Corporate report

UKHSA equality objectives 2023 to 2026

Published 14 February 2024

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) prepares for and responds to infectious diseases, and environmental hazards, to keep all our communities safe, save lives and protect livelihoods. We provide scientific and operational leadership working with local, national and international partners to protect the public’s health and build the nation’s health security capability. UKHSA is an executive agency, sponsored by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Public Sector Equality Duty

The Equality Act 2010 applied a Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) to public bodies. The PSED requires organisations to consider how they can positively contribute to the advancement of equality in the design of policies and the delivery of services. Specifically, the PSED requires ministers to have due regard to:

• eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Act
• advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and people who do not share it
• foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not share it

Section 149 of the Act sets out the PSED, a key lever for ensuring that public bodies seek to address inequalities when shaping policy and delivering services.

Equality objectives

UKHSA is committed to:

• promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in our workforce
• contributing to reducing health inequalities and addressing health inequity in our population
• supporting everyone to live healthier lives with more equal health security outcomes

We use an adapted version of the CORE20PLUS framework, developed by NHS England (NHSE), to define our focus on parts of the population most at risk from external hazards to health. CORE20 is the most deprived 20% of the national population as identified by the Index of Multiple Deprivation. The additional PLUS element will depend on the hazard in question and can be identified at a local level, but populations we expect to see identified under this framework include those with protected characteristics, inclusion health groups and individuals with clinical vulnerabilities.

UKHSA’s ‘Health Equity for Health Security Strategy’ was finalised in June 2023 and sets out high-level objectives and actions to contribute to equitable health security outcomes. These include the advancement of equality under the PSED in the following 4 enabling areas:

1. Data and Science
2. People and Place
3. Partnerships
4. Culture

Below are UKHSA’s equality objectives for 2023 to 2026, mapped against the 4 enabling areas of the ‘Health Equity for Health Security Strategy’ listed above. These update and replace the previous UKHSA PSED objectives published in August 2022.

For reporting purposes our focus will be on meeting our obligations with regards to those groups with protected characteristics outlined within PSED, however, in line with our wider strategy, we will extend our approach to report against other CORE20PLUS groups where possible.

Our progress against our 2022 PSED objectives, following our first full year of operation to March 2023, is detailed in our first annual equality report, published in October 2023.

Our objectives for 2023 to 2026

Objective 1. Data and Science

We will use the CORE20PLUS framework to improve our data and evidence about vulnerable population groups, including those with protected characteristics across all our UKHSA strategic priority areas.

To do this we will:

• expand evidence available to UKHSA staff on populations identified through the CORE20PLUS framework
• review surveillance outputs and expand activity to capture data on ethnicity and deprivation where possible, and on inclusion health status and settings (such as prisons or adult social care) where relevant and possible
• build questions regarding impact on vulnerable and high-risk populations into relevant evaluations to inform learning, working this into planned activity

We will know we have achieved this when:

• UKHSA data and science strategies reflect improved data collected about populations at highest risk
• increased evidence is available for staff to access on PSED and CORE20PLUS groups via the internal health equity hub and other routes
• surveillance data covers an increased number of populations and settings

Objective 2. People and Place

We will build the evidence base for effective ‘people and place’ interventions that address concurrent risk through models of delivery of health protection services for CORE20PLUS population groups.

To do this we will:

• develop and pilot effective models of delivery of health protection services for CORE20PLUS groups
• strengthen our approach to improving outcomes for high-risk populations through incident response structures
• apply evidence about health inequalities to each workstream of the future of the health protection system co-design group

We will know we have achieved this when:

• evidence about effective models of delivery of health protection services for CORE20PLUS groups is shared with our system partners
• incident response structures include guidance, training and identification of roles and responsibilities for considering and addressing the needs of CORE20PLUS groups
• measurable health equity outcomes are incorporated into each workstream of the ‘future of the health protection system’ co-design group through workstream plans

Objective 3. Partnerships

We will partner with people with lived experience of health inclusion, the voluntary and community sector, health agencies and other government departments to co-create effective interventions and build trust.  

To do this we will:

• ensure evidence about health security for vulnerable and at-risk populations is available to other partners in the health system to provide a sound basis for collaboration, to agree priorities and to deliver integrated and inclusive services that advance health equity for health security
• build and maintain assurance that UKHSA is meeting its legal obligations around PSED and the duty to tackle health inequalities
• develop strong partnerships and routes to engage with the people identified through the CORE20PLUS framework and the voluntary and community sector to enable co-creation and implementation of effective interventions

We will know we have achieved this when:

• UKHSA outputs and publications include consideration of health inequalities and CORE20PLUS groups, and are available for partners in the health system
• we publish our annual UKHSA Equality Report demonstrating how we have met the PSED
• a framework is in place to support greater engagement with CORE20PLUS groups

Objective 4. Culture (public-facing impacts)

We will build capability and awareness of health equity and the public sector equality duty across UKHSA to ensure we design and deliver our functions and services in a way which improves equitable health security outcomes.

To do this we will:

• deliver training, awareness raising, and ongoing guidance across UKHSA on health equity, CORE20PLUS groups and PSED
• support colleagues to deliver by documenting and sharing learnings from across the organisation on efforts to achieve more equitable outcomes through internal and external communications
• systematically embed explicit health equity and public sector equality duty considerations in UKHSA processes, policies, and planning processes to ensure they prompt colleagues to make decisions that positively impact health equity

We will know we have achieved this when:

• increased levels of staff have received training on health equity and PSED, including training tailored to different operational needs
• an internal communications and engagement plan is in place to increase awareness of health equity and PSED and to share learnings from across the organisation
• a knowledge audit has been conducted to demonstrate where any gaps and needs exist and, guided by this awareness, health equity and PSED considerations have increased across UKHSA
• health equity and PSED considerations are embedded into UKHSA processes, policies and planning processes including UKHSA business planning

Objective 5. Culture (staff-facing impacts)

We will continue to invest in a talented workforce that represents the diversity of the working population. We will nurture and sustain an inclusive and respectful culture and working environment across UKHSA that values and respects diversity and inclusion.

To do this we will:

• promote inclusive behaviours, through developing managers’ understanding of the link between effective diversity and inclusion and the impact on physical and mental health
• continue to drive up declaration rates, collate and monitor diversity information on our staff and use our diversity dashboard to provide accurate and meaningful data to senior leaders in all directorates as evidence in tackling workforce inequality
• we will attract, recruit and develop a workforce with a blend of strengths and experience, and make UKHSA a place where everyone is proud to work, using our data and insight to put in place new opportunities and interventions

We will know we have achieved this when:

• UKHSA is meeting key performance indicators (KPIs) showing progress on diversity, staff inclusion and the addressing of staff health and wellbeing
• improved diversity declaration rates are demonstrably informing decision-making around staff matters
• we have implemented and evaluated improvements based on new interventions around staff talent and recruitment

UKHSA will review progress against its objectives on a regular basis, revising them where necessary or updating actions required for effective implementation. We will update and engage senior management and seek their support with the delivery of these revised objectives. The progress on the new set of objectives will be reported annually through the UKHSA Equality Duty report available on GOV.UK.