Equality Delivery System and Equality Objectives
The Equality Delivery System (EDS) for the NHS was published on 29 July 2011. Many staff across the NHS in England had contributed to its development, along with patient and community groups and other stakeholders. The EDS has been designed to be a tool for NHS organisations, in collaboration with their local interests, to assess how they are doing in respect of equality and diversity and to help identify future priorities and objectives. The use of the EDS will also support organisations achieve their legal requirements under the Equality Act 2010. If you are interested in finding out more about the EDS in general you may find the following documents helpful:
Additional general information is also available on the NHS East Midlands NHS website, the current EDS host website
What we are doing as a Foundation Trust
The Foundation Trust is committed to using the EDS to support our work in continually promoting equality and diversity. The EDS will take the place of previous Equality Schemes and so we will not a publishing a new Single Equality Scheme for the Foundation Trust in 2012.
In December 2011 we held two EDS workshops within the Foundation Trust at which clinical mangers, general managers and members of the Foundation Trust’s Patients’ Voice forum undertook a preliminary grading exercise on the 18 outcomes contained within the EDS.
On 28 February 2012, the Foundation Trust joined other NHS organisations in north and west Hampshire at an EDS grading event co-ordinated by Community Action Hampshire. At this event the Foundation Trust’s preliminary grades were explored and scrutinised by community organisations and other local interests, representing the protected groups described in the Equality Act 2010. This event led to the Foundation Trust’s final EDS grades - see Related Documents for details of the Trusts gradings.
