The inspiring diversity and inclusion lead of the year has been awarded to Arfan Bhatti at the fifth annual National Health and Care BAME awards. UNISON has been proud to sponsor the award since the organisation launched the event in 2019.
This year it was presented to Arfan Bhatti by health activist and branch secretary at Newham Healthcare Chris Akaluka (below centre) in a ceremony at the end of September.
Mr Akaluka said: “The awards provide UNISON with a valuable opportunity to support and highlight the impactful work of trailblazers like Arfan, whose dedication has transformed and improved the disciplinary checklist process, now benefiting BAME staff in his trust.”
Arfan, who is head of equality, diversity and inclusion at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, was given the award for showing a “strong commitment to improving the working lives of BAME staff at all levels of the NHS.
The judges noted that Arfan’s “dedication is evident in the breadth of initiatives they’ve led, particularly in improving the pre-decision checklist for disciplinaries, which helps prevent unfair targeting of BAME staff.
“At a time of political scrutiny on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) roles, their impactful work has demonstrated the crucial importance of roles dedicated to EDI in creating a fairer workplace for all.”
The full list of winners can be found here
UNISON uses the term Black in a broad, inclusive, political sense to indicate people with a shared history. Other organisations use BAME, as here to mean Black Asian and Minority Ethnic.
The article UNISON sponsors National Health and Care BAME award first appeared on the UNISON National site.
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