This report has been designed to show LSCFT’s commitment and progress to the inclusion and belonging agenda.

We celebrate the diversity of our workforce, we strive to improve the experiences of our colleagues whilst creating a space that they feel they can be authentically themselves. We embrace the feedback from our communities and accept the challenge to do better whilst taking accountability for the mistakes we have made. We value the bravery of those willing to share their experiences to aid our development. We know that celebration, transparency and reflection is fundamental to our journey. However, there is no change without commitment to action. Below are our 2025 to 2027 priority actions to achieve our goal to be an inclusive organisation that provides an environment that our colleagues and service users feel safe, can be themselves and can belong, whilst meeting the needs of our communities and breaking down the barriers that cause health inequalities.

This year we have seen multiple great developments and pieces of work and feedback which we can celebrate as an organisation:

  • Launch of our “I want you to know video” that details the everyday racism in LSCFT to generate the power of change.
  • Launch of mutual mentoring, harnessing the power of developing understanding and empathy from listening to lived experiences.
  • Strengthening of zero tolerance through principles and policy.
  • Received a CQC Good rating which highlighted the progress of the inclusion agenda and clear examples of inclusive leadership.
  • Implementation of a centralised reasonable adjustments function.
  • Achieved Bronze accreditation in the North West BAME Assembly Anti-racist framework.

The key elements of delivery in year two are:

  • Embedding of zero tolerance within clinical policy.
  • Clarity of the response to harm from service users to all colleagues but with specific action for our minority colleagues.
  • Use of equality monitoring data including ethnicity groups to support representation within leadership and development opportunities.
  • Achievement of Silver accreditation in the North West BAME Assembly Anti-racist framework.
  • Delivery of key actions to be a disability confident employer.

Diversity and inclusion two year plan

Joy and pride in work strategic goals

  • Colleagues feel valued and proud to be in LSCFT and would recommend the Trust as a place to work.
  • Colleagues will have better health and wellbeing and feel that they can bring their whole selves to work.
  • We will support every person to reach their potential through education, learning, research, improvement and innovation.

Annual delivery priority: Year 1 (2025/26) - By the end of Q4 2026, increase the diversity and inclusion competency of Board members and leadership by delivering workshops focusing on cultural awareness, not racist vs anti-racist, and inclusive leadership, ensuring that 90% of participants demonstrate measurable improvement through pre- and post-workshop assessments.

Actions to be delivered:

  • Implement within Board and leadership annual development specific modules on allyship within leadership (with an intersectional lens), being an anti-racist leader and challenging the inequalities of our workforce through an intersectional lens.
  • Board members should demonstrate how organisational data and lived experience have been used to improve culture.
  • Board to participate in the internal mutual mentoring programme.
  • All leaders at Band 8a and above must have a personal development plan goal agreed around equality, diversity and inclusion, and a process to report annually the percentage of these goals that have been met.
  • Ensure comprehensive 360, coaching, team and leadership development at both Executive Team and Trust Management Board level includes compassion and inclusivity content and reflection.
  • Create and implement a talent management plan to improve the diversity of executive and senior leadership teams.

Outcomes:

  • An inclusive Board that can respond to the needs of its communities and includes inclusion concerns with strategic planning.
  • 75% of Board completed the mutual mentoring programme.
  • SMART EDI goals set for band 8a and above with 75% completion rate.

Annual delivery priority: Year 1 (2025/26) - By the end of Q4 2026, enhance colleagues' competence and confidence in diversity and inclusion by aligning the diversity and inclusion development offer to the expected values and behaviours, include bitesize resources, and achieving at least 80% positive feedback from participants through post-training surveys.

Actions to be delivered:

  • Development of Bitesize modules to be hosted on LMSx based on the feedback gained from colleagues and their development needs.
  • Review of the diversity and inclusion development offer and alignment of diversity and inclusion core training across the Trust’s development offers.
  • Collaboration with colleague inclusion networks to promote the diversity and inclusion development offer across the Trust.
  • Embedding of the “I want you to know” video within all core training content across LSCFT.
  • Development of accessible diversity and inclusion resources to be hosted on SharePoint.
  • Clear communications on the diversity and inclusion agenda aligned to Trust branding.
  • Development offer to support services that have been impacted by policy, legislation or national changes with an equality impact.
  • Give international recruits access to the same development opportunities as the wider workforce.

Outcomes:

  • An additional 250 colleagues to have completed an aspect of the Trust allyship journey.
  • Improved understanding of the impact of discrimination and mitigating actions to be taken.
  • An accessible and supporting diversity and inclusion offer for LSCFT.

Annual delivery priority: Year 1 (2025/26) - By the end of Q4, build trust in functions for raising concerns, with the 2026 Staff Survey showing at least a 15% improvement.

Actions to be delivered:

  • Completion and Implementation of Zero Tolerance priority.
  • Delivery of the Bank Experience Improvement Plan.
  • Work in collaboration with Employee Relations to create HR processes that review incidents of harm with a clear intersectional lens including seeking possible detriment.
  • Development of HR and Investigating Officers to ensure they are diversity and inclusion competent.
  • Collaboration with Employee Relations to build peer review and lessons learnt process for all informal and formal proceedings aligned to harm.
  • Increase diverse visibility of the FTSU function and ambassadors.
  • Implement recommendations from Difference matters: The impact of Ethnicity on speaking Roger Kline report with FTSU function.
  • Create an environment where staff feel able to speak up and raise concerns, with steady year-on-year improvements. Boards should review this by protected characteristic.

Outcomes:

  • Achieve parity within workforce equality metrics on likelihood of entering disciplinary process.
  • 5% reductions in grievances which include a protected characteristics and is aligned to relationships and cultural incompetence.
  • Cultural and diversity and inclusion competent investigating officers.
  • Increased trust in LSCFT’s speaking up processes.

Annual delivery priority: Year 1 (2025/26) - By the end of Q4, establish at least two strategic community collaborations aimed at enhancing social mobility and workforce experiences by implementing joint initiatives, such as Citizens, career development workshops, and community engagement events, with an increased understanding of community collaboration and organising in pre and post evaluation.

Actions to be delivered:

  • Diversity and inclusion partnership with Community Roots to roll out and build awareness of Lancashire Citizens.
  • Increase community stakeholders list to be LSCFT critical friends in relation to diversity and inclusion matters and expand our educational offer.
  • Development of the equality impact assessment process and development to improve the understanding and challenge of health inequalities including poverty.
  • Implement a plan to widen recruitment opportunities within local communities, aligned to the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. This should include the creation of career pathways into the NHS such as apprenticeship programmes and graduate management training schemes.

Outcomes:

  • Stakeholder and partnership list of community organisations with terms of engagements in place.
  • Raised awareness of community organising.
  • Clear understanding of health inequalities and how colleagues can positively influence the agenda.

Annual delivery priority: Year 2 (2025/26) - By the end of Q2, embed and enhance the visibility of Zero Tolerance principles across the Trust by integrating them into all policies, communications, and training programs, ensuring that at least 60% of staff can identify and apply these principles with an intersectional perspective, as measured through quarterly surveys and scenario-based assessments.

Actions to be delivered:

  • Embedding Zero Tolerance and anti-racist principles and statement within all policies and processes.
  • Clear responsibilities for Zero Tolerance and anti-racist practice based on job gradings included in all new job descriptions.
  • Development of Zero Tolerance process from incidents of harm from services users to colleagues.
  • Include anti-racist statement within policy template as standard.
  • Create clear Zero Tolerance guidance based on updated, polices, procedures and resources.
  • Development of Zero Tolerance bitesize learning modules to be hosted on LMSx.
  • Implementation of Zero Tolerance and anti-racist statement within appraisals and Trust objective setting process.
  • Creation of Zero Tolerance communication resources and clear communications plan with Zero Tolerance branding.
  • Ensure safe and effective policies and processes are in place to support staff affected by domestic abuse and sexual violence (DASV). Support should be available for those who need it, and staff should know how to access it.

Outcomes:

  • A trust wide understanding of what Zero Tolerance means at LSCFT.
  • A clear process of how to respond to incidents of harm from our service users to our colleagues.
  • A clear development offer with mandated elements to support our colleagues to uphold zero tolerance and be truly anti-racist.

Annual delivery priority: Year 2 (2026/27) - By the end of Q1, 50% of managers to have completed reasonable adjustments training and upscaling the hidden talents, with at least a 10% improvement across all WDES metrics.

Actions to be delivered:

  • Complete implementation of RACH and establishment of the budget.
  • Clear development offer to build colleague competency around the Disability agenda, with specific attention around neurodiversity.
  • Review of Inclusive recruitment policy and guidance to ensure neurodiversity is clearly represented.
  • Development of WDES to include intersectional reporting and breakdown of disability types across all metrics.
  • Collaboration with digital to support digitalisation process and assessment of accessibility of new processes.

Outcomes:

  • Clear RACH process with escalation points to eliminate detriment to colleagues and reduce risk of legal proceedings to the organisation.
  • Ability to demonstrate savings made through implementation of the RACH process.
  • Achieve disability confident leader accreditation.

Annual delivery priority: Year 2 (2026/27) - Achieve Silver within the NW BAME assembly anti-racist framework.

Actions to be delivered:

  • Set up a local Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic leadership council within your organisation.
  • Leaders/managers to identify actions and create plans within their work to advance anti-racism.
  • Evidence of inclusive leadership education for all executive directors.
  • An executive director must attend Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff network meetings at least four times a year.
  • Set targets and a published talent trajectory for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic representation across every level of the organisation.
  • An organisation should have a dedicated positive action secondment or stretch projects programme in place to give Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic colleagues the chance to gain experience to support with career progression.

Outcomes:

  • Achievement of Silver.

Annual delivery priority: Year 2 (2026/27) - By the end of Q4, begin the strategic alignment of diversity and inclusion data across the Trust by developing a centralised diversity and inclusion data dashboard, ensuring all networks have targets across all metrics and provide a quarterly progress update, and providing training/communication for 100% of colleagues on how to understand and use the data, as measured through quarterly audits and feedback surveys.

Actions to be delivered:

  • Development of communications to build awareness and development of the workforce equality metrics.
  • Inclusion of network workforce equality metrics with network KPIs with clear stretch targets.
  • Development and review of data related to diversity and inclusion initiatives implemented to provide an evidenced based approach to create sustainable change.
  • Translation of equality monitoring data for leadership and career development opportunities to better understand the impact and reach of current offers, understand barriers to progression and proactively provide career development opportunities for underrepresented groups including race, gender and disability.
  • Review of all development offers evaluation processes.
  • Development and implementation of a diversity and inclusion dashboard that shows quarterly progress against workforce equality metrics.
  • NHS boards must review relevant data to establish EDI areas of concern and prioritise actions. Progress will be tracked and monitored via the Board Assurance Framework.

Outcomes:

  • A workforce that understands the transparent picture of the experiences of working with LSCFT.
  • Quarterly metrics to understand within year the progress aligned to annual priorities.
  • Clear evidenced based approach to diversity and inclusion.