The UK government has announced plans to try and eliminate the ethnicity pay gap in the National Health Service (NHS) and to boost the diversity of its senior leadership by 2028.
Recent analysis has revealed that fewer black and Asian minority ethnic (BAME) staff reach the most senior echelons of the NHS, but once they do, senior white NHS managers are paid thousands of pounds more. Although diversity levels across the NHS are above the national average, with BAME staff making up 17% of the non-medical NHS workforce, they comprise a mere 11% of senior managers, a figure that drops further to 6.4% at the very senior level.
As a result, Practice Business reported, Health Minister Stephen Barclay aims to ensure that BAME representation at very senior management levels will match that of the rest of the NHS workforce within a decade.
"The NHS is a leading light of talent for people from all communities and backgrounds, with diversity levels far in excess of the national average,” he said. “However, it is unacceptable that this is still not reflected at the very top of the organisation – this kind of inequality has no place in a modern employer and I’m determined to tackle it."
The goal, he added, was to ensure the organisation’s leadership was as diverse as the rest of its workforce within the next 10 years by “supporting a culture that allows diversity to thrive at all levels".
Emma Woollacott is a freelance business journalist. Her work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Guardian, the Times, Forbes and the BBC.
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UK businesses asked to publish ethnic pay gap
The UK government has announced plans to try and eliminate the ethnicity pay gap in the National Health Service (NHS) and to boost the diversity of its senior leadership by 2028.
Recent analysis has revealed that fewer black and Asian minority ethnic (BAME) staff reach the most senior echelons of the NHS, but once they do, senior white NHS managers are paid thousands of pounds more. Although diversity levels across the NHS are above the national average, with BAME staff making up 17% of the non-medical NHS workforce, they comprise a mere 11% of senior managers, a figure that drops further to 6.4% at the very senior level.
As a result, Practice Business reported, Health Minister Stephen Barclay aims to ensure that BAME representation at very senior management levels will match that of the rest of the NHS workforce within a decade.
"The NHS is a leading light of talent for people from all communities and backgrounds, with diversity levels far in excess of the national average,” he said. “However, it is unacceptable that this is still not reflected at the very top of the organisation – this kind of inequality has no place in a modern employer and I’m determined to tackle it."
The goal, he added, was to ensure the organisation’s leadership was as diverse as the rest of its workforce within the next 10 years by “supporting a culture that allows diversity to thrive at all levels".
Emma Woollacott is a freelance business journalist. Her work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Guardian, the Times, Forbes and the BBC.
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UK businesses asked to publish ethnic pay gap
