Overview
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s purpose is to make final decisions on complaints that have not been resolved by the NHS in England, UK government departments and other public organisations.
We do this fairly and without taking sides. Creating and maintaining an equal, diverse and inclusive Ombudsman service is vital for individuals who work for us. It is also important for people who bring their complaints to us and those we investigate as we carry out our work.
All staff are encouraged and supported to play an active role in the delivery of this strategy, but a number of groups such as the Diversity Working Steering Groups, Break the Stigma, Dignity at Work Network, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Forum and Pride in PHSO will help us to drive forward our ambitions through a range of their activities.
When we design and deliver services or create and review policies, we will continue to fulfil our duties under the Equality Act 2010 and the need to:
- advance equality and diversity
- eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation
- promote authentic and respectful relations.
Carrying out Equality Impact Assessments informs decision making, but we also recognise that measuring the impact of our work is equally important. As we move forward in our development, monitoring will play a fundamental role in understanding outcomes and the direction of future work.
Over the last year we have made substantial progress in promoting greater equality, diversity and inclusion in our workplace. Some key changes have included:
- changing our recruitment process to make sure we have the most opportunities to recruit talented individuals and meet our target of 30% BAME candidates throughout the process
- redeveloping our exit process to understand the experiences of working for us and reasons for leaving, to take account and act on any detrimental equality, diversity and inclusion issues
- delivering a year-round calendar of awareness-raising events through the Inclusion Calendar.
We recognise that there is still much more for us to do. In the next four years we plan to be even more ambitious. This strategy document sets out three pillars of activity, the outcomes we want to achieve and the specific actions we will take to deliver them.
Download the Equality Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2020–2024 [PDF 170KB]