Nottinghamshire Healthcare has been named as one of the top 100 employers in Stonewall’s 2010 workplace equality index which features the best employers in Britain for lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
The mental health and learning disability service provider was ranked as the best performing employer in the healthcare sector, coming top of the 54 health organisations in the list and 19th in the overall index, scoring 171 points out of a possible 200.
The Trust was highlighted for the success of its Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) steering group and forum and for partnership working with the LGBT community and other sectors. It was also praised for raising the rainbow flag at the Trust’s headquarters in Nottingham in honour of LGBT History Month last February.
Catherine Conchar, Nottinghamshire Healthcare’s Head of Equality and Diversity said: “This is a fantastic achievement and reflects the commitment we have made to our employees, service users and carers in demonstrating equality and diversity as a core value of this organisation, ensuring they feel safe and valued.”
The Trust was scored on anonymous feedback from a survey designed to sample workplace culture, covering both policy and practice. As one of the top 20 organisations, it was also independently evaluated through an assessment visit.
Mike Cooke, Chief Executive, said: “This is brilliant news and something that we should be rightly proud of. We work hard to create a culture at Nottinghamshire Healthcare that is tolerant and fair to all, which embraces diversity. I am delighted to see we are leading the way for this in the healthcare sector.”
The number of companies participating in the index – now in its sixth year – has more than doubled since 2006, and the minimum index score to win a place in the current Top 100 was 10 per cent higher than in 2009. Every organisation in this year’s top 100 offered diversity training that covered lesbian, gay and bisexual issues, and collected monitoring data on the sexual orientation of their employees.
