Project summary
Healthcare professionals, including foundation doctors, working in the NHS continue to encounter discrimination and harassment. Being discriminated against by a person’s protected characteristics is against the Equality Act 2010. Data from the GMC staff survey and from BMA reports has demonstrated that this is an ongoing issue. Foundation doctors do not feel equipped to call this out, respond or report when experiencing or witnessing such events.
The project seeks to support Foundation Schools in embedding meaningful and sustainable EDI teaching as a core component of foundation training by sharing examples of best practice.
There is significant variation in the provision of EDI teaching within the Foundation Programme across the United Kingdom. Such opportunities remain inconsistent for foundation doctors to learn about discrimination, allyship, inclusive practice and bystander interventions.
National frameworks such as the GMC’s Promoting Excellence (equality and diversity considerations) and the NHS People Plan encourage a culture of inclusion, yet implementation remains variable.
It is well known that doctors with certain protected characteristics can be disadvantaged in their training. The Foundation Programme Curriculum has been designed to best support all foundation doctors ensuring equitable training.
The amendment of the Worker Protection Act 2024 requires employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. The latest GMC Good Medical Practice was also updated to include that staff must not “discriminate against, bully or harass anyone based on their personal characteristics, or for any other reason”. The GMC also states that all medical professionals must tackle discrimination where it arises and encourage colleagues to do the same.
Research has consistently demonstrated that diverse and inclusive teams perform better and have better patient outcomes.
This project underwent national data collection and analysis to understand the current state of teaching and has collated successful examples from UK Foundation Schools.
The issue at hand
- 9 in 10 women have experienced sexism at work
- More than three quarters of respondents reported incidents of racism
- 43% of LGBQ doctors have experienced homophobia or biphobia
- Foundation doctors from ethnic minority groups felt more disadvantaged than white foundation doctors in achieving the Foundation Programme Curriculum requirements
- 28% of doctors have experienced discriminatory behaviour such as micro-aggressions, negative comments, or oppressive body language from colleagues on the grounds of the protected characteristics
- Doctors in the earlier stages of their training experienced more discriminatory behaviours: 37% of female resident doctors in the first foundation year, compared to 27% at ST3/CT3 and above