Cultural ambassadors will ensure Northern Care Alliance recruitment and disciplinary processes remain fair

A team of cultural ambassadors has been introduced at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group (NCA) to help make sure the recruitment and disciplinary processes at the organisation remain fair for every employee.

The NCA has recruited 17 cultural ambassadors, who are existing employees trained to help the organisation work towards its aim of providing an inclusive, accessible, fair and equal workplace for all.

The cultural ambassadors come from all grades of staff, different cultural backgrounds, and a variety of different roles from across the organisation.

A key responsibility of the cultural ambassadors is to ensure disciplinary and recruitment processes at the NCA do not disadvantage people based on the protected characteristics they hold.

Protected characteristics protected by the Equalities Act include, age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity.

Each cultural ambassador has received specific training, in partnership with the Royal College of Nursing, so they can provide advice and guidance around the impact of bias, privilege and cultural competency.

Elaine Inglesby-Burke CBE, Group Chief Nursing Officer at the NCA and executive lead for the cultural ambassador programme, said:

“Through our cultural ambassadors programme we are committed to challenging discrimination and bias, tackling it at the source and eliminating it at every stage.

“By empowering our staff and cultural ambassadors we are confident we will be able to shift the culture to improve attitudes and understanding of the issues that many of our staff experience.”

NHS England’s national Workforce Race Equality Standard showed that black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff risk facing a disadvantage from recruitment and disciplinary processes.

The NCA brings together the Salford Royal and Pennine Acute trusts, employing over 19,000 staff at hospitals and community services in Salford, Oldham, Bury, Rochdale and North Manchester.

What do cultural ambassadors do?

Cultural ambassadors identify conscious and unconscious bias and help reduce discrimination and inequalities in disciplinary and recruitment processes.

Sit on interview panels and help reduce inequalities faced by candidates.

They bring issues to the attention of other colleagues involved in recruitment and ensure the final result is fair and inclusive.

Cultural ambassadors provide advice and information on bias and potential inequalities to investigating teams, before formal disciplinary hearing panels.

They guide decision makers in making objective and factual based decisions.

Disseminate good practice and encourage the promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion across the organisation.