AWE Inspiring! Trust launches All Women in EEAST

A special interest group established by Lindsey Stafford-Scott, Director of People and Culture to provide women within the Trust with networking opportunities, open up mentoring pathways and encourage and support personal and professional development has been launched.

The group’s objectives are supported by our new leadership strategy, which will be launched shortly, and results from the recent cultural audit which will be published in full in May.

By exploring in more depth the issues women face at work, and what we can do to break down barriers, the group aims to improve female representation in senior roles, accelerate gender pay equality and bring about real, tangible change.  Whilst we focus on issues impacting women at work we recognise that the positive changes we make will benefit everyone in EEAST.

However, an analysis of the gender split in EEAST revealed that at a Trust-wide level we have a 55% male, 45% female spilt. This masks a considerable difference at the senior level where we clearly see a male dominated workforce at Band 7 and above (executive roles have an 85% male, 15% female representation!).

The group have hit the ground running already, sharing experiences, developing networks and producing case studies on members’ experiences with flexible working. This follows on from the results of the Cultural Audit which reveal that Home-Work Conflict (e.g. work or shift patterns having a negative impact on family life) was the most frequently experienced workplace feature experienced by EEAST staff.

As a Trust, flexible working patterns are already supported internally for all staff under our flexible working policy. But there’s a lot more than can be done to explore additional ways we can support flexible working. A great example is that of Adam Gretton, Media Officer in the Trust’s communications team who recently took advantage of the shared parental leave scheme which was made available to UK families in 2015. You can read the full story here.

AWE aims to inspire all women in the Trust to be the best version of themselves they can. And to promote this AWE-someness and challenge gender stereotypes, two of our amazing women in EEAST; Sarah Ford and Emma-Louise Bowen Hillson are participating in an #AmbulancePullChallenge to show what the women of 2017 are all about. You can read more about this inspirational event happening on 21 May here.

If you would like to be involved in AWE please email Lindsey at lindsey.stafford-scott@eastamb.nhs.uk. Membership is open to all women in EEAST, however we also welcome the support of men who are keen to be involved as mentors or guest speakers.

During the group’s first year, meetings will be held monthly in a central location. Should you wish to attend during shift, the Trust will try to support this but we ask that you please have the correct approvals from your line managers.

Published 4th May, 2017

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