The past year has shown that the issue of race equality is an urgent priority for everyone. The impact of systemic biases and structural racism cannot be underestimated in the workplace and wider society.
Today, we are delivering on our promise made at the last Assembly meeting in November to develop an anti-racism statement in line with our Inclusion and Diversity Strategy. This builds on the work we have done to highlight the racial inequalities in pharmacy and the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities, and is an abiding commitment to fight against racism wherever it appears.
Our anti-racism statement is focussed on action to produce lasting change. We commit to recognising and acting on removing systemic biases which perpetuate inequitable treatment, whether that’s in our own organisation or in the wider profession.
Examples of actions we are already taking include addressing our own ethnicity pay gap, reviewing our recruitment processes and collecting inclusion and diversity data for all elected and appointed positions across boards and committees. We’ll publish the data this year and it will be reviewed against the makeup of our membership and the profession. We can, and will, do better.
We’re also working to achieve real and lasting change for pharmacy through challenge, advocacy and collaborative working with our profession, partners and contributors within and outside of pharmacy. These issues include a lack of diversity in leadership positions in the profession, lower pass rates at undergraduate and pre-registration level, disproportionate numbers of Fitness to Practise cases and supporting the profession to recognise discriminatory behaviour.
Pharmacy is a diverse profession. It must also be an equal profession. By committing to the actions in our statement, we will help create a stronger, more authentic and more unified profession that stands with, and provides improved care to, the diverse communities we serve.
Read our anti-racist statement here.