Trust chief: I have been ‘culpable’ and ‘complicit’ on BAME issues

Roisin Fallon-Williams, chief executive of Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust, addressed the issues in a staff-wide letter which has been shared on social media.

It follows on from events in the past weeks and months which have impacted BAME communities, including a disproportionate number of deaths from covid-19 and the killing of George Floyd in the United States.

In the letter sent on Friday, Ms Fallon-Williams said she was writing “from what I now know and understand to be an ignorant and incompetent stance” before urging others to help tackle the problem through “listening” and “learning”.

She said: “I believed I was a good person, a compassionate and dedicated nurse and health professional who sought to understand and care for others, and in doing so always sought to do the right thing.

“I interacted and responded to colleagues and service users who were victims of discrimination from a perspective of believing this to be about others’ behaviours, attitudes and beliefs, understanding that the right and expected role for me to take was one of empathy giver.

“Whilst I remain ignorant and incompetent, I do now better understand that I am culpable, I have been complicit [and] I have made individuals’ trauma worse through my own words, actions and inactions [regarding BAME issues].”

Ms Fallon-Williams later said that, although discrimination is “complex and multi-faceted… this too is not a reason not to start to act to address it”.

Public Health England published a review into the factors impacting outcomes from coronavirus earlier this month, but HSJ later revealed that parts of the review work based on responses from a wide range of groups regarding health inequalities had been omitted from the final version.

MPs have since called on the government to release the responses, as equalities minister Kemi Badenoch was put in charge of its next phase.