As an inclusive and diverse employer, we strive to cultivate a culture where every employee feels valued, respected, and recognised. Our policies and procedures are designed to ensure fair and consistent treatment for all staff at West Herts.

We're proud to have a workforce that reflects the diverse communities we serve and embraces the unique perspectives and experiences brought by differences in age, disability, gender identity, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sex, sexual orientation, and religion or belief.

Inclusion is so important to us and our staff that we made it one of our four Trust values.

This means it's embedded in everything we do as a trust and as individuals. From recruitment to appraisals, we make sure we continually value diversity and individuality in all its forms. We actively seek contributions from patients, partners and colleagues and we speak out against discrimination.

Our commitment

As a Trust, we are committed to:

  • demonstrating inclusive and compassionate leadership behaviours, proactively advocating the inclusion agenda and challenging unwanted behaviours. 
  • building an inclusive, anti-discriminatory workplace by combatting racism, bullying, discrimination and harassment. 
  • improving proportional representation of ethnicity, gender, disability and sexual orientation in all roles and bands. 
  • debiasing recruitment and access to development to drive career progression, leadership, and promote diversity of thought. 
  • continuing to invest in staff health and wellbeing to reduce health inequalities, increase resilience, and engagement. 
  • fostering collaborative relationships across the Trust. 
  • increasing the view of multicultural staff believing that trust provides equal opportunities for career progression or promotion. 

Anti-racism pledge

We are very proud of our truly multicultural workforce which brings together a wide range of experiences and knowledge from around the world.

To emphasis our commitment to inclusion, we have rolled out an anti-racism pledge across the Trust, which every one of our divisions has signed up to.

Read the anti-racism pledge in full.

Further information

Our staff networks play an essential role in creating a truly inclusive working environment as they are a pivotal route in the organisation for staff to come together, share experiences and enable voices to be heard in a psychologically secure environment.

Our current networks include:

  • Armed Forces
  • Connect Multicultural
  • Diversability
  • End Sexism in Medicine
  • Interfaith and Belief Network
  • LGBTQ+ Network
  • Solo Parents Network
  • Vegan Network
  • Women’s Network
  • Women as Medical Leaders
  • Working Carers Network

We're proud to be certified as a Disability Confident Leader.

This means that:

  • If you have a disability, we will always offer you an interview, if you have met the essential criteria
  • Our recruiting staff are aware of the requirement to offer reasonable adjustments, at interview stage, and this is cited our recruitment policy
  • If you are successful with your application, we have a network for staff with disabilities, which you can join upon starting your new role, who very much look forward to welcoming you.

We are also members of the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower scheme.

We know many of our employees also care for people outside of their work environment, taking care of family members, friends and neighbours. We offer flexible working arrangements and have an active staff network where carers can help and support each other. Find out more about our Caring for Carers service.

We collaborate closely with local charity Carers in Herts.

We are proud to be a Carer Confident employer, and we are currently working towards achieving the level 2 accreditation in 2025.

We provide support to staff members who are, have been, or are family members of people who served in the armed forces (in the UK or elsewhere).

We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and hold the Bronze award from the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme with the aim of progressing up to Silver in 2025.

In 2024, we achieved Veteran Aware status.