The Inclusion Team partnered with the Midlands Finance Academy to deliver an impactful Black History Month session, combining education, lived experience and anti-racism tools to foster a more inclusive NHS finance community.

Background

The Midlands Finance Academy (MFA) is a regional initiative within the NHS, focused on supporting and developing NHS finance professionals in the Midlands region. It aims to create a leading NHS Finance community by offering training, development and networking opportunities.

Our Inclusion team were invited to develop and deliver a two-hour awareness raising and celebratory session to be held during Black History Month for members of the MFA.

The aim of the Black History Month session was to educate, inspire and empower attendees by providing a comprehensive understanding of Black history, promoting diversity and inclusion and equipping participants with tools to combat racism.

Action

We designed and delivered the session around three elements:

• History to set the scene
• Workshop to explore themes and introduce tools to combat racism
• Panel session with the NHS England Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Staff Network.

History to set the scene provided a brief yet insightful overview of Black History Month, highlighting its origins. This included key historical milestones in Black history with a particular focus on the contributions of Black British individuals in various fields such as science, politics and the arts.

The workshop was designed to help attendees understand implicit biases and how they manifest in everyday interactions. It provided the opportunity to discuss real-world scenarios and appropriate responses to combat racism. Attendees were given strategies and tools for promoting anti-racist and inclusive behaviours in both personal and professional settings and a personal action plan for attendees to implement anti-racism practices in their lives.

The panel session shared personal experiences and stories from Black professionals within the NHS. It discussed challenges faced by Black individuals in the healthcare sector and NHS finance. Strategies for promoting diversity and inclusion within the workplace were explored, and a Q&A session was facilitated, allowing attendees to engage directly with the panellists.

To round up the session we provided information on additional resources and upcoming events related to Black History Month across the NHS and wider.

Impact

40 people attended the event, and the overall feedback from the MFA was fantastic, with 90% rating the session as excellent and some truly lovely comments.

Having built this new relationship, we are now in talks with MFA regarding larger pieces of work including research into recruitment and retention with the potential to scale up to other regional finance academies.

Feedback

“I liked the approach to the session and the content that was covered. Very enriching.”

“Best session I have ever been on. Very informative.”

“It was an inspiring webinar.”

“I thought this was an excellent session. I liked that the session began with Black history in the UK because I can’t ever remember learning it in school 15 years ago.” ​

“I also want to say thank you for having Black and People of Colour facilitators lead this session.”

“I thought the session was informative, engaging and very eye-opening. The fact it was two hours meant that although the sections may have been a little more time pressured, it was more engaging and easier to focus. I also liked the interactive part of the session, giving us a chance to participate in an anonymous way.”

Session attendees

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