Sheffield Health & Social Care NHS Foundation Trust (SHSC) is celebrating after its programme to 
promote and improve equality, diversity and inclusion for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff won the ‘most effective use of diversity to strengthen governance, recruitment or promotion’ category at the Healthcare People Management Association (HPMA) Excellence in HRM Awards 2017.
The HPMA Excellence Awards 2017 recognise and reward outstanding work in healthcare human resource management. SHSC’s Build, Modify, Expand project focuses on mentoring staff at all levels across the Trust. The mentoring model consists of five members of the Board of Directors being involved with five members of staff from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds in senior positions who in turn provide mentoring to five members of staff from BME backgrounds in more junior positions.
Dr Manreesh Bains, Senior Clinical Psychologist and Project Lead, said “We are so proud to receive this national recognition for the work we are doing at SHSC. We aim to create an environment for staff to thrive irrespective of their ethnicity, nationality, colour or religion. To help us achieve this we have developed a mentoring project, re-launched our BME Staff Network Group and regularly promote development opportunities. At the end of last year we held our first Working Together Conference to encourage BME colleagues to take on lead roles and have a positive presence in their workplaces. We know we have more work to do and we are committed to making further improvements.”
Dean Wilson, Director of Human Resources, said: “It is heartening to see the fantastic work of our staff being recognised on a national level. We are dedicated to strengthening and supporting the diversity of our staff while also offering career development opportunities.”
Kevan Taylor, Chief Executive, said: “I am delighted that our dedicated staff have won this national award. I am very proud to be a mentor on the Build, Modify, Expand project. It is not just about offering advice and support on career progression, it extremely valuable to hear directly from BME staff about the issues which affect them.”
The Trust’s partnership with Gulu Regional Hospital in Uganda was a finalist in HPMA Awards in the ‘University of Bradford award for cross-sector working’. Over the past few years the partnership has resulted in the opening of a Children’s Ward on the mental health unit at the Hospital and the training of 135 workers in RESPECT techniques which emphasise the use of de-escalation techniques before resorting to physical interventions such as restraint.