NHS trusts are spending six-figure sums on ‘woke’ diversity advisors only to see conditions worsen for the minority groups they were hired to help, an analysis by the Telegraph reveals.
The findings are based on assessments from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) and disabled staff at bodies with some of the largest and most expensive Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) teams.
Among them is London’s King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which – with ten staff on combined salaries of £748,241 – is thought to spend one of the highest sums in the country on EDI roles.
In an annual report which monitors the experience of its own disabled employees the trust saw eight out of 13 assessed measures worsen.
Marginal rise in disabled staff experiencing harassment
In one glaring measure, the number of disabled staff saying their employer had made adequate adjustments to help them carry out their roles had fallen.
There was also a marginal rise in disabled staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from managers at the trust.
It comes as the NHS is facing increasing calls to stop “promoting woke ideology” – with previous reports revealing more than £13 million is being spent on over 330 diversity roles across the UK.
Politicians and campaigners have questioned whether the taxpayer funds would be better spent elsewhere – such as addressing healthcare equalities among patients.
NHS trusts spending highest sums on combined salaries
Freedom of Information requests submitted on behalf of this newspaper have revealed the NHS trusts spending some of the highest sums on combined salaries for EDI roles.
However, analysis of annual assessments designed to monitor the experiences of disabled and non-white staff – Workplace Race Equality Standard (WRES) and Workplace Disability Equality Standard (WDES) reports – suggests this has not improved all aspects of life for their employees.
Three out of five of the highest spending trusts which responded to the requests have seen more indicators worsen or stay the same than improve across the assessments overall.
Rupert Lowe, Reform UK Business Spokesman, said: “The supposed objective of retaining and attracting talent through staff satisfaction has been outed as a total con by this research – significant sums of taxpayer money are spent on these roles, with absolutely nothing to show for it.”
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.