Workforce Disability Equality Standard

Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) Annual Report 2025 and Actions

Introduction

We are committed to building a workforce which is valued and whose diversity reflects the communities we serve, enabling as a Trust to deliver the best healthcare to those communities.

The Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) report enables the Trust to publish data on the employment experiences of our disabled staff compared to our non-disabled staff. As we continue to deliver our Trust People Plan 2024-27, it is vital that we foster and grow a culture of inclusion and belonging.

Throughout this report you will see the term disabled used. The WDES uses the term disability in the context of the social model of disability which is defined as follows:

A person is disabled by failure of an organisation or society to make adjustments that remove barriers, for example, changes to the environment, ways of doing things or attitudes.

There are a total of ten indicators that make up the WDES, split across Workforce Data, National NHS Staff Survey and Trust Board Representation. These are designed to help us track our progress in tackling inequalities in the workplace.

Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) Description of Metrics

Metric 1	Percentage of disabled staff in each of the Agenda for Change bands 1-9, medical and dental subgroups and very senior managers (VSM), including executive board members compared with the percentage of staff in the overall workforce.
Metric 2	Relative likelihood of disabled staff being appointed from shortlisting across all posts.
Metric 3	Relative likelihood of disabled staff entering the formal capability procedure (due to performance and not-ill health).

National Staff Survey Responses- Metrics 4 to 9

Metric 4	4a) Percentage of disabled staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from patients, relatives or the public Percentage of disabled staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from their manager Percentage of disabled staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from colleagues4b) Percentage of Disabled staff compared to non-disabled staff saying that the last time they experienced harassment, bullying or abuse at work, they or a colleague reported it
Metric 5	Percentage of disabled staff who believe the Trust provides equal opportunities for career progression or promotion
Metric 6	Percentage of disabled staff who say they have felt pressure from their manager to come to work, despite not feeling well enough to perform their duties.
Metric 7	Percentage of disabled staff saying they are satisfied with the extent to which their organisation values their work.
Metric 8	Percentage of disabled staff saying that their employer has made adequate adjustment(s) to enable them to carry out their work.
Metric 9	Comparison of the engagement scores for disabled and non-disabled staff.
Metric 10	Comparison of disabled and non-disabled members of the board (voting membership/ Exec membership) against the overall workforce.

WDES Analysis

Metric 1

This metric looks at the percentage of staff in Agenda for Change pay-bands or medical and dental subgroups and very senior managers (including Executive Board members) compared with the percentage of staff in the overall workforce.

The 2025 data shows that 12.0 % of our workforce (excluding bank) have a disability or long-term health condition. This is an increase of 2.5% when compared to 2024.

“Relative Likelihood” WDES Metrics Two and Three

Table 1

WDES Metric	Metric Description	2024 Score	2025 score
2	Relative likelihood of non-Disabled staff being appointed from shortlisting compared to that of Disabled staff being appointed from shortlisting across all posts.	0.9.2	1.1

The probability figure illustrates that non-disabled staff are more likely to be appointed from shortlisting compared to disabled staff.

In 2024/25 there were a total of 375 appointments where Disability status was known. Of this total 12% were Disabled, this is above the disability representation of our overall workforce at 10.7%

Table 2

WDES Metric	Metric Description	2023 Score	2024 score
3	Relative likelihood of Disabled staff entering the formal capability process compared to non-Disabled staff.	0	0

This metric is based on data from a two-year rolling average (2022/23 and 2023/24). During this period there were no disabled and two non-disabled staff entering the formal capability process on the grounds of performance.

Metrics 4 to 8 Staff Survey Responses

Seven out of the nine staff survey WDES metric areas show an unfavourable change,  as detailed in Table 3 below.

There has been a significant decrease in the following two areas:-

The percentage of staff saying that their employer has made reasonable adjustments to enable them to carry out their work from 86.5% to 80.9%.

The percentage of staff believing that the organisation provides equal opportunities for career progression or promotion has decreased from 59.3 % to 53.2 %.

The two areas of improvement are as follows:

The percentage of staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from managers in the last 12 months has decreased from 8.7% to 8.0.% and the percentage saying the last time that they experienced harassment bullying or abuse at work, they or a colleague reported it increased from 59.2% to 66.6%.

Data will be shared with teams and services to inform their staff  and  to gather member views in relation to potential improvement actions and areas of planning at team level to inform staff survey intention plans and discussions have commenced with the DaWN staff network to share the findings with them and identify improvement actions.

Overall three of the metrics are worse than the sector average and six better than the sector average.

Table 3 WDES Staff Survey Results – Staff with long-term health conditions or illness

Metric	2021	2022	2023	2024	Year on Year Change	Rating	Sector Average	Comparison
Percentage experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from patients, relatives or the public in the last 12 months	31.2%	30.9%	25.7%	26.7%	1.0%	Unfavourable	26.6%	Worse
Percentage experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from managers in the last 12 months	12.2%	9.6%	8.7%	7.9%	-0.8%	Favourable	11.4%	Better
Percentage experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from colleagues in the last 12 months	22.3%	19.7%	17.2%	17.6%	0.4%	Unfavourable	17.9%	Better
Percentage saying the last time that they experienced harassment bullying or abuse at work, they or a colleague reported it	66.9%	59.4%	59.2%	66.6%	6.9%	Favourable	62.9%	Better
Percentage believing that the organisation provides equal opportunities for career progression or promotion	50.0%	57.4%	59.%	53.2%	-6.1%	Significantly Unfavourable	55.13%	Worse
Percentage who felt pressure from their manager to come to work when not feeling well enough to work	17.0%	16.2%	14.9%	15.9%	1.0%	Unfavourable	17.9%	Better
Percentage satisfied with the extent to which their organisation values their work	41.5%	49.9%	47.4%	45.7%	-1.7%	Unfavourable	44.3%	Better
Percentage saying their employer has made reasonable adjustments to enable them to carry out their work	N/A	83.5%	86.5%	80.9%	-5.6%	Significantly Unfavourable	79.6%	Better
WDES 9a – Staff Engagement score (0-10).	6.76	6.81	6.90	6.69	0.20	Unfavourable	6.74	Worse

Table 4

WDES Metric	Metric Description	2024 Score	2025 Score
10	Percentage difference between the organisation’s Board voting membership and its overall workforce (Disabled representation).	6.6 %	16.7%

This metric compares the difference between the Board voting membership and our overall Disabled workforce. The data positively identifies that our voting Board membership is over representative of our Disabled workforce of 12.9%.

WDES Progress 2024/25

During 2024/25, work was undertaken to address issues raised in the previous year’s WDES and WRES  (Workforce Race Equality Standard), including the following: –

• Appointment of a new substantive head of EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) who will start in September 2025
• Recruitment of ten new cultural inclusion ambassadors
• Roll-out of Values Based Recruitment across key services
• Piloted a cultural competence training programme
• Piloted flipped recruitment for apprentices in a number of services including estates and finance
• From July 2025 it is mandatory for recruiting managers to undertake the Trust’s recruitment and selection training and renew it every three years. Failure to do so will prohibit them from recruiting staff for their service or team.

WDES 2024/25 Proposed Actions

Despite this work the Trust’s performance has deteriorated in a number of areas over the last 12 months which means that there needs to be a real focus given to this area of work going forward to improve things for staff.

Reflecting on the data and feedback from staff it is proposed to focus on the following actions for the next 12 months:

• Establish a Strategic EDI group that will provide clear leadership to the EDI agenda, set the strategic direction and ensure actions are being delivered upon. This group will be chaired by the Chief People Officer and the first meeting will take place in September 2025.
• Develop a Resolving Concerns policy and procedure to replace the current approach to grievance and bullying and harassment complaints. This will be a further step to prevent unnecessary escalation of issues into formal process to improve the experience of our colleagues. The new approach will also ensure a timely response to complaints of bullying and harassment within the Trust. The review will take place during 2025 with a planned launch by the end of March 2026.
• Communicate and publicise the range of support (which is significant) that is in place to support staff with disabilities/long term health conditions through a comprehensive communication plan which will be delivered by October 2025 and also integrated into the new starter process and wellbeing conversations.
• Develop a new workplace adjustment process, including guidance for managers put in place by the end of December 2025 with a focus on ensuring staff receive any workplace adjustments in a timely manner.
• Undertake a listening exercise with the staff networks to understand how the Trust can better support staff with disabilities/long-term health conditions, ethnically diverse staff and LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, other) staff with their career development.
• Review the Disability Confident Assessment and develop an appropriate action plan by the end of December 2025 to ensure that the Trust fully meets the standard.
• Provide some dedicated support to the Trust’s Staff networks to support their development and growth which is an essential component on helping staff feel valued and supported. The networks also provide a valuable source of knowledge and peer support.
• Review the recruitment and selection training to ensure that the existing unconscious bias training is as robust as possible, ensuring recruitment panels are reflective.
• Reflect on the review of the Cultural Competence Training pilot develop a plan to deliver this training to staff across the Trust – with a focus on hotspot areas.