Analyzing Equality, Diversity, and Fair Treatment in Public Service Case Study Sample

Introduction Of Equality, Diversity And Fair Treatment

This report is analyzing the concept of equality diversity and fair treatment in public service organisations. For instance, instance the National Health Services England has been selected to identify, evaluate and investigate the effectiveness of equality diversity regulations in protecting individuals' rights against discrimination. In this regard, the role of these regulations in preventing unconscious bias in the workplace, especially on the grounds of race has been evaluated by considering researched evidence from different sources. Followed by these different quality and diversity legislation which are relevant to employment have been identified and analyzed along with the role of advisory services to ensure equality diversity and fair treatment within public service workers. The final argument of this report is based on the need for equality, diversity and fair treatment legislation to bring benefits among public service workers and their importance to ensure access to jobs.

Analysing different concepts of equality, and diversity and their importance of them in terms of access to employment

The equality and diversity objectives generally aim to ensure that every individual is receiving equal opportunity and minimize equality issues across different functional areas and the sacrifices of services under the government (Equalityhumanrights.com, 2023). In this regard, the studies have mentioned that EDI regulation within the UK aims to eliminate unconscious bias in the workplace and to increase access to job opportunities regardless of age, race, sex, nationality, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, marriage and civil partnership as well as pregnancy and maternity (Kumra et al. 2012).

For instance, NHS England operates with specific equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policies to address direct or indirect discrimination and prejudices within the NHS workforce (England.nhs.uk, 2023). For instance, NHS England complies with specific "Race Equality Standards" and 35% of their total staff are from black minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds which helps to improve patient satisfaction and the inclusivity of the recruitment policy (England.nhs.uk, 2023). For instance, between 2021 and 2022 total number of BME staff within NHS England increased by over 27500 and the percentage of BME staff jumped from 22.4% to 24.2% during the same period (England.nhs.uk, 2023). This indicates that the EDI policies of NHS England play an important role in maintaining equality and diversity in the workplace.

Impact of Unconscious Bias, Prejudice and Discrimination on The Individuals, Victims and Perpetrators Within the Public Services Sector

Instead of having stricter equality and diversity policies, public sector organisations face issues related to unconscious bias, prejudice and discrimination. In a similar context, studies have mentioned that prejudice and discrimination in the workplace generally affect the equal opportunity of people, motivation, self-worth, social resources and engagement of people with wider society but it can be controlled with a radical approach (Kumra et al. 2012). Therefore, to ensure equal opportunity within the public service sector the authority needs to be aware of unconscious bias prejudice and discrimination. It is also needed to mention that in 2016 total percentage of the staff belonging to the black and minority ethnic (BME) group was just 17.7% within the NHS but it was reported that 29.1% of the total black minority group experienced workplace harassment (England.nhs.uk, 2023).

In contrast, 28.1% of staff from white backgrounds are survivors of workplace harassment within NHS England by the end of 2016 and it decreased to 27.0% by the end of 2022 as demonstrated in Figure 1 (England.nhs.uk, 2023). Even, at the end of the 2022 fiscal year, the rate of harassment among the BME group increased to 29.2% but the total ratio of black ethnic minority groups within the workforce increased (England.nhs.uk, 2023). However, it is found that the total number of members working at the senior management level within NHS England increased by 69.7% since the year 2018 (England.nhs.uk, 2023). These demonstrate that victims of unconscious discrimination within the NHS among BME groupies increasing over time and the authority is struggling to maintain balance.

Identifying And Analysing Equality And Diversity Legislation Relevant To Employment

Equality and diversity legislation protects people's rights against discrimination in nine areas which include “age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religious beliefs, sex and sexual orientation” (Publishing.service.gov.uk, 2023). For the protection of people against this discrimination the UK parliament passed the Quality Act 2010 to implement the “public sector equality duties (PSED)” and to set clear equality objectives (Publishing.service.gov.uk, 2023). This specific regulation aims to eliminate discrimination, victimization and harassment from the workplace and promotes equal opportunity of employment while ensuring that every person working within a group from different backgrounds fosters a good relationship. The Actuary's Department of the UK government is committed to implementing equal opportunity policies and practices and ensures that no applicant is treated less favourably (Publishing.service.gov.uk, 2023).

In this regard, it is also needed to mention that the Equality Act of 2010 also protects the equal employment opportunity rights of people who belong to black minority ethnic backgrounds (Publishing.service.gov.uk, 2023). For instance, the government legal department (GLD) Is strongly committed to equality and ensures discrimination-free Employment Opportunities for people from different racial backgrounds within the UK (Gov. UK, 2023). For instance, it is found that racial equality is a core component of NHS England which is helping the authority to develop an inclusive and compassionate culture with responsibility (England.nhs.uk, 2023). The same race equality standard report published by this authority has underlined that recruitment decisions must be data-driven to ensure the elimination of unwanted variation within the workforce.

Evaluating the effectiveness of equality, diversity policies and legislation

Figure 1: Percentage of Staff who Believe they Received Equal Opportunity for Carrier Development

(Source: England.nhs.uk, 2023)

This section of the evaluation analyses whether the equality diversity policies and legislation successfully make a positive or effective impact on the chosen organization or not. In this regard, it is found that nurses and midwives who are from the BME background are the largest part of the workforce who witness disadvantages in the workplace because of their racial background. For example, 27.5% of BME women are survivors of workplace harassment, and bullying and experienced harassment in 2015 but the percentage has increased to 30.4% among midwives, 32.8% among BME women involved in general management and 31.6% among medical and dental (England.nhs.uk, 2023). This denotes that the situation is getting worse day-to-day instead of having a straight equality policy.

Another report has mentioned that 2 in 5 women workers from ethnic minorities within the UK witnessed harassment in the workplace in the first five years because of racial discrimination (Tuc.org.uk, 2022). In addition, it is also found that due to the structural racism within the UK workforce, black workers have low-paid uncertain jobs (Arday, 2022). Similarly, it is also required to highlight that, out of the total board members 13.2% are from BME and only 9.6% of executive directors within NHS England are from black minority ethnic backgrounds (England.nhs.uk, 2023). This signifies that racism has a clear negative impact on the people in the BME group which questions the effectiveness of the equality legislation. However, only 44.4% of people from a BME background working with the NHS believe that the organisation provides them equal career development opportunities, this rate among white people is 58.7% as of 2021 as demonstrated in Figure 2 (England.nhs.uk, 2023). Therefore, NHS England needs to focus on diversity and equal opportunity policies with better implementation of the Equality Act 2010 for the development of an inclusive workplace.

Impact of organisational policies on employment within public service

According to studies, organizational policies play an important role and bring clarity in terms of roles and responsibilities within the organization which poses a positive attitude in conflict management (Xu et al. 2020). As employees heavily rely on the organizational policies therefore it can be said that it plays an important role in ensuring workforce quality which eventually results in better conflict management within the organisation. However, experts have argued that within the public service, it is hard to implement organisational policies due to the large workforce which requires myriad information for policy implementation (van Ooijen, et al. 2019). The absence of required resources and a combination of specific frameworks is another major reason behind this.

Within NHS England the authority is struggling to implement equality policies instead of having clear goals (Regmi and Mudyarabikwa, 2020). It is assumed that unclear problems are one of the key reasons which are preventing NHS England from addressing diversity or equality issues across health services. Another study has mentioned that organisational policies positively impact employment by offering rewarding and personally fulfilling job opportunities (Macdonald, 2004). Besides, the current labour market of the UK facing issues in attracting desirable candidates which is resulting in a labour shortage within public service organisations like NHS England (Clark and Shankley, 2020). Therefore, it can be said that effective implementation of organizational policies within the public sector helps to improve overall employment prospects for people which eventually enhances public trust in the institution.

Investigating the role of advisory service

Advisory services play an important role in steering public sector employees and ensuring the effective implementation of relevant policies and legislation to protect their rights equally. For instance, UNISON, the public service trade union plays an important role in improving employment conditions within the UK and provides better assistance to members (Unison.org.uk, 2023). Along with that, UNISON helps public service employees of the UK to collectively negotiate better payment for all workers to improve the overall quality of public service (Unison.org.uk, 2023).

In a similar context, it is required to mention that the public service trade union UNISON played an important role in bringing change in society by ensuring that each employee receives a national minimum wage, improving worker safety, and reducing weekly working hours to encourage healthy work-life balance (Lucio, 2020). Therefore, it can be said that trade union plays an important role in maintaining diversity and equality in the workplace. Most importantly, the Equality Act 2010 replaced the Anti-discrimination Laws and established a single framework for better management of diversity and to ensure equality employment opportunities within the United Kingdom (Devine et al. 2022). UNISON is committed to the Equality Act 2010 to ensure the reduction of all types of workplace discrimination (Unison.org.uk, 2023).

Justifying the need and impact of equality, diversity and fair treatment in the diverse public service

As the public service workforce is huge and diverse therefore equality diversity and fair treatment laws are needed to ensure fair employment opportunities at all levels (McCandless et al. 2022). Another study has mentioned that equality and diversity policies at the organizational level ensure that every person gets fair treatment with equal access to employment opportunities (Mullin et al. 2021). In a word, it can be said that equality and diversity policies ensure that people receive dignity and respect which everyone deserves without any discrimination and motivate the organization to celebrate diversity. Lee et al. (2021) stated that successful implementation of equality diversity and fair treatment policies helps organizations to develop an innovative and creative workforce because it enhances the scope of knowledge sharing and encourages healthy competition within the organisation. Hence, this policy direction plays an important role in making individuals or the entire organisation more successful but the organisation must be aware of legal issues related to harassment, bullying, discrimination and harassment.

Conclusion

At the end of the evaluation, it can be said that Diversity and equality qualities which are enforced within the United Kingdom protect against racial discrimination along with discrimination against other grounds. However, large public sector organizations like NHS England are struggling to maintain workplace equality and diversity in terms of race as the majority of a BME background people do not receive an equal scope of career development and face workplace harassment. However, different advisory bodies and trade unions are continuously working to ensure better employment conditions within the public service to minimise discrimination.

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