Woke NHS trusts are paying over £4,000 each to send senior staff on equality, diversity and inclusion training courses, we can reveal.
The programme is run by the NHS Confederation, the leading healthcare membership body, which regularly complains the NHS is short of cash.
But it is charging members, including NHS trusts and integrated care systems, £3,500+VAT to enrol managers on its four-and-a-half day course.
It says participants will be supported to ‘build a national profile’ for the EDI agenda and ‘collectivise their interests’ to ‘influence decision makers’.
The NHS Confederation last week published the findings of its own survey of 560 chief executives, chairs, HR directors and EDI leaders.
The programme is run by the NHS Confederation, the leading healthcare membership body, which regularly complains the NHS is short of cash
It reported that ‘100 per cent of board-level leaders agreed that investing in EDI is a key part of improving the NHS’.
However, a report commissioned by business secretary Kemi Badenoch today found the majority of spending on EDI is a waste of money.
She said Britain’s diversity drive has been ‘counterproductive’ and warned that inclusion policies must not come at the expense of white men.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt also used his Budget earlier this month to urge councils to cut spending on such policies and Rishi Sunak has appointed a ‘common sense minister’.
Current estimates put NHS annual spending on dedicated EDI roles in the range of £40million.
The Mail told previously how former health secretary Steve Barclay had slammed NHS bosses for wasting taxpayers’ money on costly diversity officers rather than funding frontline care.
However, a report commissioned by business secretary Kemi Badenoch today found the majority of spending on EDI is a waste of money. She said Britain’s diversity drive has been ‘counterproductive’ and warned that inclusion policies must not come at the expense of white men
He told managers to stop paying fees to external diversity advisors and to axe dedicated EDI posts or publicly explain why they think they are more valuable than doctors and nurses.
Mr Barclay is understood to have acted after discovering a hospital that was seeking to recruit a ‘director of equality, diversity and inclusion’ on a salary of up to £96,376.
Tory MP Paul Bristow, who sits on the Commons health and social care committee, said: ‘I have never read a briefing from the NHS Confederation that does not call for more funding for the health service.
‘I think taxpayers will therefore take a dim view that it is charging NHS organisations to send their staff on one of its EDI courses.
‘This money should be spent on increasing capacity and helping to clear the backlog of patients waiting for care.’
It is understood 12 organisations have enrolled staff on the latest NHS Confederation course, with each trust or ICS potentially sending more than one person each.
The course includes three days of in-person training and three half-day virtual sessions.
There is no additional charge for each extra member of staff from the same organisation.
Marketing material promoting the NHS Confederation course says: ‘Participants will be supported to build a national profile for the tackling inequalities EDI agenda through identifying and collectivising their interests and coordinating an approach to influencing decision-makers, based on first-hand knowledge of EDI/HI in practice.’
The latest NHS workforce race equality standard report, published this week, shows number of NHS staff from ethnic minority backgrounds has soared over the last five years, rising from less than one in five in 2018 to more than one in four in 2023.
Callum McGoldrick, from the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers are tired of public services wasting time and money on woke non-jobs and training.
‘The health service is being stretched in all directions and is rapidly approaching breaking point but precious hours are being devoted to unnecessary navel gazing.
‘NHS bosses need to put an end to ridiculous time wasting exercises.’
Joan Saddler, director of partnerships and equality at the NHS Confederation, said: ‘We are committed to helping our members tackle inequalities, discrimination and be as inclusive as possible to both their staff and local communities.
‘Health leaders have told us they value this support from us and the evidence on why it and other guidance is needed speaks for itself, with racism, misogyny and harassment still permeating across society and the NHS itself being the most diverse employer in the country whose services touch every aspect of our lives.
‘We will continue to act in the best interests of our members and provide any support we can to help them confront and address these challenges.’
