Equality and diversity

Promoting equality, diversity and inclusion 

Our EDI objectives are to champion good practice and outcomes as well as promote an inclusive workplace.

We are committed to supporting and promoting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) through all aspects of our work.

Our strategic objectives on EDI  

Our Strategic Plan 2023-26 has a strategic aim ‘to make regulation better and fairer’, which includes an objective ‘to promote and monitor equality, diversity and inclusion in our work and in those we oversee’. This includes our goal that by 2026, EDI indicators across the regulators and Accredited Registers that we oversee show significant progress when compared to 2022/23.

To support this, we have an EDI Action Plan which covers the same time period and sets out how we will achieve this in more detail. The EDI Action Plan includes two key objectives that relate to our work with others, and as a workplace, as set out below:  

Objective 1: Develop our EDI leadership 

As an independent body overseeing regulation and registration and setting standards for organisations, we recognise we have an important role to play in championing EDI practice and outcomes. This is why our first equality objective is focused on developing our EDI leadership which includes promoting EDI in our work and those we oversee. It also involves using our influence and convening powers to be timely, visible and current in responding to emerging and ‘new’ EDI issues, whist maintaining the profile and taking actions to address more longstanding and persistent EDI matters. 

Objective 2: Build an inclusive workplace

We recognise that creating and sustaining inclusive workplace practices requires continuous commitment and action. This is why our second equality objective focuses on driving forward EDI within the workplace and more specifically building and improving upon our existing inclusive practices.

PSA first self-assessment on equality, diversity and inclusion and reflections on progress made

We have published our first self-assessment on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). The purpose of the self-assessment was to evaluate where and how we can improve EDI outcomes in our own processes and in those we oversee.

To provide us with a structured and objective approach, we used the EDI Standard of Good Regulation. Our self-assessment was carried out between February and May 2024 and used a modified version of the Performance Review Standard 3 to make it more relevant to our work and functions. It reviewed our EDI performance from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.

We committed to assess ourselves robustly and objectively as part of our EDI action plan for 2023-24. Our intention was to demonstrate leadership by holding ourselves to account for the quality of our work on EDI. We also wanted to identify areas for improvement that would be taken forward in our EDI action plan for 2024-25.

Progress to date on EDI

Over the past five years we have had a stronger focus on EDI, our values, and creating a positive internal culture. This has been informed by an independent EDI review that we commissioned in 2021, after which we developed our first targeted EDI action plans. We also have EDI Working Group – a staff-led group to support and promote EDI across the organisation.  

Self-Assessment Findings

In the summer of 2024 we undertook a self-assessment against our EDI Standard for the regulators. The purpose of the self-assessment was to evaluate where and how we can improve EDI outcomes in our own processes and in those we oversee. 

Since our first EDI action plan, we've made significant progress in advancing EDI initiatives. Notable achievements include: 

  • Enhanced Expectations: We have strengthened EDI requirements for those we oversee, introducing a new EDI standard for Accredited Registers in 2023 and enhanced EDI standard for the regulators.
  • Clear Objectives and Governance: We've established clear EDI objectives and a robust governance structure to embed EDI throughout our organisation. 
  • Individual and Organisational Development: We've implemented personal EDI objectives for all staff, expanded professional development opportunities, and enhanced diversity data collection and analysis across staff and Board teams. In our most recent staff survey (November 2023), 92% of staff agreed with the statement, “I am treated fairly” and 97% agreed with the statement, “I am treated with respect”. 
  • Leadership and Governance: We've appointed an Associate Board Member to increase board diversity and expanded our senior management team for improved decision-making. 
  • Equality Impact Assessments: We've expanded the use of equality impact assessments to identify and address potential biases. 

Despite these achievements, our self-assessment revealed areas for improvement. We need to strengthen our data collection and analysis, identify potential biases in our procedures, and improve our engagement with public, patient, and service user voices.

We believe our self-assessment provides a fair and honest reflection of our current EDI progress. We remain committed to continuous improvement and will conduct another self-assessment by April 2025. We anticipate reporting strong performance against our EDI standards and will publish the results in summer 2025.

Read our blogs

Get in touch

Please let us know if you need our material in other formats. Email info@professionalstandards.org.uk

 

PSA first self-assessment on equality, diversity and inclusion

We have published our first self-assessment on EDI. The purpose of the self-assessment was to evaluate where and how we can improve EDI outcomes in our own processes and in those we oversee. We've also reflected on the progress we have made to date. See opposite for more details.

No more excuses - tackling inequalities in health and care professional regulation

This is the first chapter in our report - Safer care for all: solutions from professional regulation and beyond.  we looked at the impact of inequalities on patients, service users and registrants, and on public confidence more widely. We also took a closer look at what professional regulation (and beyond) could do to tackle inequalities in health and care.

We have held two events linked to this over the last year:

On 14 December 2023 more than 90 participants joined us online to explore whether health and care professionals in the UK should have an explicit responsibility in supporting action to address these disparities as they do in other countries. And, if so, whether regulators need to reinforce such a role through their training, standards and guidance.

We then started the new year off with a joint online seminar on tackling barriers to complaints with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). The event followed on the heels of an earlier in-person event with patient and service-user organisations held in Edinburgh in September 2023.

The event brought together over 100 stakeholders from across the health and social care sector to discuss and explore the barriers that currently existing and can prevent patients and service uses from complaining. Along with our PHSO colleagues we wanted to share examples of innovative actions to widen and improve access to complaints services and to encourage and promote further joint work to tackle barriers to complaining. The event gave us much food for thought and we will look to continue this work in 2024/25.

You can find out more about both of these events here.