Joint Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy 2024-2028

Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) and Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) have come together to publish a joint strategy focusing on equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).

CIW and HIW are the independent inspectorates and regulators of healthcare, social care, and childcare in Wales. Through our work, we take action to improve the quality and safety of services for the well-being of the people of Wales. HIW and CIW have collectively come together, to pool our experience and knowledge, to work on a joint strategy which supports both organisations.

Together, we place people at the heart of what we do and seek to be a trusted voice which influences and drives improvement in health and care services across Wales.

We want to help improve people’s access to and the quality of their experience of these services. We believe that ensuring we have a strong focus on EDI within our work will support us to achieve this aim.

As departments within Welsh Government, we are guided and work towards supporting the delivery of the Welsh Government’s Strategic Equality Plan and Equality Objectives 2024-2028 under the Equality Act 2010 (Statutory Duties) (Wales) Regulations 2011, and the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). The joint strategy will complement Welsh Government’s equality plans, and aims to align and make connections between existing plans (such as the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan (External link) and LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales (External link) for example) amplifying the intersectionality of people’s lives and experiences.

Chief Inspector of Care Inspectorate Wales, Gillian Baranski said: 

With this strategy, we reaffirm our commitment to challenge ourselves and the sectors we work with, to be more equal, more diverse and more inclusive in the way we work and the way in which healthcare, social care and childcare is provided.

Chief Executive of Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, Alun Jones said:

Inequality should play no part in how services are designed or delivered. We recognise the important role our organisations play within these sectors and the wide-reaching nature of both areas for so many people across Wales. We will call out and challenge inequality in services wherever we find it, to ensure fairer and better outcomes for people.

As inspectorates and regulators, we will:

• Strengthen the focus on equality and diversity in our work and where we find inequalities we will challenge and report on this. We will embed equality, diversity, and inclusion in our work, to drive improvements in the delivery of healthcare, social care and childcare services for people who share one or more of the protected characteristics. 
• Improve our engagement with diverse communities, so they have a strong voice and influence in our work. We will increase our understanding of the experiences of people who share one or more of the protected characteristics to inform our decision making.
• Build our organisations so they are inclusive and representative. We will build a more diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We will support our workforce to flourish and thrive whatever their background in fair and inclusive workplaces. We will invest in developing the skills and knowledge of our staff and create learning cultures to enable us to evaluate and challenge our understanding of equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Aims

Our strategy will provide new opportunities to help reduce inequalities across healthcare, social care, and childcare services.

Our strategic objectives are priorities, and aim to help to deliver equality for:

• People who use health, social care, and childcare services
• People working in health, social care, and childcare
• Health and care providers that we regulate
• Our own workforce.

Engagement

Through this strategy, we are committed to engaging with a wide variety of key stakeholders, including those with lived experience.

Our approach to engagement will be underpinned by:

• telling people what has happened after they have shared their views with us;
• acknowledging participation needs to be resourced and facilitated; and
• making it easy and accessible for people to share their views.

How we will measure success

The success indicators for each objective are designed to align with our individual organisational strategies. We may review our progress before 2028, and revise the actions needed to meet our objectives.

We will report on our progress in meeting the objectives outlined within this strategy through our individual annual reports.

Linking objectives to actions

We have identified actions to demonstrate how each objective will be achieved. These actions were developed during and following consultation, through engagement across our organisations and with key stakeholders.

Our journey

A joint HIW and CIW Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Champions group was established in 2022, and the group has worked to explore strengths and weaknesses of both organisations’s approaches to EDI, and collectively worked to reflect and inform the development of draft strategic priorities. 

The champions group engaged with HIW’s Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG) (External link) on the development of the EDI strategy. The SAG membership includes representatives from a range of organisations representing people with protected characteristics. The SAG aims to develop our understanding of, and insight into diverse communities, working towards a shared goal of driving improvement in healthcare.

We also consulted with CIW’s National Advisory Board which provides a voice for people in the way CIW does its work. It is chaired by an independent member and is made up of a range of people CIW works with including citizens. The board provides advice and recommendations on how to improve care services for people in Wales, through better regulation, inspection and review. 

These groups have provided valuable feedback and helped further refine our objectives. Both inspectorates also consulted internally with our staff through a variety of methods to ensure they were part of identifying the actions we need to take to achieve our strategic objectives, and how we will know we have achieved our aims through success measures.

The future

This strategy aims to drive forward improvement and demonstrate our commitment to EDI principles, to address our social responsibilities as regulators and inspectorates to ensure everyone in Wales has access to good quality care.

This strategy will aid better intelligence in respect of EDI to inform our regulation, inspection, and assurance work. We, in turn, will have increased awareness and understanding of EDI and the actions required to improve the care provided to our communities.

Through our actions outlined within this strategy we will have a better understanding of the health and social care experiences of people from all backgrounds, and better reflect the voice of the people within our work.

The joint strategy will also improve links and knowledge sharing, including good practice to improve the quality of care provided by health, social and childcare services across Wales.

Strengthening the focus on equality and diversity in our work and where we find inequalities we will challenge and report on this. We will embed equality, diversity, and inclusion in our work, to drive improvements in the delivery of healthcare, social care and childcare services for people who share one or more of the protected characteristics.

Actions

1.1 We will ensure equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is embedded throughout our work, including within our methods for seeking assurance from health, social care, and childcare providers.

1.2 We will review our registration guidance and processes for providers, to ensure there is a greater focus on EDI.

1.3 We will review and strengthen our processes to ensure those who raise concerns to us are able to provide equality and diversity information.

1.4 We will proactively report inspection and assurance findings relating to EDI to ensure good practice is shared and to challenge discrimination where we find it.

Improve our engagement with diverse communities, so they have a strong voice and influence in our work. We will strengthen our understanding of lived experiences across protected characteristics and underrepresented groups, recognising the importance of intersectionality.

Actions

2.1 We will continue to use the knowledge and experience of our stakeholder advisory groups to inform and influence our work, and will strengthen links with key stakeholders, through representative groups, to obtain new intelligence from them about their experiences.

2.2 We will review our tools for engaging with the public to ensure we use the most appropriate and accessible methods.

2.3 We will undertake audits of our digital platforms, including our public-facing websites to ensure they are accessible.

Build our organisations so they are inclusive and representative. We will build a more diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We will help our workforce to flourish and thrive whatever their background in fair and inclusive workplaces. We will invest in developing the skills and knowledge of our staff and create learning cultures to enable us to evaluate and challenge our understanding of EDI.

Actions

3.1 We will ensure EDI is built into training for all new staff during their induction, and on an ongoing basis for all existing staff.

3.2 We will ensure our internal communications and engagement strategies champion and promote EDI to encourage an inclusive culture, and a safe place to raise issues.

3.3 We will use our planning tools to include and promote cultural awareness days and initiatives.

3.4 We will strengthen our recruitment processes and requirements to ensure we attract and maintain a diverse and representative workforce.

3.5 We will ensure our work aligns with Welsh Government’s EDI strategy and approach to share good practice, provide consistency, and strengthen our awareness of EDI.