Posted 27 November 2020 - 15:50
Posted 27 November 2020 - 15:50
News
NMC acknowledges ‘uncomfortable truths’ on race equality in report
Regulator calls in consultants over career opportunities and pay gap for BAME employees
Regulator calls in consultants over career opportunities and pay gap for BAME employees
Employees of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) who are from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds feel they do not have equal access to career opportunities and progression, a report shows.
In a survey conducted with 40% of NMC staff members (319 people), only 5% of BAME employees (18) said they feel they have equal access, compared with 43% of white employees (192), says the report, which will be presented at a meeting of the regulator’s governing body on 2 December.
Picture: Barney Newman
Pay gap reflects underrepresentation of BAME staff in senior roles
NMC chief executive Andrea Sutcliffe said the report held ‘some uncomfortable truths’.
The regulator says it has invited several race consultants to bid to start work with its executive and council early in 2021.
The report says the NMC’s mean ethnicity pay gap – the difference between the average hourly pay for BAME and white employees – is 28.7%. It says this is not due to unequal pay for similar roles, but reflects the underrepresentation of BAME staff in senior roles.
Only 29 (8%) of the regulator’s BAME employees are on grade 6 and above – the more senior roles – compared with 115 white employees (25%).
Disabled employees at the regulator are paid 2.6% more than other staff, on average, with a representation of disabled staff throughout most pay grades. Around 4% of staff (32) declare a disability; this compares with 18.9% of the UK’s working age population as a whole, according to Office for National Statistics data.
Update on commitments to tackle inequality and discrimination
The report will be presented along with an update on commitments to tackle inequality and discrimination, made in July 2020 in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
The NMC is the first health and care sector regulator to publish its workforce race equality standard, which includes ethnicity, disability and gender pay gap information.
In 2019, the NMC committed to implementing the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES), designed to ensure employees from BAME backgrounds have equal access to career opportunities and receive fair treatment in the workplace.
NMC Council papers also show the regulator has no plans to pause fitness to practise casework during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Find out more
Pay gap report 2020: ethnicity (NMC)
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