Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
We spoke to more than 6,000 staff, patients, their families and carers and together we developed our values.
Our values show that our commitment to equality is at the heart of everything we do.
Equality is about making sure that people are treated fairly. It is not about us treating everyone the same, but seeing people as individuals and recognising that everyone’s needs are met in different ways. We must be sensitive, thoughtful and flexible in how we meet the needs of each person.
We do the right thing for every person and treat everyone with dignity and respect. We protect people’s dignity and privacy and take action when we see these are being undermined.
We care for each other in every human contact in all of our communities and each of our hospitals.
Our equality objectives were developed by working together with our partners. We engaged with people from different groups, fostering good relations. The objectives are designed to ensure that our services are accessible to everyone and our employment practices are fair.
We want to be inclusive and always improving. We will promote equality and human rights for everyone. We won’t accept anyone being disadvantaged by any of the following:
- Age
- Disability
- Faith or belief
- Gender
- Pregnancy or maternity
- Race
- Sexual orientation
- Being married or in a civil partnership
- Gender reassignment.
Equality
We are committed to treating you fairly.
Our equality objectives have been developed to support us with delivering this commitment. People should not be put at a disadvantage because of their age, disability, religion and belief, gender, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy and maternity or because they are married or in a civil partnership.
We refreshed our Equality Objectives using feedback from engagement and consultation as well as other evidence. This included the strong evidence base within ‘Is Wales Fairer’ (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2018). Our Equality Objectives are included within our Strategic Equality Plan.
Our Equality Objectives are reflected within our Annual Plan and support the delivery of their aims. We report progress against our Equality Objectives in our Annual Equality Reports.
A Swansea Bay nurse who helped carved a path for her BAME colleagues has been nominated for a top award.
Omobola Akinade has given up her spare time – often during the night – helping to lay the foundations for other Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff to progress.
The practice development nurse has been a role model for BAME staff across the health board since arriving here from Nigeria 18 years ago.
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The practice development nurse team’s (from left) Julie Barnes, Emelda Lunga, Susan Mhlahleli, Omobola, Titilope Babatunde and Karen Williams.
She has spoken up against racism in the workplace, helped higher-level positions become more diverse and been an instrumental figure for overseas nurses who have left home to work in Swansea Bay.
Her impact has led to not only nominations for awards within the health board, but also a national organisation which celebrates the leadership achievements of BAME staff.
Omobola arrived in Swansea in 2005, initially without her family, but now calls the city home.
Since progressing from a nurse to teaching the newest cohort of international nurses, she is now helping colleagues who are in the same position as she found herself when she first stepped foot in Swansea.
Her desire to help colleagues develop and progress within the health board is highlighted via a quality improvement project she created to ensure more BAME colleagues were applying for higher-level opportunities.
Such is her passion, part of the project’s work saw her voluntarily visit colleagues during night shifts to discuss how they could progress in their field.
Omobola said: “I want us to retain staff who have quality in care and can improve us as a health board.
“It’s something I am very passionate about, and after being accepted onto the Florence Nightingale Foundation Windrush Nurses and Midwives Leadership Programme, I developed a quality improvement project.
“It was about fair representation of BAME colleagues in high positions in Swansea Bay. It came from the experiences I’ve had in the health board in 2005.
Omobola and her practice development nurse colleagues pictured in the nurse education centre in Baglan, where they prepare overseas nurses before they go onto work within the health board’s hospitals.
“I sent questionnaires to recruiters and nurses to know their opinion on things. The majority of BAME nurses were unhappy that they’d been in one position for a long time, but some of them felt they should have had the promotion without applying because of their experience. Some felt there wasn’t any point in applying.
“I wanted to change their minds, and I didn’t want them to pass their way of thinking onto people coming after them.
“I did it for the first time in Singleton and saw the progress and change of people’s mindsets – they were applying for positions and progressed.
“So I rolled it out to Morriston, and it went very positively.
“I went around the wards, sometimes in the middle of the night, in Morriston to speak to staff one-on-one to share my experience and to listen to their thoughts.
“As I’m based in Baglan training our overseas nurses, I’d go home for a bit after my shift and then go to Morriston to speak to staff that night. If I had to wait for them to finish their medical rounds then I’d do that. It’s that important to me.
“I also set up a BAME leadership seminar, which had around 70 people in it, while people logged in from Neath Port Talbot Hospital to watch it.
“My project looked at a timeline comparing BAME staff to the rest of the workforce, and there was a major disparity in high-level appointments but that has since changed, which I’m really pleased about.”
Her work has been recognised by the National BAME Health and Care Awards, with Omobola nominated for the Compassionate and Inclusive Leader category.
Sharron Price, Interim Group Nurse Director of Neath Port Talbot and Singleton Service Group, nominated Omobola for the award.
She said: “I nominated her for the work she has done and leadership she shows not only to our BAME nurses but to our profession as a whole.
“She is a role model and inspiration to those around her, and is using her voice to encourage, support and develop our global majority nurses.
“We look forward to continue seeing Omobola develop and lead. As her colleague, we love working with and learning from her.”
Omobola has been nominated for two awards in September.
Omobola is also responsible for changing the way racism in the workplace has been dealt with and recorded.
After experiencing racist abuse from a patient in 2021, she took a stand and became a champion of equality at work.
To improve the way in which the matter was dealt with, staff and management were trained further while posters were placed around wards discouraging racist behaviour.
Her efforts have led to further internal recognition, with Omobola nominated in the Excellence in Equality & Inclusion category in the health board’s Living Our Values Awards at Swansea Arena in September.
Omobola added: “I feel so honoured and grateful to be nominated for the two awards.
“Knowing that what I’ve done and continue to do has been recognised is helping people is really pleasing.
“I arrived from Nigeria on my own and it was a scary move, but I love it here and so do my family.
“I’ve been able to progress and develop my own skills, and now I am having the chance to help people who were in the same position I was in.
“When I arrived, I didn’t feel that I had anyone that looked like me who I could speak to.
“Now I can help people in that situation, particularly in my role training the overseas nurses.
“I get staff contacting me to speak about a range of subjects, and it’s something I love to do. Until you’re in that situation, where you’ve moved country and left your family behind for a while, you can’t fully understand how difficult it can be settling into a new country, a new job, a new life.
“But I’m here to help them in any way I can.”
Pride in Calon’s contribution to LGBTQ+ history exhibition at National Museum
Swansea Bay’s Calon has become one of the first staff networks to be included in a national exhibition of Welsh LGBTQ+ history at Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.
The LGBTQ+ and Allies organisation – Calon – has contributed items to the museum’s LGBTQ+ collection at St Fagan’s National Museum of History, whose collection includes photographs, documents, objects and oral histories representing all aspects of Welsh LGBTQ+ history.
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Mark Etheridge, curator responsible for the museum’s LGBTQ+ history, said: “As well as items relating to historic figures such as the Ladies of Llangollen and Ivor Novello, there are objects covering activisim and Pride events, and items representing the everyday lives of LGBTQ+ people in Wales.”
Calon was launched in 2015 by a group of staff who wanted to provide support to colleagues and service users from the LGBT+ community.
Robert Workman of Calon, who is also deputy head of Occupational Therapy, said: “We are very happy to contribute to this collection as we feel that the role of staff networks, as self-organised groups, demonstrates how individuals take positive action to continue to highlight the need for increased equity, diversity and belonging in our services and communities.
“We have already donated a Calon lanyard and a t-shirt that NHS Wales staff wore at Pride Cymru in 2018 that marked the 70th anniversary of the NHS. We are now also donating another t-shirt that was worn in the Pride Cymru parade in 2022 as well as this year, the 75th anniversary year.
“Although Calon has donated the shirts, it’s important to acknowledge that these were coordinated across other NHS organisations with NHS Wales working as a whole unit in the parade. “Inclusion of these items in this important collection demonstrates the solidarity of the LGBT+ community as well as our NHS family across Wales.
“It is my hope that other staff networks also donate items to continue to grow this collection and truly represent the LGBT+ history of Wales.”
Some of the objects from the LGBTQ+ collection are showcased in the ‘Wales is…Proud’ display at St Fagans, with the theme of ‘protest and pride’. It is accompanied by ‘Wales is…remembering Terrence Higgins’. In 1982 Terry Higgins, who was born in Pembrokeshire, was one of the first people in the UK to die of an AIDS related illness. He lends his name to the Terrence Higgins Trust, the UK’s leading HIV and sexual health charity. Both these displays are on until 31 December 2023.
A further exhibition at St Fagans – the Voices of the Red Wall includes a flag from The Rainbow Wall – the Welsh football teams first LGBTQ+ Supporters Group.
The whole of the LGBTQ+ collection can be viewed online on Amgueddfa Cymru’s Collections Online catalogue.
Loud and proud at Swansea Pride
I was delighted to see how well represented our health board was at Saturday’s Swansea Pride event.
It’s so important for us to underline our commitment to being a truly inclusive organisation for all of our employees, patients and communities.
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And it was also fantastic to see our teams not only marching in solidarity with members of the LGBT+ community, along with allies and colleagues from other health boards, but also great to note a number of our services took the opportunity to engage with participants by organising information stalls, sharing details of some of the support we offer, including a stall run by our brilliant Calon LGBT+ and Allies staff network.
Connecting directly with our communities in this way, in addition to networking with other organisations, is really invaluable. So my thanks to all who went along to represent us and help make a fantastic event even better.