Equality and diversity reports
Compliance with the Equality Act 2010 is a key requirement of all NHS organisations and the NHS constitution is based on the principles of equality and fairness. This is particularly important for Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust because of the diversity of our local population and our goals to provide seamless access to the best quality services, for all of our local communities and to be the best place to work.
There is documented evidence that getting equality right has a direct link to outstanding care.
In our Trust the equality, diversity and inclusion work is led by the People Matters Directorate and our Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion can be contacted by emailing EDI@bdct.nhs.uk
Our Trust has a set of equality objectives 2024 – 2028 which guide our EDI work over the next four years. They flow from our Ambition to action strategy, 2023-26 and enable us to fulfil our public sector equality duties and our NHS EDI requirements. The Trusts EDI Strategy is our Belonging and Inclusion Plan which was updated in 2025. These equality objectives are the overarching priorities of our refreshed plan which was relaunch in March 2025.
Documents which are key to this are:
- Equality Duty Report 2024-2025
- Equality objectives 2024 – 2028
- People Development Strategy 2019 – 2024
- Belonging and Inclusion plan 2025 – 2028
- NHS England » NHS equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) improvement plan
These documents ensure that we:
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010;
- advance equality of opportunity between people from different groups; and
- foster good relations between people from different groups.
- Linked to this, there is a focus on the nine ‘protected characteristics’ within the Equality Act that cover: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and marriage and civil partnerships. We also give due regard to health inclusion groups, which covers a number of traditionally excluded populations including but not limited to; people who are experiencing homelessness, asylum seekers and refugees, single parents, people living in rural isolation and people involved in the criminal justice system.
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The Equality Act 2017 Regulations require all organisations that employ more than 250 staff to publish their gender pay gap annually by 31 March. A summary of all of the results published so far can be found on the gender pay gap web pages.
In March 2025 we published our most recent gender pay gap and bonus gender pay gap information. Our committee report on the Gender Pay Gap is available in this Board report.
As part of our commitment to the NHS England equality, diversity and inclusion improvement plan we have published our ethnicity and disability pay gap information. The data has been analysed using the same calculation methodology as the gender pay gap.
Results
2023
2024
2025
Average Gender Pay Gap – MEAN
7.89%
5.86%
5.62%
Average Gender Pay Gap – MEDIAN
-4.45%
-7.13%
-6.11%
Results
2023
2024
2025
Average Bonus Gender Pay Gap – MEAN
12.45%
-22.15%
-31.92%
Average Bonus Gender Pay Gap – MEDIAN
38.33%
-73.54%
-80.99%
Pay gap
2024
2023
2022
Ethnicity pay gap
11.29%
8.48%
13%
Disability pay gap
5.94%
5.57%
6.20%
We aim to stay in the top performing quartile of NHS organisations and to reduce the bonus gender pay gap over time. Analysis of the pay gap by pay band, care group directorate and staff group is carried out regularly to identify areas where the pay gap is higher and lower than the Trust average, so we can target interventions to reduce our overall pay gaps.
Our priority actions for 2025 – 2026 to reduce our pay gaps:
- Increase the use of national pay contracts in place of local pay arrangements for hospital doctors – a Medical Staffing Lead has been recruited as a new resource to support this requirement.
- • Promote a flexible working culture to all staff including supporting male staff to work ‘less than full time’ (LTFT). The Trust has been working with the West Yorkshire Mental Health Collaborative to develop resources that promote and support flexible working with our Trusts. These include a toolkits for managers and colleagues, ‘Top Tips’, poster campaign and a video – Flexible working in West Yorkshire. These have been launched, shared and are being embedded throughout our communication platforms and policies.
- Talent management and training programmes should be used to develop staff and increase appointment of a more balanced senior workforce, such as Associate Specialist, GP Partners, Professors and Consultants. The Reciprocal Mentoring Programme is about to launch its fourth cohort, and a graduate network has been established. The evaluation shows positive impacts on progression and recruitment for participant progression from bands 5 and 6 into more senior roles. The NHS Equality Delivery System 2022 evaluation process completed in January 2025 looked in detail at representation at bands 8c and above. The report will be published here Equality and diversity reports – Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust.
- Further analysis is required into the pay gap for qualified nurses. This was not available at the time of the report submission. An update will be shared at the Strategic Staff EDI Partnership.
- Continue to implement retention, re-entering and retraining policies to retain women. New processes have been set in place to reduce attrition and check in with new staff at nine and eighteen months to support retention. Staff turnover targets are in place and monitored at the People and Culture Committee.
- Include the gender, ethnicity and disability pay gap data as part of the NHS Workforce Equality Standard Reporting processes to the Board. The Trust is complying with this and is planning a new programme to report on religion and belief in the future.
- Increase the number of staff completing the personal information relating to disability and ethnicity in the electronic staff record to enable more detailed analysis.
Previous papers:
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The NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard requires us to publish data and action plan which can be compared nationally with other NHS organisations. See below for our priorities, reports of our progress and our data. For more information please contact EDI@bdct.nhs.uk.
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In August 2018 the NHS launched the Workforce Disability Equality Standard. A requirement of that standard is to publish a set of data and our action plans which can compare experiences and representation of NHS Disabled Staff with other NHS organisations. The latest annual reports of progress, action plans and data are included below. The data and actions are discussed and approved by the Trust Board via the Workforce and Equality Committee.
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In 2025 we assessed our equality, delivery and inclusion performance using the NHS England Equality Delivery System 22. More information on this framework can be found here NHS England Equality Delivery System 2022.
The process provides our BDCFT workforce, voluntary, community and faith and health sector partners, carers and people using our services the opportunity to comment on our equality performance. There are three domains within the EDS22:
- Domain 1 – Provided and Commissioned Services (focusing on access, safety, meeting health needs and patient experience)
- Domain 2 – Workforce Health and Wellbeing
- Domain 3 – Inclusive Leadership
The summary of the outcome of that assessment is listed below. Click on the domains to see the detailed evidence collected and shared as part of the assessment process.
EDS domain Score Domain 1: Provided and Commissioned services Median score Palliative Care and Intensive Home Treatment and Physical Health and Wellbeing 8 Domain 2: Workforce Health and Wellbeing 6 Domain 3: Inclusive Leadership 8 Total ’22’ achieving Following the completion of this assessment the following Domain 1 Action Plan and Domain 2 and 3 Action plans and engagement summaries have been completed. These actions will become part of EDI priorities for 2024 / 2025 and will be embedded into our Belonging and Inclusion Plan.
The Board reports associated with this work are:
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The Patient Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) is a national anti-racism framework designed to help NHS mental health trusts tackle racial inequalities in access, experiences and outcomes. (NHSE easy read version available here).
Developed in response to longstanding racial and cultural disparities in mental health care, PCREF was a key recommendation from the 2018 independent review of the Mental Health Act.
At BDCFT, we are committed to embedding PCREF as a way to challenge and dismantle the systemic barriers that ethnically diverse communities often face when accessing and receiving care.
In February 2025, we created our first PCREF Annual Report, which outlines the progress we’ve made over the last year and our priorities for the future.
PCREF is a partnership among local services, the local community, voluntary organisations, as well as patients, service users, carers, and volunteers. If you’d like more information or are interested in getting involved, please get in touch with us at: edi@bdct.nhs.uk
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In 2024 we assessed our equality, delivery and inclusion performance using the NHS England Equality Delivery System 22. More information on this framework can be found here NHS England Equality Delivery System 2022.
The process provides our BDCFT workforce, voluntary, community and faith and health sector partners, carers and people using our services the opportunity to comment on our equality performance. There are three domains within the EDS22:
- Domain 1 – Provided and Commissioned Services (focusing on access, safety, meeting health needs and patient experience)
- Domain 2 – Workforce Health and Wellbeing
- Domain 3 – Inclusive Leadership
The summary of the outcome of that assessment is listed below. Click on the domains to see the detailed evidence collected and shared as part of the assessment process.
EDS domain Score Domain 1: Provided and Commissioned services Median score School Nursing and Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Perinatal Mental Health. 10 Domain 2: Workforce Health and Wellbeing 7 Domain 3: Inclusive Leadership 5 Total ’22’ achieving Following the completion of this assessment the following action plans and reporting templates have been completed. These actions will become part of EDI priorities for 2024 / 2025 and will be embedded into our Belonging and Inclusion Plan.
The Board reports associated with this work are:
For more information contact EDI@bdct.nhs.uk