I am privileged and delighted to be associated with this book for two reasons. First, it provides a welcome opportunity to say thank you and to celebrate the significant contribution people of Caribbean origin have made – and continue to make – to the NHS. Second, I know the inspirational stories contained within these pages can only strengthen our hand as we strive to attract new generations of people from a diversity of backgrounds to work in the NHS, helping us provide a better service to patients.
What makes the NHS so special as an employer is the rich tapestry of cultures represented by its 1.3 million staff. By making that long journey into the unknown on boats like the SS Empire Windrush all those years ago, Caribbean people were not only critical to the success of the NHS in its formative years but also created a lasting legacy of diversity in its employees. Today the NHS is the single largest employer of people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds with over 14 per cent of staff, that’s 183,300 people.
This is encouraging. As a public service it is important that the make-up of our staff broadly reflects the society we service. But that is not an end in itself: it’s about improving the service we provide. In this respect, we know there is more to do. For instance, people from a South Asian background are six times more likely than the majority of the population to have type 1 diabetes and that satisfaction rates as patients or as staff are lower from people of black and minority |
communities than they are from the majority population.
Having the right mix of staff is helping the NHS to improve, but it is not just about numbers. The perception of the NHS by many as being ‘snow-capped’ – it gets whiter the higher up in the organisation you get – is largely right. Our challenge is to ensure that staff from black and minority communities feel empowered and supported and see that they can develop to become leaders in the future. This will in turn help better equip us to attract black and minority staff and better serve those communities.
For this reason, my predecessor Sir Nigel Crisp challenged NHS leaders to give greater prominence to race equality as part of the drive to improve health. It addresses five service delivery and five workforce issues. For example, NHS leaders are now carrying out equity audits to look at which part of their populations the NHS should be reaching better.
 Senior leaders in the NHS and Department of Health were challenged to mentor someone from the black and minority ethnic community. The target was for 500 mentoring |
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arrangements. In fact, around 900 materialised.
It was also because of Sir Nigel’s personal backing that the Caribbean book project got off the ground. It was because of his unstinting support that the book is now published as Many rivers to cross. Through the Caribbean book project, the leadership and race equality action plan and a number of other initiatives, Sir Nigel demonstrated an unequivocal and strong commitment to people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds to ensure that they, be they patients or staff, got as good a deal as anyone else. He set an example of commitment and leadership we should all follow.
This book is about celebrating the past and looking forward to a promising future. I am proud of the staff who work in the NHS and the service it provides. But most of all, I am proud of our constant efforts to improve it. Like those early migrants we are on a journey and – with that same spirit of endeavour and inclusivity that are the bedrock of the NHS – we will surely get there. Overall, we are trying to make sure that in the future, the NHS is an absolutely inclusive organisation and that everyone can rise through the NHS on the basis of talent and hard work.
May 2006
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© 2007 Many rivers to cross |