Statement of Commitment:
The College is committed to setting the standards for valuing equality, diversity and inclusion of gender, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation and identity, age, language, disability, and religion, for participation in the College’s activities, leadership, and governance. The College recognises that Fellows and Members may be under-represented in more than one ‘category’ of diversity and may be faced with multiple barriers to achieving a successful career in health. The College commits to delivering a cohesive and comprehensive response that considers and includes the intersectionality of all diversity characteristics, to ensure contribution of high quality, equitable patient care.
Objectives
As a trusted authority on physician standards and leader in the practice and education of medicine in the UK, the College has a duty to promote equality, diversity, and inclusion within the healthcare profession.
By 2025, the College will have:
• Embedded a culture of equality, diversity, and inclusion across the College; ensuring leaders role-model behaviours that empower diverse participation, removes barriers and bias to opportunities, and provides an inclusive environment for members and Fellows.
• Used its position as a leader in the UK health system, to convene discussions, disseminate research, and communicate the importance of addressing health equity and discrimination.
• Used its position as an education provider and influencer of training standards and curricula, to recommend and guide best practice for managing diverse trainees, promote flexible and supportive workplace practices, and reduce differential attainment in career progression.
• Increased the representation of underrepresented groups by 50% at the level of Council, Chair and Directors. The College will also aim to significantly increase the representation of underrepresented groups within committee membership and the College workforce.
• Developed a digital method for seeking feedback from Members and Fellows, and monitoring progress towards achieving the outcomes set out in this strategy. This will be delivered in a format that can be transparently and openly shared with the membership
Benchmarking and Reporting
The Chair of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee will provide Council with regular progress reports against its annual work plan and on issues or other initiatives that arise. Council will also be provided with the minutes of each committee meeting.
The College commits to implementing a feedback mechanism that allows Council to rapidly assess ongoing benchmarking and metrics for the College in relation to equality, diversity and inclusion and will explore the development of a diversity dashboard
Implementation and Review
This Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy will be implemented over the next three years in accordance with the responsibilities outlined above. It will be then reviewed and revised by Council in consultation with the key stakeholders responsible for each of the priority areas.