Gender pay gap needs closing in health and social care

In the five years since it became mandatory for large organisations including NHS trusts to report their pay gaps, there is good and bad news, reports this blog from the King’s Fund.

Why there’s still work to be done to close the gender pay gap in the NHS and social care | The King’s Fund (kingsfund.org.uk)

Learning Disabilities and Autism Bulletin available

The latest Learning Disabilities and Autism Bulletin produced the Evidently Better team at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is now available. If you are unable to access any of the included articles please contact academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk.

BAME patients have poorer access and outcomes from NHS talking therapies but can hugely improve with better access

A review of 10 years of anonymised patient data has found that historically, people from Black and minoritised ethnic backgrounds have experienced poorer access to, and outcomes from, NHS talking therapies. It finds that poor outcomes can be tackled and even disappear when access is improved and culturally sensitive therapy is provided.

Ethnic Inequalities in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) (nhsrho.org)

Transitions that matter

A scoping review by the Centre for Care has looked at transitions in social care are researched.  It notes how the language of ‘transitions’ in social care is often used when talking about how people move from children’s care services into adult support when the concept of transition is much wider than this: it is about the changes that disabled people, older people and people using mental health services want to make (and are facilitated to make) in their lives.

Tackling racial discrimination in disciplinary procedures

NHS Providers in collaboration with law firm Hempsons have published a comprehensive guide for trust leaders on how to tackle racial discrimination in disciplinary procedures and create a more inclusive and equitable work environment.

Despite annual measurement and reporting on this metric since 2015, the disciplinary gap in the NHS persists, with ethnic minority staff being disproportionately likely to enter formal disciplinary processes compared with their white counterparts. This guide aims to support board members to have an increased awareness and understanding of the existing disparity and provides practical advice and examples of how the gap can be reduced.

Closing the gap: a guide to addressing racial discrimination in disciplinaries (nhsproviders.org)