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Equity, diversity and belonging

RCOT, as a membership organisation, a professional body, and an employer, is committed to leading innovative change to promote equity and social justice and will build a sense of belonging for all our staff, members, and the populations we serve.

We aim to lead the profession by adopting and advocating for cultures which values, respects, and celebrates diversity and challenges inequality and discrimination.
Equity and social justice sit at the heart of everything we do, and our ambition is to be an organisation that robustly advocates and challenges inequity for and on behalf of our staff, our members, and the public.

We recognise that each of us is unique and therefore our definition of diversity will go beyond those defined in equality legislation and we will afford the same standards and principles to those with lived experiences.
 
We would like this webpage to act as a conduit for stimulating thoughts and discussion within our profession, from us, and very importantly from our members. 

Complete our EDB critical self-awareness interactive toolkit

Read our Equity, Diversity and Belonging Strategy

View the strategy

Ableism in OT practice

Georgia Vine (she/hers) has kindly shared a presentation on ableism in Occupational therapy practice. It includes information on what ableism is, the effects of ableism within OT practice, and how to challenge ableism and be an ally.

"Allyship: actively being anti-racist, anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive” presentation

On 30 June 2021, Musharrat Ahmed-Landeryou gave this presentation on Allyship: actively being anti-racist, anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive to develop understanding and application of allyship and actions to employ in occupational therapy practice.

Speaker: Musharrat Ahmed Senior Lecturer, London South Bank University

A senior lecturer in occupational therapy courses at London South Bank University, 18 years. Two days a week a student success and antiracist education practitioner for the allied health department. Co-founder of BAMEOTUK, a campaigning and activist group making collaborations to speak up and tackle institutional racism in the profession.

Host: Dr Duncan Pentland, Council Member, RCOT

Outline content: Allyship is relevant for all in occupational therapy in education, clinical, management and leadership because it actively enables a culture of belonging, inclusion, antidiscrimination, equality and equity (Kline 2020). If occupational therapy as a profession want to truly align with the principles of social justice, inclusivity and antiracism, then they must visibly show this in their words and actions (Bishop 2015). The workshop will introduce allyship with reference to different frameworks, to provide a platform to share knowledge and experiences of allyship

Access the Google doc worksheet for this presentation here

“Decolonise occupational therapy” presentation

Musharrat Ahmed-Landeryou and Almudena Fernandez-Alonso gave a presentation on 1 July 2021 titled Decolonise occupational therapy, which explores decolonising occupational therapy curricula.
 

Speakers: Musharrat Ahmed-Landeryou , Senior Lecturer, London South Bank University; Almudena Fernandez-Alonso, Recovery College clinical trainer, South West London & ST Georges Mental Health Trust

Host: Dr Kee Hean Lim, Council Member, RCOT

Background: The ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ students’ movement demonstrated how the world’s education, healthcare and history are still dominated by ideologies of the Global North (western centric) (Ahmed, 2020). Despite occupational therapy commitment to social justice, this is evident in occupational therapy education (Grenier, 2020).

Critical analysis: The key argument is that occupational therapy education is western centric (Grenier, 2020). It is hypothesised that by decolonising occupational therapy education, it willprovide a diverse and inclusive global knowledge base to occupational therapy philosophy, theory and practice, with contextual meaning for each country (Bhambra et al, 2018; Liyanage, 2020).

The key questions:
1.    Why has occupational therapy not included equally the knowledges from the Global South in its curricula?
2.    What are the potential outcomes of decolonising occupational therapy education for students and applicants?

Conclusion: This topic is of contemporary urgency for occupational therapy education and practice to remain authentic. If students transition as qualified practitioners from decolonised education, we need to gather intelligence on the impact of how this contributes to disrupting, and longer-term dismantling, institutional racism in our profession, and wider still, disrupting structurally race and health inequalities in health and social care.

References
Ahmed AK (2020) #RhodesMustFall: How a decolonial student movement in the Global South inspired epistemic disobedience at the University of Oxford. African Studies Review, 63(2), 281–303. DOI:10.1017/asr.2019.49.
Bhambra GK, Gebrial D and Nişancıoşlu K (2018) Decolonising University. London: Pluto Press.
Grenier M-L (2020) Cultural competency and the reproduction of White supremacy in occupational therapy education. Health Education Journal, 79(6), 633–644. DOI: 10.1177/0017896920902515. 
Liyanage M (2020) Miseducation: decolonising curricula, culture and pedagogy in UK universities. Debate paper 23. Oxford: Higher Education Policy Institute.
 

More about the speakers:

Musharrat Ahmed-Landeryou, Senior Lecturer, London South Bank University
A senior lecturer in occupational therapy courses at London South Bank University, 18 years. Two days a week a student success and antiracist education practitioner for the allied health department. Co-founder of BAMEOTUK, a campaigning and activist group making collaborations to speak up and tackle institutional racism in the profession.
 

Almudena Fernandez-Alonso, Recovery College clinical trainer, South West London & ST Georges Mental Health Trust
A final year occupational therapy student (at the time of recording) soon to become graduate with a passion for social justice, occupational science and occupational therapy. Member of the London South Bank University affinity group Allyship Cultural and Equity group and AHP+ Anti-racism practice learning group.

Unison resources

Our partner UNISON provides resources and access to groups on diversity and inclusivity in the workplace, which we encourage members to access.

UNISON Race for Equality campaign pushes for ‘real change’ in the fight against workplace racism.  The campaign, which was launched in October 2019, is aimed at helping health branches deal with the racism that their Black members face every day.​

Fighting for fairness

Everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect. The ability to live and work without prejudice is a fundamental right, regardless of your background, identity and experiences.

 

Black members equality

UNISON Black members group works with all parts of our union to improve equality in the workplace and challenge racism and discrimination.

 

Disabled members equality

UNISON disabled members’ group works with all parts of the union to fight discrimination and prejudice and campaign for improved workplace accessibility.

 

LGBT+ members equality

UNISON LGBT+ members group works with all parts of the union to improve equality, fight discrimination and prejudice in the workplace and provide support for our members.

 

Women members equality

UNISON women’s group work with all parts of the union to end discrimination and campaign for equality. We work for improvements to women’s rights in the workplace and in the wider community.

 

Young members equality

UNISON young members group works with other parts of the union to encourage recruitment, organisation and participation of young workers.

 

Helping you to meet HCPC’s standard of proficiency 5

The Health and Care Professions Council’s (HCPC) revised standards of proficiency came into effect on 1 September 2023. A first step might be for you to read these to understand and meet what’s expected. Completing this toolkit supports all the points in standard 5, and specifically helps you to evidence 5.3.
 
As occupational therapists we must be able to:
 

  • 5. recognise the impact of culture, equality and diversity on practice and practise in a non-discriminatory and inclusive manner.
  • 5.1 respond appropriately to the needs of all groups and individuals in practice, recognising that this can be affected by difference of any kind including, but not limited to, protected characteristics,* intersectional experiences and cultural differences
  • 5.2 understand equality legislation and apply it to their practice
  • 5.3 recognise the potential impact of their own values, beliefs, and personal biases (which may be unconscious) on practice and take personal action to ensure all service users and carers are treated appropriately with respect and dignity
  • 5.4 understand the duty to make reasonable adjustments in practice and be able to make and support reasonable adjustments in their and others’ practice
  • 5.5 recognise the characteristics and consequences of barriers to inclusion, including for socially isolated groups
  • 5.6 actively challenge these barriers, supporting the implementation of change wherever possible
  • 5.7 recognise that regard to equality, diversity and inclusion needs to be embedded in the application of all HCPC standards, across all areas of practice has context menu

EDB critical-self awareness interactive toolkit

In working through this toolkit, you will cover aspects of critical reflection and self-assessment relating to Equity, Diversity and Belonging (EDB), including the four stages of EDB competence. We hope that through the use of the toolkit, you’ll have:

  • Better awareness of your current level of EDB competence
  • Improved understanding of the different dimensions of diversity
  • Identified your next steps in translating that learning and awareness into action on your continuing EDB journey
  • Considered how this toolkit supports you to meet the revised standard 5 within the standards of proficiency for occupational therapists. 

1. Toolkit navigation

A document which outlines the different parts of this critical self-awareness toolkit

2. EDB critical-self awareness interactive toolkit

An evidence-informed toolkit which encourages self-reflection and supports you to identify where you are at on your EDB journey.

3. Reflection template

A space to record your reflections, learning and actions you plan to take to find out more and put learning into practice. You can save and upload this as evidence to your CPD portfolio, and it’s useful to re-visit your reflections at a later date to check back on progress made.

4. Diversity wheel

A visual image of the dimensions of diversity/ diversity wheel slide within the toolkit

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5. Prompt cards

Reflective questions to encourage discussion and reflection which can be used as a group activity. 

Career Conversations:

Hear the career narratives of our diverse workforce.
Listen to our vodcasts and podcasts

Useful resources

We will continue to add to this area with resources that you may find helpful. If you have any ideas for other things we should add, please contact Ketan Davé, ketan.dave@rcot.co.uk

If you need independant discrimination advice, contact the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Equalities legislation

The Equality Act 2010 covers everyone in England, Scotland and Wales and protects people from discrimination (direct or indirect), harassment, and victimisation. It came into force on 1 October 2010. It brings together over 116 separate pieces of legislation into one single Act so that it is easier to use. Under the Act, there are nine protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation. The Equality Act does not apply to Northern Ireland.  

In Northern Ireland, equality and anti-discrimination law is not consolidated into one single act. Equality areas are: age; disability; gender/sex (including trans); race; religious belief/political opinion; sexual orientation. There are several pieces of legislation covering the above equality areas, all underpinned by Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998