Celebrating Black History Month in BSW

Partner organisations across BSW Together are marking Black History Month and taking part in national celebrations and events to honour the too-often unheralded accomplishments of black Britons in every area of endeavour throughout our history.

The theme for the month is ‘Time for change: Action not words’.

Addressing discrimination and disparity is essential, unfortunately, discrimination leads to talent being wasted and poor staff experience leads to poorer outcomes for patients and communities, so it is vital tackling this issue is at the forefront of every NHS organisation and ICS partner organisation across the BSW ICS area.

The RUH in Bath held its first ever Black History Month conference which heard from Yvonne Coghill, Director Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) Implementation for NHS England about the commitment and action we can all take to address inequality.

RUH Chief Executive Cara Charles Barks said: “Creating racial equality is everyone’s business and requires real, decisive and proactive action. My ask of everyone this Black History Month is to be the change you want to see; be an ally to our ethnically diverse colleagues and show your support by taking part in BHM activities . Have an honest conversation with our ethnically diverse staff about how you can support them at work.”

NHS Employers has details of a series of events taking place throughout the rest of October which you can get involved in. You can find details here: Black History Month Events

On Tuesday 25 October David Corbin of South West NHS England and NHS Improvement  EDI WRES Lead and Emma Symonds HR Transition Workforce Inclusion Manager at NHS Somerset are hosting a quiz and social event. Please contact emma.symonds8@nhs.net for a Teams invite.

More events to mark Black history month in BSW and the South West can be found at the Black History Month website at: Black History Month