National Voices’ Equality Action Plan: 2024-2029
Why this work is needed
Our mission
Our mission is to advocate for more equitable and person-centred health and care, shaped by the people who use and need it the most. However, our work takes place in a society with significant inequality.
Tackling health inequalities
Tackling health inequalities is a key and fundamental part of our work. While NHS and social care services are not solely responsible for the health inequalities that exist, we know that many minority groups receive worse care and therefore worse outcomes from care than they should.
Just one example of these worsened outcomes, is that if you have a learning disability, you are almost 30% more likely to die prematurely because of an issue that could have been avoided by the provision of good quality care, than if you didn’t have a learning disability.
We believe one of the key issues behind this is that often health and care is designed around the needs of majority groups, without adequately thinking through or responding to the needs of minority groups. One of our key reasons for existing at National Voices is to ensure that health and care services are designed in a way that is inclusive for everyone. However, even when we are able to make connections between citizens and decision makers, we know that some groups are much less likely to be taken seriously, listened to or believed.
The role of stigma and prejudice
While often decisions that exclude groups of people from care are made unwittingly, there is no doubt that stigma and prejudice have a role to play in dampening the political will to improve the welfare of some groups experiencing inequalities. With research showing that 44% of British adults openly express negative feelings towards Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people, 27% towards immigrants, 22% towards Muslims and 16% towards Transgender people – this is an elephant in the room we cannot afford to ignore.
It is within this context that we have worked to develop our Equality Action Plan, which sets out a clear approach for how we will contribute towards a more equitable health and care system, and ultimately a more just and fair society.
Inequalities within the charity sector
While we are very vocal about the valuable role charities play in making care more equitable and person-centred, it is sometimes the case that we are part of the problem. For example, over two-thirds of charity staff from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds have experienced, witnessed or heard stories of racism in the sector.
Given that 92% of charity CEOs are white, it is important to acknowledge that as a charity sector we have a long way to go to be representative of the communities we serve and to be genuinely inclusive places to work and volunteer. These are amongst the issues we intend to tackle head on within our plan.
Our key objectives to achieve equality
Our Equality Action Plan identifies the key actions we will take to:
- Make National Voices a genuinely diverse and inclusive organisation.
- Advocate for an end to inequalities in health and care.
- Provide support and work to educate our members about the role they can play in bringing an end to inequalities in health and care.
Our Equality Action Plan was developed after extensive engagement with the National Voices staff team, trustees and Lived Experience Partners. We want to thank everyone who has been involved in this genuinely collaborative effort, and hope you will join us over the next five years as we embark on this plan.
Our commitment to being an anti-racist and anti-oppressive organisation
To accompany our Equality Action Plan, we have published a statement which sets out our ongoing and active commitment to identifying and opposing inequality and challenging beliefs, behaviours and values, both within National Voices and externally.
This page was last updated in November 2024.