1. NHS WORKFORCE DISABILITY EQUALITY STANDARD (WDES)
 OUR PLEDGE
‘Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the heart of East Cheshire NHS Trust values and behaviours and fundamental to the delivery of our Workforce & OD strategy. We strive to develop a workforce which enables us to deliver a more inclusive service and improve patient care.  East Cheshire NHS Trust is committed to creating a working environment where all people feel safe, included and accepted. Equality, diversity & inclusion (ED&I) is the ‘golden thread’ running through our wellbeing and engagement plan to develop a fair workplace where difference is recognised and valued and everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their potential’
- East Cheshire NHS Trust Engagement, Wellbeing & Inclusion Group
A key focus of the CQC is the organisation’s commitment to taking action to create and manage a positive culture. The well-led domain looks at whether the leadership, management and governance of an organisation assures the delivery of high-quality person-centred care, supports learning and innovation and promotes an open and fair culture.
Assurance is provided to FPW via WODSB
2019 WDES ANALYSIS
September 2019
Authors: Sara Copestake, Workforce Lead Planned Care; Well-being, Engagement and Inclusion
Ruth Knighton, Head of HR

2. What is the Workforce Disability Equality Standard? (WDES)
The WDES is a national system, part of the standard NHS contract, where all NHS organisations are required to demonstrate how they are addressing disability equality issues across a range of staffing areas.
Intentions of the WDES
Enabling people to work comfortably with disability equality, changing cultures of disability inequality in the system.
Embedding continuous accountability to ensure key policies have disability equality built into their core, so that eventually it becomes everyday business.
Mandating NHS organisations to show progress against a number of indicators of workforce equality.
Improving performance for people with characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010 alongside the Equality and Diversity Systems (EDS2) 
Helping NHS organisations to deliver on the Public Sector Equality Duty

3. Overall Workforce Equality Position Summary
Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WRES)
*Updated*
The WDES has been mandated from April 2018 with a greater expectation to employ a higher percentage of staff with disabilities, including learning disability. The trust was the first trust in the NW region to be awarded level 3 of the Disability Confident scheme. This ‘Leader’ status reflects the work the trust has done to support disabled people who are seeking work experience or volunteering opportunities at the trust and our commitment to championing this work both internally and across local business communities.
This is the first year of the disability equality standard and the trust is pleased to see some positive elements in relation to the percentage of disabled staff saying ECT has made adequate adjustment(s) to enable them to carry out their work and has developed a number of actions to support improvement in the number of disabled staff who feel they have experienced harassment and bullying and improving the extend to which our disabled colleagues feel their work is valued. Our local results and actions will be reviewed when the regional / national benchmarking is available.
Equality Delivery System (EDS2)
Overall, the trust is ‘Achieving’ and the Board have shown commitment to workforce equality through the commissioning of an independent culture review and an ongoing commitment to the workforce & OD strategy. As part of this, we have agreed a number of priorities for 2018/19 to make a positive difference to the experience of staff with protected characteristics; specifically;
Improve the working lives of staff who have disabilities
Improve the working lives of BME staff
Take steps to improve the position as identified by the gender pay gap report
Improve stakeholder involvement in this work
Gender Pay Gap
The paper was presented to the board in February 2018 and the results were published to meet the 30 March deadline. The actions have been incorporated into the annual workforce engagement, wellbeing and inclusion plan for 2018/19
Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES)
The trust can report some progress on the 2018 position in relation to recruitment practices and access to training. The gap between white staff and BME staff has widened in relation to BME staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from patients relatives or public; discrimination at work from staff; discrimination at work from manager / team leader or other colleagues. The position has improved in relation to the Trust providing equal opportunities for career progression or promotion; increased likelihood of being appointed from shortlisting; a reduction in staff entering disciplinary processes, equal opportunities for career progression or promotion.
There remains work to do and this is reflected in our priorities.
NHS National staff survey 20178
Overall, the staff survey results for BME staff deteriorated in 2018 which in turn have had an impact on the WRES for Actions relating to improving the working lives of our staff remain a priority and have been incorporated into the annual workforce engagement, wellbeing and inclusion plan for 2020/21.

4. Gap between disabled and non-disabled
WDES 2019
No.
Indicator Theme
Trust Findings 2019
Gap between disabled and non-disabled 1
Percentage of staff in AFC pay bands or medical and dental subgroups and VSM (Including Exec Board members
Details on next slide
Generally, there was an equal distribution of staff across pay grades irrespective of disability. 2
Relative likelihood of Disabled staff compared to non-disabled staff being appointed from shortlisting across all posts
0.78
Disabled 0.60 v Non disabled This is a relatively positive position 3
Relative likelihood of Disabled compared to non-disabled staff entering the formal capability process, as measured by entry into the formal capability procedure
9.78
Disabled 0.07 v Non disabled This is a negative position
Data for the above indicators is taken from workforce information systems such as ESR, NHS Jobs and the Employee Relations casework database.

5. WDES 2019 (cont..)
NON CLINICAL
Disabled (n)
Disabled (%)
Non Disabled (n)
Non Disabled (%)
Unknown (n)
Unknown (%)
Bands 1-4 16
59%
345
70%
146
76%
Lower distribution in disabled category
Bands 5-7 9
33%
100
20% 31
16%
Higher representation in disabled category
Bands 8a - 8b 2 7% 36 11 6%
Equal distribution
Bands 8c, 9 & VSM 0% 14 3% 4 2%
Lower distribution in disabled category (numbers small
TOTAL 27
100%
495
192
CLINICAL 15
318
26%
207
32%
60%
722
332
52% 46 4% 22 12 1% 3
M&D Consultants 53 28
M&D Career Grade
M&D Trainee 24 21 45
1211
640
This data is taken from ESR and shows the percentage of staff in AfC pay bands; Medical and Dental and VSM

6. Gap between disabled and non-disabled
WDES 2019 (cont.)
The following indicators are taken directly from the national NHS Staff Survey and therefore represents the perception / experience of staff.
No.
Indicator Theme
Trust Findings 2019
Gap between disabled and non-disabled 4a
KF 25. Percentage of staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from patients, relatives or the public in last 12 months
Disabled
34% 6%
Non-Disabled
28%
Percentage of staff experiencing bullying or abuse from managers in the last 12 months
14% 8%
KF 26. Percentage of staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from other colleagues in last 12 months 4b
Percentage of staff saying that the last time they experienced harassment, bullying or abuse at work, they or a colleague reported it
46% 0% 5
KF 21. Percentage believing that trust provides equal opportunities for career progression or promotion
86% 4%
90% 6
Percentage of staff saying the have felt pressure from their manager to come to work, despite not feeling well enough to perform their duties
32%
12%
20% 7
Percentage of staff saying they are satisfied with the extent to which their organisation values their work
41%
11%
52% 8
Percentage of disabled staff saying ECT has made adequate adjustment(s) to enable them to carry out their work
81%
This is a positive position however need to consider other 19% 9a
STAFF SURVEY ENGAGEMENT SCORE
6.8
Trust average 7.2
Non-disabled
7.3 9b
Has ECT taken action to facilitate the voices of Disabled staff in the organisation to be heard
Yes/No
Yes
Disability Equality Group (DEG)
Does the Board meet the requirement on Board membership in the following question 10
Percentage difference between the organisations’ Board voting membership and its overall workforce
As at
3% difference
No board members with disability

7. WDES Action Plan
Our ambition is to reduce the gap between disabled staff and trust average in relation to the following specific elements of the national NHS staff survey:
personal discrimination at work
equal opportunities for career progression or promotion
experience of bullying, harassment and abuse
We wish to maintain engagement with the workforce, developing the Engagement, Wellbeing & Inclusion plan to ensure that our work is evidence based and reflects the findings of the WDES and the experience of staff with protected characteristics as outlined in the staff survey.
We will continue to maximise opportunities for partnership working both locally and regionally to promote inclusivity and support our staff networks, developing HR services to ensure that inclusivity, disclosure and ECT values are promoted at every opportunity
Targeted Actions:
Take steps to increase ESR disability declaration rates and a reduction in the rates of staff in the unknown/‘not declared’ categories. (Q1 2020/21)
Launch #100Faces campaign (Q1 2020/21)
Review the recruitment documentation provided to potential candidates to ensure that it is accessible and promotes disability equality (Q1 2020/21)
Promote Disability Confident Leader work (Q2 2020/21)
Support the roll out of patient / service users anti-bullying posters commencing with AICC Directorate (Q4 2019/2020)
Unconscious bias training pilot with view to wider roll-out (Q4 2019/2020)
Ensure that due regard is given to inclusive working environments within the new Workforce Strategy and Directorate workforce plans (Q4 2019/20)
Run an awareness campaign in partnership with DEG on a range of issues such as what constitutes a disability (in law) and on making reasonable adjustments.
Hold disability staff engagement event to identify priorities for 2020/2021 (Q4 2019/20)
Improve staff representation on DEG to build engagement with staff (Q4 2019/20)
Continue work underway to 'recruit for difference' as vacancies arise (ongoing)

8. Risks Risk Description Current Score
(2652) If staff do not have confidence in how the trust deals with personal and sensitive information, then they will be reluctant to disclose their personal characteristics. As a result, reporting / action planning may be based on statistically compromised data, which will have a particular impact on the equality delivery system and standards that we are required to report on 9
(2653) If there is a lack of engagement or support at a senior and directorate level to support training activity, engagement events and the development of networks which support positive action in relation to inclusion, then the Trust will be unable to demonstrate year on year progress towards inclusion objectives 8