BCHC is United Against Racism
In June 2025, we launched our United Against Racism pledge, setting the scene of how we plan to become an anti-racist organisation.
Here at BCHC, we are committed to providing safe, high-quality care to our patients and our diverse communities across Birmingham, Solihull and the wider Midlands area. We also aim to become a 'great place to work', building a Trust that is truly reflective of the communities we serve.
Birmingham is a vibrant and diverse place, with a population of over 1.1million people (Census 2021). The ethnic makeup of the city is varied, with 48.6% identifying as White, 31% as Asian, 11% as Black, 4.4% as dual heritage, 1.7% as Arab and 4.6% from other ethnic backgrounds.
Boasting such a diverse population, it is important that we take into consideration the different needs of our communities such as language, faith, education and socio-economic factors.
Our ambition is to become a truly anti-racist organisation, where our work helps to eliminate racism, remove racialised inequalities and reduce racial prejudice or discrimination. For us, anti-racism is not just a box to check off, it's an ongoing commitment to delivering healthcare that reduces health inequalities and helps all our colleagues to thrive with equal opportunities.
We acknowledge that to get this right, it will take time. In 2024, our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion teams met up with colleagues and patients from across the organisation, listening to their stories, sending out surveys, collecting responses and taking on board feedback where we could do better. After this consultation, the team identified the following anti-racist commitments:
Our anti-racist commitments:
- Recognise the impact of racism on our colleagues, patients and service users.
- Support colleagues who experience racism and when we encounter racism we will act.
- Ensure our colleagues understand what anti-racism is and how they can contribute to our commitments.
- Take action so that we become representative of the communities we serve.
- Eradicate racism in our systems, processes and the way we work.
- Promote equality of access, experiences and outcomes in the way we deliver services.
It's now time to turn those commitments into actions. During 2025 to 2026, we will set out to deliver the following four priorities:
- Priority one: to deliver a Trust-wide anti-racism campaign to improve awareness and increase allyship.
- Priority two: to produce anti-racism resources and information available to staff to improve understanding and increase reporting of racist and/or discrimination incidents.
- Priority three: to commission an external partner with anti-racism expertise that will deliver a bespoke anti-racism leadership development programme for 800 senior leaders.
- Priority four: to measure the impact of our priorities on people we care for and colleagues who provide care.
Professor David Sallah, Trust Chair shared:
The Trust's United Against Racism pledge is our commitment to embedding change now and for the future. Meaningful, long-lasting change doesn't happen overnight, it will constantly evolve and will be tailored to meet the needs of our growing organisation. BCHC is one of the largest community trusts in the country and caters to a diverse population, it is imperative that we hold ourselves accountable to ensure we tackle health inequalities. I look forward to seeing progress throughout 2025 and 2026.
What our colleagues told us
Inclusive environments create psychologically safe employees, better engagement, stronger retention and increased productivity. This in turn has a positive impact on wider teams and ultimately better patient care.
Staff surveys and workforce data reflecting the lived experience of our staff demonstrates that we have more to do before we can say we are an inclusive and anti-racist workplace.
Taken from our latest (2024) Annual Workforce Report, colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds told us that they face discrimination across many aspects of their working lives, including barriers to recruitment, representation and a higher level of bullying, harassment and discrimination.
Information for service users and patients
Our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) team provides support regarding comments, compliments and complaints. PALS also offers confidential support, signposting, information and help to improve the NHS by listening to your suggestions.
If you have any concerns relating to racism, please do not hesitate to contact the team by calling 0800 917 2855 or emailing contact.bchc@nhs.net.
Opening hours are 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays. If you contact them with an enquiry, they will respond within three working days.
Information for staff
This information is intended for BCHC colleagues only. The existing internal support channels are available for instances where any racist incident has occurred, or you have witnessed/heard something you feel is important to raise. It is extremely important that all issues regarding racism are reported in a timely manner, your concerns will be dealt with sensitively.
How to report a racist incident:
- Report in confidence and anonymously to the Freedom to Speak Up Guardians or Champions (via phone 07928 668 897, or email bchnt.speakup@nhs.net, or search 'Freedom to Speak Up' on the intranet.
- If you would like to talk to someone about your experience, you can speak to a Dignity Champion: a list can be obtained by emailing bchc.ODTeam@nhs.net.
- Speak to your line manager.
- Contact your HR manager by emailing bchc.hr.enquiries@nhs.net, calling 0121 466 7510 or searching 'HR useful information' on the intranet.
- Contact a Staff Side representative. Staff Side is a collection of Accredited Representatives who are part of the recognition agreement between Trade Unions, Professional Bodies and the Trust. Call 0121 466 4350 or search 'Staff Side' on the intranet.
- If the incident is by another member of staff and is classed as violence, you can report it on Datix and further support and information can be obtained from the Risk Management team on 0121 466 7268, email bchc.riskmanagement@nhs.net, or search 'Risk Management' on the intranet.
- To report an incident by a patient, service user, or member of the public, you can also report it on Datix using the same channels outlined.
- Further information on reporting any concern can be found on the 'Reporting a concern' page on the intranet.
Support is available:
- Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA) in the workplace can be your first point of contact if you're experiencing emotional distress or suffering in silence with mental health problems such as stress, anxiety or depression. Email bchc.mhfa@nhs.net with your name, division, contact number and a BCHC MHFA will be in contact with you within the next 3 working days.
- Join the Culturally Diverse Staff Network by emailing bchc.equalityteam@nhs.net or visit the 'Staff Network' intranet page.
- Attend a Race Safe Space listening session. Find the latest dates and meeting links on the intranet page. For further information contact the Equality Diversity Inclusion team by emailing bchc.equalityteam@nhs.net.
- Look through our Hear For You pages on the intranet; Hear for You was set up to offer additional health and wellbeing support to all at Team BCHC, whatever your role, as part of our drive to make the Trust a 'great place to work'.
- Call the 24-hour Care First advice and counselling telephone line: 0800 174 319.
Join the Anti-Racism Allies Register
Conversations around anti-racism and inclusion can be challenging. By making room for allyship opportunities and championing anti-racism, we aim to become a workplace where every employee can show up as allies for each other, fostering a supportive and accepting workplace culture.
As an Anti-racism ally you will:
- Join a pool of staff and leaders who are committed to advancing race equity.
- Be sent information on what it means to be an anti-racism ally.
- Receive a United Against Racism pin badge.
- Provide signposting support to colleagues impacted by racism.
- Receive regular updates on anti-racism.
- Access the latest anti-racism resources and tools.
- Access information on race equality events.
If you are a staff member and would like to join the Anti-racism Allies Register, fill out the online form.
If you would like further information, please contact the Equality Diversity and Inclusion team bchc.equalityteam@nhs.net.
Race Equality Code
The RACE Equality Code, and its Accountability Framework, is designed to provide organisations across all sectors and sizes, with the opportunity to address a very specific challenge: how to deal with race inequality in the boardroom and senior leadership team.
Following an extensive diagnostic assessment, the Trust has successfully achieved the Race Equality Code Quality Mark, 9 April 2025. The Race Equality Code Assessment has provided detailed insights into our performance on race equality in the workforce. It has helped us identify strength areas and where we need to improve, and we are pleased to be rated as best performing in the Birmingham and Solihull (BSol) system.
The Trust has developed and published its Apply and Explain Statement (Under Race Equality Code tab) about how the Trust applies the Race Code, along with how the Trust will deliver 12 priority areas known under the Race Code known as 'Must do' actions.
The accreditation is in place for three years and expires in 2028. The accreditation will be supported by an 18-month mid-point review where progress will be reported to the Race Code Governance Forum. The actions are aligned to the Trust Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) Action Plan, which is monitored and reported on annually.
We have adopted and are applying the code, having completed a self-assessment against this, early 2023. A Race Action Plan is being drawn up which will enable us to demonstrate in a robust, transparent, and comprehensive manner how we will achieve our race equality goals.
This is shown by four key principles: reporting, actions, composition and education.
- Reporting: a clear commitment to be transparent to all stakeholders through the disclosure of required, concise and current information on the progress and impact of race initiatives across the organisation. Openness and transparency will be actively pursued and valued to create the right environment for change.
- Actions: a list of the measurable actions and outcomes that contribute to and enable a shift in the organisation's approach to be delivering positive and sustainable change in race equity and equality. Without a set of targets and detailed plans for their achievement, real change will not happen, and organisations will not be accountable.
- Composition: a set of key indicators that create tangible differences in race diversity across all levels of the organisation. The narrative around what is acceptable will need to change through dialogue and data, and this will lead to challenging conversations leading to necessary decisions which the organisation is committed to making.
- Education: a robust organisational framework that develops the ethical, moral, social, and business reasoning for race diversity at all levels of the organisation. This will be underpinned by inclusive and embedded programmes of continuous professional development (using the principles) through which perspectives and prejudices will need to be challenged, and systemic and institutional practices acknowledged. Education has the greatest potential to affect the paradigm shift and break down the mental, cultural and institutional barriers to true racial equality and inequity.
