Equality, diversity and inclusion

Bristol Health Partners is committed to working with people in the region to increase equality, diversity and inclusion as we act as a mechanism for change in our health and care community.

We are bringing together partners to take action to empower under-served parts of our population to have an equal voice in planning and delivering research.

To do this, we are working with the organisations and networks that plan, support and deliver research in our region to increase the diversity of:

• the research workforce
• the people who take part in research
• patient and public contributors who help design and shape research.

We will do this by:

• improving how we work in partnership with diverse communities
• increasing the quality of data about protected characteristics of the people who take part in research
• encouraging inclusive research practices.

The following statement explains how we want to work with people with different backgrounds, knowledge and experience to make our local health and care system better for everyone.

Commitment statement

Read an Easy Read version of this statement (PDF 1.6MB)

Bristol Health Partners brings together the organisations that provide, commission and research health and care services across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG). This means we can use all the experience and knowledge from those organisations to improve the health and lives of local people.

Making sure that we all work well together is what we try to do but we know there is more we can do to be fairer and to include all. We also know that not everyone has the same experiences with health and care services. We hope to find solutions to these problems.

Our vision is to have local health and care services provide the same positive experiences to everyone, no matter who they are or where they live. We believe this can be possible if we use the latest research and approaches that include different experiences and views.

To do this, we will:

• listen to, understand, and proactively consider the different needs of people in BNSSG
• include the views and experiences from people with protected characteristics (as set out in the Equality Act 2010)
• reach out to communities that are not involved in our work yet
• pay people from different communities and groups to help us with our work
• follow the principles of the Bristol Equality Charter
• ask our Health Integration Teams (HITs) to find out how we can help all people in our local communities to receive the right type of healthcare and care support
• promote and support a culture of equality and diversity across our partner organisations and other organisations we work with
• instruct our researchers to include all relevant people in research
• review the equality and inclusion impact of all our major decisions, including HIT funding decisions

Our partnership, with its critical role in influencing the design and development of health and care services, must be at the forefront of the continuing efforts to identify and correct health inequalities. Each of us has a responsibility to use positive action wherever we can, take risks by challenging ourselves and our partners to innovate and progress change in the areas of racism, sexism and discrimination against other protected characteristics.

We are developing a plan to reach our goal. This will include establishing a baseline for current engagement of people with protected characteristics in the work of Bristol Health Partners and our Health Integration Teams.

We will track our progress against this regularly and share how well we are doing.

Glossary and further reading

Bristol Equality Charter

The Bristol Equality Charter is a city-wide initiative which has been codesigned by 20+ private, public and voluntary sector organisations in conjunction with Bristol City Council. It describes a series of principles and supporting actions to help make Bristol a fairer, safer, accessible and inclusive city.

Bristol Health Partners is a signatory to the charter. See more about the charter.

Equality Act (2010)

The Equality Act provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all. It provides Britain with a discrimination law which protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and more equal society. Access the Act.

Equality Impact Assessments

An Equality Impact Assessment (“EIA”) is an analysis of a proposed organisational policy and part of service and/or project development, which assesses whether the policy has a disparate impact on people with protected characteristics. EIAs are carried out to ensure policies, practices and decisions are fair and meet the needs of the population.

Health Integration Teams

Health Integration Teams (HITs) are groups of academics, commissioners, health and care professionals, and service users with shared interests in health conditions or themes. HITs draw their membership from some or all of Bristol Health Partners’ organisations and work across disciplines [link /hits/]

Protected characteristics

Protected characteristics are aspects of a person’s identity that can be used to discriminate (either directly or indirectly) against them. These characteristics are named in the Equality Act (2010) and are:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation