Being inclusive isn’t just about having the right policies in place and treating people equally, it’s about pro-actively educating people and driving understanding of others. The Health Economics Unit (HEU), in partnership with the wider Midlands and Lancashire CSU (ML), felt that something needed to be put in place to support the LGBTQ+ community within our organisations and the wider NHS. From this ambition the ML LGBTQ+ network was born in 2023, with the HEU’s Garvin Taylor as Co-Chair alongside Ashley Burton from the ML, with the next question being “how do we share our stories?”

Spreading understanding through sharing stories

The network planned a series of far reaching and diverse Tent-Pole speaker talks, which would have to be delivered digitally via teams, due primarily to the team being scattered all over the UK.

Active membership of the network was initially proportionally low for the size of the organisations, so collaboration was sought with other NHS organisations to open the talks to a wider audience. This resulted in a positive link up with the NHS Confederation and full engagement with their members. Average talk attendance swiftly rose to 40 people, with these numbers continuing to grow to nearly 100.  The talks covered a number of serious topics and initiatives which directly addresses the many inequalities the community constantly face. Topics have included:

• How can the NHS urgently reduce inequalities for the first generation of adding same sex couples that will start to use their services, as the previous generation was devastated by the HIV epidemic in the 80s and 90s?
• Why gay men of colour need to get better NHS access to sexual health services to prevent and/or potentially treat HIV and reduce the stigma of people living with HIV?
• Real world vs living in Narnia -why being “Out” is better for your mental health
• Trans histories and why they should matter to the NHS. How can we better help this community that constantly faces inequalities?

Making an impact and creating allies

The success of these talks and the enthusiastic feedback from the attendees was both surprising and encouraging. Feedback included

• “Thank you for sharing some of your time, insight and stories with us today, Paul.  Incredibly grateful – leaving the session today energised and optimistic”
• “Amazing discussion – thank you all. It’s been a brilliant space to hear views from like-minded people”
• “It’s been brilliant, thank you so much Jason, and Garvin for arranging “

The talks have been recorded and put on the network’s digital site to allow additional people to view them if they were unable to attend.

Leading the way and inspiring other networks

The wide range of topics has encouraged other EDI groups (Ethnic Diversity and the Disability networks) within ML to send invitations to their members and allow a wider more diverse group of people to be included in a discussion that they may previously not been able to access.

Engagement with other NHS EDI groups (including NHS Confederation, NHS Cumbria and NHS North East of England) has resulted in them consulting with the ML network to gain a deeper understanding of how they can expand and build a more local diverse organisation.

From an individual attendee’s perspective, a number of off-line 1:1 conversations were had, where network heads have been asked confidentially to talk about their individual circumstances that they have having a very hard time with. This has led to the network providing a listening service and help for attendees to find professional support.

It is important to the HEU that everyone feels safe and included in our team, and we are proud to be leading on this vital work.