The Public Sector Equality Duty and Equality Delivery System

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Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)

Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes (BLMK) Integrated Care Board (ICB) is committed to the reduction in inequalities in the provision of services in BLMK and within our workforce. There are a number of mechanisms that are used to assess how well the ICB is progressing in this area.

The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) is one of those, designed to support ICBs and other organisations to think about equality across our workforce and the work that we do. It guides us in identifying the major challenges we face in respect of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, and agreeing the actions we will take to tackle them.

The PSED consists of a general duty and specific duties. The general duty requires ICBs to think about how they can prevent discrimination, advance equality and foster good relations. This applies to the services that are provided and commissioned, and to the employment of staff, and their experience in the workplace. The PSED requires a thorough consideration of the needs of people with each protected characteristic and is therefore different to the focus of the health inequalities duty which includes a focus on geographical inequalities and other non-protected characteristic inequalities.

The specific duty requires the ICB to be transparent about our work on equality and to show how we are meeting the requirements of the general duty. Each year we must publish equality information that demonstrates how we are thinking about equality across the services we provide and commission and the employment of staff.

ICBs should also have one or more published equality objectives, that are specific and measurable and cover a period of up to four years.

BLMK ICB has published a review of its equality objectives during 2022/3 BLMK ICB Equality Activity April 2022 to March 2023 and have met their obligation to publish the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) BLMK ICB WRES report 2023. The Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) will be published once it has been through the ICB internal governance processes.

Equality Delivery System (EDS) 2022

The NHS EDS 2022 is an accountable improvement tool for NHS Organisations in England. Updated EDS Technical Guidance was published August 2022. This is the third version, commissioned by NHS England and supported by the Equality Diversity Council and is a modified version of EDS2. The EDS comprises eleven outcomes spread across three domains that require ICBs to review and demonstrate their equality response to:

  • Commissioned or provided services
  • Workforce health and well-being
  • Inclusive leadership

Outcomes of the review are evaluated, scored, and rated using available evidence and are designed to provide assurance or point to the need for improvement. As part of the approach to piloting part of EDS 2022, we have recently assessed our position for 2022/23 against domain 2, Workforce, health and well-being.  A copy of the outcome of the process and the report that has been shared with our ICB will be available soon.  The ICB welcomed the opportunity to test one of the domains to support its work on equality.

The ICB is required to publish its review of all three domains by March 2024.

Gender Pay Gap

In 2017, it became mandatory for all public sector employers with more than 250 employees to measure and publish their gender pay gap information. Since then, employers have had a responsibility to publish data annually.

BLMK ICB agrees and welcomes the opportunity to publish this information.

Equal pay means that men and women in the same employment who are performing equal work must receive equal pay, as set out in the Equality Act 2010.The gender pay gap is a measure that shows the difference in average earnings between men and women across an organisation and this report includes the mean gender pay gap, the median gender pay gap and the number of men and women in each pay quartile. Gender Pay Gap Report

NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES)

The NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard came into effect in the NHS in 2015 and was mandated for Trusts. This requirement has since evolved and the WRES is now mandated for ICBs.  The purpose of the WRES is to help NHS organisations to review their equality data against 9 WRES indicators and to produce action plans which will facilitate the closure of gaps in outcomes and experience evidenced in the NHS workplace (as a whole) between White and Black and Ethnic Minority (BME) staff, as well as help to improve minority ethnic representation at Board Level. It focusses on ensuring an inclusive approach with regards to recruitment, training, and promotion.

The workforce data and findings within this report are a snapshot of BLMK ICB on 31st March 2023 and any comparisons with last year will be an amalgamation of the previous CCG.  Since we have worked with our Board members to ensure the data for indicator 9 (percentage of Board members from a BME background) reflects the current representation of the Board.  Our BME board membership is 31% (at November 2023) this includes NEMs, Executives and primary care members.  The national trust average for this measure is 10%.  The measure uses categories available on Electronic Staff Record and includes colleagues who are not white, not allowing minority ethnicity to be measured for colleagues who are white.  The composition of our Board in BLMK is complex and goes wider than those who are employed by the ICB and includes Partner organisation members reflective of both internal ICB and system members across health and care. They are included in their own statutory bodies WRES data.

BLMK ICB is committed to have due regard to the WRES and uses it as a force for driving change, both as an employer and commissioner of services.  The ICB aims to fully understand the diversity of their workforce so that it can ensure non-discriminatory practice and work with staff and staff representatives to identify and eliminate barriers and discrimination in line with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), the Equality Act 2010 and Employment Statutory Code of Practice.

Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES)

The Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) is a set of ten specific measures (metrics) which enables NHS organisations to compare the workplace and career experiences of disabled and non-disabled staff. NHS organisations use the metrics data to develop and publish an action plan. Year on year comparison enables NHS organisations to demonstrate progress against the indicators of disability equality to create the cultures of belonging and trust that will improve retention, recruit from the widest possible talent pool and provide sustainable careers. National healthcare organisations are not mandated by the WDES, however as part of our continuing improvement approach and commitment to developing good practice the ICB has completed WDES data using the NHS England (NHSE) submission template.