Best Workplace Diversity Strategy


WINNER Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust


FINALIST • University of Sheffi eld


L


ast year, the Heart of England NHS Found- ation Trust (HEFT) made a move to use its apprenticeship scheme to improve gender, race, age and disability equal- ity – and in turn, work-


place diversity. It is also committed to tackling the serious unemployment rate in the West Midlands. In 2010, HEFT, whose remit covers East


Birmingham, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth and South Staffordshire, delivered 210 new apprenticeship starts, while a further 236 starts are planned by the end of this financial year. The 346 apprenticeship starts over the past


two years have been used as a springboard to permanent appointments, which have risen from 11% in 2009/10 to an impressive 39% in 2010/11.


34 HR Excellence Awards July 2011


This came at a time when West Midlands


had the highest rate of unemployment in England, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and HERT’s recruitment increase of almost a third marked a significant contribution to address local unemployment (which stands at 9.8%). To back its strategy, the trust has set up a


healthcare careers development unit (HCDU), to promote initiatives to widen participation in learning. One such HCDU initiative is a four-week


‘introduction to care’ scheme for trainees. Generally trainees lack knowledge and experience in healthcare, but this is bridged by a pre-employment training programme and a bespoke induction programme. Each recruit receives a three-week training programme at the start of employment, to focus heavily on core clinical skills, delivered through classroom-based education, simulation and work shadowing, before the


trainee begins work in clinical areas. This process gives trainees the confidence to become ‘job-ready’, to achieve sustainable employment, demonstrate more consistent performance and improved confidence. HEFT believes the process has made new


staff more loyal, caring and confident – meaning they can not only make positive changes to the NHS at a time of uncertainty, but engage with the local population and invest in the local economy, to influence healthy living in the community. Judges liked the fact HEFT had tailored its


initiatives to the local demography: such as increasing Asian apprentices by 3%; and, in an NHS dominated by women, recruiting 5% more male apprentices. Judges said this felt like a genuine strategy,


not a tokenistic approach and although HEFT had only dealt with one strand of a diversity plan – apprenticeship – it dealt with it in a “sophisticated, very real” way.


hrmagazine.co.uk


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