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With guidelines in place to protect staff from racial discrimination, flexibility is key to accommodating a diverse workforce, says Donald Hiscock

With 25 languages spoken in her workplace, Pennine Acute Hospitals trust ethnic health service manager Andrea Biggs is well aware of employee diversity.

Covering Oldham, Bury and north Manchester, the trust serves a large ethnic-minority population.Health professionals in such areas claim the recently introduced employment equality regulations outlawing discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief are little more than an official endorsement of existing good practice.

'In one sense these regulations are not needed in my trust, where we have been valuing diversity for many years, ' says Ms Biggs.

'However, I can see that there could be issues in areas of the country where ethnic minority numbers are small.'

The regulations, which came into force last December, together with a set covering sexual orientation, seek to end discrimination directly and indirectly in employment and vocational training. They apply across Great Britain, with separate sets being introduced in Northern Ireland.

'Unfair discrimination in employment must not be tolerated, ' says deputy minister for women and equality Jacqui Smith. 'People should not be denied jobs or suffer victimisation or harassment because of prejudice.

'Discrimination is damaging for businesses as they deny themselves access to the widest pool of talent. A diverse workforce brings benefits such as increased motivation, lower turnover of staff and access to wider markets, ' she adds.

With regulations now in place stipulating that staff must have their religious practices accommodated, the Department of Trade and Industry is currently organising seminars, and employment relations organisation Acas has produced workplace guidelines.

'It will not be easy to do, ' says Ms Biggs. 'As ever, It is a question of resources. Providing staff to deliver equality and diversity training is the expensive part.

'But it can be made to work.

We are all entitled to have our cultures valued, but it has to be done in a way that fits everyone in the trust. For example, we try to give people time off for religious holidays but in some areas it doesn't always work out.'

Having flexible working rotas to accommodate religious festivals is something that Bradford Teaching Hospitals trust equality and diversity director Dilshad Khan is familiar with.

'We have been very flexible meeting these needs, ' he claims. 'If we had a rigid approach we would be in danger of excluding people.'

Mr Khan echoes Ms Biggs' point about how hospital trusts in more mono-cultural areas might face a different set of issues.He suggests that responding too hastily in some areas to the new regulations might even have a negative effect.

'If managers do not prepare very carefully, and start throwing in an awareness programme that highlights the separate nature of the very employees the training seeks to protect, then it could awaken prejudices rather than remove them, ' he explains.

Mr Khan is concerned that people should not be labelled as having 'separate needs'.He feels that the NHS should be careful to raise awareness through a planned strategy rather than just react quickly to the regulations.

'This would be my health warning: You have got to do a lot of thinking before you start selling it to all staff, ' he states.

Norwich primary care trust training and development manager Barbara Simpson tried to heed Mr Khan's 'health warning' as she started developing a diversity training programme over a year ago.

'When you look at Norfolk you realise just how much the community is changing in its ethnic make-up. So in the trust we need to make sure that we welcome this.However, diversity is also about hierarchies. It means that some staff find themselves looking down at others.We have tried to tackle this by looking at every aspect of inclusion.We have got staff to think about themselves and others as part of their training in the awareness of religion and belief.'

Ms Simpson is concerned that racism can be an issue in rural areas where there are few ethnic minority groups. This is particularly important for community-based staff or those employed by social services.

'We have to look carefully in all areas to make sure that we are not missing any issues that might arise. As part of this, all new staff will receive diversity training.'

In rural areas, assumptions are easy to make simply by looking at small numbers of staff from ethnic minorities. Is it right to assume that the beliefs of the workforce reflect the local demographics?

Plymouth PCT HR manager Sue Behenna thinks not: 'We ask people to specify their racial origin on application to a post, but not their religion.How do we know, therefore, the range of different beliefs across the trust?'

This is one of many issues that Ms Behenna has faced in the drafting of a diversity training action plan.Others have been the provision of a prayer room on every site.With high demands on accommodation this is not easy, but a bid for funding is under way.

'Uniform is another point, ' she says. 'We need to review our dress policy to include the wearing of religious artefacts, and at the same time balancing the needs of the individual against health and safety requirements.'

In areas like Oldham, Bradford and London such concerns are familiar.What the new regulations will highlight, however, are the opportunities for career advancement.

Sally Storey, director of HR and organisational development at Queen Elizabeth Hospital trust in south east London, believes that the new regulations will have an impact if combined with black and minority ethnic leadership development. This is particularly the case when it comes to recruitment and retention.

'People from ethnic minorities tend to bunch in lower grades, which is why we are putting efforts into leadership development.With the local workforce development confederation we have just begun to set up a BME network within the hospital, ' says Ms Storey.

Andrea Biggs and her team in Oldham would agree: 'We have always had a moral obligation to provide equality opportunity, so It is good that we now have a legal obligation.'

Employment equality: the law The Employment Equality (Religion and Belief ) Regulations 2003 outlaw the following:

Direct discrimination: treating people less favourably than others on the grounds of religion or belief.

Indirect discrimination: applying a provision, criterion or practice that disadvantages people of a particular belief.

Harassment: unwanted conduct that violates people's dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.

Victimisation: treating people less favourably because of something they have done in connection with the regulations.

In practice: some practical areas covered by the regulations

Requests for leave for religious observance: consideration must be made to meet requests for time off.

Dietary needs: covers daily requirements and fasting.

Prayer needs: room should be made available for prayers.Staff may request that breaks coincide with prayer times.

Clothing: employers should try to meet the requirements of religious practice.Facilities should be available for those not allowed to undress or shower in the company of others.

Source: Diversiton, a body supported by the DTI, www. diversiton. com.