National Voices’ commitment to anti-oppression and anti-racism
National Voices is committed to being an anti-racist and anti-oppressive organisation.
At National Voices, 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.
Our work takes place in a society with significant inequality and prejudice which means that some groups of people live shorter lives and in poorer health than others. The same groups of people also tend to experience worse access to, experience of and outcomes from health and care – this is avoidable and unjust.
This includes groups protected by the Equality Act such as people from racial and ethnic minority groups, disabled people, transgender people and others. It also includes wider groups who experience inequality such as people experiencing homelessness, refugees, sex workers, carers, people experiencing socioeconomic inequality and others. Of course, many people also experience intersectionality which can mean they are at greater risk of multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage.
We recognise that an organisation like National Voices can easily become complicit in upholding structures and systems which are oppressive and create inequality– in the way that we operate within our organisation, in the influencing activities and voices that we prioritise, in the example we set in how we work with our members and in the way that we work with other individuals and organisations in health and care.
While as a charity we have legal responsibilities to ensure that discrimination does not occur within National Voices, our goal is to go much further than this. We are committed to being an anti-racist and anti-oppressive organisation. Our aim is to deliver equity in our culture, our values, our structure, our decisions, the support we provide, our partnerships, our influencing work and the way all staff approach our roles.
As part of our commitment to being an anti-racist and anti-oppressive organisation, we have developed an Equality Action Plan which identifies how we will go about:
- Making National Voices a genuinely diverse and inclusive organisation
- Advocating for an end to inequalities in health and care
- Providing support and challenge to our members about the role they can play in bringing an end to inequalities in health and care
However, we also recognise that being an anti-racist and anti-oppressive organisation is not just a checklist, but an ongoing and active commitment to identifying and opposing inequality and to challenging beliefs, behaviours and values – both internally and externally.
If you want to find out more information about our commitments around equality, how we see our role in addressing inequality and why we think this work is needed, please take a look at our Equality Action Plan 2024-2029.