NHS staff experiencing discrimination at work
Published
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It has been replaced by
NHS staff experiences.
1. Main facts and figures
New data for 2020 is available if you download the data. The charts, tables and commentary on this page cover 2019 and do not include the new data.
In 2019:
- 6% of White NHS staff in England said they had experienced discrimination at work from a manager, team leader or other colleague in the last 12 months, compared with 15% of staff from the Other ethnic group (all other ethnic groups combined)
- in 99.6% of NHS trusts, a higher percentage of staff from the Other ethnic group said they had experienced discrimination at work from a colleague, compared with White staff
Things you need to know
Participation is mandatory for NHS trusts but the number of survey respondents varies between them. Caution should be used when comparing trusts where the results are based on a small number of respondents.
The NHS Staff Survey was completed by NHS staff in 229 NHS trusts. Data from 3 of the trusts was suppressed because they had fewer than 11 responses from the Other ethnic group. The results for those trusts are not included in this data.
Some trusts selected a sample of staff to take part in the survey, while others invited all their staff to respond. Where a trust selected a sample, the sample may not have been representative of all staff in that trust. Staff who completed the survey might have had different experiences at work than staff who didn’t do so.
The data only includes staff who reported their ethnic group. Staff from some ethnic groups might be less likely to report their ethnicity or reply to certain survey questions. Therefore, the results may not be representative of all staff working for NHS trusts. No adjustments have been made to the results to compensate for any possible biases.
There will be a margin of error around all the estimates presented - some of which may be large, but we do not know the sizes of these margins of error.
We have therefore not commented on differences observed in the data of a few percentage points, as they may not indicate real differences. It is possible that some of the larger differences observed in the data, including those which we have commented on, are also within the margin of error, but we’re not able to assess this.
Response rates and the number of respondents varies between trusts, and this might account for some of the differences.
What the data measures
This data is based on responses to the annual NHS staff survey.
The question about discrimination asks staff:
‘In the last 12 months have you personally experienced discrimination at work from any of the following - Manager / team leader or other colleagues?’
For this data, the number of people surveyed was too small to draw any firm conclusions about specific ethnic categories. Therefore, the data is presented for 2 broad ethnic groups: White and Other.
Data is also presented for 7 broad regions in England and 7 types of NHS trust.
The regions are:
- East of England
- London
- Midlands
- North East and Yorkshire
- North West
- South East of England
- South West of England
The types of NHS trust are:
- Acute
- Acute Specialist
- Ambulance
- Combined Acute and Community
- Combined Mental Health / Learning Disability and Community
- Community
- Mental Health / Learning Disability
The data does not include staff working in:
- independent (non-NHS) healthcare providers
- social enterprises
- arm’s length bodies
- clinical commissioning groups (CCGs)
The ethnic categories used in this data
For this data, ethnicity is broken down into 2 broad ethnic groups:
- White – including White British and White ethnic minorities)
- Other – all other ethnic minorities
This is to be consistent with other Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) data. This ethnicity classification was used for all previous WRES reports, so using the same classification allows for comparisons with previous years. It also helps to increase the reliability of the data.
2. By ethnicity and area
| Geography | All | Other | White |
|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | |
| England | 8 | 15 | 6 |
| East of England | 8 | 14 | 6 |
| London | 11 | 15 | 8 |
| Midlands | 7 | 14 | 6 |
| North East and Yorkshire | 6 | 14 | 5 |
| North West | 6 | 14 | 6 |
| South East of England | 7 | 13 | 6 |
| South West of England | 6 | 14 | 6 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and area’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and area’ (CSV)
Summary of NHS staff experiencing discrimination at work By ethnicity and area Summary
This data shows that:
- in every region, staff from the Other ethnic group were twice as likely as White staff to say they had personally experienced discrimination at work from a colleague in the last 12 months
- out of all regions, London had the highest percentage of staff in both ethnic groups saying they had experienced discrimination at work, at 8% for White staff and 15% for those from the Other ethnic group
- the percentage of staff from the Other ethnic group who said they had experienced discrimination at work was lowest in the South East of England, at 13%
- the percentage of White staff who said they had experienced discrimination at work was lowest in the North East and Yorkshire, at 5%
3. By ethnicity and type of trust
| Trust type | All | Other | White |
|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | |
| England | 8 | 15 | 6 |
| Acute | 8 | 15 | 6 |
| Acute Specialist | 7 | 14 | 6 |
| Ambulance | 10 | 16 | 10 |
| Combined Acute & Community | 7 | 15 | 6 |
| Combined Mental Health / Learning Disability & Community | 7 | 14 | 5 |
| Community | 5 | 13 | 4 |
| Mental Health / Learning Disability | 8 | 15 | 6 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and type of trust’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and type of trust’ (CSV)
Summary of NHS staff experiencing discrimination at work By ethnicity and type of trust Summary
The data shows that:
- out of all types of NHS trust, community trusts had the lowest percentage of staff saying they had personally experienced discrimination at work from a colleague in the last 12 months, at 4% for White staff and 13% for staff from the Other ethnic group
- ambulance trusts had the highest percentage of staff saying they had personally experienced discrimination at work, at 10% for White staff and 16% for staff from the Other ethnic group
- a higher percentage of staff from the Other ethnic group said they had experienced discrimination at work from a colleague, compared with White staff, in 225 out of 226 NHS trusts
4. Methodology
300 NHS organisations took part in the staff survey, including 229 NHS trusts. In 3 trusts, there were fewer than 11 responses from staff in the Other ethnic group, and so the results have not been included.
Staff were sent a paper questionnaire or an email containing a link to an online questionnaire. 569,440 staff completed the questionnaire between October and December 2019, an overall response rate of 48%. There are 4 questions related to the Workforce Race Equality Standard in the staff survey.
There are 4 questions related to the Workforce Race Equality Standard in the staff survey.
The survey was administered by the Survey Coordination Centre on behalf of NHS England.
Suppression rules and disclosure control
Figures based on fewer than 11 responses from staff in either the White or Other ethnic group are not included.
Rounding
Percentages are given to the nearest whole number. Unrounded figures are in the download file.
Related publications
Technical guide to the 2019 staff survey data (PDF opens in a new window or tab)
5. Data sources
Source
Workforce Race Equality Standard 2019 report
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
Non-official statistics
Publisher
NHS England
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
To enable NHS organisations to compare their performance with others in their region and those providing similar services, with the aim of encouraging improvement by learning and sharing good practice. To provide a national picture of workforce race equality in practice, to colleagues, organisations and the public on the developments in the workforce race equality agenda.
6. Download the data
This file contains the following: Measure, Year, NHS_Trust, NHS_Trust_code, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Geography, Geography_type, NHS_Trust_type, Value, Value_Type