Equality and Diversity
Latest PublicationsPublished: 28 February 2012
Improving ethnic data collection for equality and diversity monitoring
Published: 30 August 2011
Improving ethnic data collection for equality and diversity monitoring
Published: 22 February 2011
Improving ethnic data collection for equality and diversity monitoring
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Equality and Diversity Information Programme
The Equality and Diversity Programme (EDIP) within Information Services Division (ISD) will close on 31st March 2012.
The vision of this programme was to have a health service in which systems were able to collect and share equality information to support high quality patient-centred care and promote equality. EDIP has been working towards this vision for seven years and while the work is still in progress, ISD (together with the wider NHS, voluntary and community organisations) has made considerable progress in establishing the basic infrastructure in which systems are able to collect and share equality information to support high quality patient-centred care and promote equality.
Much of the work done by EDIP has been mainstreamed into ISD routine business, for example ISD's Data Recording Advisory Service and Data Monitoring Team . The routine quarterly reports from the Data Monitoring Team to NHS Board CEOs will now include SMR ethnicity completeness and the Data Recording Advisory Service has worked closely with EDIP to develop generic equality standards and to engage with Connecting for Health in England to ensure that Read Codes are available to support the essential information the NHS needs to know to support the patient journey. The Data Recording Advisory Service also maintains the data dictionary, the main online source for health and social care data definitions and standards. The Improving ethnic data collection for equality and diversity monitoring report is published twice yearly in August and February and provides up to date information on the completeness of ethnicity reporting.
The current EDIP web pages will remain in the short term but only the 'Improving ethnic data collection for equality and diversity monitoring' publication page will be updated ()
Richmond Davies is the current Equality & Diversity Lead for ISD.
Moving onwards
The UK Government's Equality Act 2010 includes a new public sector Equality Duty which will require public authorities to be active in promoting equality, eliminating unlawful conduct and fostering good relations. The new Duty came into force on 6 April 2011 and provides a single, consistent framework covering age, disability status, ethnicity, gender/sex, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion/belief, sexual orientation, and transgender identity. NHS Boards in Scotland will require information on the above equality characteristics for their patients to demonstrate that they are meeting the new public sector equality duty.
The Healthcare Quality Strategy for Scotland set a target to develop a programme of action to ensure that people's equality needs are gathered, shared and responded to across health services. The Scottish Government Health & Social Care Directorate (SGHSC) has an ongoing commitment to equality of experience and outcomes – to everyone in Scotland, no matter who they are, or where they live.
Health Scotland (the health improvement agency for Scotland) and in particular the NHS Health Scotland's Equality, People and Performance Directorate will continue to build on the current work. In particular, it will work towards establishing a consistent approach across Scotland to collecting, recording, transferring, analysing and applying data to improve equality of access to and outcomes from services and programmes.
More information is available at Health Scotland.
Joan Jamieson
Equality & Diversity Information Programme Manager
Vision
EDIP's vision is of a health service in which systems are able to collect and share equality information to support high quality care and promote equality.
Aims
- Complete, accurate and timely information available, describing personal characteristics such as age, gender, disability, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation.
- Accessible routine equality information available to support those involved in policy, planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating health services.
- Compliance with new laws, regulations, policies and good practice demonstrated; and
- Information systems developed to record and present necessary equality and diversity data to support the patient journey.
- Health care delivery tailored to individual patient needs
Background
The current lack of data means that NHS Scotland is unable to monitor inequalities in the health of the Scottish population by ethnic group (or by disability, sexual orientation or other determinants of inequality).
The NHSScotland Quality Healthcare Strategy, 2010 expresses that the NHSScotland is committed to understanding the needs of different communities, eliminating discrimination, reducing inequality, protecting human rights and building good relations by breaking down barriers that may be preventing people from accessing the care and services that they need, as well as meeting the legal duties in relation to age, race, disability and gender.
The UK Government's Equality Act 2010 includes a new public sector Equality Duty which will require public authorities such as NHS boards in Scotland to require information on the equality characteristics of race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or belief and pregnancy/maternity for their patients to demonstrate that they are meeting the new public sector equality duty.
Implementation
EDIP develops an annual Business Plan and works in partnership with Health Scotland and NHS Boards to achieve valid and complete equality data captured across NHS Boards and used locally to support patient care and provide information for aggregated analysis.
