NHS ‘discriminates' against white job applicants in shortlists

Telegraph

14-04-2025

NHS trusts 'discriminate' against white job applicants by manipulating interview shortlists in favour of black and ethnic minority candidates, The Telegraph can reveal.
NHS England documents encourage the use of the Rooney Rule – an American football policy that makes it mandatory for ethnic minorities to be shortlisted for interviews if they apply.
Other so-called inclusive recruitment practices range from making managers justify hiring white British nationals to using race as a 'tie-breaker'.
An NHS hospital in Liverpool admitted it had previously used 'positive discrimination' to shortlist applicants from minority backgrounds.
The disclosure is the latest in a growing row over 'racist' hiring policies being pursued by public sector services following a decision by West Yorkshire Police to temporarily block applications from white Britons.
It is likely to cast a spotlight on organisations that attempt to give minorities priority during the interview process, particularly by focusing on how candidates are shortlisted.
A Tory source described the NHS as seeking to 'discriminate against applicants based on their race'.
Grant Shapps, the former Tory Cabinet minister, said the 'tick-box' exercise was 'entrenching racial quotas'.
He said: 'This kind of tick-box policy is patronising, divisive, and fundamentally wrong. Jobs should be awarded on merit, not skin colour.
'We should be building a colour-blind society, not entrenching racial quotas under the banner of 'diversity'.'
Practices to promote diverse shortlists stem from the 2010 Equality Act, which made it legal to take 'positive action' to support the recruitment of ethnic minorities.
The act, drawn up by Baroness Harman, the then Labour minister, has been seized upon by HR professionals who want to diversify their workforces.
Positive discrimination – where a minority candidate is explicitly favoured over a white candidate who is better qualified – is illegal in the UK.
Supporters of the Rooney Rule and similar measures argue they do not amount to discrimination because the interview process is the same for everyone on the shortlist.
Neil O'Brien, a Tory MP and former health minister, said public services had been infected by 'race-based hiring policies' that mean 'people are chosen based on the colour of their skin'.
He said: 'The people who put these policies in place lump together every non-white group as if they are all the same, and will favour someone from a privileged background better than someone who has overcome all kinds of obstacles, as long as they have the right skin colour.'
'Misguided' equality agendas
Earlier this year, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, attacked 'misguided' diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) agendas, including one that boasted of an 'anti-whiteness stance', telling the NHS to get 'back to basics' amid its 7.4 million backlog and lowest public satisfaction scores on record.
Despite this, the NHS continues to prioritise EDI initiatives.
Publicly available guidance from NHS England's East of England region called 'improving the selection process' tells employers to 'consider using a version of the Rooney Rule or increase the numbers of under-represented groups who are shortlisted'.
A separate document called No More Tick Boxes gives examples of initiatives NHS Trusts are using to enforce diverse interview panels and says 'at least one trust applies a version of the [Rooney] rule'.
In another example, it cites a hospital that will 'only interview if there is at least one BME [black and minority ethnic] candidate and one woman candidate shortlisted'.
Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust introduced 'positive discrimination at the shortlisting stage' as part of measures to increase diversity up until 2023.
It is understood this was to guarantee that people from 'the global majority' – a way of describing the non-white ethnic groups that account for most of the world's population – would be interviewed if they met job criteria.
Race as 'tie-breaker'
NHS Employers encourages hospitals to use race as a 'tie-breaker' if two candidates are equally qualified for the job.
A section of the Equality Act dubbed 'equal merit' allows for under-represented groups to be given priority if they are as qualified as a white person.
This measure has been adopted by NHS organisations, including East Lancashire Hospitals Trust and NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board, according to public documents.
A Conservative Party source said this was racial discrimination and described it as 'social engineering'.
They said: 'No employer, least of all one funded by taxpayers, should discriminate against applicants based on their race.
'People should be judged on the content of their character, not the colour of their skin.
'It's high time we do away with divisive DEI hiring policies that do nothing to improve outcomes for patients. It is utterly wrong, this social engineering has to stop.'
'Institutionalising diverse shortlisting'
In another NHS England guidance called A Model Employer, health service leaders encourage recruiters to always involve at least one minority person in interviews.
It says that hiring managers are 'accountable for institutionalising diverse shortlisting and interview panels' and that there 'would seldom be acceptable exceptions for not having a BME member'.
It also says that managers who opt to hire white Britons should be required to explain themselves.
The guidance says: 'Justification should be sent to the organisation's chair setting out, clearly, the process followed and the reasons for not appointing the BME candidate.'
Some trusts have taken this even further, with managers having been told to justify hiring white candidates to the chief executive.
The London Ambulance Service and Royal Free Hospital in north London are among those to have adopted policies requiring interview panels to explain why a shortlisted ethnic minority candidate is not appointed to a role.
Earlier this year, The Telegraph revealed 30 NHS trusts in the North West had signed up to an anti-racism awards scheme, requiring boards to have a minimum number of directors from ethnic minorities.
Steve Barclay, the former Tory health secretary, described these racial quotas as 'crude' and 'arbitrary ideological targets', which can 'distort behaviours in organisations'.
Representative leadership by 2028
A national scheme called the Workforce Race Equality Standard is used to measure NHS organisations' progress on increasing diversity against nine targets.
One of the key metrics NHS trusts are asked to improve is the 'relative likelihood of white applicants being appointed from shortlisting compared to BME applicants', with 76 per cent of trusts more likely to hire a white applicant after interviews than an ethnic minority.
The NHS has a target of ensuring its leadership is representative of the overall BME workforce by 2028.
Schemes to help reach that goal, include those run by University Hospitals Bristol and the Weston NHS Foundation Trust, which has a 'a positive action programme to support increasing representation of global majority colleagues at bands 6 and above'.
Other 'positive action' measures frequently used by NHS trusts include appealing for applicants from ethnic minority groups on job adverts, targeting vacancies and apprentice roles at specific communities, and more vaguely 'embedding anti-racism' and 'de-biasing recruitment practices'.
The practice of giving guaranteed interviews to ethnic minorities has spread beyond the public sector to major companies.
Welsh Water interviews every candidate who meets a job's essential requirements if they 'identify as part of an under-represented group' because of the company's commitment to 'the improvement of equality and diversity'.
ITN interviews one ethnic minority candidate for all of its roles, and Reed in Partnership, a recruitment company, offers guaranteed interviews to minority applicants for management positions and at least one female candidate for all roles.
Riverside Group Ltd, a private housing association, gives adequately qualified ethnic minorities guaranteed interviews for vacancies with salaries of £35,000 and above.
DWF Group, a multinational law firm, runs a scheme giving work experience and mentoring to ethnic minorities who are considering applying for a training contract.
An NHS spokesman said: 'All NHS organisations should have recruitment policies that are fair for everyone.'