Corporate report

Equality in 2020: how DHSC met the public sector equality duty

Published 24 June 2021

About this report

The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 requires 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.

This report is split into 2 sections. 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 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.

Section 2 provides equality information about DHSC’s workforce and covers the period from 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2020. This report uses self-declared diversity information for all DHSC employees held in the Business Management System.

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.

The department’s priority has been responding to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has had a significant effect on communities across the country. The department asked Public Health England to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on different groups in society. The Public Health England report on disparities in COVID-19 risks and outcomes was published in June 2020, and found evidence of disparities in impact by gender, age and ethnicity. The department has been working with all its partners to address the challenges from COVID-19 including to understand the underlying causes of disparities and to tackle them.

Departmental priorities for 2020 to 2021 are summarised as follows:

• respond to COVID-19 and health protection

• a stronger and more integrated health and care system

• transformation in social care

• healthier nation

• digital revolution

• workforce that is fit for the future

• building infrastructure for the future

• well-managed end to EU transition

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 that are able to look at problems from a range of perspectives are 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.

The Equality Act 2010

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 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 patterns, caring responsibilities, geographical location and socio-economic background. The department is required to have due regard to issues such as geography and socio-economic status in its public policies through the Secretary of State’s duty to reduce health inequalities.

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.

The department is the guardian of the health and care system and therefore section 1 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.

Section 2 contains equality information about DHSC’s workforce and demonstrates how the department collects and monitors data on workforce diversity. This allows us to examine how our employment policies and processes are working so we can identify areas where these appear to have a disproportionate impact on certain groups of staff. The data collection along with analysis informs and shapes appropriate action.

The 2 sections of this report previously had different reporting periods. In this report, we have aligned these reporting periods so both sections cover up to 30 September 2020. This brings the policy section into line with the workforce section reporting period. In order to prevent duplication with last year’s report, the policy section covers 1 April 2020 to 30 September 2020, while the workforce section covers 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2020 (its standard reporting period). Moving forward, both sections will cover the full period of 1 October to 30 September annually.

Additionally, given public interest in COVID-19 and equality, the decision has been made to exceptionally include information on public policies up to 31 March 2021 in section 1 this year. Next year’s report will have the reporting period of 1 October 2020 to 30 September 2021 for both sections.

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

This is the second report giving progress on the DHSC equality objectives that were published in 2019.

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

The department developed a high-level set of equality 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 has continued to be important during the pandemic and the different impacts it has had on various groups and communities.

This section lists the objectives and provides evidence to demonstrate compliance with the equality duty in the period from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. The standard reporting period is up to 30 September 2020 and additional information up to 31 March 2021 has been included due to public interest in COVID-19 and equality.

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

This section has a broad selection of the department’s work and policies on COVID-19 and other areas. This aims to give a sense of what the department has done and is not intended to cover all areas of work. Information on COVID-19 work and policies may also be included in reports by our Arm’s Length Bodies or by other government departments where they lead on particular issues.

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 carried out a considerable amount of work to develop and deliver COVID-19 policies, informed by the impacts on different groups and communities. This includes evidence from Public Health England’s report on disparities in COVID-19 risks and outcomes. Further work on this is being taken forward by the Minister for Equalities and the Government Equalities Office, who published a second quarterly report on progress to address COVID-19 health inequalities.

COVID-19 response

The Coronavirus Act 2020 enables the government to respond to an emergency situation and manage the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It contains temporary measures designed at mitigating the impacts of the pandemic, including the spread of infection and increasing the capacity of the public service system. These are a mix of provisions specific to DHSC’s remit and provisions where the policy responsibility lies with other government departments. Many of the provisions, where possible, contain safeguards and mitigation measures to lessen the extent of any actual or perceived negative impacts.

DHSC published the equality impact assessment undertaken for the Coronavirus Act, setting out the equality considerations to fulfil the public sector equality duty. The government continues to monitor and review the impacts of the Act’s provisions.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020, made under the powers within the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984, were made in response to the serious and imminent threat to public health that is posed by the incidence and spread of COVID-19.

We are clear that consideration of equality impacts must be integral in all key policy decisions, and that all equality and discrimination laws and obligations continue to apply during the COVID-19 pandemic. Young people, individuals from ethnically diverse backgrounds, people with disabilities and women are amongst those who have been hit by the health and economic consequences of COVID-19.

The government recognises that disproportionately affected groups have particular needs that must be accommodated on the road to recovery. These have been, and will continue to be, considered as part of the public sector equality duty. This duty is fulfilled each time the regulations are reviewed, amended or new regulations laid.

Continuation of the measures to respond to the impact of COVID-19 will support many people across society and we will continue to work with stakeholders to further mitigate against actual or perceived negative impacts of the measures, alongside promoting this government’s belief in fairness and its aim to promote equality of opportunity.

COVID-19 vaccination

The department published a COVID-19 vaccine uptake plan. This sets out action at local and national levels to increase vaccine uptake across different communities, supported by collecting and monitoring data on vaccine uptake. As part of this, a new Vaccination Equalities Committee, led by NHS England and Improvement, will bring together government departments with national representatives from the Association of Directors of Public Health, local authorities, fire and police services, and voluntary sector organisations to advise and guide the vaccine deployment programme on addressing inequalities. The plan includes action on equality issues such as:

• the NHS and local authorities engaging with their local communities – for example, to establish vaccination centres in places of worship and to support the message that the vaccine is safe and religiously permitted

• funding for the Community Champions scheme, which is supporting local engagement with and boosting vaccine uptake among older people, people with disabilities, people from areas of deprivation and ethnic minorities

• communications that include targeted information and advice via TV, radio and social media – this has been translated into 19 languages including Bengali, Chinese, Filipino, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu

• print and online material, including interviews and practical advice has appeared in hundreds of national, regional, local and specialist titles including media for Asian, Bangladeshi, Bengali, Gujarati and Pakistani communities

• the department working with NHS England and NHS Improvement, and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to tackle misinformation about the vaccine, which has targeted some ethnic minorities and underserved groups

• providing guidance to the NHS on ensuring vaccination sites are accessible and have appropriate support, such as disabled accessibility and British Sign Language interpreters

• all NHS staff including those located at vaccination centres are required to undergo equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) training which equips healthcare workers with the basic skills

The department has co-created content with different faith groups and communities about vaccines, supporting them to host their own question and answer sessions, and act as ambassadors or media spokespeople including the Sikh Council, NHS Muslim Network and Oxford Polish Association. We have liaised directly with ethnic media outlets such as the BBC Asian Network to create videos on vaccination topics, tailoring them appropriately including infographics covering key concerns from ethnic minority communities and quotes from ethnic minority staff.

Positive messaging about vaccine uptake has been shared through targeted adult social care and NHS channels. This is using influencers, leaders, and stories from social care workers who have already been vaccinated to boost confidence and tackle misinformation among ethnic minority communities and staff in adult social care.

We are working to make vaccinations more accessible to people with learning disabilities. There is a suite of guidance for people with learning disabilities, who may benefit from information being accessible in easy-read formats alongside visual cues. These materials include a film produced by Skills for People and Learning Disability England, leaflets about what to expect from your vaccination and easy-read consent forms. Some people with reduced capacity, including people with autism, learning disabilities and dementia, depend on easy-read versions of official documents and support from their carers to make decisions for themselves.

People who have HIV can access the vaccine at specialist clinics alongside any ongoing treatment, without having to notify their GP. People with HIV fall into priority group 6 and should be invited to receive their vaccination by mid-April as anyone diagnosed with HIV has the same protections as people with disabilities, regardless of their health status. Ongoing stigma around being HIV positive means people do not feel comfortable disclosing their status to their GP, so being able to access the vaccination through alternative routes is a positive step in making the vaccine more accessible.

Personal protective equipment

Personal protective equipment (PPE) was identified early as a key measure in protecting those most vulnerable to exposure in certain settings, mainly places of work. We have been focusing on increasing PPE uptake through portals and monitoring order limits. In the Adult Social Care Winter Plan, we committed to offer free PPE to the adult social care sector for COVID-19 needs, which has recently been extended until the end of June 2021. PPE has not been prescribed for the general public as a way to reduce transmission, where the use of face coverings and social distancing measures is recommended instead.

Anecdotal feedback suggested that there was poor staff experience with fit testing procedures amongst ethnic minority staff groups during the initial surge of COVID-19 cases in NHS hospitals. In June 2020, the department and NHS England and NHS Improvement launched the FFP3 fit-testing project, led by the Deputy Chief Nursing Officer. This has been investigating if characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, facial profile and other features, such as head coverings, have an impact on FFP3 mask fit among NHS staff.

Informed by this data, the project has supported manufacturers to design FFP3 masks to improve mask fit and the findings are being used to ensure that future PPE procurement decisions take a wide of demographic characteristics into account. As a result of the project, a further 8 types of mask were made available and we now supply over 12 different models including one that is available in small, medium or large. The increased range and diversity of FFP3 masks will make it easier for NHS and adult social care staff to find a mask that successfully fits.

Transparent PPE would help support service users who rely on lip-reading and facial expressions including people who are deaf and people with hearing loss, people with dementia, people with a learning disability, people with autism and people with complex needs. Following a pilot, the department is further engaging with a range of interested stakeholders to identify the requirements regarding transparent masks and testing several different prototypes. This will help to ascertain which types of mask are best suited to each care environment.

NHS Test and Trace and the Joint Biosecurity Centre

Since they were set up in spring 2020, NHS Test and Trace and the Joint Biosecurity Centre have been supporting the response to COVID-19 outbreaks. NHS Test and Trace has been doing this through developing policies, products and services. The Joint Biosecurity Centre has been providing evidence-based analysis to inform local and national decision-making.

NHS Test and Trace conducted a programme of community listening sessions throughout winter 2020/21. We partnered with other government departments, advocacy organisations, community leaders, representative bodies and grassroots community organisations.

More than 300 people participated in 21 hour-long sessions between 8 December 2020 and 26 January 2021. During each of these themed sessions, participants were invited to share their views and experiences, and highlight specific COVID-19 challenges specific to their communities and barriers to engaging with the COVID-19 response. Topics raised by participants included testing, tracing, the NHS COVID-19 app, self-isolation, lockdowns, tiering, guidelines on handwashing, face masks, social distancing and vaccine uptake.

This has helped to identify a range of issues and has underpinned a series of priority areas for NHS Test and Trace to focus on. These include improved awareness raising through more targeted communications in alternative formats, languages and styles, a focus on improving accessibility for people with disabilities and who are digitally excluded, and more focused community engagement.

We have developed a centralised strategy for language and translations, enabling us to ensure that guidance and information is translated into the most commonly used languages in the UK and to provide consistency across our policies and standards. Most of these products are now available in hard copy and online.

We have enabled interpreter services on the 119 test-booking service for 240 languages. Non-digital customers can access the interpreter service, if needed, to order and register their home test and to obtain their result over the phone.

We have also developed provision for British Sign Language interpretation at our mobile testing sites, either in person or via a video-link to a partner organisation. In addition, in-person British Sign Language translation is available at a number of our regional and local testing sites.

NHS Test and Trace has worked closely with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in creating a better service for people with visual impairments. This included improved boxes that are easier to assemble for the returning of tests, instructions in braille, audio (CD) and large print, and an RNIB information line that people can call to hear a recorded version of the instructions.

There has been work with local areas to pilot approaches and to enable targeted action for local outbreaks.

On-site, collaborative testing consists of engaging with trusted community leaders who, in turn, encourage their community’s members to get tested, and training volunteers from the community to work at a testing site located in a familiar setting.

We undertook a pilot at a Gurdwara in Wolverhampton to encourage the asymptomatic testing of both the congregation of the Gurdwara and members of other faith groups in the local Wolverhampton area. We worked closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the City of Wolverhampton Council to identify a site that facilitated testing of local faith communities.

The testing site was run and staffed by volunteers from the Gurdwara, the local authority and other faith communities in the area. All communications were available in English and Punjabi. Volunteers fluent in Punjabi were present to support people unable to read the material.

During the pilot 2,390 people took tests, with 50% of participants from ethnic minority populations (excluding white minorities) and 45% from white ethnic groups.

The use of this site and the inter-faith focus were vital in stopping stigmatisation of any one community. Community faith volunteers felt ‘the asymptomatic testing centre had been humanity at its best, bringing the community together and allowing people to help the fight against COVID-19’.

The success of this pilot was largely due the relationships fostered with key stakeholders including the communities themselves. The City of Wolverhampton Council published an article about the collaborative testing pilot after it ended.

We put in place local lockdown measures in Leicester in June and July 2020 to deal with a COVID-19 outbreak. We worked with Leicester City Council in this response. One of the key priorities was providing guidance and messages in different languages due to the diversity of nationalities and ethnic groups in the city. This included using posters that were translated in 10 languages and shared with a wide range of stakeholders including councillors, community organisations and faith groups. Key messages were translated for use on digital channels, working with a local design agency who made clips in 14 community languages that were used on social media.

The other focus was on community-led activity to share messages from trusted voices. This included working with faith leaders, who are more likely to carry greater weight in certain communities than messages from central or local government. Community radio stations broadcasted in different languages to help enhance messaging. Community engagement was also used to capture insights to help understand why COVID-19 may be prevalent in certain areas and communities, and to further refine and improve communications activity.

Swindon was put on the watchlist of local authority areas on 26 August 2020 following an increase in transmission with cases reaching 45 per 100,000. The rise was linked to a large-scale workplace outbreak and traced to a few postcode areas, which included some of most ethnically diverse communities.

The local authority put in place targeted local action tailored to their communities and specific needs. This included targeted community engagement through writing to all people who tested positive for COVID-19 to reinforce the importance of self-isolation and to promote council welfare services where needed.

Other action included reintroducing a mobile testing unit into areas of high COVID-19 incidence and providing household care packs for the target community, including hygiene information and supplies.

This targeted local action, engagement with communities and a targeted testing strategy successfully brought down the rate of transmission and avoided the need for more stringent, nationally imposed restrictions. Just 3 weeks after being put on the watchlist, the rate in Swindon fell to 15 per 100,000 on 15 September 2020.

Adult social care

Adult social care staff have a higher representation of women (82%), low-income workers and people from minority ethnic backgrounds (excluding white minorities) (21%) than the national workforce. Furthermore, older people or those with disabilities are also disproportionally represented amongst care home residents.

Decisions about testing, PPE and vaccines in adult social care settings therefore have a large impact on these groups. Our policies are designed to protect staff, residents and care recipients to help to prevent outbreaks in these settings, reducing the risks that these groups face in the high-risk setting of care homes and wider settings.

Across all 3 areas, we have regular engagement with sector stakeholders including Directors of Public Health and Directors of Adult Social Services, the National Care Forum, National Care Association, the Local Government Association, and the Social Care Institute for Excellence.

We have ensured we have communicated our policies in an inclusive manner such as by translating guidance into various languages and ensuring guidance is clear with diagrams, to help those who are unable to speak English, or who cannot speak English very well, to access and understand the guidance correctly.

The Office of the Chief Social Worker for Adults developed the Ethical Framework for Adult Social Care to provide support to the ongoing response planning and decision-making for the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to ensure that thorough consideration is given to a core set of ethical values and principles when organising and delivering social care for adults throughout the outbreak.

The framework is aimed at social care professionals, planners and strategic policy makers at local, regional and national level to support response planning and organisation of social care.

Building on the success of the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES), the Office of the Chief Social Worker for Adults is leading on the implementation of a WRES in employers of the social care workforce, learning from and adapting the framework to maximise its impact in a social care context.

The Social Care WRES will collect data and evidence about the experience and treatment of staff from different ethnic backgrounds.

The WRES will initially be implemented in 18 local authority social work departments from April 2021, which have been chosen following a national request for expressions of interest. The selected 18 sites cover a good regional representation across the country and are a range of different sizes and demographics.

The joint Chief Social Workers for Adults are also working with sector partners to share learning and bring together best practice for providing culturally competent care during COVID-19 and beyond, learning from its impact.

Culturally appropriate care can be described as care that is alert, considerate and responsive to the attitudes, feelings and/or circumstances of the individual that has a distinctive ethnic, national, religious, linguistic or cultural heritage.

Cultural heritage covers a wide range of factors. For example, some lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) people have a particular culture, or deaf people who use British Sign Language have a particular culture.

In summer 2020, the department published a COVID-19 adult social care workforce risk reduction framework to support employers to sensitively discuss and manage specific risks with their staff – including risk by ethnicity, age, sex and underlying health conditions. In August 2020, a letter was sent out to the sector to actively promote use of this risk reduction framework for conversations amongst employers with their employees.

Skills for Care have resources and training available to the sector covering inclusivity and diversity. This is aimed both at individuals working in the sector and those receiving care. This aims to increase awareness amongst the workforce to ensure equal opportunity to access high quality care and provide support to meet individual needs so that people are not disadvantaged due to their background, culture or community.

Mental health

We are monitoring and tracking emerging evidence that indicates the impact of the pandemic on general population mental health and wellbeing.

We have launched several bursts of marketing activity to promote Public Health England’s Every Mind Matters campaign. Marketing activity has been weighted towards those communities who are hardest hit by the pandemic, such as those from lower socio-economic backgrounds and those from minority ethnic communities, with key messages being translated into other languages for wider outreach. The campaign has seen over 2.7 million personalised mind plans created since its launch.

We have given more than £10million in funding to the voluntary sector, where organisations are well equipped to target their support to those most in need of help, including those who are in underserved groups. This includes £5million to community projects, and £1million for mental health helplines offering support for specific groups and communities.

DHSC and the Department for Education jointly launched a Wellbeing for Education Return programme to support children in the transition back to the classroom by upskilling education staff to identify and respond to signs of trauma. Over 85% of local authority areas in England have told us how they are delivering additional training and support into local schools and further education providers. The training course includes extensive content on tackling inequalities.

On 13 January 2021, we published the Mental Health Act White Paper, which sets out proposals to address mental health inequalities, in particular the disproportionate detention of people from ethnic minority communities. Proposals include pilots of culturally appropriate advocacy for people from all ethnic backgrounds, and the introduction of a new Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework to embed structural and cultural change in healthcare delivery and improve how patients from diverse ethnic backgrounds access and experience mental health care.

An explicit objective of many of the proposed reforms is to reduce inequalities in the mental health system, particularly with regards to those who come into contact with the Act. Policy changes pay attention to redressing the inequalities affecting people of African and Caribbean heritage, which are particularly stark.

Measures aimed at promoting alternatives to detention and voluntary, as opposed to compulsory, admission will seek to normalise community treatment of severe mental illness. Policies such as strengthening the requirement for therapeutically beneficial treatment and reducing the length of detention terms are similarly aimed at combatting the stigma around mental health. This should tackle prejudice towards, and promote an understanding of, people who suffer from mental illness.

The Care Quality Commission have reported concerns around the use of restrictive interventions in inpatient services for people with a learning disability, including physical restraint and over-medication. They have also reported concerns around inappropriate length of stay for people with learning disabilities and a lack of discharge planning as part of patients’ care plans.

The policies set out in the white paper are subject to consultation. If agreed, they will lead to legislative changes that will encourage the use of options other than detention, and to discourage long hospital admissions. The introduction of statutory care and treatment plans and advance choice documents will ensure greater consideration of the wishes and preferences of the individual.

The proposals on new duties to make sure commissioners ensure an adequate supply of community services for people with a learning disability and autistic people; to introduce dynamic ‘risk’ or ‘support’ registers to ensure every local area understands and monitors the risk of crisis at an individual level; and to explore what more can be done to encourage the use of pooled budgets for services for this group of people. These should reduce the likelihood of unnecessary admissions and help to discharge people as soon as appropriate.

Disabilities

Improving health and care outcomes for disabled people and tackling the inequalities they face is a priority for the department. This cuts across all the work that we do, from ensuring appropriate GP provision to delivering high quality hospital care and reforming the social care system.

We are working closely with the Cabinet Office Disability Unit to develop a National Strategy for Disabled People. The aim of the strategy is to set a practical course and vision to transform the lives of disabled people, focusing on the issues that matter most. It will have the lived experience of disabled people at its centre, to improve their day-to-day lives, tackle barriers and extend opportunities. The strategy is expected to be published in spring 2021.

The government recognises that somepeople with learning disabilities and autistic people are amongst the most vulnerable in society, and they have comparably worse outcomes to people without learning disabilities. We are determined to ensure they receive better care, have improved outcomes and are supported to live longer, healthier lives.

The government is also committed to supporting autistic people to participate in their local communities. The Autism Act 2009 places a duty on the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to publish a strategy for meeting the needs of autistic adults in England and to review it periodically.

We are extending the scope of the new autism strategy to cover children and young people, as well as adults, for the first time. This is in recognition of the importance of ensuring that autistic people receive the right support from early years and throughout their lives.

The strategy will set out actions, to address the inequalities that autistic people experience, including enabling better access to care, education and employment opportunities and ensuring that reasonable adjustments are made so that there is equitable access to public services. We aim to publish our refreshed autism strategy, subject to COVID-19 pressures, in spring 2021.

We have also commissioned research from the London School of Economics regarding the impact of COVID-19 on autistic people. We are using the findings to inform the development of the all-age autism strategy and will publish the research report shortly.

As set out in ‘Right to be Heard’, the department is developing and trialling the Oliver McGowan mandatory training on learning disability and autism. Subject to evaluation, this would be available for all 2.7 million health and social care staff. This training will help ensure that people with a learning disability and autistic people will have a more positive experience of health and care services.

The Learning Disability Mortality Review programme was established in 2015 to drive improvements in the quality of health and social care delivery for people with learning disabilities, and to help reduce premature mortality and health inequalities in this population. The programme publishes an annual report with recommendations for the health and social care system, including the department. We publish a formal response to that report.

We have taken several steps to protect people with a learning disability from the worst impacts of COVID-19. This includes adding people with Down’s syndrome to the clinically extremely vulnerable list, providing over £1million funding to learning disability and autism charities to support their COVID-19 response, and ensuring that there are exemptions for people with a learning disability and autistic people where measures in response to the pandemichave adversely impacted them. The NHS has now started to vaccinate the next set of cohorts. Group 6 includes individuals with severe and profound learning disability, people in residential care settings and unpaid carers. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has advised that everyone on a GP learning disability register should be invited for vaccination as part of group six.

More than 850,000 people in the UK have dementia, the majority of whom are over 65 and have underlying health conditions. They are supported by a similar number of carers, many of whom are older people themselves.

The Dementia Well Pathway sets out the adjustments and amendments needed to memory assessment services in order to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The resource highlights the Advancing Mental Health Equalities Toolkit to help provide support in identifying and addressing mental health inequalities.

During the pandemic we provided financial support of £515,658 to the Alzheimer’s Society to support their Dementia Connect programme. The funding supported their Dementia Connect telephone and online service, which has been able to operate 7 days a week, providing advice, information and support for people affected by dementia. In total it has delivered over 40,000 interventions, ranging from whether visits were allowed in care homes to financial issues and general carers advice.

We provided financial support of £485,000 to the Race Equality Foundation. The funding enabled activities such as telephone and befriending support in English and community languages, and other culturally specific support such as providing hot meals or foods.

The funding was also used to translate key government COVID-19 guidance into 10 languages (Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Kurdish, Punjabi, Portuguese, Polish, Somali and Urdu) to improve understanding and accessibility to services for ethnic minority communities. The translated materials have been disseminated via the organisations involved with the programme, regional partners, national networks such as the Dementia Alliance for Culture and Ethnicity (DACE) and the National Dementia Action Alliance, and via social media.

Overall, the programme worked with 21 local and national organisations and 3 partner organisations and helped both men and women from Pakistani, African Caribbean, African, Irish, Indian, Bangladeshi, Somalian, Chinese, Polish and Lithuanian ethnic groups. The project reached 21,203 people.

Sexual orientation and gender identity

As part of the LGBT Action Plan, the department is responsible for several commitments aiming to improve access to and the quality of health and social care for LGBT+ communities.

In 2020, the government announced that HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) will be routinely available across England in 2020/21. This recognised the significant impact that PrEP plays, as part of combination prevention interventions, in reducing HIV transmission.

As part of the government’s ambition to end new HIV transmissions in England by 2030, it has provided local authorities with just over £11million of ringfenced funding to cover the costs of routine commissioning in 2020/21.

Routine commissioning of PrEP will benefit tens of thousands of people at highest risk of HIV infection, including men who have sex with men and other groups in which there is a higher or emerging burden of infection.

Prior to this announcement, PrEP was previously available in England through the three-year PrEP Impact Trial.

Local areas continue to work with local NHS, public health and voluntary services to develop their multi-agency suicide prevention plans, ensuring they are tailored to the needs of the demographics of their local area, including the LGBT+ community.

As part of the national cross-government suicide prevention workplan, there is a focus on tailoring approaches to improve mental health in specific groups, including LGBT+ communities. The department published a National Suicide Prevention Strategy progress report in March 2021. This includes a commitment to address the lack of LGBT+ self-harm and suicide data to help us understand how best to address risk factors for this vulnerable group.

At the request of the department, the ‘For Assessment of Individualised Risk’ (FAIR) steering group was established in 2019. The steering group reviewed whether the UK Blood Services could move to a more individualised blood donor selection policy, while ensuring the safe supply of blood to patients. The FAIR steering group conducted extensive research, which included 2 national surveys, convening focus groups and conducting interviews with key stakeholders. Stakeholders included representatives from the 4 UK blood services, LGBT+ groups, medical and scientific experts, and recipient and donor representatives.

The FAIR steering group’s work concluded with a report on individualised risk assessment for donor selection policy. The report proposed a change from the three-month deferral period for men who have had sex with men. It instead recommended an approach focused on identifying a wider range of ‘highest risk behaviours’ that applies to all donors regardless of their sexuality, gender, or the gender of their partner. The steering group’s report was presented to the Advisory Committee for the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs, which agreed that the proposed changes would not negatively impact on the safety of blood.

On 14 December 2020, the department announced changes to the blood donor selection criteria that would enable some in higher risk groups, who had previously been subject to deferral periods, to donate blood. This change will enable men who have sex with men in a long-term relationship to donate blood in England following implementation in summer 2021. The change will see the UK become one of the first countries in the world to adopt a more individualised risk-based approach to donor selection criteria.

Research

The department invests significantly in applied research and experimental development to support the delivery of its objectives. This is primarily through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), which is the government’s research funding body for translational, clinical, and applied health and careresearch.

The NIHR is committed to actively and openly supporting and promoting EDI. It strives to be a diverse and inclusive funder, both in terms of the people who lead and run the NIHR and the people who lead, deliver and are involved in its research. NIHR’s newly appointed Head of EDI is driving forward NIHR’s ambition for EDI. This involves providing senior leadership, advocacy and expertise, and working with the NIHR EDI Programme Board and its advisors to deliver on its action plan to promote EDI in research. Key activities have included:

• improving EDI data collection and analysis

• exploring how best to embed EDI in the research application and funding process

• placing a greater emphasis on organisations that apply for any NIHR funding to demonstrate clearly their commitment to EDI and to developing and maintaining a healthy research culture

• improving inclusion of underserved groups in research

• exploring a range of interventions to support ethnic minority communities to undertake research

• exploring how to give ethnic minority communities a stronger voice in shaping priorities for research, the design and delivery of research, the recruitment of ethnic minority volunteers into studies, and the mobilisation of evidence into practice

Other activities

In September 2020 the Minister of State for Patient Safety, Suicide Prevention and Mental Health, established the Maternity Inequalities Oversight Forum to bring together experts from key stakeholders to consider and address the inequalities for women and babies from different ethnic backgrounds and socio-economic groups. This Forum will provide rapid and contemporary information about reduction in disparities. This Forum reviews evidence on how to reduce disparities and whether policies are being implemented effectively and achieving the expected results.

The Moral and Ethical Advisory Group provides independent advice to the UK government on moral, ethical and faith considerations on health and social care related issues. It has representatives from UK faith and secular communities, ethical experts (academic, legal or clinical), and social and behavioural science. The group’s input was used in the development of the Ethical Framework for Adult Social Care and in the guidance for managing a funeral during the coronavirus pandemic.

NHSX employed a Health Inequalities Advisor in May 2020 to support embedding health inequalities considerations into work on the NHS COVID-19 app. This included reviewing content in the app for accessibility and readability and supporting user research to involve people with different protected characteristics.

NHSX has also engaged in work on health inequalities and digital inclusion. Between November 2020 and March 2021, teams conducted over 500 interviews with people with different protected characteristics to ensure they are listening and acting on the experiences of patients most at risk of the poorest outcomes. The interviews have been on a range of topics including maternity, urgent care, GP access, medical devices, the NHS COVID-19 app and contact preferences.

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 Policy Assurance and ALB Oversight (PAAO) team, which carries out oversight of the public sector equality duty, continued to deliver regular training sessions for staff across the department. This provides an introduction to the public sector equality duty and how to build this into the department’s work, to improve outcomes for groups and communities. We delivered these sessions jointly with the DHSC Health Inequalities team to offer a comprehensive picture on the public sector equality duty and health inequalities, to raise awareness and ensure staff understood why these issues were important and what to do about them.

DHSC delivered an increased number of training sessions. Ten sessions have been held since August 2020 involving over 450 staff, particularly reaching the greater number of new starters in the department. We had positive feedback from attendees that the sessions were useful and informative.

The PAAO team worked with the DHSC Policy Improvement team to improve the guidance available to staff on the department’s intranet. This focused on providing concise advice about the public sector equality duty and clear, practical tips for policy teams on what they need to do for their work and how. The team, alongside the Health Inequalities team, also developed a short video to outline the 2 duties. This was part of wider work led by the Policy Improvement team to reach and provide information in engaging formats to new staff.

The PAAO team also 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 champions across the department.

NHS Test and Trace has been identifying and spreading best practice across the organisation, working with policy, service design and operational delivery teams to identify their learning and development needs. Examples of this capability building work in NHS Test and Trace include:

• providing coaching and advice to senior leadership

• delivering training sessions in inclusive design methods to service designers

• providing guidance to operational teams on accessible communications and the availability of translated materials

• developing a template for assessing the equality impact of new policies, products and services, ensuring that the relevant barriers to access or risks of exclusion have been identified and mitigated appropriately

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 . 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 2010. Teams also have access to an equality impact assessment template and other guidance on the department’s intranet to help them record equality considerations for their policy.

The PAAO team leads on assurance and oversight of compliance with the equality duty across the department. The team convenes a Deputy Director Equalities Network, which consists of Deputy Director champions from across the department. DHSC reviewed the network to clarify and strengthen its functions and the role of members. The network helps efforts to improve awareness and capability on the duty in the department, and to provide support and assurance to the department’s senior leadership on equality issues.

The PAAO team and Health Inequalities team strengthened assurance by gathering clearer information on equality and health inequalities through the department’s performance and assurance reporting processes. The responses were used to provide information to the department’s senior leadership, including a summary of progress on equality and health inequality issues during an Executive Committee meeting in October 2020. This included discussion on good examples of engaging communities and promoting good practice on the public sector equality duty. This was followed by a further discussion on health inequalities during an Executive Committee meeting in March. This covered related work across government on levelling up and ensuring that priorities are delivered in the health and care system.

The department has senior governance boards that oversee COVID-19 policies in relation to the pandemic and supporting the recovery and reform of health and care services. These boards have provided a senior forum to discuss how equality considerations are built into the department’s work. They have helped strengthen assurance on equality for the different COVID-19 workstreams across the department.

The assurance information gathered for the Executive Committee and the other senior governance boards have shown that teams across the department have been considering equality issues carefully for their areas, building on the evidence of disparities in outcomes from the COVID-19 pandemic.

NHS Test and Trace has invested significantly in building public sector equality duty assurance capability across policy and service teams. This includes ensuring that NHS Test and Trace has the appropriate governance structures in place to ensure the public sector equality duty is met throughout the design and delivery of our policies, products and services. It also includes improving our data and insight expertise, providing advice on the best ways to design research and evaluation exercises, and assuring the quality of this evaluation work.

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 PAAO team and Health Inequalities team supported a presentation to a forum of Senior Civil Servants in DHSC to highlight evidence on equalities and health inequalities, and the importance of their teams continuing to focus on these in their work.

Following the review of our Deputy Director Equalities Network, we expanded the membership of the group to get representatives from areas across the department and so the network has champions who staff can approach in the various work areas.

Objective 4 set out some other examples of senior engagement on equality in policy-making. This included discussions involving the Executive Committee and other senior governance boards overseeing COVID-19 policies.

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

NHS Test and Trace’s ongoing equality and inclusion strategy is championed by leaders at the most senior levels of the organisation. It enables us to secure commitment, define prioritisation of different user groups, mainstream inclusion in our services and develop alternative models for those groups that are unable or unwilling to access services.

Equality and inclusion practitioners regularly engage with the NHS Test and Trace Executive Committee and the wider leadership team on the equality and inclusion agenda, helping to further embed equity and inclusion as a central part of NHS Test and Trace’s mission.

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 and develop policy and initiatives in relation to our workforce. The scope of this section:

• relates to the Department of Health and Social Care as an employer and does not include any of its agencies

• covers the period 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2020

• covers a snapshot of data as of 30 September 2020 with 2,435 staff, 488 of these are deployed to Test and Trace

• provides an overview with data tables, of how equality information is used to inform employee policy and initiatives, rather than the details for every policy

NHS Test and Trace has its own strategic goals but remains part of DHSC for the scope of this report.

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

Percentages have been rounded to the nearest 1 percentage point; this means 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). For compliance with data protection laws, values have been rounded to the nearest 5 to prevent the identification of any individual’s diversity characteristics. This means that values less than 5 have been rounded to zero and will appear as “0.0%” as a proportion of the total population. Where ‘-‘ is used in a table, it represents that there is no data available for this category.

For some of our analysis, Senior Civil Servant (SCS) grades may be grouped together. SCS refers to staff at the following grades: Permanent Secretary, Director General, Director and Deputy Director. All other grades are represented separately.

The data presented here shows information relating to DHSC’s employees by protected characteristic. Information is presented on age, disability, ethnicity, gender, religion or belief and sexual orientation. We have also provided information on working pattern and caring responsibilities of our employees, as we extend protection from discrimination and disadvantage to these groups, amongst others.

In addition to the protected characteristics mentioned above, the Equality Act 2010 also defines gender reassignment, pregnancy, 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. The number of staff in DHSC who have the protected characteristic of pregnancy and maternity is too small to carry out analysis.

Diversity and inclusion: our goals

World-class policymaking requires having people in the department with different backgrounds and life experience, who see the world in different ways. In DHSC, we actively encourage diversity of thought so that teams look at problems from a range of perspectives. This means they are more likely to identify policy solutions and consider implementation in ways that are innovative and practical and contribute to decisions which reflect the views of people who use health and care services.

We recognise that our employees are at the heart of what we do, and we have focused on proactively creating a culture of inclusion. Diversity and inclusion initiatives are embedded across DHSC, and a refreshed diversity and inclusion action plan was developed in 2020. In developing this we engaged with senior stakeholders such as our SCS Diversity and Inclusion Champions and held staff consultation exercises in collaboration with our staff networks.

The data and insights gathered identified the 3 overarching themes:

1. attract – recruiting a workforce which reflects the society we serve

2. develop – breaking down barriers to progression and ensuring all staff are provided with support and opportunities to develop

3. engage – ensuring all staff feel truly included

This strategy is evidence-based, outcome focused and has clear governance structures.

Diversity and inclusion: our progress

Departmental progress

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a unique set of diversity and inclusion challenges to the department. Nevertheless, in the Civil Service Year of Inclusion (2020), we have made real progress on diversity and inclusion, including developing our work on race equality specifically.

During the year it has invested significantly in greater resource and infrastructure to lead on diversity and inclusion matters, most notably in expanding the dedicated diversity and inclusion team. The new roles allow for further and more targeted work focused on recruitment, race equality, disabilities and diversity and inclusion data. This demonstrates the department’s commitment to investing in diversity and inclusion for the benefit of its workforce and the delivery of its strategic objectives.

During the reporting period, DHSC planned the introduction of a new HR and Finance management system, which was implemented in December 2020. It is this system which captures employees’ diversity information and so the department is using this change to take the opportunity to improve the diversity data it collects. The information requested has been updated in line with the 2021 Census and Civil Service best practice. The department has developed a significant communications plan to coincide with the launch of the new system to increase the number of staff who input their diversity information. This plan has been informed by learning from the experience of other government departments, Executive Agencies and Arm’s Length Bodies. DHSC recognises that the implementation of the system is outside of the reporting period but has included an update on this as it will improve the data which can be included in future PSED reports. This work will also ensure our future diversity and inclusion interventions are more evidence-based and can be evaluated effectively.

The publication of the Public Health England’s COVID-19: review of disparities in risks and outcomes provided an important moment of reflection for the department and its staff. In recognition of this we held several all-staff open conversations where people could share their experiences and thoughts on race equality matters. Over 450 people attended these and the insights gathered informed the development of a Race Equality Action Plan, published in September 2020. Twelve SCS directors have been appointed to lead on the 6 workstreams of the plan. This plan aims to support the development and retention of staff from ethnic minorities, increase representation of ethnic minority staff in senior positions and decision-making roles and to continue to build an environment where there is no place for racism.

Between 1 October 2019 and 30 September 2020, DHSC has made substantial progress against its internal goals on diversity and inclusion. Some of the achievements are outlined below under the themes of attract, develop and engage.

Develop

DHSC is committed to providing development opportunities for people from all under-represented groups and supporting social mobility. As part of this, the department runs several development schemes, one of which is the Summer Diversity Internship Programme. In 2020, DHSC hosted 37 interns under this scheme which provides an entry-level pathway into the Civil Service for people from under-represented groups.

The department also set up a reverse mentoring scheme where SCS can apply to be mentored by a member of staff from an under-represented group. This aims to provide an open and honest environment for staff in junior grades to use their lived experiences to explore greater inclusion at work in discussions with SCS.

Principles on internal managed moves and temporary promotions were established. This was in response to unprecedented resourcing needs within the department and aims to ensure development opportunities are provided in a fair and transparent way and to provide equal opportunity for all staff. These principles emphasise the importance of advertising through fair and open competition and as far as possible ensuring that all temporary promotions are secured through a competition rather than direct award.

In summer 2020 DHSC’s resourcing team ran training sessions to help colleagues prepare job applications for new roles in the Civil Service. These sessions were advertised on the intranet and across all the staff networks in order to reach people from diverse groups. Several “Train the Trainer” sessions were also held with volunteers from staff networks, so that more people are equipped to provide practical advice and support for employees who need help preparing their job applications.

Attract

In May 2020 the diversity and inclusion team launched a project to explore how DHSC can improve diversity and inclusion in its recruitment processes. This work involved desk research, benchmarking with private sector organisations and a consultation exercise with focus groups hosted by staff networks. This work identified new interventions in 3 areas of recruitment: attracting diverse applicants, inclusive recruitment processes and removing barriers preventing equal opportunity. Once the project was completed a designated diversity and inclusion recruitment lead was appointed to take forward the work in this area.

The Health Policy Fast Track Scheme is DHSC’s flagship graduate accelerated development programme, and the department has taken steps to attract and appoint as diverse a talent pool as possible to the 2020 and 2021 cohorts. This included attending university careers fairs and holding open day events aimed at under-represented groups. Occupational psychologists at the Government Recruitment Service were employed to develop assessment questions with a view to increasing inclusivity and they also conducted statistical adverse impact analysis at each stage of the recruitment process to support improved outcomes.

Based on feedback, the marketing materials for the latest campaign were updated to increase the focus on diversity and inclusion. An inclusive language checker was used to ensure gender neutral text along with a diverse range of scheme participant testimonials. For the first time DHSC showcased all of its diversity accreditations and memberships such as the MIND Gold Award. Stronger, more direct messages were used in the candidate pack and adverts to highlight our commitment to being an inclusive employer. Careful consideration was also given to the range of job websites that were used to increase the visibility of the scheme to diverse audiences, such as Evenbreak and Bright Network. DHSC also renewed its Youth Friendly Employer Status during this period.

Engage

Throughout the year, DHSC held events for staff across the department. One example of this is National Inclusion Week in September 2020. Staff engaged with a variety of events including a radio show, an inclusion podcast and a quiz to raise awareness about intersectionality. Sessions have also been held to get the views of staff on diversity and inclusion initiatives such as the Race Equality Action Plan.

On 2 September 2020 DHSC successfully achieved Level 3 Disability Confident Leader status from the Business Disability Forum. This recognises the department’s commitment to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process and working environment. As part of this, the department developed a disability at work conversation toolkit to aid conversations to ensure employees receive the support they need. A survey was also undertaken to help identify areas of improvement to support people with disabilities and long-term health conditions. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown, DHSC provided rapid support to staff. For example, the department created a specific budget to cover equipment needed for staff to work safely at home, such as specialist chairs or desk equipment.

With strong links to diversity and inclusion, health and wellbeing is a priority for DHSC. In recognition to this commitment, the resource behind health and wellbeing has also been expanded. DHSC were awarded a Gold Standard in the MIND Workplace Wellbeing Index 2019 to 2020. MIND’s Workplace Wellbeing Index is a benchmark of best policy and practice. This award reflects the department’s commitment to ensuring employees’ mental health and wellbeing is supported and is a key organisational objective, both internally and across the sector. Examples of work DHSC has delivered in this area include:

• putting a range of measures in place to increase employee confidence that they will be supported if they disclose their mental health. These include increasing the number of Mental Health First Aiders the Dept has to 102, delivering Line Manager Mental Health awareness sessions to 402 colleagues with management responsibilities and running a series of blogs and radio shows to normalise the notion of speaking openly about mental health

• organising and delivering a programme of wellbeing events and activities for staff

• running regular internal communications campaigns, tailoring communications about mental health to target different groups in the department

• reviewing our internal monitoring to assess how wellbeing levels differ by protected characteristics such as gender identity, age, LGBT+ status, ethnic origin etc, so we can then research and offer tailored and targeted support

Staff network progress

DHSC has over 20 staff networks which provide support to employees, increase knowledge and awareness, provide insight to aid the development of HR policy and initiatives and contribute to creating an inclusive environment in which individuals can thrive.

Some of the activities the networks have done over the year are outlined below.

Parents Network

The Parents Network have spent a large amount of time supporting members who are balancing the increased demands of childcare and home schooling with work. This has included regular email bulletins reminding members of the support available and pointing them to information they might find helpful such as BBC Bitesize articles and helpful blogs. They have also held lunch and learn sessions, which are an opportunity for members to dial in, share their experiences of this period, and offer informal peer support to each other.

Equality Matters Network

The Equality Matters Network have organised a range of events including on COVID-19 race disparities with Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van Tam. These events led to wider engagement with open conversation sessions for all DHSC staff and supported the development of a Race Equality Action Plan. In addition, the network has supported ethnic minority staff (excluding white minorities) career progression with information sessions on Success Profiles, advice on accessing development programmes, one-to-one support with job applications and interview preparation, and a variety of speakers discussing their career journeys and sharing insights.

Age Diversity Network

The Age Diversity Network maintains contact with the wider Whitehall group on age and continues to share updates from the Centre for Ageing Better to raise awareness.

Carers’ Network

The Carers’ Network held multiple events across both Carers Rights Day and Carers Week including radio shows and a range of internal speakers and blogs including sessions with the Deputy Chief Medical Officer.

PRISM Network

The PRISM Network, for LGBT+ staff, established the ‘Health Family’ Network collaboration with MHRA, NHS England/Improvement, NHS Digital, Public Health England and Test and Trace to provide events, socials and content across organisations. This included arranging a session with someone from the Civil Service a:gender network to raise awareness on being intersex. They created a ‘virtual lanyard’ to maintain visibility while the majority of DHSC staff work from home. PRISM also appointed a new deputy champion Senior Civil Servant to help raise the profile of the network.

Women’s Network

The Women’s Network organised a 2-day celebration for International Women’s Day on 5 and 9 March 2020 which featured 12 separate events, including several inspiring guest speakers and “how to” workshops to help boost confidence and recognise imposter syndrome. This was well received by members. During the summer of 2020, the network also ran a series of virtual inspirational speaker sessions in response to the pressures generated by COVID-19.

Domestic Abuse Support Group

The Domestic Abuse Support Group increased its visibility with a new senior sponsor and tripled its membership during 2020. They provided a range of internal communications and blogs highlighting the support available in light of the increase in reported cases of domestic abuse during the pandemic. They also held a day of training for members and HR staff from an external training provider, SafeLives.

Green Network

The Green Network highlights environmental and green issues to its members and wider through regular intranet blogs, monthly meetings and newsletters. They also link in with other networks, for example working with the Women’s Network in March 2020 on a joint event about women and climate change.

Workforce summary

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

We are committed to achieving a workforce which is representative of the society we serve and providing equality of opportunity. To aid this, we monitor the 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 or belief, and sexual orientation. Additional information is then provided on caring responsibilities, working pattern, performance management, leavers and grievances.

The proportion of staff noted as ‘undeclared’ for protected characteristics in this report is higher than in previous years. This is partly due to the lead up to the introduction of a new HR and Finance system in December 2020 as well as the fact the department has rapidly grown in response to the pandemic. To coincide with the system launch, a plan was developed and implemented to improve declarations. However, it means the data in this report cannot be easily compared to previous years.

Under current policy, all employees must be linked to a DHSC office: London, Leeds, Burnley, Runcorn or Reading. The majority of DHSC staff have been working from home for a large proportion of the pandemic and temporary recruitment has been done on this basis. This may have impacted some of the changes which can be seen in the data.

Table 1 below shows the distribution of our workforce by grade. The largest group is Grade 7 (27.5% of all DHSC employees), and the smallest is Fast Streamers (1.4%).

Table 1: grade, proportion and count as of 30 September 2020

Grade	AO	EO	HEO	Fast Stream	SEO	G7	G6	SCS
Employee	65	335	475	35	410	670	280	170
Proportion	2.7%	13.7%	19.5%	1.4%	16.8%	27.5%	11.5%	7.0%

An overview of DHSC’s workforce diversity data is outlined below.

• The department is younger than the Civil Service (CS) average, with a median age of 36, compared to CS median age of 46 (as of 31 March 2020, source: Civil Service Statistics 2020). Average age increases with grade seniority, as does median age. This year, 57% of DHSC employees are under the age of 40, compared to last year’s 52%. The age group with the largest number of employees is the 20 to 29 age group (32.5%), whereas the largest age group for the whole CS is 50 to 59 (30.3%)

• The gender ratio for DHSC is 60.0% female to 40.0% male, compared to the CS ratio of 53.8% to 46.2% respectively. Almost all grades are majority female, except SCS which is 51.8% male

• The department is composed of 8.6% ethnic minority staff (excluding white minorities), with 43.1% of DHSC staff declaring their ethnicity

• Disability has a 42.3% declaration rate, with 3.3% declaring a disability. Physical disabilities are the most common, making up half of all declared disabilities

• 2.5% of DHSC staff are declared as LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or other) and the declaration rate for sexual orientation is 40.3%

• 18.9% of staff have declared they are religious, compared to 17.7% who have declared no religion. Declaration rate for religion or belief is 40.2%.

• The declaration rate for caring responsibility is 39.3%. 16.2% of DHSC staff have declared a caring responsibility

• Most of the department are contracted to work in offices in London (68.6%), followed by Leeds (29.7%). 1.6% are contracted to offices elsewhere in the country

Declaration rates and location

Table 2 below shows the overall declaration rates for each reported characteristic. We have 100% response rates for age and gender as these are collected during the recruitment process by HR. In contrast, other characteristics (ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief and caring responsibilities) are collected by user input into our HR management system. There are currently lower levels of declaration rates for these characteristics compared to previous years. The number of new staff joining the department and the implementation of a new HR management system have contributed to this change and work is being undertaken to improve declaration rates.

Table 2: declaration rates for diversity characteristics of DHSC employees at of 30 September 2020

Characteristic	Gender	Age	Ethnicity	Disability	Religion or belief	Sexual orientation	Caring responsibilities
Declaration Rate	100.0%	100.0%	43.1%	42.2%	40.2%	40.3%	39.2%

Table 3 below shows distribution of DHSC staff across the country, the majority of whom are contracted to work in London (68.6%). This table covers a total of 9 office locations: 5 in London and one in each of Leeds, Burnley, Runcorn and Reading. Just under one third (29.7%) of employees are contracted to work in Leeds and a small proportion (1.6%) contracted to work elsewhere. Our SCS staff are also mostly contracted to work in London (84.8%). It is important to note that current DHSC policy means all staff must be linked to one of the 9 offices. However, most DHSC staff have been working from home under lockdown regulations and people have been recruited on this basis.

Table 3: employee count and proportion by location as of 30 September 2020

Location	London	Leeds	Other
All staff (employees)	1,675	725	40
All staff (proportion)	68.6%	29.7%	1.6%
SCS (employees)	140	25	0
SCS (proportion)	84.8%	15.2%	0.0%

Age

Table 4 shows the age distribution of DHSC employees. There are fewer than 5 employees falling into the 16 to 19 age bracket. Employee numbers increase significantly for the 25 to 29 age group, equalling 21.2% of all workers. The proportion of staff decreases significantly between the groups 25 to 29 and 30 to 34. The percentage of staff remains relatively constant between the ages of 35 and 54. Proportions are lower for employees in the final 2 age categories, with only 3.3% being over 60.

Table 4: distribution of DHSC employees by age as of 30 September 2020

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	0	275	515	325	275	280	240	245	195	80
Proportion	0.0%	11.3%	21.2%	13.4%	11.3%	11.5%	9.9%	10.1%	8.0%	3.3%

Table 5 compares DHSC and wider Civil Service (CS) age distributions. For DHSC, the largest proportion of employees is found in the 20 to 29 age group, compared to 50 to 59 for the whole CS. In addition, CS has consistently higher proportions of individuals in the age categories from 40 to 49 upwards.

Table 5: comparison of age distribution between DHSC as of 30 September 2020 and Civil Service as of 31 March 2020

Age group	16 to 19	20 to 29	30 to 39	40 to 49	50 to 59	60 to 64	65 and over	Not reported
DHSC (employees)	0	790	600	520	440	70	10	0
DHSC (proportion)	0.0%	32.5%	24.7%	21.4%	18.1%	2.9%	0.4%	0.0%
Civil Service (employees)	1,510	66,870	96,230	108,100	138,190	34,840	10,290	390
Civil Service (proportion)	0.3%	14.7%	21.1%	23.7%	30.3%	7.6%	2.3%	-

Note: the Civil Service data has been taken directly from the Civil Service Statistics 2020.

The median age for different grade groups can be found in Table 6. The data shows that, in DHSC, as the level of seniority increases, the average age also increases. In addition, there is a greater increase in average age from G7/G6 to SCS (6 years), compared to 4-year increase from AO to EO. On average, the median age in DHSC is much lower than the CS median age.

Table 6: average age by grade group as of 30 September 2020 (source: Civil Service Statistics 2020)

Grade group	AO	EO	HEO and SEO	G7 and G6	SCS
Median age (DHSC)	25	29	32	38	46
Median age (CS)	46	47	44	45	48

Gender

Table 7 shows the gender composition of DHSC and CS. We can see that DHSC has a slightly larger proportion of females compared to the wider CS.

Table 7: workforce gender composition for DHSC as of 30 September 2020 and CS as of 31 March 2020 (source: Civil Service Statistics 2020)

Gender	Female	Male
DHSC (employees)	1,460	975
DHSC (proportion)	60.0%	40.0%
CS (employees)	245,640	210,760
CS (proportion)	53.8%	46.2%

Table 8 shows the number and proportion of employees by gender and grade. We see that most grades, except SCS, have a higher proportion of female employees.

Table 8: gender by grade of DHSC employees as of 30 September 2020

Gender	Female (employees)	Female grade (proportion)	Male (employees)	Male grade (proportion)
AO	45	64.3%	25	35.7%
EO	220	65.7%	115	34.3%
HEO	300	63.2%	175	36.8%
Fast Stream	20	66.7%	10	33.3%
SEO	245	59.0%	170	41.0%
G7	385	57.5%	285	42.5%
G6	170	61.8%	105	38.2%
SCS	80	48.5%	85	51.5%

Disability

Table 9 shows the disability declaration rate for DHSC in 2020 is 42.3%, a decrease from 60.5% last year. Disabled staff represent 3.3% of the total DHSC workforce (or 7.6% of those who declared their disability status). This is below the CS average of 12.8% (source: Civil Service Statistics 2020).

Table 9: declaration of disability as of 30 September 2020

Disability declaration	Yes	No	Undeclared
Employees	80	950	1,405

Out of those who declared they are disabled, 50.0% reported a physical disability. This is followed by learning disabilities (25.0%) and mental disabilities (18.8%). A small proportion (6.3%) of individuals who declared they are disabled chose not to disclose their disability type (table 10).

Table 10: employee count and proportion of those who declared a disability by disability type as of 30 September 2020

Disability type	Learning disability	Mental	Physical	Undeclared
Employees	20	15	40	5
Proportion	25.0%	18.8%	50.0%	6.3%

Table 11 compares disability declaration rates of London-based staff compared to those of staff based nationally. The declaration rate in London is 36.1% which is notably lower than the national declaration rate of 55.6%.

Table 11: disability declaration rate for London-based employees compared to national declaration rate as of 30 September 2020

Disability declaration	Yes	No	Undeclared
London (employees)	35	570	1070
London (proportion)	2.1%	34.0%	63.9%
National (employees)	45	380	340
National (proportion)	5.9%	49.7%	44.4%

Table 12 shows the proportions of staff who have declared themselves disabled, by grade group. For DHSC, the HEO and SEO group has the largest proportion of employees with declared disabilities, whereas for CS it is the AO and EO group.

Table 12: count of employees and proportion who declared a disability by grade group for DHSC as of 30 September 2020 and CS as of 31 March 2020 (source: Civil Service Statistics 2020)

Declared disabled	AO and EO	HEO and SEO	G7 and G6	SCS
DHSC (employees)	20	35	25	0
DHSC (proportion)	25.0%	43.8%	31.3%	0.0%
CS (employees)	27770	10650	3850	360
CS (proportion)	65.1%	25.0%	9.0%	0.8%

Ethnicity

From Table 13 below we see that 43.1% of DHSC staff have declared their ethnicity, a decrease from 60.8% last year. Ethnic minority groups (excluding white minorities) represent 8.6% of the total DHSC workforce (or 19.0% of those who declared their ethnicity). In comparison with the whole CS, DHSC has similar proportions of black, mixed and ‘other’ ethnicities and a larger proportion of Chinese employees. Within the ethnic minority grouping, the Asian ethnic group is the largest representing 42.9% of all ethnic minority staff, followed by black (31.0%), mixed (14.3%), Chinese (7.1%) and ‘other’ (4.8%) ethnic groups.

Table 13: ethnicity declaration rates for DHSC as of 30 September 2020 and CS as of 31 March 2020 (source: Civil Service Statistics 2020)

Ethnicity	Asian	Black	Chinese	Mixed	Other	White	Prefer not to say	Undeclared
DHSC (employees)	90	65	15	30	10	840	-	1385
DHSC (proportion)	3.7%	2.7%	0.6%	1.2%	0.4%	34.5%	-	56.9%
Civil Service (employees)	25,870	12,800	1,110	6,800	2,230	320,580	21,060	65,960
Civil Service (proportion)	5.7%	2.8%	0.2%	1.5%	0.5%	70.2%	4.6%	14.5%

Table 14 shows that ethnicity declaration rates are lower in London than they are nationally. However, the proportion of staff in London identifying as minority ethnic (excluding white minorities) is similar to the national proportion. The percentage of staff who identify as white is notably higher nationally compared to London-based employees.

Table 14: ethnicity by location (London-only and nationally) as of 30 September 2020

Ethnicity	Minority ethnic (excluding white minorities)	White	Undeclared
London (employees)	140	480	1,055
London (proportion)	8.4%	28.7%	63.0%
National (employees)	70	360	335
National (proportion)	9.2%	47.1%	43.8%

Table 15 shows the number of employees in each grade group by ethnicity. We can see 15.0% of people in the AO/EO grade group are minority ethnic (excluding white minorities), which decreases as seniority increases. The proportion of white individuals increases as seniority increases. As seniority of grade increases, the proportion of undeclared ethnicity decreases.

Table 15: Number of people in DHSC in each grade group by ethnic group and proportions of ethnic minority, white and undeclared for each grade group as of 30 September 2020

Ethnic group	Minority ethnic (excluding white minorities)	White	Undeclared
AO and EO (employees)	60	85	255
AO and EO (proportion)	15.0%	21.3%	63.8%
HEO, SEO and Fast Stream (employees)	80	290	550
HEO, SEO and Fast Stream (proportion)	8.7%	31.5%	59.8%
G7 and G6 (employees)	60	380	505
G7 and G6 (proportion)	6.3%	40.2%	53.4%
SCS (employees)	5	85	75
SCS (proportion)	3.0%	51.5%	45.5%

Table 16 shows the number of employees in each ethnic group by grade group and gives the corresponding proportion. We can see that the majority of minority ethnic (excluding white minorities) individuals are in the HEO, SEO and Fast Stream grade group (39.0%) while the SCS grade group reports the lowest proportion of minority ethnic (excluding white minorities) individuals (2.4%). A larger proportion of white staff are in the HEO, SEO and Fast Stream and G7 and G6 grade groups compared with the other 2 grade groups. We can also see that nearly 40% of those with undeclared ethnicity are in the HEO, SEO and Fast Stream group.

Table 16: employee count by ethnic group and grade group as of 30 September 2020 (the proportions given are the percentages for each row total)

Grade group	AO and EO	HEO, SEO and Fast Stream	G7 and G6	SCS
Ethnic minority – excluding white minority (employees)	60	80	60	5
Ethnic minority – excluding white minority (proportion)	29.3%	39.0%	29.3%	2.4%
White (employees)	85	290	380	85
White (proportion)	10.1%	34.5%	45.2%	10.1%
Undeclared (employees)	255	550	505	75
Undeclared (proportion)	18.4%	39.7%	36.5%	5.4%

Religion or Belief

DHSC has a declaration rate of 40.3% for religion or belief. 18.9% of staff reported a religion, compared to 17.7% who reported they do not have a religion. 5.7% of employees reported they would prefer not to say and 59.8% have made no declaration (table 17 below).

Table 17: employee count by religion or belief as of 30 September 2020 (the proportions given are the percentages for each row total)

Religion or belief	Religious	No religion	Prefer not to say	Undeclared
Employees	460	430	90	1,455
Proportion	18.9%	17.7%	3.7%	59.8%

The 2011 Census found that Christianity was the largest religious group in England and Wales, composing 59.3% of the population, followed by Islam (4.8% of the population). 25.1% of the country reported no religion. Table 18 shows that, in DHSC, of those who declared a religion, the majority were Christians (78.5%), followed by Muslims (8.6%) and Hindus (6.5%). Other religions, including Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism, constitute the remaining 6.6% of staff declaring a religion.

Table 18: the number of employees by religion or belief and corresponding proportion out of those declaring a religion as of 30 September 2020

Religion or belief	Christian	Muslim	Hindu	Other	Sikh	Buddhist	Jewish
Employees	365	40	30	10	10	5	5
Proportion	78.5%	8.6%	6.5%	2.2%	2.2%	1.1%	1.1%

Table 19 shows that religion appears to vary by grade group. The rate of people who have not declared their religion or belief (prefer not to say and undeclared combined) decreases as seniority increases. There is a slightly higher proportion of staff with no religion at more senior grades, however the proportion of religious staff stays relatively similar throughout the grade groups.

Table 19: employee count by type of religion or belief and grade as of 30 September 2020 (the proportions given are the percentages for each row total)

Religion or belief	Religious	No religion	Undeclared or prefer not to say
AO and EO (employees)	80	45	275
AO and EO (proportion)	20.0%	11.3%	68.8%
HEO and SEO (employees)	175	145	600
HEO and SEO (proportion)	19.0%	15.8%	65.2%
G7 and G6 (employees)	170	205	575
G7 and G6 (proportion)	17.9%	21.6%	60.5%
SCS (employees)	35	40	95
SCS (proportion)	20.6%	23.5%	55.9%

Sexual orientation

According to Table 20, the declaration rate for sexual orientation is 40.3%. 2.9% of DHSC staff identified as LGBT+. 48.5% reported they are heterosexual, and 4.9% said they would prefer not to say.

Table 20: declaration rate of sexual orientation for DHSC as of 30 September 2020

Sexual orientation	LGBT+	Heterosexual	Prefer not to say	Undeclared
Employees	60	840	80	1,455
Proportion	2.5%	34.5%	3.3%	59.8%

There are some differences between the London and National workforces in terms of sexual orientation. There is a lower percentage of national workers identifying as LGBT+ (2.6% compared to 3.1%), but a higher percentage identifying as heterosexual (56.2% compared to 44.3%). A larger proportion of staff in London have not declared their sexual orientation (47.9% compared to 36.0%) (table 21 below).

Table 21: employee count by sexual orientation as of 30 September 2020 (the proportions given are the percentages for each row total)

Sexual orientation	LGBT+	Heterosexual	Prefer not to say	Undeclared
Employees (London)	45	480	50	1,100
Proportion (London)	2.7%	28.7%	3.0%	65.7%
Employees (national)	20	360	30	355
Proportion (national)	2.6%	47.1%	3.9%	46.4%

Caring responsibilities

As seen in table 22, 39.2% of DHSC staff reported their caring responsibility status. 16.2% declared they are carers.

Table 22: employee count by caring responsibilities as of 30 September 2020 (the proportions given are the percentages for each row total)

Caring responsibilities	Carer	None	Undeclared
Employees	395	560	1,480
Proportion	16.2%	23.0%	60.8%

Within those who do have caring responsibilities, the majority (81.0%) are caring for children (under 18). This is followed by 11.4% who care for older people (65 and over), and 3.8% who care for disabled people of all ages. 3.8% have a different type of caring responsibility (table 23 below).

Table 23: caring responsibility types, proportion and count as at 30 September 2020

Caring responsibility type	Children (under 18)	Older people (65 and over)	Disabled people (all ages)	Other
Employees	320	45	15	15
Proportion	81.0%	11.4%	3.8%	3.8%

Working patterns

Table 24 shows the proportion of staff who work full-time compared to those who work part-time. 89.7% of DHSC staff work full time, while 10.3% work part time (table 24 below). Of the individuals who work part time, 83.2% are female and 16.8% are male.

Table 24: employee count by working pattern as of 30 September 2020 (the proportions given are the percentages for each row total)

Working pattern	Full time	Part time
Employees	2,185	250
Proportion	89.7%	10.3%

Social mobility

DHSC considers social mobility as a key diversity characteristic and it features in our diversity and inclusion action plan. We have Director General and Director level champions for social mobility. As part of our new HR management system (implemented in December 2020), we have incorporated the facilities to gather information on employees’ socio-economic background to enable us to report on this data in the future and ensure our HR policies and initiatives are supporting social mobility.

DHSC uses apprenticeships to recruit staff to new roles with an identified career path supported by a structured learning programme. We also offer apprenticeship opportunities to internal staff to support their continued learning and development. We participate in cross-government schemes such as the Summer Diversity Internship Scheme (SDIP) and the Care Leaver Scheme, both of which were adapted to run virtually from March 2020 and support those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Almost all of our SDIP interns have also been offered 4 to 12 month contracts with the department at the EO grade to support our COVID-19 response. These schemes offer opportunities to under-represented groups, enabling them to learn about different roles in the Civil Service.

We are the first Civil Service department to gain the Youth Friendly Mark via Youth Employment UK and they are supporting us with our work on social mobility for the 14 to 24 age group. In 2021, we plan to participate in the cross-government Autism Exchange Internship Programme which has the aim of addressing barriers to employment faced by young people with autism.

Despite the challenges caused by the pandemic, we have continued to undertake outreach activities with schools, using innovative methods to engage students, many of whom were learning at home. The department continued to make use of the Ministry of Justice’s programmes to help its staff reach out to schools and students, including providing tutoring and CV support. However, work experience programmes have proved more difficult to run under lockdown, and the department paused its Building Bridges and Movement to Work programmes for 2020.

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, including ethnicity.

DHSC’s gender pay gap report was published on 15 December 2020.

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

During the last year, progress has been made in the following areas:

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

• maintaining the focus on improving representation of female participants on internal talent schemes and additional gender-focused schemes at a senior level

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

Performance management

DHSC reviewed its performance management process during 2019, driven by the need to improve performance management outcomes and recognising our approach needed to change to enable this. As a result of staff engagement, the new process using Performance Health Checks was launched on 1 October 2019. This engaged our employees in a significant culture change around performance.

Performance Health Checks provide a structured framework for more frequent, broader and quality conversations on performance, talent, development and wellbeing.

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

We have also transferred to an In-Year Awards Scheme. This breaks the direct link between performance outcomes and reward, which enables more flexible and timely reward and recognition of high performance and behaviours.

As the Performance Health Checks approach was launched in October 2019 and continues to be embedded, the pandemic and low declaration rates mean we are unable to undertake accurate review of diversity outcomes by characteristics. However, this will be addressed in future data collections.

A snapshot of performance ratings was collected in January 2020. This consisted of that month’s performance only and is not intended to reflect the performance rating for any other time period. We continue to operate with no guided distribution for ratings. Ratings were not reported for all staff. There were 981 submissions, with 907 ratings. ‘Unrated’ may occur due to sickness absence, limited length of service etc.

Age

Looking at assigned ratings by age, a lower proportion of older staff (50 years or older) were awarded the ‘consistently excels’ or ‘frequently excels’ ratings compared to younger staff (table 25).

Table 25: rounded counts and percentages of performance health check ratings, as of January 2020, by age

	Consistently excels	Frequently excels	Consistently achieving	Inconsistently achieving	Formal development
16 to 29	30 (12.5%)	105 (43.8%)	90 (37.5%)	15 (6.3%)	0 (0.0%)
30 to 39	30 (14.0%)	80 (37.2%)	95 (44.2%)	10 (4.7%)	0 (0.0%)
40 to 49	30 (14.3%)	75 (35.7%)	90 (42.9%)	15 (7.1%)	0 (0.0%)
50 to 59	15 (8.6%)	55 (31.4%)	95 (54.3%)	10 (5.7%)	0 (0.0%)
60 and over	0 (0.0%)	5 (16.7%)	25 (83.3%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)

Disability

Looking at performance ratings by disability status shows a slightly higher proportion of staff with disabilities receiving the ‘inconsistently achieving’ rating compared to staff without disabilities (table 26).

Table 26: rounded counts and percentages of performance health check ratings, as of January 2020, by disability status

	Consistently excels	Frequently excels	Consistently achieving	Inconsistently achieving	Formal development
Disabled	5 (11.1%)	10 (22.2%)	25 (55.6%)	5 (11.1%)	0 (0.0%)
Not disabled	65 (13.4%)	175 (36.1%)	220 (45.4%)	25 (5.2%)	0 (0.0%)
Undeclared	35 (9.2%)	145 (38.2%)	165 (43.4%)	30 (7.9%)	5 (1.3%)

Ethnicity

In terms of performance ratings, white staff were slightly more likely to receive ‘consistently excels’ or ‘frequently excels’ compared to ethnic minority colleagues (excluding white minorities) (table 27).

Table 27: rounded counts and percentages of performance health check ratings, as of January 2020, by ethnicity

	Consistently excels	Frequently excels	Consistently achieving	Inconsistently achieving	Formal development
Minority ethnic (excluding white minorities)	10 (9.1%)	35 (31.8%)	60 (54.5%)	5 (4.5%)	0 (0.0%)
Undeclared	35 (9.5%)	140 (37.8%)	160 (43.2%)	30 (8.1%)	5 (1.4%)
White	65 (15.3%)	155 (36.5%)	185 (43.5%)	20 (4.7%)	0 (0.0%)

Gender

The distribution of performance ratings by gender are similar, but with female staff more likely to receive the ‘frequently excels’ rating (table 28).

Table 28: rounded counts and percentages of performance health check ratings, as of January 2020, by gender

	Consistently excels	Frequently excels	Consistently achieving	Inconsistently achieving	Formal development
Female	65 (12.6%)	205 (39.8%)	220 (42.7%)	25 (4.9%)	0 (0.0%)
Male	40 (10.5%)	120 (31.6%)	185 (48.7%)	30 (7.9%)	5 (1.3%)

Religion or belief

The distributions of performance ratings by religious beliefs were similar, apart from the rating of ‘frequently excels’ which saw higher rates of variance (table 29).

Table 29: rounded counts and percentages of performance health check ratings, as of January 2020, by religion

	Consistently excels	Frequently excels	Consistently achieving	Inconsistently achieving	Formal development
Christian	30 (15.0%)	65 (32.5%)	90 (45.0%)	15 (7.5%)	0 (0.0%)
No religion	30 (15.4%)	80 (41.0%)	80 (41.0%)	5 (2.6%)	0 (0.0%)
Other religion	5 (11.1%)	25 (55.6%)	20 (44.4%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)
Undeclared or prefer not to say	40 (9.9%)	160 (39.5%)	215 (53.1%)	35 (8.6%)	5 (1.2%)

Sexual orientation

Examining performance ratings by sexual orientation shows that heterosexual and LGBT+ staff were as likely to receive the ‘consistently excels’ rating. However, LGBT+ staff were more likely to be given the ‘inconsistently achieving’ rating (table 30).

Table 30: rounded counts and percentages of performance health check ratings, as of January 2020, by sexual orientation

	Consistently excels	Frequently excels	Consistently achieving	Inconsistently achieving	Formal development
Heterosexual	60 (14.0%)	165 (38.4%)	185 (43.0%)	20 (4.7%)	0 (0.0%)
LGBT+	10 (14.3%)	15 (21.4%)	40 (57.1%)	5 (7.1%)	0 (0.0%)
Undeclared	35 (8.6%)	150 (37.0%)	185 (45.7%)	30 (7.4%)	5 (1.2%)

Working patterns and caring responsibilities

The table below shows performance ratings by working pattern, and these are very similar (table 31).

Table 31: rounded counts and percentages of performance health check ratings, as of January 2020, by working pattern

	Consistently excels	Frequently excels	Consistently achieving	Inconsistently achieving	Formal development
Full time	90 (11.5%)	280 (35.9%)	355 (45.5%)	50 (6.4%)	5 (0.6%)
Part time	15 (12.5%)	45 (37.5%)	55 (45.8%)	5 (4.2%)	0 (0.0%)

There is no performance data by caring responsibilities status to report this year.

Leavers

The most common reason for staff leaving DHSC was ‘transfer to other government department’ (36.1%) (table 32 below). This was followed by ‘end of loan or secondment’ (24.6%) and ‘resignation’ (14.8%). The ‘end of fixed-term contract’ and ‘retirement’ were the next 2 (9.8% and 3.3% respectively). All other reasons, such as transfers to private or non-CS public sector, transfer of function within CS and redundancy, had a combined total of 11.5%.

Table 32: leaving reasons, proportion and count (October 2019 to September 2020)

Leavers	Transfer to other government department	Resignation	End of fixed-term contract	End of loan or secondment	Retirement	Other
Employee	110	45	30	75	10	35
Proportion	36.1%	14.8%	9.8%	24.6%	3.3%	11.5%

Note: other includes:

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

Table 33 shows turnover in 2020 is 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. This led to an almost 50% turnover level. The turnover level in 2020 was lower than both 2018 and 2019, despite the department’s average staff level increasing by over 400.

Table 33: turnover figures (2017 to 2020)

Turnover	2017	2018	2019	2020
Leavers	830	231	255	301
Average staff levels	1,713	1,559	1,693	2,099
Turnover	48.5%	14.8%	15.1%	14.3%

Table 34 shows leavers by grade. The highest proportion of staff who left the department are at HEO and Grade 7 grades, at 23.0% each. The distribution of staff leaving by grade tends to be similar to the distribution of grades across the department, showing no particular grade is more impacted by staff leaving DHSC.

Table 34: count and proportion of leavers by grade (October 2019 to September 2020)

Leavers	AO	EO	HEO	SEO	Fast Stream	G7	G6	SCS
Employee	15	50	70	50	5	70	30	15
Proportion	4.9%	16.4%	23.0%	16.4%	1.6%	23.0%	9.8%	4.9%

Additional leavers tables are below.

Table 35: age, proportion and count of leavers (October 2019 to September 2020)

Age	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+
Employee	35	75	35	30	35	30	25	20	20
Proportion	11.5%	24.6%	11.5%	9.8%	11.5%	9.8%	8.2%	6.6%	6.6%

Table 36: gender, proportion and count of leavers (October 2019 to September 2020)

Gender	Male	Female
Employee	135	170
Proportion	44.3%	55.7%

Table 37: ethnicity, proportion and count of leavers (October 2019 to September 2020)

Ethnicity	Minority ethnic (excluding white minorities)	White	Undeclared
Employee	20	70	210
Proportion	6.7%	23.3%	70.0%

Table 38: disability, proportion and count of leavers (October 2019 to September 2020)

Disability status	Declared disabled	Declared non-disabled	Undeclared
Employee	5	85	210
Proportion	1.7%	28.3%	70.0%

Table 39: sexual orientation, proportion and count of leavers (October 2019 to September 2020)

Sexual orientation	LGBT+	Heterosexual	Prefer not to say	Undeclared
Employee	5	70	10	215
Proportion	1.7%	23.3%	3.3%	71.7%

Table 40: religion or belief, proportion and count of leavers (October 2019 to September 2020)

Religion or belief	Religious	No religion	Prefer not to say	Undeclared
Employees	460	430	90	1455
Proportion	18.9%	17.7%	3.7%	59.8%

Disciplinary and grievances

As seen in Table 41, between 1 October 2019 and 30 September 2020, there were 5 disciplinary cases and 8 grievance cases reported involving DHSC employees.

Table 41: count of disciplinary and grievance cases in DHSC between 1 October 2019 and 30 September 2020

Grievances	Discipline	Grievance	Total cases
Count	5	8	13

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 has a network of Speak Out Advisers of varying grades, positions, and business areas, who have been given training on handling concerns, including whistleblowing. The network provides an easily accessible resource for employees to use if they have a concern and are uncertain how to address it. Staff are encouraged to speak up about issues early on so they can be addressed in a timely and effective manner. A Senior Civil Servant has the role of DHSC’s Speak Out Champion to support the overarching agenda and provide senior sponsorship.

Over the course of 2020 to 2021, the focus has been on encouraging staff to raise concerns and feedback at an early stage to prevent issues from growing as well as encouraging wider inclusive behaviour. This has involved a wide range of activities including producing an inclusive conversations toolkit, promoting the various support services available to staff, and delivering learning about challenging behaviours including through drama-based sessions.

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.