to the 2023 workforce race equality statistics for the STW integrated care system, 18 per cent of non-white staff experienced discrimination at work, which is among the worst-performing ICSs nationally although it is down from 23 per cent in 2021.

Of those who responded “yes” to experiencing discrimination, 90 per cent (equivalent to 161 staff) said this was on the basis of their ethnic background — a 10 per cent deterioration in 2021 and the worst score nationally. STW ICB said very small movements can cause large percentage changes because of the smaller sample size.

On other measures, the ICS showed an improvement, including a 25 per cent fall in non-white staff experiencing bullying, harassment or abuse from patients, relatives or the public and a 6 per cent increase in non-white workers believing the organisation provides equal opportunities for career progression, although this remains one of the lowest percentages nationally.

Mr Whitehouse said in a statement: “We condemn any form of racism, and we commissioned a report to gain a better understanding of the local experiences of our staff so that we can take concrete steps to root it out.

“Our organisations have used the report, along with the results of the staff survey, to develop action plans that address the issues raised.

“However, we recognise there is still a significant amount of work to be done… We will never be complacent on this issue.”