Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) – indicators for the NHS bank only workforce

Introduction

The NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) was introduced in 2015 to ensure employees from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds have equal access to career opportunities and receive fair treatment in the workplace. With seven years’ worth of data we have made significant progress in several areas. However, as we recover from the pandemic and as part of the NHS’s continued learning, it is evident there is much more to be done.  The NHS is committed to continued innovation and progression for the WRES, including a focus on all parts of our workforce groups by employment contract in England to support actions that will tackle race inequality.

The Bank WRES is a bespoke development of indicators that are set against key areas of the People Promise and People Plan for this large part of our workforce. This document outlines the rationale for these indicators and explains how they will work. A full set of data against these indicators will be analysed and presented as part of the annual WRES data reporting for NHS trusts.

Background

The NHS is one of the world’s largest employers with around 1.38 million employees. The experiences of our workforce vary depending on profession, protected characteristic and terms of employment, so we continue to grow our understanding of these variations. 

For the purposes of this document, NHS bank workers are those who choose to work solely in the NHS by a casual contract. However small this proportion may be in some organisations, when collectively analysed, bank workers constitute a sizeable proportion of the NHS workforce. Bank only workers play a central role in ensuring the safe and effective delivery of patient care for the communities we serve. The NHS is bound by the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) to give due regard to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and encourage good relations for all members of our workforce, regardless of terms of employment.

Pairing the findings from the Bank WRES pilot work, along with cross teams data sharing from our key stakeholders, will explore how bank worker experiences may positively impact the NHS’s temporary staff spend, support the reduction on agency spend, and develop practical actions that will drive improvements. In the NHS across secondary and tertiary care, there are at any one point in time estimated to be over 150,000 bank only workers supporting NHS care delivery for our local communities. Bringing insight for this part of the NHS workforce will support our staffing and operational managers with evidence-based decision-making and also provide decision-makers, including Boards with an overview of their bank workforce.

Why people choose to be bank only workers

Working solely on a casual contract for the NHS as a bank worker is perceived as an attractive option by many colleagues who support delivery of care in the NHS.

Insights show that the flexibility of bank contracts has been attractive for workers who may not be able to get flexible working in permanent employment with the NHS. Flexible working arrangements in the NHS and the ability to ask for them during recruitment has only recently become a  standard of practice in 2021.

The demographic of bank only workers

Early indication from insights suggest that bank workers are made up of a high proportion of ethnic minority workers. The WRES team have specific responsibilities to ensure standards are in place to ensure any racial inequity in the NHS workforce is tackled. The Bank WRES will focus on colleagues who choose to work in the NHS on a casual contract and who have no other NHS employment contract in place.

The role of WRES

The Bank WRES programme is the start of our work to review this segment of the workforce through data; to understand where we are now, where we need to be and how we can get there, while ensuring our bank workers are treated with respect, equality and dignity in line with our Equality Act 2010 obligations.  Furthermore this work will clearly demonstrate evidence that the NHS upholds government legislation that ensures NHS workers are protected against unlawful discrimination

Why is different data required for bank workers?

The NHS People Plan and People Promise underpins our ambition to better understand and support our bank workforce. Gaining insight into the experiences of this part of our workforce will better inform us all on the priorities that are needed to be supported to ensure everyone in our NHS has a voice and a real sense of belonging.

The existing WRES data for substantively employed NHS staff does not currently include bank only workers. In order to meet the NHS’ workforce ambitions, clear data is needed to provide a strong evidence base for action.

In past years, some NHS trusts have conducted surveys of their bank workforce and acted on the findings. For the first time, during the 2022 NHS staff survey, there was a tailored version of the national survey for NHS bank workers, this survey was a voluntary option for trusts to adopt in the first year. Following the strongly encouraged, but non-mandated ask to NHS trusts on the participation of the National Bank Survey in 2022, we will be following this for the Bank WRES collections in this first year. After the first years’ work and findings, we are setting the ambition to see Bank WRES as a mandated requirement for NHS bank workers as it for its substantively employed NHS staff members.

Aims and objectives

The aim of the bank WRES is to understand how ethnicity, gender along with contract type intersects with the experience for this part of the NHS workforce. With its primary focus to set a meaningful and recognised standard of measures that will support the NHS to recognise variation, highlight positive practice and drive actions that will evidence clear steps toward belonging for this part of this workforce. The objective is to deliver a set of indicators for the bank-only workforce that fulfilled the following criteria:

  • To quantify the experiences of all bank only workers to support equality strategies that align to the ambitions of the People Plan.
  • To align with the existing WRES indicators allowing direct comparisons between the experiences of bank only and substantive staff, identifying where common strategies for bank only workers and substantive staff may succeed, and where approaches need to differ.
  • To bring insights that will provide robust evidence to support national workforce planning and actions across the NHS, linking to meaningful data to attraction, retention and working culture streams.
  • To develop insights sensitive to both the experience of bank workers, as well as the impact of bank worker experience on the organisation.
  • To develop insights that will help the NHS further explore relationships between WRES indicators and spending on temporary staff amongst NHS provider organisations.
  • To build an understanding of the needs and circumstances of bank-only workers, with a view to better supporting elements or career progression and development within the NHS, and to help recognise and overcome barriers that are present.
  • To use data to bring national recognition to positive and inclusive local practices. Practices that could in future, help develop national policy for NHS workers.
  • To ensure that measures to reduce or increase expenditure and sourcing for this part of the workforce is underpinned by inclusion and engagement measures that reduce any disparities between white and other ethnic groups.

Development of the indicators for the NHS bank workforce

A comprehensive range of stakeholders have been involved in developing the Bank WRES. This includes national external providers of bank workers, national and local temporary staffing teams, established WRES networks (e.g. WRES experts), HR/OD leads, bank leads, data experts, staff side unions, the CQC and academic experts.  The consultation with these stakeholders has jointly led to the development of a tailored National NHS Bank Survey that has been collaboratively developed alongside the national NHS Staff Experience and Engagement and Temporary Staffing teams, which was offered on a voluntary basis alongside the 2022 NHS Staff Survey.

For more understanding and detail of the Bank WRES indicators please see annex A and B below.

Publication of WRES data for the NHS bank workforce

Bank WRES data will be obtained from two sources – firstly, NHS trusts submitting information, and secondly, information from the new annual National NHS Bank Survey 2022. The WRES team will review the submitted information and publish a national report and bespoke reports for submitters so that regional and local interventions can be designed and launched with the support of integrated care boards (ICBs).

Bank WRES is an NHS first in creating an evidence base to explore differential experiences in this segment of the workforce. Alongside this, its reporting will bring meaningful and new insights that will evidence actions toward workforce plans and bring great value to teams across our NHS. This will enable us to translate the evidence into meaningful, measurable actions to that over time will make changes that benefit our patients and all our workforce. 

Annex A – the Bank WRES and corresponding WRES standard indicators

Alignment for current WRES indicatorIndicators for the NHS bank workforce

Individuals employed by the NHS solely on casual contracts. 

Indicators 1 and 4-9: Split by ethnic grouping and gender
Indicator 2 and 3: Spilt by ethnic group only
Bank WRES: What the indicators aims to measure and understand

1: Percentage of staff in each of the AfC bands 1-9 and VSM (including executive board members) compared with the percentage of staff in the overall workforce.

1: Percentage of *active workers by ethnic group and gender across key grades and staff groups.

 

1: To understand the detail of the active bank only workforce and key elements of its demographics by position as this is currently not measured across the NHS.

 

 

3: Relative likelihood of staff entering the formal disciplinary process, as measured by entry into a formal disciplinary investigation.

2: Relative likelihood of bank workers entering a formal disciplinary process by ethnic group in the last 12 months.

 

This indicator (2) is also applicable to externally provided bank workers used in NHS organisations.

2: To understand patterns and draw comparisons against trust held substantive staff WRES data by ethnicity.

 

3: Relative likelihood of bank workers being formally dismissed by ethnic group, in the last 12 months (for conduct and capability).

 

3: To understand any disparities in dismissals based on ethnicity.

 

 

5: Percentage of staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from patients, relatives, or the public in last 12 months.

6: Percentage of staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from staff in last 12 months.

4a Percentage of bank workers experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from patients/service users, their relatives, or other members of the public in last 12 months.

4b: Percentage of bank workers experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from: other colleagues in the last 12 month

4c: Percentage of bank workers experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from: Managers in the last 12 months.

4d: Percentage of bank workers who experienced harassment, bullying or abuse at work who then proceeded to report it?

 

4a. To draw direct comparisons to substantive staff WRES data.

4b and 4c. To understand any variation in experience between peers and colleagues and managers/leaders and to draw direct comparisons to substantive staff WRES data.

4d. To better understand the reporting culture based on ethnicity and gender. 

5a: Percentage of bank workers that have personally experienced physical violence from patients/service users, their relatives, or other members of the public in the last 12 months.

5b: Percentage of workers who experienced physical violence at work who then proceeded to report it?

5a. To better understand the proportional spread of incidents in this area based on ethnicity and gender.

5b: To better understand the reporting culture based on ethnicity and gender.

6a: Percentage workers who would, in the next 12 months consider moving to work in a form of permanent employment in the NHS. 

6b: Percentage of bank workers that feel there are opportunities to develop their career in the organisation. 

6c: Percentage of workers whose main paid source of work is on the bank. 

6d: How long have bank only workers solely worked on the bank.

6a and b: To gain valuable insights toward the intention of bank workers to progress into more secure contracted work. To understand insights into perceived opportunities to develop. Looking at variations based on ethnicity and gender.

6c: To better understand the background of workers and variations based on gender and ethnicity.

6d: To gain an understanding and measure of length of time served on a bank only contract by ethnicity and gender.

8: In the last 12 months have you personally experienced discrimination at work from any of the following?

b) Manager/team leader or other colleagues.

7a: Percentage of bank wokers that have in the last 12 months personally experienced discrimination at work from managers/ team leaders or colleagues. 

7b: Percentage of bank workers that have in the last 12 months personally experienced discrimination at work from:  patients, relatives, or members of the public.

7a and b: To understand any variation in the sources of perceived discrimination from two key groups and to draw direct comparisons to substantive staff WRES data.

8a: Percentage of bank workers who feel that the organisation values their work contribution. 

8b: Percentage of bank workers that feel safe to speak up about anything that concerns them in their organisation. 

8c: Percentage of bank workers that think the organisation respects individual differences (e.g. cultures, working styles, backgrounds, ideas, etc.) 

8d: Percentage of bank workers that feel they receive the respect they deserve from colleagues at work.

 

 

8a, b, c and d: Indicators grouped to reflect key measures against the core principles and promises of the People Plan/Promise based on gender and ethnicity.

 

 

9: Percentage of bank workers who were originally recruited to the NHS from outside of the UK and now work in a bank only position.

 

9: To build understanding on the origins of this part of the bank workforce. In addition to also cross reference other survey indicators.

Annex B – Data sources for each indicator

All references to the term “bank workers” will be for individuals employed solely on a casual contract and who work directly for the NHS. The exception to this is indicator 2, this will require NHS organisations to seek input from outsourced bank suppliers in data acquisition (where applicable). For detail please see the Bank WRES technical guidance documents.

*Term: Active.

  • Active workers: refers to workers whom at the time of data capture have undertaken paid work/training within the last six-month period.
  • Indicator 1a: headcount data extracted from the NHS Electronic Staff Records (ESR) or appropriate workforce management data systems and will be coupled with bank workers banding and self-identified ethnic and gender categories to show variations amongst the bank workforce.
  • Indicator 2: headcount data to be collated from existing systems/records to identify NHS bank only individuals and cross reference data from ESR/provider data base systems by ethnic group for a 12-month period. This indicator is to give insights into the relative likelihood of individuals who formally entre the disciplinary process by NHS organisation by ethnic grouping
  • 2: This indicator is applicable to both internally and externally provided bank workers. Outsourced non-NHS bank only and NHS held bank only workers who enter a formal HR disciplinary process within an NHS trust.
  • Indicator 3: headcount data to be collated from existing systems/records to identify NHS held bank only individuals and cross reference data from ESR/provider data base systems by ethnic group for a 12-month period. This indicator is to give the relative likelihood of individuals who are formally dismissed by the NHS organisation under conduct and capability by ethnic grouping.
  • Indicators 4-9: All specific points in these indicators (4-9) will be directly accessed by the WRES team from the core data from bank staff survey findings.