East of England Ambulance Service racism report makes 'difficult reading'
Blackface at a work fancy dress party, making monkey sounds and even laughing at colleagues who were unable to eat during Ramadan are just some of the incidents witnessed by staff members at the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST).
The claims come after a specialist equality, diversity, and inclusion consultancy firm was employed to produce a report on EEAST.
There were 120 Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) staff members contacted by McKenzie LLP with 58 employees giving responses.
Several of those responses said that many BME staff members had been asked to translate for patients speaking "gobbledygook", even if they didn't speak their language: "Assumptions are made based on the colour of your skin, I was asked to translate for someone speaking Arabic, the reason given for the request was that ‘I look like one of them’. I don’t even speak Asian - never mind Arabic.”
Another comment claimed that "when my team were ordering a takeaway they didn’t order me one as they told me that they were ordering a curry and I was probably sick of them as I must eat them all the time”.
Some of the employees that answered the survey said that they had complained after a manager's husband "coloured himself black and dressed as Mr T" for a work fancy dress party and were ignored.
One person said: "EEAST suffers from 'own racism bias' phenomenon which I have personally experienced at least 20 times in the trust in 20 months."
Report author, Lauren Singleton, deputy director of culture and leadership, wrote that "the survey makes difficult reading".
"There is evidence of very outdated behaviours and attitudes among a minority of managers.
"There could be a negative impact on the Trust’s reputation as a safe and positive place to work, which might be perceived to undermine the good work done around the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and CQC in recent months," the report says.
Other claims include staff members talking about a colleague who is Asian and "mimicked monkey sound" when they were talking about him.
Only 22% of respondents felt that managers would act upon any complaints made, with many referencing previous issues raised which had been ignored.
"It was highlighted (to the rest of the team) that I was stood there. Nobody apologised they just carried on talking as if it were perfectly acceptable.”
One person reported that during Ramadan "people openly joked in front of groups of colleagues about eating food in front of me".
They also claimed people had made comments about their culture and name and that their name wasn't even spelt properly on the system.
Out of everyone who took the survey, 60% of people did not believe that opportunities to advance their career progression were equally available to all staff.
The survey also showed that 60% of respondents did not believe that opportunities for career advancement, training and progression were equally available to all staff.
One member said it was "heart-wrenching" to see BME colleagues going above and beyond without getting "any recognition for their skills, to then have non-BME person promoted over them by the "all white middle management".
The report did say that old-fashioned attitudes to race equality do exist, it is "extremely rare" for them to experience the discrimination demonstrated within EEAST from a sector of the NHS.
The report summary said that although some of the poor behaviour occurred before his arrival, EEAST chief executive Tom Abell had met members of the BME network to apologise.
The Trust's executive team added: "A zero tolerance for such poor behaviour was confirmed, and if repeated, appropriate and proportionate action would be taken."
A three-year BME action and integrated inclusivity plan has been developed which aims to "increase levels of diversity, equality, fairness and transparency, across the Trust".
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