A panel of special guests and senior leaders from North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust will gather together for an online event later today to officially launch a Disability Charter for the healthcare provider. According to the British Disability Forum (BDF), North Mid is one of the first NHS Trusts in the England to provide a charter supporting both its workforce and service users.

The Trust’s chief executive Dr Nnenna Osuji, alongside Rona van Horne and Louisa Georgiou - co-chairs of North Mid’s staff DiverseAbility Network which raises awareness around disability at work – will welcome specialists Paul Deemer, head of diversity and inclusion at NHS Employers, Dr Christine Rivers, head of workforce disability equality standard at NHS England and Improvement and Karan Snuggs, disability business partner from the Business Disability Forum to speak with attendees during the launch event.

The five-point charter is a public commitment by North Mid to improve the standards of care experienced by disabled patients and staff who access its services. The charter also aims to better the views and voices of those with disabilities and to harness the talents of disabled staff.

The charter’s five commitments are:

  1. Fostering a culture of inclusivity, understanding and empathy to create a safe and equal environment where disabled patients and their carers, staff and visitors feel valued and that they can meaningfully participate in all aspects of life at the Trust.
  2. Ensuring leaders and managers value disabled employees as talented team members and understand their legal responsibility under the Equality Act 2010 and are trained to fully support disabled staff and those with long-term health conditions to undertake their roles effectively and to ensure that they have access to workplace adjustments when required.
  3. Implementing workplace adjustments where agreed, within three months of the request being approved.     
  4. Developing, endorsing and implementing policies and guidelines to improve the inclusion of people with disabilities.
  5. Undertake an assessment of the whole estate to identify where there are physical or other barriers that exclude or cause issues for patients, staff and visitors with disabilities. We will ensure that all plans around site development, change and improvement consider disabilities as part of inclusive design involving people with lived experience and take the necessary steps, up to and including seeking expert advice around site development to ensure that any future development, changes and improvements to the site actively improve the experience of disabled patients and their carers, staff and visitors.

To support the delivery of the charter, the Trust has introduced a new team of Disability Ambassadors whose role is to engage with service users, help identify and report any challenges or barriers experienced and champion the voices of those requiring support when accessing treatment and facilities at North Mid.

Dr Nnenna Osuji, chief executive of North Mid, said: “I am delighted and really proud to see colleagues at North Mid taking a stand, being bold and leading the way in practicing what others preach. To be caring, fair and open are the three core values of our organisation whilst putting our patients – our people – first is our priority.

“Our Disability Charter meets these ambitions and will act as our guiding light to ensure our Trust is heading in the right direction to provide full accessibility, reasonable adjustments and considerate care for every one of our patients, users and workforce.”

Rona van Horne, assistant company secretary and co-chair of the staff DiverseAbility Network, added: “This Charter is the next step in the Trust’s continuing journey to improving the experiences of patients, services users and staff living with disability.

“The Charter paves the way to ensuring that people with disabilities are treated with equity and dignity and recognises that there is always more we can do to understand the impact that living with disability and / or a long-term health condition can have on an individual, their family, relatives, carers and work colleagues.”

The full charter will be displayed at the entrances of all clinical services and wards across the Trust and will be available to review online at North Mid’s website, northmid.nhs.uk.

Ahead of an annual review in 2023, the Trust welcomes feedback on the charter from both its staff and patients – respondents should email northmid.diverseabilitynetwork2@nhs.net with their views and suggestions.