Nottinghamshire Healthcare, for the second year running, has been named as one of the top 100 employers in Stonewall’s 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 in the 2011 Index as the best performing employer in the healthcare sector, coming top of all health organisations in the list and 12th in the overall index, scoring 182 points out of a possible 200.
This marks an improved performance for the Trust moving from last year’s position of 19th despite increased competition with submissions from 378 employers this year compared to 352 in 2010.
Catherine Conchar, Nottinghamshire Healthcare’s Head of Equality and Diversity said: “This is a great achievement and shows how hard the Trust has been working, building firmly on last year’s success. The result reflects our commitment to equality and diversity and demonstrates our ability to ensure that the services we provide reflect the needs of the people we serve. We are also proud to be an employer of choice for our diverse communities. We have taken our role as ‘The 2010 Most Improved Employer’ seriously and have enjoyed the opportunity of sharing best practice with other organisations to help support further improvements in this important area.”
The Trust was scored on evidence submitted to demonstrate workplace culture and activity, covering both policy and practice. As one of the top 20 organisations, it was also independently evaluated through an assessment visit.
Professor Mike Cooke CBE, Chief Executive, said: “This is fantastic news and something that we are very proud of. At Nottinghamshire Healthcare we have worked hard to create a culture that embraces equality and diversity and I am delighted to see that we are leading the way for this in the healthcare sector.”
The number of companies participating in the index – now in its seventh year – has more than doubled since 2006. 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.
