Women are 77% of NHS workforce but occupy only 41% board positions
pharmafile | March 29, 2017 | News story | Medical Communications | NHS
A new report, entitled Women on NHS board: 50:50 by 2020, found that women occupied only 41% of board positions across all 452 organisations, including NHS trusts and arms-length bodies (ALBs). This is despite the fact that 77% of people working within these organisations are women.
The report is the first time that an in-depth analysis has been conducted into the representation of women on NHS boards, and shows there is still significant work to be done to reach the aimed for figure of 50:50 representation by 2020.
In particularly worrying figures, just 26.3% of finance directors and 24.6% of medical directors are women. Contrasting against this was the finding that chief nurses, chief operating officers and human resource directors were found to be predominantly held by women, at 85.4%, 53.3% and 63% respectively.
Professor Ruth Sealy, of the University of Exeter and the lead researcher on the report, commented on the findings: “There are lots of women working in the NHS – in fact, they make up 77 per cent of the workforce within the health service. Women have been in the NHS long enough to occupy the top roles, and I am encouraged by the progress in this area. It is certainly not a problem of supply. But the fact that women are still underrepresented in key decision-making jobs, such as medical and finance directors, shows there is still work to be done. The will is there to make sure women are really playing an equal role running the NHS. But now may be the time for people to start getting impatient if they are to meet the target of gender-balanced boards by the 2020 deadline.”
The findings were seen to vary wildly by different organisations, with some boards having only an 8.3% representation of women and some having as much as 80%. As Sealy states, there will need to be a great deal of impatient shown to even up this imbalance.
A stance that Danny Mortimer, Chief Executive of NHS Employers, corroborates: “Big strides have been made in this area, but the report highlights there is much work to be done. At a time when the NHS is experiencing a myriad of challenges, it is vital we make full use of the wealth of talent at our disposal, not just some of it. Research has shown time and time again that diversity improves the quality of decision making, improves outcomes and ultimately improves the wellbeing of staff.”
Ben Hargreaves
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