NHS seeks to hire diversity managers despite government order to cut back on woke positions

A dozen equality, diversity and inclusion roles are advertised, with the annual pay for some of the posts exceeding £60,000.

• Chandrashekar Bhat
• 28 August, 2022

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By: Chandrashekar Bhat

The NHS is looking to hire diversity managers with well-paid salaries despite the government telling health service bosses to reduce woke positions.

A dozen equality, diversity and inclusion roles have been advertised by the NHS, with the annual pay for some of the posts exceeding £60,000. The jobs could together cost the government up to £540,827 a year.

This comes after previous health secretary Sajid Javid told the NHS top brass that there were “too many working in roles focused solely on diversity and inclusion” in the publicly funded organisation.

He had said in June that the taxpayers’ money could have been spent better on the requirements of patients.

Javid had said, “at a time when our constituents are facing real pressures around the cost of living, we must spend every penny on patients’ priorities.”

“It should be the responsibility of everyone to encourage fairness and equality of opportunity which is why we must reduce the number of these roles,” he had said at the time.

The Mail Online pointed out that some of the posts advertised serve overwhelmingly white areas.

For example, St Helens & Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is seeking to recruit to the position of head of equality, diversity and inclusion, although it serves mainly white working-class areas on the outskirts of Liverpool.

The trust, which is ready to spend between £56,164 and £65,262 annually on the salary of a prospective recruit, had stated in its latest annual report that its communities “are not ethnically diverse”.

It covers a population of 360,000.

In another instance, Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust plans to hire a diversity officer despite it serving the North East where 95.3 per cent of people are white.

Its chief executive James Duncan told the Mail Online: “This post will reach out into communities across the trust to ensure we are inclusive and ensure a contribution from all of the communities we serve.”