Our work to be more diverse and inclusive

At NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, we're actively working to make our leadership and board more diverse and inclusive. One of the actions we are taking is to work together with other NHS organisation chairs to stress the importance of inclusive recruitment in representing our diverse communities, which makes West Yorkshire strong. We held a recruitment session for board applicants in October 2023, and more are planned for the New Year. Though we've made progress, there's still a lot to do, and we're committed to taking further action.

As part of our Independent Race Review published in 2020 (which we commissioned), we're working with colleagues to understand the challenges people face in accessing leadership roles. This aligns with our values and supports the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership's goal of diverse representation in leadership, including at board levels and in chair and non-executive roles. This also links to one of our 10 ambitions.

We're actively involving our race equality networks and staff networks to ensure we're on the right track for people and communities, and that their experience leads what we must do. This crucial work is backed by our West Yorkshire Inclusivity Champion and initiatives like Root Out Racism, The Seacole Group, and others dedicated to boosting diversity in leadership, for example our Fellowship Programme and Health Inequality Academy.

Cathy Elliott, Chair of NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board