Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer

Job overview

To be the Trust patient led contact officer for Equality and Diversity working within the Patient Experience team.  To deal with Trust wide queries from colleagues around patient equality issues and to provide support and advice in such. To lead on Equality workstreams such as Assessible Information Standards, Equality Delivery System and driving forward progress against the Trust Equality Objectives. Also to oversee the Trust Equality Analysis for policies and to oversee the Interpreting  and Translation  service and and to advise staff on accessing.

Finally, the role involves community engagement and reaching out to our communities to identify barriers to accessing health care and removing these and reducing health inequalities.

Main duties of the job

To support the  Associate Director - Patient Voice - Relations  to ensure the Trust has information and advice,  and that action is taken to address inequality in;

Policy and strategy development

Employment issues

Service delivery

Partnership working

To maintain and identify best practice as often identified by new legislation

To represent the Trust and liaise with partnership organisations locally, and regionally on equality issues

To be part of a dynamic  team which will enhance the way we work with service users and carers to improve the quality of care we provide. This will be achieved by delivering the Trust’s strategy for patient experience and public involvement through:

Expanding the ways in which service users and carers help us understand the experience of service users

Draw upon specialist knowledge of service user engagement to develop a tool kit of resources in order to gather a range of information about service user experience

Supporting teams to collect and use this information in order to drive continuous improvement within their service through the use of the Complaints/PALS/FFT Advisors (Patient Experience Advisors)

Supporting research and collaborating with others to develop and deliver research protocols and the use of quantitative and qualitative outcome measures

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Equality and Diversity

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

To monitor costs spent on interpreting services introducing and rolling out methods of providing interpreting services in the most cost effective ways

To liaise with senior nursing, medical and management staff to promote and introduce the use of the most cost effective methods of providing interpreting services

To act as the Trust contact for contractors used by the Trust for interpreting services

To ensure that Trust staff have access to guidance about how to access interpreting services and the options available to them

To develop and update a variety of databases in order to monitor relevant action plans and projects.

To supervise clerical staff as needed.

To write articles and manage the equality and diversity section of the intranet and internet sites.

To manage and prioritise own workload, ensuring timely completion of projects.

Dealing with interruptions and enquiries taking independent action as necessary or taking advice if needed.

To support work experience placements ensuring that local induction, training on software and machinery is provided.

To assist in the development, co-ordination and implementation of the Trusts Equality Objectives and relevant Equality and Diversity action plan strategies

To assist in the development of a monitoring tool for the Trust’s Equality Objectives

To maintain and make initial contact with community groups, maintaining information and consulting with community groups on a variety of projects,

To advise and increase awareness of staff within the Trust regarding equality issues and policy development

To assist the Training Department in the development and delivery of equality and diversity training programmes to meet the requirements of the Key Skills Framework.

To work in partnership with Human Resource Department aiming to ensure all relevant legislation is embedded within policy and practice

To advise and assist on the implications of new/relevant legislation and assist in reviewing and writing policies and strategies, updating the Trust on various Equality and Diversity initiatives and progress

To breakdown and evaluate relevant information, presenting it in an understandable and workable format

To assist the Trust with Equality Analysis, providing support throughout the process

To work closely with the Council of Members aiming to ensure a variety of underrepresented groups are provided to give both individual and general advice on accessing services and information.

To signpost to relevant organisations where issues surrounding cultural sensitivities can be explored as appropriate.

To provide regular reports on any aspect of the post as required.

To manage and update information on the intranet and internet site.

To be innovative and generate new ways of working in order to meet the needs of marginalised groups

To deal with enquiries, determining and taking appropriate action as necessary

To offer support and guidance to minority groups, individuals, including being the initial point of contact for incoming calls.

Facilitate and actively contribute to the Equality and Diversity Steering Group

Use the national EDS framework as a benchmark for reporting the performance of the Trust around equality, diversity and inclusion.

Engagement

Develop and disseminate methods of engagement and involvement using both qualitative and quantitative research methods

Work collaboratively with service users, carers and teams to understand, document and analyse and evaluate the experiences of service users and carers accessing the Trust’s services

Work in partnership with service and corporate directorates to embed effective engagement and support ‘local ownership’ of initiatives

To train service users and carers to build a network of skilled volunteers and workers to help facilitate the work of service user engagement

Develop research protocols, in partnership with others, to evaluate the impact of quality improvement initiatives on service user and carer experience and the effectiveness of their involvement in the process.

To assist in the organisation of events to support the promotion of the patient experience service.

To assist in the recruitment and management of the Council of Members

To provide information about local services, including voluntary and statutory agencies.

Personal Development

To attend local, regional and national training and information events and networks as required.

To participate in regular supervision with a senior member of the team.

To take part in annual appraisals in line with Trust Policy.

General

To contribute to service development planning and implementation as required.

To undertake any other duties in relation to the service deemed appropriate by the Head of Patient Experience

To work in accordance with Trust’s policies and procedures and those specific to Patient Experience

To maintain patient confidentiality at all times, adhering to the Data Protection Act and Caldicott Guidelines.