NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard

The NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) is an essential tool in supporting the NHS to be an inclusive and fair workplace. It helps evaluate progress and identify areas where further improvement is needed.

Implementing the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) is a requirement for NHS commissioners and NHS healthcare providers, through the NHS standard contract.

The NHS Equality and Diversity Council announced on 31 July 2014 that it had agreed action to ensure employees from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds have equal access to career opportunities and receive fair treatment in the workplace.

This is important because studies shows that a motivated, included and valued workforce helps deliver high quality patient care, increased patient satisfaction and better patient safety.

Background to WRES

The Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) was introduced in 2015 to help NHS organisations identify improvements to manage and monitor inequalities through nine workforce indicators. It aims to support a more inclusive NHS workforce and improving care quality, patient satisfaction and workforce experience.

The first WRES report, was published in June 2016.

Since then, annual reporting has continued to highlight both areas of improvement and challenge. WRES is now firmly embedded as part of business-as-usual across NHS provider trusts, supporting continuous improvement in workforce race equality through consistent data monitoring, local accountability and shared good practice

The NHS EDI Improvement Plan was published in June 2023, setting out six focussed high impact actions that aim to  improve equality, diversity and inclusion, and to enhance the sense of belonging for NHS staff to improve their experience.

2024 WRES report

We recommend that the findings of this report are used to support local and system improvements.

Previous WRES reports

Resources and guidance

Contact us

If you have questions about the WRES programme or reporting, please contact the national team: england.mandatedstandards@nhs.net