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Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Our commitment to addressing health inequalities and promoting equality, diversity and inclusion

At NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, we are proud to lead work that helps everyone live healthier lives. We know that our communities and staff come from many different backgrounds, and we see this as a real strength. It helps us plan better health and care services for everyone who lives in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin. We are working to make sure that all people have a fair chance to use our services, are treated with respect, and have the best possible experience.

What we mean by Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

  • Equality is about making sure everyone is treated fairly and given an equal chance to access opportunities. It is not about treating everyone the same way. People may require different things to achieve similar outcomes.
  • Diversity is about recognising and valuing individual differences. Everyone is unique - we also have things in common with one another, and each one of us has something valuable to contribute.
  • Inclusion is about groups and individuals from different backgrounds being culturally and socially accepted so that everyone feels respected and valued for who they are.

What are Health Inequalities?

Health inequalities are avoidable, unfair and systematic differences in health between different groups of people. This includes how long we live, or the age at which we get preventable diseases or health conditions. Health inequalities arise because of the conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work and age. These conditions influence our opportunities for good health, and how we think, feel and act, and this shapes our mental health, physical health and wellbeing. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • The environment people grow up in
  • Access to employment
  • Quality of housing
  • Lifestyle factors, such as smoking or diet
  • Social networks
  • Access to health and care services

Why it's important

We know health inequalities exist across the county and that some people have different access, experience and outcomes when it comes to both our services and workplaces. We want to reduce those differences and remove them entirely where possible. To make sure everyone can get the best out of our services and workplaces, we need to understand the make up of our population and workforce and their individual needs.

For our staff, this means we are ensuring they are working in an environment where they feel valued and respected. For our population, it helps us to plan our services, so our staff can think about what people need when they give care. This will mean people will have a better experience when they access and use our services.

As a public sector organisation, we must comply with specific legal equality duties that require us to evidence how we have considered the needs of diverse and vulnerable groups when undertaking our responsibilities. This includes how we are meeting our responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010, Human Rights Act 1998, and relevant sections of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

Who we mean when we talk about diverse and vulnerable groups

The Equality Act sets out nine characteristics who may be discriminated against because of certain characteristics they share. It provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all. The groups protected by the Act include:

  • Age – People of different ages including children, young and older people.
  • Disability – People with a long-term condition, or with mental, physical, sensory, learning disability or impairments, or a combination of these.
  • Gender Reassignment – People who have changed, or are in the process of changing, their sex.
  • Marriage and Civil Partnership – People who are married or in a civil partnership.
  • Race – People characterised by shared ethnicity, language or culture.
  • Religion or Belief – People with or without a religion or belief.
  • Sex – A man or a woman.
  • Sexual orientation – Whether a person’s sexual attraction is towards their own sex, the opposite sex or both sexes.
  • Pregnancy and Maternity – Women who are having or have just had a baby.

As well as these nine protected characteristics, there are additional characteristics and societal factors which contribute to health inequality. These are:

  • Vulnerable or inclusion health groups – for example, vulnerable migrants, Gypsy, Roma, Irish Traveller and Boater communities, victims of modern slavery, people experiencing homelessness, offenders or former offenders, and sex workers.
  • Socio-economic status and deprivation – for example, unemployment, low income, living in a deprived area, and factors associated with this such as poor housing and educational attainment.
  • Geography – the characteristics of the place where we live, such as population composition, built and natural environment, levels of social connectedness, and features of specific geographies such as urban, rural and coastal.

Update on publications of 2025/26 reports

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care Board (ICB) remains fully committed to meeting our responsibilities under the Equality Act’s Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and to being transparent about how we are advancing equality for our workforce and the populations we serve.

The PSED is supported by the Specific Duties Regulations, which require public bodies in England to publish information demonstrating compliance with the Equality Duty at least annually, and to publish equality objectives every four years. Many public organisations, including NHS bodies, publish their workforce and service‑related equality information by the end of March each year to ensure compliance with the annual publication duty.

Integrated Care Boards across England are currently undergoing a period of significant change linked to the national ICB Blueprint, including organisational reform, new cluster arrangements and restructuring. As part of this transition, our annual PSED Workforce and Patient Equality Reports are progressing through updated internal governance routes, including review by our recently formed Executive and Senior Leadership Teams.

While this has introduced a short delay to the formal sign‑off process and publication date (before 31st March), the ICB continues to undertake all required equality, diversity and inclusion duties in practice. The full PSED Workforce and Patient Equality Reports will then be presented for approval at the April (Workforce) and June (Patient) 2026 Board meetings respectively, after which they will be published on this page.

We remain committed to upholding our statutory duties, reducing inequalities, and ensuring our decision‑making is fair and inclusive for our workforce and meets the needs of our diverse communities.

When available, the following reports will be available for download on this page:

  • Shropshire Telford Wrekin ICB PSED Annual Report Workforce
  • Shropshire Telford Wrekin ICB Workforce Diversity Profile Report
  • Shropshire Telford Wrekin ICB PSED Annual Report Patient-Population

Further information

Click on the different tabs below for more information about our statutory duties, our population and workforce, equality and health inequalities, and how we assess we are meeting our duties.

Equality Objectives

As a system, we hold a shared goal to treat our population, patients and employees fairly and with respect. 

When we think about making changes to our services or policies, it is important that we fully consider the impact that it may have on all of our population groups, along with how it may positively or negatively affect other environmental factors, such as climate change. 

This page is intended for service change leaders within the system, to give them the resources to fully and accurately assess their service/policy change proposals and mitigate accordingly.

Integrated Impact Assessments (IIA)

The integrated impact assessment process is our tool to ensure that we fully assess the impact of changes to services, policies and functions on their local population and communities.  It is a holistic framework that is used to ensure that new policies and programmes have been considered through not only an equality lens, but also economic, environmental, and health inequalities.   

It seeks to  

  • Identify the positive and any negative impacts for the local population as a result of the proposed change or new service;  
  • Identify which (if any) of the protected characteristics groups are more likely to be affected by the proposals due to their propensity to require different types of health services and what these impacts will be; 
  • Identify the impact on staff from equality and protected characteristic groups 
  • Identify the impact that the proposals may have on a set of societal considerations, including climate change and social inclusion. 
  • Develop an overall set of integrated conclusions on the comparative advantages and disadvantages of the different options; and  
  • Provide recommendations on ways in which positive impacts can be maximised for the population and for those with protected characteristics and ways in which to mitigate, or minimise, any adverse effects. 

How to Undertake an IIA

  • There are potentially three stages to completing an integrated impact assessment.  Whether a Baseline Equality Report or a full Integrated Impact Assessment is required will depend on the level of impacts identified by the IIA Screener tool.  This tool seeks to inform programme leads on the level of further engagement and investigation required for their proposal, based on their answers to a series of questions

 

  • Before you start the IIA process for your project, click on this link for a short guide and overview of why we complete IIAs

Click here to access the IIA Screener and begin the process.

 

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Page last updated 11 June 2026

An illustration depicting Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin with key monuments