Equality of Opportunity for Employees
Fundamental values of dignity and respect underpin NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald and NHS Hastings and Rother.
If these are to be achieved, our employees must have equal freedoms to flourish and achieve.
The workplace is an important place to start; our employees are our greatest asset.
Within numerous offices, wards and workplaces across East Sussex people with different characteristics are brought together.
Delivering high-quality services with professionalism helps to fight stereotypes, reduce prejudice and change attitudes within wider society.
An inclusive workplace is an important tool to begin to address wider social fragmentation and community cohesion.
This can be achieved by addressing employment related inequalities across the six equality strands: age; disability; sex; race; religion and belief; and, sexual orientation.
Our approach to Equal Opportunities in the workplace can be found in more detail within our existing Equal Opportunities Policy.
This policy currently applies across both NHS Hastings and Rother and NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald
We follow the Two Ticks approach in all our recruitment adverts to demonstrate that we have a positive attitude towards applications from people with disabilities.
Key Principles
The diversity of our workforce enriches everyone, and allows both Trusts to deliver and commission world class services.
There are four overall key principles when considering and delivering employment related opportunities:
Our employees have diverse needs shaped through circumstance and resource (e.g. a low-income carer may require more flexible working);
Our employees have diverse preferences (e.g. particular training opportunities will be valued differently which will impact attendance);
Our role as an employer gives us powers to tackle wider accumulation of disadvantage through targeted interventions (‘positive action’), e.g. mentoring programmes for under-represented groups;
and
Our employees should not experience unlawful disadvantage because of their age, disability status, sex, race, religion and beliefs, or sexual orientation.
