Hastings and Rother PCT
Profile
The proportion of people from an ethnic group was 5.9% in Hastings and 4.7% in Rother. Whilst these figures are below the national (13%) and regional figures (8.7%) there are still areas within these local authorities where the figures are higher. The PCT has a population of over 170,000, and the black and ethnic minority population is concentrated in some of the most deprived wards.
Our BME population faces big issues...
Hastings and Rother Health Profiles data suggest that in Rother we have less BME communities in routine and manual groups than England. In Hastings we have above average percentages of most ethnic groups who are in routine and manual occupations. People in these occupations have poorer health than those in professional occupations, and are more likely to be smokers.
There is a key issue in terms of ensuring that even in areas with low BME populations, issues of health status and access to services may differ relative to the rest of the local population. For Gypsies and Travellers for example, the figures from the caravan count are very small for Hastings & Rother (Hastings 3rd lowest and Rother 5th lowest out of 24 local authorities across Surrey & Sussex). More work is planned to meet the health needs of this group.
Our workforce needs…
To reflect the BME community: the data shows career progression and we are also working in partnership with the Strategic Health Authority to encourage and support BME staff.
More opportunities: bands 5 to 7 will have access to additional learning opportunities to develop their skills.
Training: the PCT is reviewing its toolkit for carrying out Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) and is rolling training out across the organisation.
Commissioning raises issues…
Poor BME data from some of our health interventions, suggests our workforce needs to accept that the concept of racial equality is not thoroughly understood and that we need to get all staff working towards including all communities of all ethnicities into our services. We will be working with our training and development partners with Race for Health’s support to ensure colleagues are able to record how we are improving the health of the BME population.
What we are proud of…
There is a robust cross county Forum for Gypsies and Travellers that seeks to ensure health plans and the needs of this client group are explored in Hastings and Rother. The nature of the health challenge facing this client group has prompted the PCT, to develop in consultation with the Gypsy and Traveller community, a health record, which will seek to provide some continuity of health care.
Hastings and Rother PCT has built on close partnership working with Hastings Borough and Rother District Councils and established agreed priorities around the health and well being of the population. Our Community Strategies identify the need for greater involvement of BME groups in decision-making and we are working together to jointly improve the impact on equality and diversity our organisations are able to make.
The PCT has established and funded LINKS in Hastings. A service for asylum seekers refugees and newly arrived communities from Europe and it seeks, in partnership with WRVS, Migrant Helpline and others to improve the access to health services for these client groups.
Next steps…
Developing the dialogue with BME organisations and staff.
The PCT is furthering a dialogue with BME communities through the Hastings Intercultural Organisation, the Rother Race Action Forum and a BME project hosted by Hastings Voluntary Action. We hope this will result in engagement in the commissioning agenda; enhanced engagement in the development of the PCT's single equality scheme; reaching out to communities through the growing support of an existing innovative BME community newsletter; commissioning a community group to undertake a needs assessment and training for both staff and BME services users on involvement., In addition further awareness raising will be done with staff so that they fully understand the reasons why we collect diversity information.
To effectively tackle health inequalities Hastings and Rother PCT is committed to ensuring BME communities have equal access to health services and advice. The PCT has already ensured Language Line and interpreter services are available to our patients and further work is set out in the Race Equality Action plan and arising out of the learning pathway we are on as part of Race for Health will enable us to better support all our population whilst working towards narrowing health inequalities and improving the health of all our communities with equity.
Programme Lead
Ivan Rudd, Head of Health improvement and Partnerships