Improving lives

We recognise that, due to discrimination and barriers to social inclusion, people may experience inequalities in accessing services or as members of staff.

Our objective is to deliver high quality, responsive services that meet the needs of the diverse local population in Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich.

As a foundation trust, equality and diversity is at the heart of service development strategy and the active participation of the Council of Governors has ensured that social inclusion and challenging discrimination are addressed across the trust.

Our actions include:

  • Working with partner organisations locally, such as participating in a research study in Bexley of the experiences of black and minority ethnic (BME) staff and linking with other local NHS trusts to provide mentoring for BME staff.
  • Participating each year in the Count Me In census, which enables us to have comprehensive data which profiles our inpatient service user population and establish any trends and patterns that need further analysis.
  • Continuing to develop the multi-faith chaplaincy service and, as a pilot site for the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE)/Care Services Improvement (CSIP) chaplaincy and spirituality project, developing a multi-faith and interfaith approach to the spiritual and cultural needs of our staff and service users. This includes the development of a local service user forum in Bromley, which has developed a detailed assessment tool for staff to assess the spiritual care needs of service users. Also, the Spiritual Care Coordinator is a member of The National Spirituality and Mental Health Forum.
  • Staff networks which support staff from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds and staff who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
  • Equality impact assessments in all service areas which have led to positive changes to service delivery, in response to the diverse needs of our service users.
  • We have developed an e-learning training package to support staff learning and to complement the one-day training programme and induction already in place.
  • The employment of community development workers and special child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) workers to address the needs of BME service users.
  • Provide interpretation and translation services for people whose first language is not English and also provide British Sign Language interpreters for people from the deaf community.