NIHR funded project to support better inclusion in NHS
Published: 20 October 2023
A project to support health organisations develop a more inclusive working environment is being undertaken by the Business School’s Professor Ros Searle and Professor Roberta Fida from Aston University.
The work aims to understand how NHS hospitals assess and deal with staff equality, diversity and inclusion, and develop a smart information tool to support NHS workplaces diagnose any problems and identify how to make effective changes.
The work has received NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) Work and Health Research Programme funding and is part of a £1.2m funding package projects to support happiness and health in the workplace.
The development funding marks the beginning of a substantial investment to boost work and health research within the UK. The research will find better ways to support working age people to remain in, return to, and leave work healthier and happier.
‘EDI Smart-Dash: Supporting health organisations to develop a more inclusive working environment’, aims to understand how NHS hospitals currently assess and deal with staff equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and the challenges they experience, and to undertake preliminary work to develop a ‘smart’ information tool supporting NHS workplaces to diagnose the problems they face, identify effective changes to make and how to make them.
Professor Rosalind Searle said: “Our health workforce draws on the talents from across the world to provide outstanding care. Yet this is a workforce that experiences high levels of bullying, harassment, and discrimination. This exciting new evidence-based project combines the skills of researchers from work psychology, Human resources and computer science working alongside staff members from NHS trusts to better understand the challenges faced, the current data and identify how it could be improved.”
The new funding will enable researchers to start addressing key challenges in work and health and occupational health.
First published: 20 October 2023
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