Equality Information
The Equality Act 2010 requires public bodies to publish ‘Equality Information’ relating to its employees.
We want to be as transparent as possible, without compromising anonymity or overwhelming you with data.
Please get in touch if there’s something you’d like to know about which isn’t published here, and we’ll be happy to help if we can.
What we routinely analyse
We produce an internal annual report which analyses the following datasets and proposes actions to address any issues emerging:
Demographics
- overall diversity of the HRA workforce
- diversity at different pay bands
- diversity trends and progress over time
- non-disclosure rates
Recruitment
- diversity of applicants to work at the HRA
- diversity of those interviewed for employment at the HRA
- diversity of appointments
- relative likelihood of people with different characteristics converting an application or interview to an appointment
Staff experience
- Gender Pay Gap
- Staff Survey results sliced by equality characteristics
- diversity of staff on secondments
- diversity of staff leaving their employment with the HRA
Notes on our numbers
- we currently report on males rather than females as our under-represented group
- trans identities are not included in the LGBQ+ category, which is about sexual orientation, not gender identity
- atheism has been coded as ‘no religion or belief’, although we do recognise that for some people it is a belief system rather than a lack of religion or belief
- white minorities are not included in the ethnic minority total
- ‘Prefer not say’ responses vary across characteristics and are not included below. It should not be assumed that, for example, having 8% LGBQ+ people means that 92% are heterosexual
- for the first time, the 2021 Census asked about sexual orientation and gender identity. 0.5% of people said their gender did not align with the sex assigned to them at birth. Unfortunately, this data is not yet captured within the NHS staff records system
- in areas such as appointments and leavers, the numbers are small and therefore are not hugely reliable. They are included here for transparency, and converted to percentages (without sharing the overall total from which the percentage is derived) to preserve anonymity
Demographics
| Equality characteristic | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Change since 2020 | Census 2021 comparator |
| Male | 23% | 25% | 27% | 29% | +6 | 49% |
| Religion or belief | 45% | 49% | 49% | 48% | +3 | 57% |
| Ethnic minority | 17% | 18% | 16% | 17% | 0 | 18% |
| Disability | 6% | 8% | 8% | 9% | +3 | 18%* |
| LGBQ+ | 3% | 5% | 8% | 8% | +5 | 3.2% (residents aged 16 and over) |
*Finding a suitable comparator for disability is challenging, as Census data will include people with age-related disabilities and those with profound and multiple disabilities who may be unable to access employment opportunities. An alternative comparator might be the quarterly Labour Market Survey (ONS). From the February 2023 edition, we can see that at the end of 2022,12% of people aged 16 to 64 surveyed were in employment and met the Equality Act definition of disability. A separate table of self-reported health status presents a figure of 9% of people surveyed Oct-Dec 2022 in employment with a work-limiting disability.
Diversity at different levels of the organisation
| Equality characteristic | HRA as a whole | Bands 4 - 5 | Band 6 | Band 7 | Band 8 |
| Male | 29% | 28% | 18% | 27% | 43% |
| Religion or belief | 48% | 53% | 42% | 44% | 50% |
| Ethnic minority | 17% | 23% | 11% | 17% | 14% |
| Disability | 9% | 8% | 11% | 13% | 5% |
| LGBQ+ | 8% | 8% | 10% | 10% | 5% |
People starting employment at the HRA
| Equality characteristic | Percentage of new starters with this characteristic during 202 to 23 |
| Male | 50% |
| Religion or belief | 42% |
| Ethnic minority | 12% |
| Disability | 8% |
| LGBQ+ | 12% |
People leaving the HRA
| Equality characteristic | Percentage of leavers with this characteristic during 2022 to 23 | HRA as a whole, on 31 March 2023 |
| Male | 29% | 29% |
| Religion or belief | 46% | 48% |
| Ethnic minority | 21% | 17% |
| Disability | 10% | 9% |
| LGBQ+ | 19% | 8% |
Staff survey
Compared with overall scores, people with minoritised or marginalised equality characteristics are generally:
- more proud to work for the HRA
- more likely to recommend the HRA as a good place to work
- more willing to flex their plans during the working day to meet the needs of the business
- likely to have a better awareness of resources and opportunities in the wider organisation
- likely to score highly across most of the ED and I questions
- less likely to feel that everyone is given the opportunity to succeed at the HRA, regardless of their background, beliefs and identity
- less likely to feel the diversity of the HRA reflects that of wider society
- less able to have their say without fear of repercussions
- less likely to feel they can take adequate breaks or achieve a good work – life balance
- likely to experience a negative amplification of the areas which have scored negatively across the organisation, such as organisational change and trust in our leadership to act openly and fairly
In response to specific findings related to different equality characteristics, a series of actions have been agreed for inclusion in the Staff Survey Action Plan:
- increase the transparency of how decisions are made
- increase consistency of Induction and Probation experiences
- review of reasonable adjustments process to be completed by November 2023
- provide additional learning on reasonable adjustments for line managers
- incorporate ethnicity findings in the brief for the staff race equality group (October 2023)
- structured exploration of the experience of women in the organisation
- guidance for managers on having careers conversations
- incorporate hate incidents into the HRA Incident Management processes