Equality and diversity are critical for a modern, successful, and fair society. Not only does this ensure that organisations, sectors, and employees properly reflect the communities that they serve and operate within, but it also creates a more progressive, effective, and higher quality service. These principles are just as applicable in the social care sector as they are in offices, factories, educational facilities, public services, and community initiatives. Here’s what equality and diversity mean, how it applies to health and social care, and why it matters.
Why are Equality and Diversity Important in Health and Social Care?
Equality and diversity in social care are important because these practices help to make sure those services provided are fair, respectful, and accessible to everyone in the UK regardless of who they are or what their background is. The principles of equality and diversity in health and social care are upheld by several laws and regulations that providers and healthcare workers must abide by, making them a legal requirement for the sector and every person within it, from industry leaders to ground-level workers.
It’s also important because every client is a unique individual with their own needs and values. For social care to be effective, equality and diversity must be at the heart of this outreach because it allows care workers to understand, empathise, and ensure that these diverse needs are met and that every person has equal access to your services. It works to break down language barriers, build stronger relationships between careers and service users, and ultimately deliver a better standard of care.
It is also important because by promoting equality and diversity in social care work, we can work together to prevent active and passive discrimination. It helps make care workers more aware of potential barriers that may prevent a person from getting the care and support they need as well as giving them the means to overcome these barriers. This is especially important when it comes down to the care of those who receive services.
Finally, it helps to strengthen the social care sector, allowing providers to draw from a much wider talent pool to help provide critical services that all communities rely upon. Diverse, equal workplaces have higher morale, are able to provide a better quality of care to a wider range of people, have higher employee retention rates, and encourage a more engaged and motivated staff. It supports a culture of learning and development in the workplace, supports underrepresented communities, and builds a more interconnected and positive community of social care workers. This supports a sector that needs to be driven by continual improvement, progress, and innovation to deliver better care to our communities.
Ultimately, supporting equality and diversity is the right thing to do not only on a moral, ethical, and legal basis, but because it best supports the values and motivations of high-quality care work.
Examples of Equality and Diversity in Health and Social Care
In terms of social care, equality means actively making sure that everyone in that setting has equal opportunities regardless of their background, ability, or anything else, while diversity means valuing and respecting the differences between individuals and treating these differences with respect.
As social care workers, those you support come from all backgrounds, making them highly diverse. This includes factors such as:
Race
Ethnicity
Gender
Sexual orientation
Religion
Political belief systems
Education
Socioeconomic background
Cultures
Age
Physical ability
Mental ability
Equality and Diversity Laws
Promoting equality and diversity in social care is not just the right thing to do, it’s codified into UK laws. This means that there are legal protections for people – both social care workers and those they care for – that ensure they are not discriminated against and receive the same, equal access to resources and opportunities as anyone else. Here’s a brief description of each act.
The Equality Act 2010 – This act brings together several pieces of legislation including the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975, the Race Relations Act of 1976, and the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995. The act is designed to provide protection against direct and indirect discrimination, victimisation, and harassment with regard to any of the nine mentioned characteristics, including age, disability, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex, gender reassignment.
As a result, it requires all public bodies and authorities to consider how their decisions, policies, and programs affect people with one or more of these characteristics. It also provides protection for whistleblowing against discriminatory actions, for example, if you have made a complaint of discrimination (whether for yourself or on the behalf of someone else) and prevents discrimination by association if you are discriminated against based on your relationship with someone who has a protected characteristic.
Human Rights Act 1998 – This is a general act that covers the basic rights of all people in the UK, including rights to fairness, respect, equality, dignity, and autonomy. It means that every UK citizen has the right to seek justice in a British court, that all public authorities and bodies must respect your rights, and these rights apply to everyone regardless of where you are from, your beliefs, or how you live your life.
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 – The Mental Capacity Act provides guidance to protect the rights, freedom, and health of any individual who is temporarily or permanently experiencing a reduction in their mental ability to make decisions concerning their welfare. This can include people with temporary or permanent traumatic brain injuries, dementia, learning conditions, who are unconscious, or who have certain mental health conditions. It covers day-to-day activities as well as bigger decisions around medical care and financial welfare. The act provides support and resources to caregivers and people with reduced mental capacity, as well as provides protective measures to prevent or respond to situations of abuse or mistreatment.
The Mental Capacity Act includes 5 principles that health and social care workers need to follow:
The presumption that the person does have the capacity to make a decision unless it has been satisfactorily proven otherwise.
That a person must be provided with any practical assistance they need to make their own decisions.
That a person mustn’t be treated as without the capacity to make a decision just because they make an unwise decision you don’t agree with
That any decisions that are taken on the behalf of someone who lacks capacity must be in their best interests.
That any treatment or care must offer the least restriction to their basic rights and freedoms.
The Care Act 2014 – This act emphasises that everyone who needs care is an individual with their own unique wants and needs and that caregivers must value this. It’s a person-centred approach that enhances a person’s well-being and supports their independence thus meeting their needs. It is critical to safeguard those receiving care.
To achieve this, this act gives all care workers (paid and unpaid) 6 guiding principles that must be followed whenever they are assisting another person. This includes:
Empowerment in terms of enabling the cared-for person to have as much information, to be able to make informed decisions and therefore have as much control over their service as possible.
Protection, so that you actively prevent and protect people receiving services from neglect and abuse.
Prevention is to reduce the likelihood of someone needing care by supporting wellness and independence.
Proportionality, to ensure the care provided is relevant and in proportion to a person’s care needs.
Partnership, to ensure that decisions about wellbeing are made in active collaboration with any relevant others, including additional agencies, professionals, family, and, most importantly, the person receiving care.
Accountability where carers, medical professionals, and other bodies must actively safeguard the person in their care without infringing on their rights and freedoms where possible.
How can Equality and Diversity in Health and Social Care be Promoted?
Now that the legal, moral, and ethical requirements around equality and diversity in health and social care have been explained, we can move on to actively promoting these values. This can be achieved through:
Education – Ensuring everyone has a clear understanding of the values and benefits of equality and diversity in health and social care. By having a basic understanding of what equality and diversity means, how it is applied in social care, and how it improves a person’s care and the health and social care sector, people are empowered to better support and promote it.
Inclusivity – Actively create and support a welcoming culture that’s based on inclusivity. Ensure that lines of communication are kept open so that staff can confidently voice their concerns in the knowledge that they will be supported.
Blind hiring – Utilising blind hiring practices and platforms will ensure that unconscious and conscious biases are totally removed from the hiring process. These processes focus only on skills in order to match the right candidates to open roles, ensuring you have access to a wider range of diverse candidates, that you have access to a larger pool of talent, and that hiring decisions are made on the basis of ability, and not on the background.
Address issues quickly, seriously, and transparently – It is understandable that issues within social care teams and networks may arise, but they shouldn’t be ignored. Instead, they must be openly and transparently addressed in a way that creates a stronger, healthier working environment and does not make the victim hesitant to come forward or creates a toxic atmosphere.
Support values at every level – Equality and diversity are values that must be adhered to and supported at every level of social care networks and organisations. This includes decision-making, hiring and promotions, governance, policies, and processes, as well as working alongside partners who share the same values.
Monitoring performance – Like any metric, commitment to equality and diversity should be tracked and monitored throughout the organisation to ensure that health and social care organisations are reaching their targets. This helps organisations to identify areas of success as well as weaknesses, develop strategies to improve and drive meaningful change.
3 Trees – Developing a More Inclusive, More Diverse, and More Valuable Social Care Sector.
3 Trees is a UK-based provider of services to adults with learning disabilities. Our staff are not only trained to offer care to adults with learning, physical, or mental disabilities; they’re supported throughout their careers too. Thanks to our commitment to equality and diversity, we’re helping to develop motivated social care workers from all backgrounds to work across all communities.
No individual will be unjustly discriminated against at 3 Trees. This includes, but is not limited to, prejudice because of a person’s age, race, gender reassignment, disability, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. 3 Trees have zero discrimination tolerance, and all our staff are fully trained in equality and diversity upon their induction.
We adhere to policies and processes that protect the equality and diversity of our staff and service users. As social care professionals, we uphold human rights and continuously advocate for those we support to be treated equally. We ensure that the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguarding is rigorously cemented in our care practices. DoLS ensures people who cannot consent to their care arrangements in a care home or hospital are protected if they deny them their liberty. Arrangements are considered to ensure they are necessary and are in the person’s best interests. Other safeguards are representation and the right to challenge a deprivation.
We embrace an eclectic mix of people and are passionate about supporting and upholding this. People with all levels of experience are welcome, along with all levels of education. During the interview process, we have value-based questions. The main attribute of an applicant is to be caring with a willingness to learn; if they are caring and genuinely want to work in the care, we can teach them what they need to know. This translates into what we do; we function from an all-embracing organisational culture. We support disability and mental health and promote independence for staff and those under our care. We look at people as individuals and celebrate and embrace who they are.
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