Wes Streeting is offended by NHS staff promoting ‘anti-whiteness’ – as should any taxpayer who has not succumbed to the racist ideology of critical race theory. A social media post from a counselling psychologist with the East London NHS Foundation Trust sought an assistant on a year-long placement, describing herself as someone ‘who integrates anti whiteness/ anti racist praxis into supervision and approaches to clinical work.’
Streeting said, addressing a Macmillan Cancer Support event: ‘There are some really daft things being done in the name of equality, diversity and inclusion which undermine the cause… the ideological hobby horses have to go.’ But he still thinks that DEI jobs should still exist in the NHS, citing differential rates of cancer among black people as a reason. He should remember the words of Tony Blair who complained of ‘scars on my back’ from trying to reform the NHS but who, in the end, said he wished he had gone much further.
The last government was supposed to have called time on the proliferation of DEI jobs in the NHS: former health secretary Steve Barclay ordered the health service to stop creating dedicated DEI roles. Yet the NHS ignored him. Trawl the NHS jobs site and it isn’t hard to find yourself a DEI job paying a handsome salary.
Here is a one of many: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Partner (Health Inequalities) for the Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust. This offers a salary of up to £52,000 for someone interested in ‘motivating leaders to collaborate on implementing changes that will enhance equality-related performance’ – in other words, someone who can help the trust tick the right boxes when it comes to an equality audit. If they can’t find obvious cases of inequality they will have to conjure them up somehow in order to justify their existence.
How does the salary compare with clinical staff? Even after the substantial pay rise for junior doctors, those in the first two years are still earning less than a diversity officer: the latest NHS salary scales offer £36,616 to those in their first year and £42,008 to those in their second.
But it gets worse. Further reading of the Manchester DEI job reveals that the successful applicant will be able to take advantage of the Blue Light Card scheme, which offers discounts in shops, as well as free tickets to theatres and concerts. According to its founders it was created as a way of ‘thanking those within the emergency services’ – yet it seems that a deskbound (or sofa-bound, given that the job advert holds out the potential for flexible working) DEI officer also gets to enjoy the discounts and freebies. Is that who we were clapping on Thursday evenings during Covid: diversity officers?
The job advert also states that a lucky candidate will ‘experience a great northern welcome with people famed for their warmth, humour and generosity’. Hang on, but isn’t that the kind of prejudice that DEI officers are supposed to challenge? If northerners are full of warmth and generosity that implies that southerners are rather less so. I feel like applying for the job just so that when I get turned down I can sue the trust for discrimination on the grounds that they assumed I was cold fish because I live in the South.
Wes Streeting should take note of what Donald Trump did on taking office – as well as what an increasing number of private companies are doing – and close down the DEI industry for good. Would we miss it? I suspect not, but Streeting would certainly gain a good few million to spend on actual healthcare.
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