EDI Workstreams

EDI WORKing groups

We have established an NDM EDI Working Group in 2022 to help us identify key EDI priority areas and develop an EDI action plan for NDM specifically, to complement the activities and initiatives already underway within NDM and across the University. The Equality and Diversity Unit within the University have identified equality themes around disability, gender, race, religion and belief, sexual orientation and transgender and provide information about the University’s work in these areas.

The members of the NDM EDI Working Group are staff and students from across NDM who are interested in helping to progress our equality, diversity and inclusion work. Through our EDI Workstreams and our Athena Swan action plan we have made progress, but there is more we can do to promote and accelerate change. The NDM EDI Working Group will be helping the NDM EDI Committee to make that happen. The NDM EDI Working Groups will work with the NDM EDI Committee to identify where change needs to happen, propose action to address inequalities and implement initiatives as appropriate.

The NDM Working Group comprises individuals from across NDM from different staff groups, stages of career and with different experiences. It is anticipated that the EDI Working Groups will meet around 3-5 times a year, and each group will have the support of the NDM EDI Facilitator. We want to ensure that we engage with our staff to identify priority areas within NDM, and this is one of the mechanisms we would like to use.

Where do you think our NDM level working groups should focus? Do you want to be involved by joining an NDM EDI working group? We will use the feedback from the form below, as well as data from our staff surveys and other forms of information, to develop our working groups and priority areas of action.

You can use the form to make suggestions and to register your interest to be part of a working group.

Click here to submit your interest in a working group

The below is not an exhaustive list of current activity, but is instead intended to give you some examples of our key work streams. This content was last updated in March 2022.

• One of our targets is to ensure an increase in visible role models (through career profiles, interviews, events and podcasts) for all staff types and groups. In 2020 we expanded our career profiles to include Professional and Support Staff. Please see Career Interviews, Profiles and Podcast page. We have a small team seeking contributors to this project, and working with individuals to provide their career stories, ensuring we have profiles from a broad spectrum of individuals and currently underrepresented groups.

• To mark International Women's Day (March 8), the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine (NDM) recently sent some correspondence out across the Department, asking staff and students to let us know who has inspired them. We would like to recognise and celebrate the role models and inspiring individuals who have impacted the lives of our staff and students and influenced the choices that they have made. We were delighted to be able to launch our Inspiring Women webpage recently, which can be viewed via our Career Interviews, Profiles and Podcasts Athena Swan page. It is important to note that when we refer to women in any of our projects or initiatives, we include trans women and no-binary people who are comfortable in a female centred community.

• During 2018, NDM hosted the Oxford Mindfulness Centre to run a Mindfulness Course. The taster session was run in December 2018 and was fully booked with 50 attendees. The full course, fully funded by WHG (NDM), has been running since January 2019 and each session has been fully booked.
• In 2020 the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine (NDM) established a partnership with Mental Health First Aid England to provide awareness briefing sessions and develop a Mental Health Ally programme for NDM staff.  Our aim is to raise awareness of Mental Health, reduce stigma and improve peer support for staff in NDM. 16 staff from across NDM attended the one-day pilot, Mental Health First Aiders Champions course, in October 2019. Awareness training took place across October and November 2020, with all 50 available spaces booked. The full Mental Health First Aid course took place in December 2020, and since May 2021 a network of 22 trained Mental Health Allies across NDM has been established to support staff across the department. They can act as an initial point of contact for staff experiencing a mental health issue or emotional distress, can provide support and signpost to appropriate help if required.  
• The NDM Learning and Development team have developed and launched, during 2020, a new Health and Wellbeing website page, pulling together resources, guidance and information from across the University (including link to menopause resources, free Care First counselling services, Occ health, peer-to-peer support).
• We will continue to publish new flexible working case studies, which were expanded and re-launched during 2019, with the intention to help staff consider the pros and cons of requesting flexible working for their situation, and raise awareness of the benefits for both employee and employer.

• The Head of Department, Associate Head of Department and Head of HR for NDM regularly review case work to identify any patterns or reoccurring themes, and act to address issues as appropriate.
• Following a review, additional NDM Harassment Advisors have been established (from 18 to 23 during 2019), and contact listings are regularly updated.
• Awareness raising initiatives have included posters, leaflets, updates in the NDM Newsletter and circulars.
• On 11th June 2021, a pilot course on Being a Responsible Bystander was offered to staff across NDM. There were 12 places for the pilot session, and 88% felt the course met its objectives, and would recommend the training to colleagues. A second workshop was run in October 2021.
• Data from the 2018 survey suggested that peer-to-peer conflict may be an issue, and so in response, specific training for managers has been developed. On the 22nd June 2021 we ran a fully booked course on Understanding and Dealing with workplace bullying and harassment: guidance for managers. Following positive feedback, the course is running again, on 8th December 2021.
• Mandatory courses for all new starters includes Challenging Behaviour, Equality and Diversity training, Unconscious Bias training, and Managing People for new line managers.
• It is anticipated that there will be a dedicated section within the Managers induction and associated Managers Toolkit resource.

• Several courses will continue to be mandatory for line managers and leaders when they start in post, including Unconscious Bias, Equality and Diversity training, Challenging Behaviour and Managing People.
• A dedicated Line Managers induction is being expanded, to be supported by a Managers Toolkit resource, following recommendations from the Athena SWAN Working Group investigating a Managers Toolkit resource. The toolkit will provide information and guidance on a range of topics for both new and existing managers, signposting to additional resources.

• Following feedback in our Staff Surveys, members of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine (NDM) were invited to take part in an Athena Swan Working Group, focusing on making recommendations to improve to the PDR system and enhancing its usefulness to its users. The recommendations from that group were incorporated into a new on-line PDR system, which was launched in 2022, and supported by Simitive. Improvements have been made in areas such as the process, form design, delivery method, guidance, senior championing, feedback loop, consensus reaching, reporting capabilities and training.

• NDM’s hosted training and development programme, with specialised courses, is reviewed and launched on an annual basis, in collaboration with POD, and other providers where appropriate. With effect from 2019, a career development opportunities schedule with events and talks is circulated on a quarterly basis across NDM and also made available on the NDM website, following the recommendations of the Career Resource Development working group.
• On 28 March 2022, NDM hosted the first Professional Services Conference, a day of inspiring talks and networking opportunities for professional and support staff across NDM.

• The Nuffield Department of Medicine (NDM) in partnership with Oxford Tropical Network hosted the 2019 Equity in Academia symposium on 12^th September 2019 in Oxford, which was attended by over 100 international speakers and delegates, representing Kenya, South Africa, Switzerland, UK, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal and Vietnam. The one-day meeting brought together a diverse and international audience, as well as experts working in health sciences to discuss some of the barriers to under-represented groups and to recognise current challenges for equity and diversity, with a focus on three central themes: unconscious bias, promotion of under-represented groups in academia, and barriers in academic publishing. The event provided opportunities for reflection, networking and personal development, as well as generated insights into shared challenges and new ideas for future action steps. Our sessions embraced dialogue to create solutions, networks, and an environment in which academic equity can be improved. Brilliant art was provided by Drawnalism’s Alex Hughes, capturing the mood and themes throughout the day. A paper was developed and published as a result of the symposium: Wedekind L, Noé A, Mokaya J et al. Equity for excellence in academic institutions: a manifesto for change [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]. Wellcome Open Res 2021, 6:142 (https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16861.1). PMID: 34381874

• In 2022 the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine (NDM) have partnered with AdvanceHE to support, develop and enhance inclusive approaches to leadership within the Department, and seek to tackle issues that have been raised by our staff in the 2021 University Staff Experience Survey. The initial consultation phase, with small groups of senior leaders, will help NDM develop a vision for inclusive leadership within NDM and maximise the opportunity for sustained cultural change. The second phase is focused on providing training to our leaders and senior managers to actively develop inclusive, transparent and supportive practice.

• The Athena SWAN Self-Assessment Team (SAT), the NDM Learning and Development Team and Senior Management are considering what additional training may be required as mandatory and are also looking at the expansion of the leadership programmes and training opportunities currently on offer.