Northern Ireland LGB&T forum wins partnership award

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGB&T) Health and Social Care Staff Forum has won the Social Partnership Forum award for partnership working with trade unions at the UK-wide Healthcare People Management Association (HPMA) 2014 awards.

HPMA is a national professional body which focusses on the delivery of human resources in healthcare settings across the UK. It seeks to showcase projects that make a difference in workplaces and to patients accessing health and social care services. HPMA strives to promote innovative ways of working to achieve more effective and efficient work practices. The award ceremony took place in London on the 26 June.

Established in 2010, the LGB&T Staff Forum aims to help increase awareness and support for staff that identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender working within Health and Social Care (HSC) in Northern Ireland.

The forum, which is supported by the human resources directors across all HSC organisations and the trade unions, is a step forward in helping to ensure equality and diversity is high on the agenda across all organisations.

Speaking about the award, Jacqui Kennedy, Assistant Director of Human Resources at the Business Services Organisation, said: “We are delighted that the LGB&T HSC Staff Forum has won this prestigious award. We presented to the panel of judges in May who were impressed by the work in Northern Ireland and saw it as an excellent example of partnership working between HR, the trade unions and HSC staff in helping to raise awareness and visibility for LGB&T staff working across all HSC organisations.”

Diversity is a key theme for the Public Health Agency (PHA) this year and the recent Director of Public Health annual report helped highlight the importance of equality and diversity across all areas of public health policy and practice.

Dr Carolyn Harper, Director of Public Health at the PHA, said: “The HPMA awards provide an important opportunity to raise awareness of the work that the PHA is doing with our HR and trade union colleagues to promote LGB&T-inclusive workplaces. We are also delighted to announce the PHA is the first HSC organisation in Northern Ireland to become involved in the Diversity Champion Northern Ireland programme which is being offered by the Rainbow Project.

“We hope that we will be seen as an example for all our HSC colleagues by providing leadership and increased visibility of sexual orientation and gender identity within our organisations policies as well as the services we commission. This will not only benefit staff working within our services that identify as LGB&T but also the wider public who access our services.”

Further information on the LGB&T Staff Forum can be found at www.lgbtstaff.hscni.net and information on The Rainbow Project Diversity Champion Northern Ireland programme can be found at www.diversitychampionsni.org.

For information on the Healthcare People Management Association (HPMA) 2014 award see www.hpma.org.uk