Earl Howeasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they are satisfied with the numbers of nurses being recruited to, and retained within, the NHS from the ethnic minorities; and what measures they are taking to promote equal opportunities in the nursing profession. [HL1469]
§ The Minister of State, Department of Health (Baroness Jay of Paddington)The Government are committed to fair representation and fair treatment of ethnic minorities across the employment spectrum in the Health Service. We have announced a variety of initiatives which aim to boost recruitment and retention of nurses from ethnic minority groups—for example, material included in the recent resource pack on good employment practice which was recently issued to all trusts, and in the recent advertising campaign. These formed part of an overall investment costing £2.15 million in strategies to improve recruitment, retention and return to practice of trained staff, with a particular emphasis on reaching young people and people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds.
Planning guidance issued to education consortia has emphasised the need for consortia to satisfy themselves that contracted education providers apply good practices in equal opportunities throughout the whole student experience, including recruitment and selection. Ethnic monitoring and applications to pre-registration nursing and midwifery training has been in place since September 1997, and these data will help to inform future recruitment and publicity drives.
The Department of Health has signed up to the Commission for Racial Equality's "Leadership Challenge", which commits the National Health Service to making progress on tackling racial discrimination. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Health announced a package of measures last autumn which include positive action programmes for ethnic minority managers and clinicians, including nurses; an NHS Equality Award scheme to reward and promote good practice; a planned programme of activities to tackle racial harassment in the NHS, and work with trusts to improve monitoring of equal opportunities.