Updated anti-racism and ‘cultural competence’ training to be mandatory for all NHS staff
Updated anti-racism and ‘cultural competence’ training should be mandatory for all NHS staff, a Government-commissioned report into antisemitism and other forms of racism across the NHS has recommended.
Lord John Mann’s review said that the NHS mandatory training module on equality, diversity and human ‘requires urgent updating’ and the specific inclusion of ‘quality assured’ content on antisemitism and anti-Muslim hostility.
All NHS staff should be required to undertake this training, once updated, ‘without delay and not wait until the three-year cycle renews’, the review recommended.
The report also recommended that the health secretary should consider making amendments to primary care performers list regulations to enable conditions to apply on ‘suitability’ grounds, not only on ‘efficiency’ grounds.
‘This may give more options to impose conditions in cases of practitioners expressing racist or extremist views where concerns relate to the conduct of the practitioner but not necessarily their clinical performance or the efficiency of the service,’ the review said.
The regulations give NHS England powers to manage practitioners where necessary through imposing conditions on their practice, suspending or removing them from a performers list.
They allow NHS England to manage concerns about performers when their fitness for purpose is called into question and, if the concern raises a question about the individual’s fitness to practise, to also refer the matter to the regulator.
The review also recommended that the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges should work with members to ensure each organisation has the training needed to ‘fully understand anti-Jewish hatred and abuse’ and other forms of racism.
It added: ‘The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and Medical Royal Colleges should ensure, when issues arise that they are using the full range of disciplinary sanctions and processes at their disposal to address anti-Jewish hatred and abuse, and other forms of racism among their members.’
It also recommended that the Department of Health and Social Care should work across the health and care regulators, including the CQC, to secure ‘an agreed approach on definitions of racism and religious hatred’.
Last year, Lord Mann was asked to lead the review, which included looking into how healthcare regulators handle antisemitism and other forms of racism, from hiring practices and oversight to transparency in investigations. His first set of recommendations was accepted earlier this year and led to the Government launching a consultation on controversial reforms to the GMC.
The Government said it is supporting the recommendations in full, and accepting all recommendations for the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, subject to ‘consultation and further engagement with key stakeholders’.
The report said: ‘There is more work to be done to ensure that the existing NHS workforce has the capabilities needed to foster an inclusive and safe culture.
‘This means providing access to appropriate training and development and setting clear expectations on behaviour, across all levels and parts of the workforce, with specific input from experts and subject matter representative groups.’
Health secretary James Murray said: ‘The NHS was built on the principle that everyone should be treated equally and with respect. Racism and discrimination betray everything the NHS stands for and its ability to provide safe, world class care. Lord John Mann has made a series of robust and practical recommendations which we are accepting.
‘I know that Jewish people – and everyone experiencing discrimination – need action not words. Together with NHS England, we will waste no time in setting these recommendations in motion to build a health service that lives up to its values.’
Lord John Mann said: ‘The NHS as an employer must act as a responsible and inclusive employer and take the responsibility of making its employment and service to patients one that the entirety of the country, including our Jewish community, can feel and see is one that is for them as well as everybody else.’
