The Equality Delivery System (EDS) launched by the Department of Health in 2015, was intended to support NHS organisations meet the Public Equality Duty as required within the Equality Act 2010.  The tool is also consistent with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) compliance framework and was provided to enable the review of equality performance and to identify future priorities and actions around our 4 goals around equality, diversity and human rights:

1.            Better health outcomes for all

2.            Improved patient access and experience

3.            Empowered, engaged and well supported staff

4.            Inclusive leadership at all levels

The primary purpose of the EDS is to create conversations between NHS Organisations and their patients, the public and stakeholders. These conversations will help organisations to assess performance and agree what equality objectives should be prioritised and the actions required. 

The Trust’s EDS process will help to better identify, verify and effectively align services to meet the needs of all patient and staff groups with characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010.