Diversity events 

LGBT History Month

February is LGBT History Month and the Diversity Unit invite you to celebrate at the Royal College of Nursing’s annual reception on Thursday 23 February from 5.30–7pm at our London regional offices at 9th Floor, 236 Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8HL. Anne Wells, RCN Council member, will be talking about the challenges and triumphs around LGBT History Month and the ongoing struggle for meaningful equality.

Do let us know if you would like to join us by emailing diversity.team@rcn.org.uk

Close to home

A free human rights in health care network event

Date: Tuesday 28 February
Time:  1-4.30pm
Place: The Neuro Support Centre, Norton Street,  Liverpool L3 8LR
Speaker: Sue Coe, Inquiries and Investigations Project Manager, Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Please join us at the above event which considers the findings following the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s recent inquiry on home care.

Nearly 500,000 older people receive essential care in their own home paid wholly or partly by their local authority. In November 2011, the Equality and Human Rights Commission published its findings into the care they receive - the first inquiry of its kind. They found hundreds of thousands of older people lack protection under the Human Rights Act. This event aims to:

  • share the findings of the inquiry
  • consider the human rights issues associated with care at home
  • highlight the positive obligations of local authorities commissioning care to protect and promote humans rights
  • share good practice.

This event is for those in local authorities who commission home care for older people; private and voluntary sector organisations providing home care, voluntary organisations with an interest in empowering older people to know their rights; anyone who would like to know more about human rights and home care.

Places are limited so to avoid disappointment please book your place early by contacting the event administrator, Carol  Gannon. Tel: 0151 285 2321 or email: Carol.gannon@merseycare.nhs.uk Please let Carol know at the time of booking if you have any particular dietary requirements or reasonable adjustments.

Equality Delivery System (EDS) Trainer Champions Workshops

The Equality Delivery System (EDS) has been adopted across the NHS in England to ensure compliance with the Equality Act 2010. The EDS delivery team have developed two workshops that can assist RCN activists and others in building their knowledge and skill in this area. 

Date: 10 February 2012                 
Time: 9.30am - 4.00pm                                                                     
Venue: Quarry House, Quarry Hill, Leeds LS2 7UE                                

Date: 20 February 2012
Time: 9.30am - 4.00pm
Venue: Skipton House, 80 London Road, London SE1 6LH  

The aim of workshops

To enable participants to refresh or acquire knowledge and skills about the EDS, use the EDS goals and outcomes to scrutinise NHS organisations in order to identify gaps in service commissioning or provision and produce an action plan to improve services.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Understand EDS goals and outcomes
  2. Know the role of EDS trainer champion
  3. Understand how EDS can promote inclusion for groups with protected characteristics and tackle health inequalities
  4. Gain understanding of key aspects of the Equality Act 2010 and how EDS can support compliance with the act
  5. Understand how the EDS can support the achievement of national imperatives (for example NHS Constitution, NHS Outcome Framework, Care Quality Commission Standards, etc.)
  6. Understand the nine step process for implementing the EDS
  7. Understand the EDS Grading System for identifying gaps in commissioning or services
  8. Understand how to set equality objectives
  9. Gain awareness of the key NHS structures and processes in place for mainstreaming EDS

To book a place, please contact Jacqui Greatorex, EDS Team Co-ordinator, jacqui.greatorex@nhs.net

RCN International Women's Day Event

A free to attend evening reception

Date: Thursday 8 March
Time: 5:30 - 7:00pm
Venue: RCN HQ

The RCN Diversity Unit will host an evening reception from 5.30-7pm on Thursday 8 March to celebrate International Women's Day 2012. Join us to learn about the work of Médecins Sans Frontières MSF (Doctors Without Borders) and Women for Women International.

Médecins Sans Frontières MSF (Doctors Without Borders) is an independent international medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid in more than 60 countries to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural or man-made disasters or exclusion from health care.

Women for Women is a non-governmental organisation working with socially-excluded women in eight countries where war and conflict have devastated lives and communities. 

Come and hear from Alison Criado-Perez, an experienced Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) nurse, who will share her experiences of working with MSF to deliver expert nursing care from the centre of stricken combat zones. Alison has served in the Central African Republic, Uganda, Colombia, Nigeria and most recently in Libya.  

A representative from Women for Women will also be joining us to share details of their own work and highly-publicised international campaign Join me on the bridge.

To reserve your place, please email the Diversity Team at diversity.team@rcn.org.uk

Transgender Equality in Service Provision

A FREE Conference for Health and Social Care professionals in the Yorkshire & Humber Region

Date: Tuesday March 20, 2012
Time: 9:15am - 3:15pm
Venue: Sheffield

In December 2011 the government published an Advancing Transgender Equality Action Plan. The action plan includes specific actions relevant to Health and Social care. The action plan was welcomed by the Yorkshire and Humber NHS Equality Leads group because much of the work of this group has focused on Transgender equality in 2011.

To support this work NHS Yorkshire and the Humber are sponsoring this conference which focuses attention on how the national action plan is relevant to health and social care at a regional level.

Hosted by the Centre for HIV & Sexual Health on behalf of Yorkshire & Humber NHS Equality Leads and sponsored by NHS Yorkshire and the Humber, the conference is free of charge to health and social care professionals, commissioners and equality leads from the Yorkshire and Humber Region.

Participants will have an opportunity to hear presentations on:

  • What the Yorkshire and Humber Equality leads have done to take forward Transgender equality
  • Statutory Equality Duties and the NHS Equality Delivery System
  • Patient care pathways
  • Commissioning services to ensure transgender equality
  • Engagement with transgender communities
  • The issue of stigma and hate crime and how this impacts on the health of the transgender community
  • A Public Health perspective

Participants will also have an opportunity for networking, action planning and receive a range of resources to support equality of service provision to transgender patients/ service users.

Places at the conference are limited, with lunch and refreshments provided. If you would like to register to attend, please e-mail: Gemma.Grayson@nhs.net by Friday 2 March 2012.

If you would like to submit an event for publication on the RCN website, please email diversity.team@rcn.org.uk.