The WRES is a tool which will be used to capture evidence of the workforce experience at a national and organisational level. It will enable workforce data to be consistently scrutinised against common indicators grouped under four domains,
It will highlight where there are disparities in the experience of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic health and social care staff. By doing this it will support organisations to implement targeted action to address systemic issues to improve the experiences of the Ethnic Minority workforce. Improving workforce experience for Ethnic Minority staff will improve the experience of all staff, and in turn that will improve patient and public outcomes, supporting the quadruple aims of A Healthier Wales: Our Plan for Health and Social Care.
The concept of introducing a Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) for Health and Social care in Wales was proposed during 2021 as part of the Welsh Government’s consultation on the Race Equality Action Plan: An Anti- racist Wales (REAP) in order to address historic poor workforce data on racial disparities. During the consultation issues were raised by NHS Wales and social care staff including:
Following consultation, the REAP was renamed The Anti-racist Wales Action Plan (ArWAP) and published in June 2022. The development of the WRES for Health and Social Care is a key priority action in the (ArWAP) and will catalyse successful delivery of the Health and Social Care Goals across the plan.
A scoping exercise was conducted in social partnership in April 2022, to agree the workforce reporting requirements to measure progress in race equality across Primary, Secondary and Social Care and identify data to catalyse systemic, organisational level change.
When implemented, data in relation to ethnicity and gender related disadvantage will be routinely collated, shared and used transparently, to level inequalities in health and access to health services, and provide assurance that the NHS Wales is an anti-racist and safe environment for staff and patients.
The WRES will be a means by which to measure the impact of wider actions in the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan to ensure Wales is an anti-racist nation by 2030.