Rehan Uddin, Maia Thomas and Kevin Dixon.

The action notes from the meetings of the panel held on 17 November 2021 were agreed as a correct record of the meeting.

The panel asked a range of questions to the representatives from Devon Partnership NHS Trust (DPT) and the key points that came out of the questioning were:

·         Devon Partnership Trust (DPT) is a mental health and learning disability trust providing a wide range of NHS services to people with mental health and learning disability needs - in Devon, the wider South West region and nationally. The Trust also commissions regional secure services as lead provider within the South West Provider Collaborative.

·         DPT employs around 4,000 full time equivalent staff. The vision of the organisation is to build an inclusive society where the importance of mental health and wellbeing is universally understood and valued.

·         The DPT board has recently approved a new Trust Strategy for the next three years, of which one of the key objectives is to promote social justice and inclusion in the widest sense for all communities served by DPT, including Torbay and to tackle discrimination. The aim is to foster a culture where patients and staff feel able to be themselves and bring their whole selves to their care, treatment and employment.

·         DPT make it clear that they value diversity of experience as well as background which helps to make an impact upon the mental health and well-being of their patients but also their staff and wider society. They are clear they have more to do to ensure staff and patients get the support and services they need in a holistic and personalised way but summarised how huge progress is already being made.

·         The Director of Corporate Affairs for DPT provides executive leadership on equality, diversity and inclusion. Part of that role is to ensure all organisational policies, procedures and strategies maintain a focus on all aspects of equality and inclusion and how those aspects are potentially impacted.

·         A higher than average proportion of the Devon population of senior doctors from Black or Asian or Minority Ethnic groups (BAME) are employed at DPT but not in other senior roles. This is being addressed by looking at how support can be given to make sure BAME employees have equal opportunities to progress through career pathways and wider targeted recruitment at people from diverse ethnic backgrounds.

·         The Trust uses a combination of locally collected and wider Devon census data to ascertain the representation of their service users. They stated they don’t appear to have to have an overrepresentation of people from BAME groups using their services, but numbers are very small and need to be considered carefully. In partnership with Public Health and other organisations, DPT is making sure people can access their services and are working with different community groups and networks to help them find the best ways to reach people.

·         DPT works to ensure people feel that they are being seen and treated as an individual and that their cultural needs are recognised through all aspects of care and treatment.

·         DPT has set up and is running a range of staff networks, one of which is  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.