This May we are shining a spotlight on how SECAmb have improved Board diversity to make it more representative of the communities they serve and implemented the NEXT director scheme to support talent management across the system.
Following his appointment to Trust Chair in September, David Astley has led the work to improve the diversity of the Trust Board across both Executive and Non-Executive roles. In addition, he has championed the implementation of the NEXT director scheme at South East Coast Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust which aims to improve the diversity of the NHS Non-Executives pipeline across a wider NHS system.
Key actions taken:
- Ensure any appointed agencies supporting Executive and Non-Executive recruitment are specialists in diverse recruitment and are both clearly briefed and understand our commitment to achieving a Board diversity. This includes being clear on our requirements for diverse long and short lists.
- Commitment to diversity of panels and stakeholder groups involved in Board level recruitment.
- Implementation of the NEXT director scheme recognising that whilst being part of the programme may result in short term benefits for us as a Trust, we are contributing long term change within the NHS. As a Trust we now have an ongoing commitment to this programme and have made a recommendation that this be adopted across our lead Integrated care System. have committed to benefits for us as an organisation.
- Involvement of our Inspire, Cultural Diversity and Faith staff network within Board recruitment stakeholder panels
The benefits of the programme are:
- Improved Board diversity and therefore diversity of thought.
- Visible, representative leadership for colleagues from ethnic minority communities.
- Increased awareness, understanding and challenge around the issues of Race equality and wider diversity at Board level.
- Enhance the reputation of the Trust.
Many thanks to David Astley, Liz Spiers and Asmina Islam Chowdhury at SECAmb for providing the content around this initiative.
We’ll continue to post our Spotlight updates each month in our website’s News section and via Twitter at @AACE_Org.
You can find more information about our anti-racism promises, along with messages from all of our Ambulance Trust CEOs on our Stamping Out Racism page.
