Corporate report

Equality in 2019: how DHSC met the public sector equality duty

Published 24 June 2021

About this report

The Equality Act (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 require relevant public bodies, including the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), to publish information to show how they comply with the public sector equality duty at least annually, and to set and publish equality objectives at least every 4 years.

Section 1 lists the department’s equality objectives and gives an overview of the work that the department has done to comply with the public sector equality duty from 21 March 2019 to 31 March 2020.

Section 2 provides equality information about DHSC’s workforce and covers the period from 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2019. This report uses diversity data for all DHSC employees held in the Business Management System, where people self-declare their diversity data.

The department’s top priority currently is tackling the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Many of the policies to deal with COVID-19 fall outside the reporting period so are not discussed in this statutory report. However, we are considering public sector equality duty aspects in our response to the pandemic. Some information is included in our next statutory report on the public sector equality duty, which has been published alongside this one.

Introduction

The department helps people to live more independent, healthier lives for longer. We lead, shape and fund health and care in England to make sure people have the support, care and treatment they need, with the compassion, respect and dignity they deserve. As guardians of the health and care system, our job is to ensure that the system delivers the best possible health and care outcomes for people in England.

We support and advise our ministers to shape policy and set direction, while remaining accountable for delivering the government’s commitments, coordinating the legal, financial and policy frameworks in health and social care and, when necessary, we step in as trouble-shooters to take action to solve complex issues. In doing all this, we work closely with our partners in the health and care system, our arm’s length bodies (ALBs), local authorities, across government, and with both patients and the public. We are accountable for the health and care system to Parliament and the taxpayer.

DHSC’s key priorities were as follows:

• to keep people safe, leading global health and international relations including EU and trade

• to keep people healthy and independent in their communities, supporting the transformation of NHS primary, community and mental health services, and local authority public health and adult social care

• to support the NHS to deliver high-quality, safe and sustainable hospital care and secure the right workforce

• to stay at the cutting edge of research and innovation to maximise health and economic productivity

• ensure accountability of the health and care system to Parliament and the taxpayer, and create an efficient and effective department

• to create value by promoting better awareness and adoption of good commercial practice across the health family

• to improve health and social care by giving people the technology they need

However, the department’s top priority is tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

World-class policy making depends on having people in the department with different backgrounds and life experiences, who see the world in different ways. Teams who can look at problems from a range of perspectives are more likely to identify policy solutions and think about implementation in ways that are innovative, practical and contribute to decisions that reflect the views of people who use health and care services. The department has a strong record of an inclusive culture but more needs to be done to enable people with a wide range of backgrounds and characteristics to reach the senior roles.

The Equality Act

The public sector equality duty in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 is an important means to ensure that public bodies, like DHSC, take account of equality when shaping policy and delivering services. Policy makers and decision makers, including ministers, must have due regard to the following 3 equality aims in the duty when developing or changing any policies or services that impact people:

• eliminating discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Act

• advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and people who do not share it

• fostering good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not share it

Advancing equality of opportunity involves considering how our decisions:

• can remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics

• can meet the needs of people who share a protected characteristic, where those needs are different from the needs of those who do not share that protected characteristic

• encourage people with protected characteristics to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low

Public bodies need to have evidence of how they have complied with the duty in the decisions they make. This includes having a record of how the aspects of the duty were considered for a policy.

The protected characteristics covered by the Equality Act are:

• age

• disability

• gender reassignment

• pregnancy and maternity status

• race

• religion or belief (including lack of belief)

• sex

• sexual orientation

• marriage and civil partnership status (only in respect of eliminating unlawful discrimination)

DHSC extends its equal opportunities policies and practices for its staff to other characteristics not covered by the Equality Act, namely, working pattern and caring responsibilities.

The equality duty aims to get public bodies to consider equality as part of their day-to-day business. It requires organisations to consider how they can contribute to advancing equality in the design of their policies and the delivery of services. Decisions taken without considering their impact on different groups are unlikely to have the intended effect, and may lead to greater inequality and poorer outcomes. However, properly considering equality issues makes good business sense as organisations that meet the diverse needs of their users and employees are likely to achieve their objectives more effectively.

This is the first report to give progress on the DHSC equality objectives that were published in 2019.

The department is the guardian of the health and care system and therefore section one gives a sample of evidence to illustrate compliance with the equality duty in the development and implementation of health and care policies. Our partner organisations are responsible for delivering many of these policies. Many of them publish information on how they meet the equality duty.

In respect of section 2, the department collects and monitors data on the diversity of our workforce. This allows us to examine how our employment policies and processes are working, so areas where these appear to be impacting disproportionately on certain groups of staff can be identified. Importantly, the data collection along with analysis, informs and shapes appropriate action.

The department has also published information on its gender pay gap.

We use the term ‘ethnic minority’ in this document to refer to ethnic minorities, not including white minorities.

1. Equality in our policies: equality objectives from 2019 to 2023

To support the aims of the equality duty, objectives should address the main equality challenges facing a public authority. Therefore, the department developed a high-level set of objectives in 2019. It is vital that advancing equality of opportunity and eliminating discrimination remain central to the department’s work to ensure equitable policy making and improved health outcomes for people in England.

This section lists the objectives and provides evidence to demonstrate compliance with the equality duty in the period from 21 March 2019 to 31 March 2020.

COVID-19

Policy work on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is currently a priority and complying with the equality duty and other legal duties is vital as we formulate and evaluate our COVID-19 policies. The department continues to consider the impacts on people with protected characteristics when considering how to implement these policies, and all policies.

Many of the policies to deal with COVID-19 fall outside the reporting period so are not discussed in this report. Where appropriate, these have been covered in the department’s next report, which has been published alongside this one. Information may also be included in other government departments’ reports where they were the lead on particular policies.

Objective 1: we aim to build an inclusive culture within the department which values and respects diversity, where everyone can achieve their potential. As an employer we are also committed to the Civil Service ambition to become the UK’s most inclusive employer.

The department has continued to progress the internal diversity and inclusion priorities, as outlined in section 2 of this report.

Objective 2: we will continue to build and develop our relationships with stakeholders and the public, including those that represent groups with protected characteristics, to improve our functions and services.

The department has undertaken a huge amount of work over the year to engage with stakeholders and the public on different protected characteristics, regarding both policies that impact them and services delivered to them.

It has engaged with various different groups on the issue of ethnicity. In 2017, the government commissioned an independent review of the Mental Health Act. This review made a series of recommendations aimed at improving the experiences of and outcomes for black people and minority ethnic groups detained under the Mental Health Act.

We are launching a pilot programme of culturally-appropriate advocacy. This aims to ensure that people from ethnic minority backgrounds get better and more appropriate support when they are subject to the Mental Health Act.

In response to the review’s recommendation to expand research into ethnicity and the Mental Health Act, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has launched an open call for evidence. This research will be used to develop evidence-based interventions for minority ethnic groups.

In October 2019, the department organised an awareness raising session, delivered by the Cabinet Office’s Race Disparity Unit, on the importance of thinking about ethnicity inequalities.

The department has engaged with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities to understand more about their lives and the issues they face. This included meeting people from those communities, and stakeholder groups in other government departments.

The department has strengthened its engagement with Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT). FFT is a national charity working to end racism and discrimination against all Gypsies, Roma and Travellers and to protect their right to pursue a nomadic way of life. The department has worked jointly with FFT, NHS England and Improvement, and the Care Quality Commission on improving access to primary care.

The department is funding research through the NIHR’s Policy Research Unit in Maternal and Neonatal Health and Care at the University of Oxford to identify the factors associated with the additional risk of maternal death for black and South Asian women.

Work by our partners has also included, for instance, the NIHR establishing close working relationships with the Centre for BME Health in Leicester. Its toolkit for increasing ethnic minority participants in research studies is part of NIHR’s advice to applicants.

It has also taken into consideration the needs of people from different faith and belief groups. Building on the programme of stakeholder engagement in 2018 with people from different backgrounds, the department, NHS Blood and Transplant, and the Human Tissue Authority have continued to have discussions with different communities about how the new system of consent for organ donation will work and the role of faith and beliefs in organ donation. Healthcare professionals working on organ donation have had updated faith training to support the implementation of the new system.

The department has continued to support the delivery of the health commitments outlined in the LGBT Action Plan. This included regularly interacting with key stakeholders to reduce health inequalities experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.

It is important to recognise that due to the nature of the Department’s work, issues will often affect groups in a cross-cutting manner, so policy teams continue to look across the spectrum of issues that affect different protected characteristics. The department has been overseeing £2 million of government funding to expand a pathfinder programme to develop a whole health system response to domestic abuse in acute, community and mental health settings. This was being delivered through a consortium partnership of which Imkaan, an organisation aiming to address violence against minority ethnic women and girls, is a part. Part of the programme includes working with sites to offer support tailored to the needs of the site, focusing on improving the response to a range of domestic abuse survivors in health settings, including minority ethnic, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and disabled women and those experiencing multiple disadvantage. The pathfinder programme aimed to develop a model of best practice in responding to domestic abuse that can be easily adopted by any NHS health trust and create a toolkit to support the process.

The department asked the School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield to produce an evidence review to support primary research and evaluation of differences in provision and experience of adult social care in England. This review focuses on access to social care by ethnic minority and LGBT+ populations.

The department has participated in a cross-government public sector equality duty network. The aim of this group is to share best practice across the Civil Service. We have contributed to work on guidance for staff on considering equality issues.

The department has been involved in work with partner organisations. For example, a Mental Health Workforce Equalities Subgroup was set up by Health Education England in 2019. It brings key partners together to inform strategic plans for a more diverse and inclusive mental health workforce, as well as building awareness of equality and diversity issues. Members of the group include representatives from the department, NHS England and Improvement, and Health Education England.

The group will consider what actions are required to encourage applications from a more diverse range of people to sections of the workforce that have the least representation. This will start with education mental health practitioners being recruited for the children and young people’s green paper implementation. The group has so far set out the following short-term and longer-term actions, and it will review progress towards these actions regularly:

• ensure the new education mental health practitioner curriculums are being reviewed to improve content on equalities

• review all of Health Education England’s mental health competency frameworks to ensure diversity and equality are considered

• continue work to improve the quality of ethnicity data for the workforce and explore opportunities for evidencing the positive impact that a diverse workforce can have on patient outcomes

On other work with our partners, the national genomics healthcare strategy set out the need for open, transparent public engagement, including with hard-to-reach groups. The strategy also set out an ambition to increase the diversity of the reference genome, ensuring that all genomics benefits are realised by all sections of the community.

Genomics England made patient and public engagement a key pillar of its strategy. In addition, the Accelerating Detection of Disease Challenge will carry out at least 3 million polygenic risk scores on volunteers over the next 5 years. This will oversample from under-represented groups to grow the genetic diversity of genomics databases.

The NIHR is working in partnership with the main research funders, most notably UK Research and Innovation, to develop interventions that build on their recently published reviews of evidence. The NIHR is also co-funding a project looking at inequalities in clinical academic careers with the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK. The work will inform practical interventions that funders can use in conjunction with their career development schemes.

In addition, the NIHR has established an NIHR-wide Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Programme Board, which is supported by an advisory group. The advisory group includes a broad range of stakeholders including patient and public representatives.

Through its website, the NIHR has made a public commitment to openly support and promote equality, diversity and inclusion, both in terms of the people who lead and run the NIHR and the people who lead, deliver and are involved in its research. The NIHR is working with partners to develop its ambitions to foster an inclusive environment. It is prioritising areas that it believes will have most impact and continue to implement and evaluate some of the interventions already in progress, such as the Athena SWAN Charter for women in science.

Objective 3: We will improve the capability and understanding of the public sector equality duty in the department to make better policy decisions and improve the health and lives of the nation.

The DHSC governance and accountability team continued to deliver regular training sessions for staff across the department. This aims to raise awareness and improve understanding of the public sector equality duty to support the department to fulfil its duties in relation to the policies it develops for people across the country.

We have aimed to improve these sessions. We have informed our changes using the findings from a survey of DHSC staff on their understanding of the equality duty and with input from our Deputy Director Equalities Network. These changes included providing more real-life evidence and examples to help staff understand the main principles. We have also focused more on how considering equality effectively while developing policy can help deliver better outcomes.

The governance and accountability team provides one-to-one support on request from policy teams. This includes providing information on how to effectively consider equality issues and reviewing draft equality impact assessments. This offer is alongside advice available from the department’s lawyers and from Deputy Director leads for each protected characteristic, as well as detailed guidance that all staff can access.

The department has asked for views on equalities as part of formal consultations on policies. For example, we sought views on equalities when consulting on the childhood obesity plan. This included:

• ending the sale of energy drinks to children

• mandating calorie labelling in the out-of-home sector

• introducing further advertising restrictions on TV and online for products high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS)

• restricting the sale of HFSS products by volume and location

• government buying standards for food and catering services

Objective 4: We aim to improve the department’s assurance processes to the public sector equality duty to ensure it is clear throughout the policy development process how we have paid due regard to the public sector equality duty.

The department has a template for submissions, when providing advice to ministers where they need to make a decision on a policy. The checklist on this template highlights the public sector equality duty as something that teams must consider as they develop their policy. One of the sections in the template is on legal duties. This reminds teams that they need to provide advice on legal duties including under the Equality Act, and that they should be working with lawyers on this. Teams also have access to an equality impact assessment template and other materials to help them record equality considerations for their policy.

The governance and accountability team leads on assurance and oversight of compliance with the equality duty across the department. The team convenes a Deputy Director Equalities Network, which has a role in advising approaches or strategies to strengthen assurance processes in the department. Approaches have included reviewing information that can be obtained across the department on how it is complying with the equality duty on an ongoing basis in the development and review of policy.

The department has had independent assurance on its equality processes by the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) and received a ‘moderate’ rating in 2020. The department has used the findings from GIAA’s work to strengthen our assurance processes on equality.

The department also values and supports the work its partners carry out on equality assurance. The NIHR is committed to completing equality impact assessments and is piloting several approaches to use this tool across NIHR. It has introduced new wording in the research funding application guidance to ask applicants to explain who they are planning to recruit to ensure inclusivity of study participants and justify any exclusions, such as by completing an equality impact assessment.

The NIHR has also committed to publishing annual data to provide transparency and accountability on its levels of equality, diversity and inclusion. It is currently analysing existing data to provide a baseline. It has launched a new equality and diversity recording system to help better record and understand the different groups of people that apply to NIHR for funding and their experiences of the funding process.

Objective 5: We will build senior engagement in the department and stakeholders to highlight and promote the importance of equalities and encourage senior staff to tackle equality issues.

We are raising awareness of the importance of equality issues for policies we develop and decisions about service provision. The DHSC Deputy Director Equalities Network has a role in giving visibility to the equality duty and developing approaches to address policy issues across the department.

Equality issues are also important within the department and our leaders are involved in work to support all staff. Please see section 2 of this report for further information.

2. Equality in our workforce

Scope of this section

This section sets out the department’s approach to using equality data and information to inform policy development, implementation and practice. The scope of this section:

• relates to DHSC as an employer and does not include any of its agencies

• covers the period 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2019

• covers a snapshot of data as at 30 September 2019 with staff at 1,762

• provides an overview, with illustrative examples, of how equality information is used to inform policy development – for example, not the details for each policy

• includes quantitative and qualitative data

This section does not include recommendations or actions to be taken forward. The data and analysis provide sources of information.

Percentages have been rounded to the nearest 1 percentage point. This means that percentages may not sum to exactly 100%. Headcount includes permanent and fixed-term appointees employed by the department (including staff out on secondment or loan and all types of absence or special leave). Where necessary values have also been rounded to the nearest 10 to prevent disclosure of any sensitive information. Where necessary we have also combined groups to prevent disclosure of any sensitive information.

Figures for performance management data covers the period of 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019. This is due to the reporting period of that data, and is the most up to date dataset available.

The Equality Act defines gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity and marriage and civil partnership as protected characteristics. The Civil Service now measures gender identity/trans status through the annual People Survey, in order to achieve progress on trans equality. It is noted that section 22 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 prohibits disclosure of an individual’s gender identity who is protected by the Act. PRISM, our LGBT+ staff network, is routinely consulted on HR policy development, which is combined with external research to develop relevant and meaningful policies.

The number of staff in DHSC who have the protected characteristic of pregnancy and maternity is too small to carry out analysis. The data presented here shows the department’s employees by protected characteristic. Information is presented on:

• age
• disability
• ethnicity
• gender
• sexual orientation
• religion or belief

We have also provided information on working pattern and caring responsibilities of our employees, as we extended protection from discrimination and disadvantage to these groups.

Diversity and inclusion – our goals

World-class policymaking depends on having people in the department with different backgrounds and life experience, who see the world in different ways. We actively encourage diversity of thought, so that teams look at problems from a range of perspectives, making them more likely to identify policy solutions and think about implementation in ways that are innovative and practical, and contribute to decisions that reflect the views of people who use health and care services.

We recognise that our people are at the heart of what we do and proactively creating a culture of inclusion has been a focus in the department. The DHSC diversity and inclusion strategy, launched in 2017, set out steps to help achieve our vision to be a diverse and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential and thrive. The strategy was developed to align to the principles in the Civil Service diversity and inclusion strategy at that time.

The Civil Service wants all its employees to feel that they can be themselves at work, valued for the distinct perspective that they bring, and are able to go as far as their talents will take them – irrespective of their sex, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, faith, age or socio-economic background. This strategy scaled up action to increase the representation of under-represented groups at all grades, across the Civil Service. It establishes a more robust approach to inclusion and building a culture that attracts, retains and nurtures the best and most diverse talent.

The 5 themes of this strategy and examples of the commitments DHSC made at that time are set out below:

Culture

Creating an inclusive culture where difference is valued, the power of diversity is harnessed, and everyone has equal opportunity to achieve their potential. For example, as part of wider Civil Service Year of Inclusion 2020, DHSC maintains a strong commitment to the diversity of its workforce and supports its staff networks to ensure we harness the power of diversity and lived experience, so we build a culture of inclusion in the widest sense.

Capability

To build diversity, capability and confidence across our workforce to ensure DHSC is a trusted and diverse organisation where people are proud to work, and leaders are inclusive by instinct. We promote learning and development opportunities such as unconscious bias training through Civil Service Learning to help ensure that our approach is consistent throughout the organisation.

Data and insight

We encourage everyone to provide diversity information to support more evidence-based solutions to our diversity. For example, regular diversity and inclusion discussions at the DHSC Executive Committee, to scrutinise progress against the new diversity and inclusion plan being developed and deep dives on targeted areas.

Talent

We identify and act on barriers to progress to ensure everyone has equal opportunity to fulfil their potential. We strive to increase participation in the Positive Action Pathway, a one-year learning programme for women, minority ethnic, disabled and LGBT+ employees in all grades AO to G6 with the potential to progress at least one grade higher.

Social mobility

We take action to support improved diversity and social mobility in our workforce. We have a large portfolio of social mobility programmes including schools outreach, work experience and specialist recruitment programmes.

Diversity and inclusion – our progress

Departmental progress delivering our 2017 diversity and inclusion strategy

The department has visible senior diversity and inclusion champions in place and their role includes sponsorship and aligning priorities and forward plans with staff networks. They also work with other Civil Service diversity and inclusion champions to push forward the agenda for their respective areas of diversity and share best practice across the Civil Service.

Senior Champions meet quarterly, and we ensure there is a visible line of sight to the monthly Diversity Board meeting which brings together departmental staff network chairs.

In April 2019 the department was the first across the Civil Service to pilot the Inclusion Diagnostic to support the Civil Service ambition to be the UK’s most inclusive employer by 2020. This has enabled DHSC to have early insight into future areas of improvement and feed into the development of the Inclusion Benchmark that was rolled out across the Civil Service.

DHSC successfully launched and delivered a reverse mentoring programme across the department, focused on diverse groups, particularly ethnic minority and disabled staff. In 2019 we matched over 30 mentors to our senior civil servants. This has enabled sharing of lived experience across the department and contributes to creating an inclusive culture.

In April 2019 DHSC introduced diverse panels for all Senior Civil Service (SCS) recruitment. A gender balance was already expected, and now the department has committed to also having a panel member from an ethnic minority and/or with a visible/invisible disability on all SCS recruitment panels.

In July 2019 DHSC published its first annual voluntary report on disability, mental health and wellbeing. This report shared our progress in these areas and stated what else we still needed to do.

We have continued to work across HR, networks and champions to deliver annual events such as the DHSC Diversity Day in December 2018 and National Inclusion Week in September 2019. This has contributed to raising awareness across the department and enabled the networks to promote their offer.

Mental health remains a priority. We raised awareness during the year through the Mental Health First Aider and Health and Wellbeing Advocate networks. For example, taking part in the ‘This is Me’ and ‘Green Ribbon’ campaign during Mental Health Awareness Week in May 2019. This demonstrates our commitment to breaking down the stigma attached to mental health and ensuring we have support in place for our staff.

We have focused promotion of positive action development schemes and talent schemes in partnership with staff networks. This is enabling DHSC to strengthen and diversify its succession pipelines, as well as accelerate individual development.

Staff network progress

DHSC has over 20 active staff networks that provide support for the wellbeing of our staff and bring their insight into the development of HR policy. The staff networks aim to increase knowledge and awareness and contribute to creating an inclusive environment in which individuals can thrive.

Network highlights for this reporting period include:

• the Equality Matters (ethnic minority) Network held a range of events during the year. During Black History Month in October 2018 they held 4 events with a focus on organ donation in the ethnic minority community

• alongside our disability network called ‘EnABLE’ – which provides employee support and raises awareness across the department – in 2018, DHSC was the first across the Civil Service to launch a ‘Diversity of Thought’ network. This promotes diversity of thinking styles to help staff to be their best at work and to support effective decision-making

• the PRISM (LGBT+) network raised the rainbow flag during Pride month and on National Coming Out day at our Victoria Street office

• DHSC’s gender identity champion has hosted events and a series of popular all-staff events with different guest speakers, under the theme of ‘What does gender identity mean to you?’

• the Women’s Network activity included a celebration of 100 years of Representation of the People Act, including the cross-government suffrage flag relay. They have also organised several talks on the theme of the menopause from senior leaders

• DHSC has 4 faith and belief networks including the DHSC Christian Network, the Hinduism and Sikhism Network, a newly launched Humanist Network and the Muslim Network which is part of the wider Muslim Network Collaboration with PHE and NHS England and Improvement

• the Humanist Network was formed in 2019, and established to bring together staff interested in humanist, secular and non-religious world views

• The department has Flexible Working, Parents and Carers networks that provide support to their members

• the Carers Network was formed in 2019 with an aim to enhance DHSC as a great place to work for all carers

• the Age Diversity Network organised events during the year, such as an event with The Centre for Ageing Better during National Inclusion Week in September 2019

• The Civil Service Dyslexia and Dyspraxia Network was established in September 2018 with support from DHSC’s permanent secretary, the network’s senior champion. He recently supported the network in launching a line managers’ toolkit for dyslexia and dyspraxia. The network also offers events on these topics and peer support in the form of a buddying scheme

Workforce summary

As part of our obligations as an employer, DHSC produces equality analysis reports for new HR policies and high impact or new initiatives. Our approach to this should be proportionate and demonstrate that equality has been considered from the outset.

As part of our commitment to achieving a workforce which is representative of the society we serve and providing equality of opportunity, we monitor representation of protected characteristics across the department.

The data presented in this report shows the department’s employees by headcount and percentage for each protected characteristic:

• age
• disability
• ethnicity
• gender
• religion and belief
• sexual orientation

Additional information is then provided on:

• caring responsibility
• work pattern
• performance management
• leavers
• grievances
• discipline

DHSC’s grading structure indicates the level of seniority within the organisation and covers a range of roles.

For some of our analysis, SCS grades may be grouped together. SCS refers to staff at the following grades:

• Permanent Secretary
• Director General
• Director
• Deputy Director

All other grades are represented separately.

The table below shows the distribution of our workforce by grade in September 2019. The largest group was Grade 7 (26.1% of all DHSC employees), and the smallest was Fast Streamers (1.3%).

Table 1: grade, proportion and count (2019)

Grade	AO	EO	HEO	SEO	Fast Stream	G7	G6	SCS
Employees	49	283	337	308	23	460	174	128
Proportion	2.8%	16.1%	19.1%	17.5%	1.3%	26.1%	9.9%	7.3%

• The department was younger than the Civil Service average, with a median age of 39. Average ages increase with grade seniority

• Over half of the department’s staff were female (59.9%). Almost all grades were majority female (Fast Streamers and SCS are the exceptions)

• The department was composed of 12.3% ethnic minority (excluding white minority) staff

• 7.4% of the department had declared a disability. Physical disabilities were the most common, making up 53.2% of all declared disabilities

• 2.9% of DHSC staff declared as LGBT+

• More of the department were religious than non-religion (26.6% v 23.6%). Christianity was the most common religion, making up 80.4% of all religious declarations

• 22.4% of DHSC staff declared a caring responsibility, while 33.3% had not. The most frequent responsibility was for a child (under 18), 82.0%

• Most of the department worked in London (64.7%), followed by Leeds (33.7%). 1.6% worked elsewhere in the country

Declaration rates and location

Overall: the table below shows the overall declaration rates for each reported characteristic in September 2019. We had 100% response rates for age and gender, as these are collected automatically during the recruitment process by HR. In contrast, all other characteristics (ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, religion and caring responsibilities) were collected by user input to our HR administration system. This resulted in lower levels of responses.

Table 2: declaration rates for diversity characteristics (2019)

Declaration	Age	Gender	Ethnicity	Disability	Sexual orientation	Religion	Caring responsibilities
Responses	1,762	1,762	1,074	1,068	994	990	986
Declaration rate	100%	100%	61.0%	60.6%	56.4%	56.2%	56.0%

Declaration rates fell since 2016. Our previous HR system was replaced in December 2020 (more details of this can be found in the 2019 to 2020 PSED report). One of the aims of the new HR system is to increase future declaration rates for diversity characteristics.

Location

The table below shows the distribution of staff across the country in September 2019. The majority (64.6%, 1139) of employees were contracted to work in offices in London, one third (33.7%, 594) in Leeds, and a small number (1.6%, 29) work elsewhere. This covers a total of 10 office locations – 5 in London, one in Leeds, and 4 elsewhere. Our other locations include Burnley, Runcorn and Reading.

Our SCS staff were also mostly located in London: 82.8% in London, versus 17.2% in Leeds.

Table 3: location by city, proportion and count (2019)

Location	London	Leeds	Other
Employees (all staff)	1,139	594	29
Proportion (all staff)	64.6%	33.7%	1.6%
Employees (SCS)	106	22	0
Proportion (SCS)	82.8%	17.2%	0%

Age

Overall: the table below shows the age distribution at DHSC in September 2019. There were a small number of 16 to 19 year olds, before employee levels significantly increased for 20 to 24 and 25 to 29 year olds (17.5% of all workers, the largest group). Levels fall between 25 to 29 and 30 to 34, before a slight increase between 30 to 34 to 35 to 39. Numbers then fall again for employees aged 55 to 59 and 60 or above.

Table 4: age, proportion and count (2019)

Age group	16 to 19	20 to 24	25 to 29	30 to 34	35 to 39	40 to 44	45 to 49	50 to 54	55 to 59	>=60
Employees	<=5	140	310	230	250	210	200	210	150	60
Proportion	0.0%	7.8%	17.6%	12.9%	13.9%	11.8%	11.5%	12.1%	8.6%	3.6%

Note: Due to data protection laws, all tables which contain a group of 5 or fewer have been rounded to the nearest 10, to prevent identification of any individual’s diversity characteristics.

The table below shows how DHSC compared to the wider Civil Service (CS). DHSC had a lower median age, a lower proportion of over 40s, and its age distribution shows that its 20 to 29 and 30 to 39 age groups were larger than its 40 to 49 and 50 to 59, which was different to the CS trend.

Table 5: age, proportion and count, DHSC and CS (2019)

Age	16 to 19	20 to 29	30 to 39	40 to 49	50 to 59	<=60
Employees (DHSC)	<=5	450	470	410	370	60
Proportion (DHSC)	0.0%	25.4%	26.7%	23.4%	20.7%	3.6%
Employees (CS)	1,580	62,540	95,270	107,060	137,810	40,890
Proportion (CS)	0.4%	14.0%	21.4%	24.0%	30.9%	9.2%

The table below shows the average ages of different grades in DHSC. With the exception of Fast Streamers, the average ages increased with seniority. There was a larger increase between SCS and G6/G7 – 5.5 years, greater than the gap between AO/EO and G6/G7 grades. Fast Streamers had a much lower average age than any other grade.

Table 6: average age by grade (2019)

Grade group	AO/EO	HEO/SEO	Fast Stream	G6/G7	SCS
Average age (years)	37.5	38.2	24.8	41.4	46.9

Disability

Overall: 60.5% of DHSC had declared their disability status in September 2019. 7.4% of DHSC staff had a reported disability, while 92.6% of staff did not (table 7 below). This was slightly lower than the 11.7% of all Civil Service employees who had a reported disability. Within those 7.4%, the most common form of disability was a physical disability, covering 53.2% of all disability types, followed by a learning disability (22.8%) then mental health condition/disability (16.5%).

Source for 11.7% Civil Service figure was found at GOV.UK: Disability facts and figures.

Table 7: Disability and type, proportion and count (2019)

Disability	No	Undeclared	Yes	Yes: physical disability	Yes: learning disability	Yes: mental disability	Yes: undeclared
Employees	983	700	79	42	18	13	6
Proportion	55.8% (92.6%)	39.7%	4.5% (7.4%)	2.4% (4.0%)	1.0% (1.7%)	0.7% (1.2%)	0.3% (0.6%)

Notes:

• ‘Yes: [subcategory]’ proportions are given as a percentage of all DHSC

• the percentages in brackets show proportions when excluding ‘undeclared’

There was a notable difference in the proportion of staff in different locations reporting a disability (table 8 below). Of those who declared their disability status, 5.8% of staff in London declared a disability, compared to 94.2% reporting no disability. Nationally, 10.0% of staff report a disability while 90.0% report that they do not have a disability.

Table 8: disability, proportion and count, by location (2019)

Disability	Yes	No	Undeclared
Employees (London)	37	603	499
Proportion (London)	3.2% (5.8%)	52.9% (94.2%)	43.8%
Employees (national)	42	380	201
Proportion (national)	6.7% (10.0%)	61.0% (90.0%)	32.3%

Note: proportions in brackets excludes ‘Undeclared’.

The prevalence of disability also varies by grade. Staff at a lower grade more frequently reported a disability: 12.9% of AO/EO staff had a disability versus less than 4% of all SCS. All disability types followed the same trend, with similar proportions across all grades.

Pipeline to SCS: 6.3% of Grade 7 staff had a disability, and 3.7% of Grade 6 staff.

Table 9: disability by grade, proportion and count (2019)

Disability	AO/EO	HEO/SEO	G7/G6 & SCS
Employees (All)	330	670	760
Employees (Disability)	20	30	30
Proportion (Disability)	6.6%	4.6%	3.4%

Ethnicity

Overall: 60.8% of DHSC had declared their ethnicity in September 2019. Looking at the ethnicity of the department, the 2 largest groups were white (48.4%) and Undeclared (39.4%) (table 10 below). Ethnic minority (excluding white minority) groups in total represented 12.3% of the workforce.

Table 10: ethnicity, proportion and count (2019)

Ethnicity	Asian	Black	Chinese	Mixed	Other	White	Undeclared
Employees	93	59	15	37	12	852	694
Proportion	5.3%	3.3%	0.9%	2.1%	0.7%	48.4%	39.4%
Proportion of ethnic minority population	39.2%	34.5%	6.8%	13.5%	6.1%	N/A	N/A

Looking in more detail at the ethnic groups within our ethnic minority grouping, the Asian ethnic group was the largest, representing 42% of all ethnic minority staff, followed by black (30%), Mixed (15%), Chinese (7%) and then Other (6%).

There were differences in the ethnicity of the workforces at DHSC locations (table 11 below). A higher proportion of workers in London were minority ethnic or had not declared their ethnicity. A higher proportion of employees nationally were white.

Black staff were more commonly based in London, while Asian staff were more often based nationally. Other ethnic groups were similarly based across all locations.

Table 11: ethnicity, proportion and count, by location (2019)

Ethnicity	Ethnic minority (excluding white minority)	White	Undeclared
Employees (London)	156	492	491
Proportion (London)	13.7%	43.2%	43.1%
Employees (national)	60	360	203
Proportion (national)	9.6%	57.8%	32.6%

The table below (table 12) shows the proportion of different ethnicities at each grade level (grouped together for SCS). Each of the 3 categories follows its own trend. The undeclared category was highest in the lower grades but fell as grade levels increased. White staff percentages were smaller at less senior grades, but increased as seniority increased, becoming the largest group for SEOs and above. Ethnic minority staff were the smallest category at all levels but reduced further as grades rose.

Table 12: ethnicity by grade, proportion and headcount (2019)

Ethnicity	AO	EO	HEO	SEO	G7	G6	SCS
Employees (ethnic minority excluding white minority)	<=5	60	50	40	40	20	<=5
Proportion (ethnic minority excluding white minority)	14.3%	20.5%	13.4%	13.6%	8.3%	9.8%	5.5%
Employees (white)	10	90	140	150	250	120	80
Proportion (white)	28.6%	31.1%	40.7%	49.0%	54.8%	67.8%	68.8%
Employees (undeclared)	30	140	160	120	170	40	30
Proportion (undeclared)	57.1%	48.4%	46.0%	37.3%	36.9%	22.4%	25.8%

Gender

Overall: in September 2019 DHSC had a notably larger number of female employees than male, 59.9% to 40.1% (table 13 below). This was a minor increase from the 59% to 41% ratio which was maintained for the previous 3 years.

Table 13: gender, proportion and count (2019)

Gender	Male	Female
Employees	707	1,055
Proportion	40.1%	59.9%

Looking at gender proportions by grade (table 14 below), most grades had a majority of female employees. However, this trend was more common at junior grades: AO, EO, HEO, SEO and G6 positions all have ‘above’ average levels of women, while Fast Streamers, G7 and SCS had more male positions than is proportional.

Pipeline to SCS: the percentage of women at Grade 7 is 57.0% and at Grade 6 was 62.6%.

Table 14: gender by grade, proportion and count (2019)

Gender	AO	EO	HEO	SEO	Fast St	G7	G6	SCS
Employees (male)	15	102	130	120	12	197	65	66
Proportion (male)	30.6%	36.0%	38.6%	39.0%	52.2%	42.8%	37.4%	51.6%
Employees (female)	34	181	207	188	11	263	109	62
Proportion (female)	69.4%	64.0%	61.4%	61.0%	47.8%	57.2%	62.6%	48.4%

Pay equality

The Office for National Statistics provides annual reports on the gender pay gap for Civil Service departments, and across sectors. These are headline statistics that are augmented by comprehensive equal pay reviews, using Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance. These reviews extend to other protected characteristics, such as ethnicity and disability.

2019 Gender Pay Gap report

The department and its executive agencies are committed to addressing the gender pay gap.

During the last year, progress was made in the following areas:

• continuing to review our recruitment policies and processes to ensure this drives fairness and equality in all our recruitment

• continued focus on improving representation of female participants on internal talent schemes, and additional gender-focused schemes at senior level

• use of effective pay strategies

• gender equality has been an integral element of our diversity and inclusion strategies

• an increased focus on policies which support equality in the workplace

Religion

Overall: 56.1% of DHSC had declared their religious status in September 2019. 26.6% of DHSC had reported a religion, versus 23.8% who had reported no religion, and 5.7% who had either reported that they would prefer not to say (PNTS) and 42.9% had made no declaration (table 15 below).

The 2011 Census found that Christianity was the largest religious group (59.3% of the population) in England and Wales, followed by Islam (4.8% of the population).

25.1% of the country reported no religion.

Table 15: religion, proportion and count (2019)

Religion	Religion	No religion	Prefer not to say	Undeclared
Employees	469	420	101	772
Proportion	26.6%	23.8%	5.7%	43.8%

Within the different religious declarations, most staff were Christian, with 80.4% of declarations, (21.4% of all staff in total). This was followed by Muslim (8.1%) and Hindu (6.4%) staff members. Other Religions accounted for 2.1% of staff with a declared religion, and Sikh, Buddhist and Jewish declarations were each approximately 1%.

Religion also seems to vary by grade. Non-declarations (PNTS and undeclared combined) fell steadily as seniority rose, with a 15% difference between AO/EO and SCS grades. Religious affiliation stayed constant, within a 3 percentage point range. However, declarations of no religion increased with seniority, doubling from 15% for AO/EO to 32% at SCS (table 16 below).

Table 16: religion by grade, proportion and count (2019)

Religion	AO/EO	HEO/SEO	G6/G7	SCS
Employees (religion)	93	185	157	34
Proportion (religion)	28.0%	27.7%	24.8%	26.6%
Employees (no religion)	51	134	193	42
Proportion (no religion)	15.4%	20.1%	30.4%	32.8%
Employees (undeclared or prefer not to say)	188	349	284	52
Proportion (undeclared or prefer not to say)	56.6%	52.2%	44.8%	40.6%

Sexual orientation

Overall: 56.3% of DHSC had reported their sexual orientation in September 2019, while 43.7% made no declaration. 2.9% of DHSC reported that they had a minority sexual orientation. 48.5% reported that they are heterosexual, and 4.9% said that they would prefer not to say.

There are some differences between the London and national workforces in terms of sexual orientation. There was a lower percentage of national workers identifying as LGBT+ (2.6% v 3.1%), but higher percentage as heterosexual (56.2% v 44.3%). Staff in London also more frequently did not make a sexual orientation declaration (47.9% v 36.0%) (table 17 below).

Table 17: sexual orientation, proportion and count, by location (2019)

Sexual Orientation	LGBT+	Heterosexual	Prefer not to say	Undeclared
Employees (London)	35	506	54	544
Proportion (London)	3.1%	44.4%	4.7%	47.8%
Employees (national)	16	350	33	224
Proportion (national)	2.6%	56.2%	5.3%	36.0%

Caring responsibilities and working patterns

Caring responsibility

55.9% of DHSC reported their caring responsibility status in September 2019. A significant number, 22.4% of DHSC staff had caring responsibilities. 33.2% of staff reported that they did not, while 44.4% of staff were undeclared (table 18 below).

Pipeline to SCS: 21.0% of Grade 7 staff had a caring responsibility, and 33.3% of Grade 6 staff did. 23.6% of women had a caring responsibility, while only 21.6% of men did.

Table 18: caring responsibilities, proportion and count (2019)

Caring responsibilities	Caring	None	Undeclared
Employees	395	586	781
Proportion	22.4%	33.3%	44.3%

Within those that had caring responsibilities, the majority (82.0%) were caring for children. This was followed by 10.9% who care for older people, then 3.3% who cared for disabled people, and 3.8% who had another type of caring responsibility (table 19 below).

Table 19: caring responsibility types, proportion and count (2019)

Caring responsibilities	Children (under 18)	Older people (65 and over)	Disabled people (all ages)	Other
Employees	324	43	13	15
Proportion	82.0%	10.9%	3.3%	3.8%

Working patterns

The below chart shows the proportion of staff who worked full time versus those who worked part time in September 2019. 87.4% of DHSC worked full time, while 12.6% worked part time (table 20 below).

There were also differences in working patterns between gender: only 3.5% of males worked part time, while 18.7% of female staff did.

Table 20: work pattern, proportion and count (2019)

Work pattern	Full time	Part time
Employees	1,540	222
Proportion	87.4%	12.6%

Social mobility

Social mobility is a Civil Service and DHSC priority. By removing barriers for entry to the Civil Service, we aim to broaden and deepen the population from which we recruit, ensuring that we have access to more people from a wider range of talents and experience.

We have an active Social Mobility Group, established to help the department address these issues led by an Executive Committee-level senior champion. This group focuses on:

• schools outreach programme: staff reaching out to schools in disadvantaged areas and serving under-represented groups. In 2019 we expanded this scheme, joining up with the Ministry of Justice that has a wide-reaching programme of work with schools

• providing work experience and shadowing for students: inviting students and young people from under-represented groups and areas into the department to learn about the work of the department and the Civil Service. This includes the annual DHSC Building Bridges work experience programme, the Leeds based schools programme, and the Civil Service Work Experience Programme. We usually have around 30 students per year in the department undertaking these schemes

• the department aims to help those people not in education, employment or training to understand work and develop their confidence. We are building on this work by supporting Movement to Work and offering placements for those out of work

The department is committed to broadening our recruitment approaches to ensure we continue to attract applicants from a diverse background:

• we are embedding apprenticeships as a core part of our learning and development offer and are currently piloting offering EO vacancies as apprenticeships

• we participated in cross-government schemes such as the Summer Diversity Internship Scheme, Autism Exchange Internship Programme, Early Diversity Internship Programme, Care Leaver Scheme. These schemes offer opportunities to under-represented groups, enabling them to learn about different roles in the Civil Service

Performance management

Driven by the need to improve performance management outcomes and recognising our approach needed to change to enable this, the department reviewed its performance management process during 2019. Through engagement with staff during the year, the new Performance Health Checks (linked to our department’s name) was launched on 1 October 2019 to engage our employees in a significant culture change around performance.

Performance health checks provide a structured framework for more frequent broader, better performance, talent, development and wellbeing conversations.

We introduced products and guidance to support the implementation of Performance Health Checks including a conversation wheel and conversation guides for both employees and managers covering different types of conversations, agile objectives and disability at work.

We have also moved the department fully to an in-year awards scheme, breaking the direct link between performance outcomes and reward, allowing for more flexible and timely reward and recognition of high performance and behaviours.

As the Performance Health Checks approach had only just launched and was in the process of being embedded, we have illustrated performance outcomes for the previous performance management approach in place for 2018 to 2019. This is broken down by diversity characteristics.

When looking at the performance management data by gender, we found that similar levels of each group did not meet standards, but there are differences in the percentages of men and women who either exceed or meet standards (table 21 below). A greater number of women exceeded standards (30.7% to 26.9% for men), while more men met standards (69.2% versus 64.9%).

Table 21: performance management by gender, proportion and count (2019)

Performance management	Male	Female
Employees (exceeded standards)	138	241
Proportion (exceeded standards)	26.9%	30.7%
Employees (standards met)	355	509
Proportion (standards met)	69.2%	64.9%
Employees (did not meet standards)	20	34
Proportion (did not meet standards)	3.9%	4.3%

Notes:

• unknown results have been excluded
• totals may not match other data

Once again there were differences in performance management results between different sexual orientation categories. There were slight differences between heterosexual and LGBT+ staff: LGBT+ staff were more likely to exceed standards (32.6% to 30.4%) and less likely to meet standards (65.1% to 66.8%), while both were similarly likely to not meet standards (2.3% and 2.8%) (table 22 below). However, those who chose not to provide a sexual orientation have larger differences: less likely to exceed standards (21.1%), and more likely to meet standards (71.1%) or not meet standards (7.9%).

Table 22: performance management by sexual orientation, proportion and count (2019)

Performance management	Heterosexual	LGBT+	Prefer not to say
Employees (exceeded standards)	218	14	16
Proportion (exceeded standards)	30.4%	32.6%	21.1%
Employees (standards met)	479	28	54
Proportion (standards met)	66.8%	65.1%	71.1%
Employees (did not meet standards)	20	<=5	6
Proportion (did not meet standards)	2.8%	2.3%	7.9%

Notes:

• unknown results have been excluded
• totals may not match other data

Table 23: performance management by age, proportion and count (2019)

Performance management	16 to 24	25 to 34	35 to 44	45 to 54	55+
Employees (exceeded standards)	24	152	91	81	31
Proportion (exceeded standards)	28.9%	39.1%	26.8%	23.0%	23.3%
Employees (standards met)	55	225	237	249	96
Proportion (standards met)	66.3%	58.4%	69.7%	70.7%	72.2%
Employees (did not meet standards)	<=5	10	12	22	6
Proportion (did not meet standards)	4.8%	2.6%	3.5%	6.3%	4.5%

Notes:

• unknown results have been excluded
• totals may not match other data

Table 24: performance management by grade, proportion and count (2019)

Performance management	AA/AO	EO	HEO/SEO	G7/G6
Employees (exceeded standards)	10	58	141	176
Proportion (exceeded standards)	26.3%	24.2%	25.5%	33.3%
Employees (standards met)	27	162	182	344
Proportion (standards met)	71.1%	67.5%	69.0%	65.0%
Employees (did not meet standards)	<=5	20	31	9
Proportion (did not meet standards)	2.6%	8.3%	5.6%	1.7%

Notes:

• unknown results have been excluded
• totals may not match other data

Table 25: performance management by disability, proportion and count (2019)

Performance management	Disabled	Non-disabled
Employees (exceeded standards)	10	246
Proportion (exceeded standards)	26.9%	30.7%
Employees (standards met)	54	548
Proportion (standards met)	69.2%	64.9%
Employees (did not meet standards)	<=5	29
Proportion (did not meet standards)	3.9%	4.3%

Notes:

• unknown results have been excluded
• totals may not match other data

Table 26: performance management by ethnicity, proportion and count (2019)

Performance management	White	Ethnic minority (excluding white minority)
Employees (exceeded standards)	228	32
Proportion (exceeded standards)	32.4%	16.6%
Employees (standards met)	452	152
Proportion (standards met)	64.3%	78.8%
Employees (did not meet standards)	23	9
Proportion (did not meet standards)	3.3%	4.7%

Notes:

• unknown results have been excluded
• totals may not match other data

Table 27: performance management by working pattern, proportion and count (2019)

Performance management	Full time	Part time
Employees (exceeded standards)	343	36
Proportion (exceeded standards)	30.8%	19.5%
Employees (standards met)	720	144
Proportion (standards met)	64.7%	77.8%
Employees (did not meet standards)	49	<=5
Proportion (did not meet standards)	4.4%	2.7%

Notes:

• unknown results have been excluded
• totals may not match other data

Leavers

In 2019 the most common reason provided by leavers was ‘transfer to other government department’, covering the majority of leavers (52.2%) (table 28 below). This was followed by ‘resignation’ (20.6%), and the ‘end of a fixed-term contract’ (12.6%). The ‘end of loan or secondment’ and ‘retirement – age’ were the next 2 most common (6.3% and 4.3%). All other reasons had a combined total of only 4.0%.

Table 28: leaving reasons, proportion and count (2019)

Leavers	Transfer to other government department	Resignation	End of fixed-term contract	End of loan or secondment	Retirement – age	Other
Employees	132	52	32	16	11	10
Proportion	52.2%	20.6%	12.6%	6.3%	4.3%	4.0%

‘Other’ includes:

• transfer to non-Civil Service public sector
• retirement – actuarially reduced
• transfer of function to private sector
• voluntary exit
• deceased

Table 29 (below) shows turnover in 2019 was in line with the long-term trend – excluding 2017. 2017 had abnormally high levels of turnover, due to departmental restructuring, seeing over 800 staff leave the department, and an overall fall in staffing levels, leading to an almost 50% turnover level. 2019 was just in between 2016 and 2018 and saw the department’s workforce increase by approximately 150.

Table 29: turnover figures (2016 to 2019)

Turnover	2016	2017	2018	2019
Average staff levels	1,987	1,713	1,559	1,693
Leavers	318	830	231	255
Turnover	16.0%	48.5%	14.8%	15.1%

Table 30 (below) shows leavers against grade and shows that grade AO to HEO staff were more likely to leave, and SEO to SCS were less likely to leave. While only 2.8% of all staff were at AO, they represented over 10% of all leavers. Similarly, HEOs were only 19.1% of staff but 24.5% of leavers. Fast Streamers were only 1.3% of staff, but 4% of leavers. Inversely, Grade 7 staff were 26.0% of staff, but less than 18% of leavers, and Grade 6 were 9.9% of staff but only 5.5% of leavers.

Table 30: totals count by grade, proportion and count, leavers and all DHSC (2019)

Leavers	AO	EO	HEO	SEO	Fast Stream	G7	G6	SCS
Employees (leavers)	26	46	62	37	10	45	14	13
Proportion (leavers)	10.3%	18.2%	24.5%	14.6%	4.0%	17.8%	5.5%	5.1%
Employees (DHSC)	49	283	337	308	23	460	174	128
Proportion (DHSC)	2.8%	16.1%	19.1%	17.5%	1.3%	26.1%	9.9%	7.3%

Additional leavers tables

Table 31: age, proportion and count, leavers and all DHSC (2019)

Age	16 to 19	20 to 24	25 to 29	30 to 34	35 to 39	40 to 44	45 to 49	50 to 54	55 to 59	>=60
Employees (leavers)	0	50	60	50	20	20	20	10	10	10
Proportion (leavers)	0.0%	18.9%	24.4%	17.7%	9.4%	8.3%	7.1%	3.5%	5.5%	5.1%
Employees (DHSC)	<5	140	310	230	250	210	200	210	150	60
Proportion (DHSC)	0.0%	7.8%	17.6%	12.9%	13.9%	11.8%	11.5%	12.1%	8.6%	3.6%

Table 32: gender, proportion and count, leavers and all DHSC (2019)

Gender	Male	Female
Employees (leavers)	97	157
Proportion (leavers)	38.2%	61.8%
Employees (DHSC)	709	1056
Proportion (DHSC)	40.2%	59.8%

Table 33: ethnicity, proportion and count, leavers and all DHSC (2019)

Ethnicity	Ethnic minority (excluding white minority)	White	Undeclared
Employees (leavers)	28	95	191
Proportion (leavers)	11.0%	37.4%	51.6%
Employees (DHSC)	216	852	697
Proportion (DHSC)	12.2%	48.3%	39.5%

Table 34: disability, proportion and count, leavers and all DHSC (2019)

Disability	Yes	No	Undeclared
Employees (leavers)	17	110	127
Proportion (leavers)	6.7%	43.3%	50.0%
Employees (DHSC)	79	983	700
Proportion (DHSC)	4.5%	55.8%	39.7%

Table 35: sexual orientation, proportion and count, leavers and all DHSC (2019)

Sexual orientation	LGBT+	Heterosexual	Prefer not to say	Undeclared
Employees (leavers)	10	100	9	135
Proportion (leavers)	3.9%	39.4%	3.5%	53.1%
Employees (DHSC)	51	856	87	771
Proportion (DHSC)	2.9%	48.5%	4.9%	43.7%

Table 36: religion, proportion and count, leavers and all DHSC (2019)

Religion	Religion	No religion	Prefer not to say	Undeclared
Employees (leavers)	48	56	10	140
Proportion (leavers)	18.9%	22.0%	3.9%	55.1%
Employees (DHSC)	469	420	101	775
Proportion (DHSC)	26.6%	23.8%	5.7%	43.9%

Table 37: caring responsibilities, proportion and count, leavers and all DHSC (2019)

Caring responsibilities	Caring	None	Undeclared
Employees (leavers)	34	84	136
Proportion (leavers)	13.4%	33.1%	53.5%
Employees (DHSC)	395	586	784
Proportion (DHSC)	22.4%	33.2%	44.4%

Leavers and grievances

Leavers

Table 38 (below) provides a grade breakdown of leaving staff, for 2019 and the 3 previous years. We can again see how the total staff leaving figures were relatively consistent, with a jump in 2017, but the proportions have seen similar changes. The 2 middle groups (HEO, SEO and Fast Stream; and G7 and G6) have typically been larger than the other 2 groups, and SCS the smallest. In particular, SCS levels of turnover have been much smaller in both 2018 and 2019 than the previous years and were uniquely smaller in 2016 than 2017.

Table 38: number of leavers by grade and year (2016 to 2019)

Leavers	AO and EO	HEO, SEO and Fast Stream	G7 and G6	SCS	Total
Employees (2016)	91	96	91	50	318
Employees (2017)	211	330	246	43	830
Employees (2018)	66	71	74	20	231
Employees (2019)	73	109	59	14	255

Grievances:

Between 1 October 2018 and 30 September 2019, there were 12 disciplinary cases and 6 grievance cases involving DHSC employees (table 39 below). This represented 0.7 case per 100 employees.

Table 39: grievances, count (2019)

Grievances	Discipline	Grievance	Total cases
Headcount	12	6	18

Speak out

DHSC is committed to creating an inclusive culture where it’s safe to challenge and speak out on key issues. To support this, the department set up a network of speak out advisers of varying grades, positions and locations, who were given training on handling concerns, including whistleblowing. The network provides an easily accessible resource for employees to speak to if they have a concern and are uncertain how to address it. A Director General-level speak out champion was also appointed to support the overarching Safe to Challenge agenda and provide senior sponsorship.

Over the course of 2019 to 2020, the priority in this area has been to focus on promotion of the whistleblowing policy and speak out support system. This included:

• the creation of toolkits for line managers
• use of personal blogs
• team-led discussions on the refreshed whistleblowing, bullying, harassment and discrimination, and grievance policies.

3. Requesting further information

If you want to find out more about how the department met its equality duty, you can contact us by using the department’s online contact form.