On 12 April, the NHS England Board agreed Putting Patients First: the NHS England Business Plan for 2013/14-2015/6.

We have set ourselves three interim equality objectives for April to October 2013, which will ensure that our own policy making, decisions and activities are compliant with the public sector Equality Duty, and provide system leadership to Clinical Commissioning Groups and other parts of the NHS. These are as follows:

• NHS England will ensure that the public sector Equality Duty is embedded and reflected within all of its core business processes, including direct commissioning and workforce development.
• NHS England will implement the Equality Delivery System (EDS) and use it to help it deliver on the general and specific duties of the public sector Equality Duty
• NHS England will ask Clinical Commissioning Groups to adopt the EDS where they have not already done so, and will support CCGs to meet the public sector Equality Duty and to publish their own Equality Objectives by October 2013.

From April to October 2013, NHS England will carry out engagement with its staff, NHS organisations, patients and the public, and other stakeholders including the third sector, to reflect on the conduct and achievement of the interim Equality Objectives, and to agree its strategic Equality Objectives from October 2013. These strategic Equality Objectives will not focus on processes as the interim Equality Objectives do: rather, they will focus on outcomes for patients and/or staff, and be specific and measurable.