12 September 2024

The College has recently launched its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) review, which aims to collect accurate data on the diversity of our membership. Without accurate data, we cannot fully represent our members and champion EDI as effectively as possible.

We are asking all members to complete this review – it will only take 2 minutes of your time. The review will close in November.

Alongside launching the review, we want to shine a light on what EDI means to us as a College. To help us do this, we interviewed 2 key members from the College’s EDI network.

Why is EDI important to the College?

Equality, diversity and inclusion represent fundamental human values that are essential for a fair and just society. We are committed to eliminating all discrimination, as well as promoting and encouraging equality, diversity and inclusion, providing everyone with equitable access and opportunity across our present and future membership, staff and stakeholders.

Our aim is for the College to represent all sectors of society and for everyone to feel respected, listened to, and able to give their best regardless of their protected characteristics and other visible or less visible forms of diversity.

The Royal College of Pathologists’ Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Network, Equality, diversity and inclusion statement, February 2024.

Why should you take part in the EDI review?

Every member plays a key role in championing equality, diversity and inclusion at the College. Together, we can showcase the diversity of our membership and the positive impact this has on the pathology profession. We can also encourage more conversation around EDI topics, such as neurodiversity and ways to eliminate discrimination.

Although we ran an EDI review last year, the response from members was too low, resulting in a lack of reliable data. This year, we encourage all members to complete the EDI review, so we have an accurate representation of diversity at the College.

We want to identify polices or processes that could create barriers to certain groups. With the data gathered, we will set out an action plan that details the work we intend to deliver over the coming years for EDI.

All data collected is anonymised and all questions have a ‘prefer not to say’ option, encouraging you to share as much as you feel comfortable with.

The EDI report will be published towards the end of spring. 

Complete the EDI review

An interview with members of the EDI network

Katherine Timms is the Co-Chair of the network, representing College staff, and Dr Shubha Allard is a committee member. In this interview, they highlight the work of the EDI network, what EDI means to them and why members should complete the review.

In 1 sentence, what does EDI mean to you?

K. Timms: I think we only need to look at nature for our answer: the natural world thrives when there’s diversity, where every being has a role and contribution, and where there’s space for all.

Dr S. Allard: Including everyone so no one feels left behind or excluded – a challenge to all of us to move from the rhetoric to actual practice.

What is the EDI network, and what is one thing that College members might not know about it?

K. Timms: The EDI network is a space for people to share knowledge and experiences and support the College’s focus on fairness and diversity in all that it does. The group represents only 0.6% of the membership though!

Dr S. Allard: The EDI network aims to help the College in its efforts to be fair and inclusive. This is still a relatively new network, and it is up to us as members to further guide future direction and priorities.

How has the work of the EDI network had a positive impact on the College and its members over the last year? Have any specific changes been made, or policies implemented?

K. Timms: Everyone is always so busy, and sometimes our work on EDI can descend down people’s priority lists. The EDI network has helped to mitigate this and keep our focus. One of the areas we’ve been exploring over the past 12 months is laboratory reference ranges for individuals receiving gender-affirming hormones. This work will help us make sure laboratory tests with sex-specific differences are interpreted correctly and patients receive the care they need.

Dr S. Allard: It is clearly essential for the College to have an EDI network with a structured focus to better understand and address issues important to members. It is good to see an EDI statement of intent across Trustee Board, Council, committees and working groups to proactively consider composition and working arrangements. The network also made decisions and recommendations with an explicit commitment to promoting and encouraging key principles of EDI.

Have there been any particular challenges that the EDI network has faced as a collective?

K. Timms: We’ve struggled to get people to engage, and to deliver on work. This has shown up in areas such as our EDI survey, in which only 4% of members responded, through to our work to highlight diversity where we’ve not been able to secure the input, we need from people to deliver the work we want to.

Dr S. Allard: We all have busy lives and getting meaningful engagement is always difficult. Collecting effective data is particularly challenging and members clearly need to engage in the process.

Why is it important that members complete the EDI review, and how will it help the College to improve its work in EDI?

K. Timms: We need to better understand who we act for, and if we represent them properly. We need to make sure we remove barriers and consider all perspectives in all that we do. We can’t do this without our members’ data.

Dr S. Allard: “If you can't measure it, you can't improve it.” This well-known management quote does apply here. Having meaningful information from members will help focus action where needed.

In the future, what work do you hope the College will do to improve EDI practices?

K. Timms: I want us to educate ourselves properly on the things that matter and keep our eyes open to the needs of our global pathology community.

Dr S. Allard: We need to continue making incremental efforts to be truly inclusive, recognising the wealth and richness of ideas and experience from people across different backgrounds. This will benefit the College and in turn the patients that we support.

 

Complete the EDI review

If you have any questions, thoughts or feedback on EDI at the College, we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch at [email protected].

Author(s)

Sara Fundu

  • Data Analyst