At UHMBT, we do not tolerate any form of verbal or physical discrimination or hostile behaviour towards our colleagues.
We have launched the Zero-Hate campaign to help decrease the abuse and violence experienced by NHS staff - including hate incidents such as racism, disablism, Islamophobia, homophobia or any discrimination from service users, patients or the public.
We have a zero tolerance approach to abuse, assault or threats being made to UHMBT employees either in person or online. We will take legal action if necessary, including reporting those involved in hate crimes to the police and putting a marker on their health record.
Campaign materials include posters which will be displayed in public and staff areas, and infographics for colleagues and managers. We also have a new Zero-Hate Policy which provides guidance on the management of all forms of racism, discrimination and hate crime to ensure fairness and equity for all.
We ask that everyone treats our colleagues with the dignity and respect that we all deserve, and that you would expect to receive.
We are committed to our Trust being an organisation free from discrimination, where all staff can reach their full potential and play their part in creating high quality, compassionate care and wellbeing for all.
Campaign aim
The campaign aims to reduce and minimise abuse and violence of any kind (physical, verbal, or subtle) – including hate incidents, such as racism, disablism, Islamophobia, homophobia or any discrimination experienced by our staff from service users, patients, or the public.
The campaign aims to prevent and address all forms of discrimination and hate crime of any kind whether it is overt or covert, to ensure fairness and equity for all.
Campaign content
The Zero-Hate campaign includes two communication campaigns: one targeting hate incidents in the workplace between colleagues, and another designed to target hate incidents from patients towards our staff members.
We have developed a Zero-Hate Policy as part of this campaign to provide guidance on the management of all forms of racism, discrimination and hate crime to ensure fairness and equity for all.
The policy specifies the mandatory management of breaches of equality legislations related to all forms of discrimination and hate crime. This consists of:
- Responses to incidents involving verbal or physical violence from patients towards staff
- Management of any verbal or continuous micro aggressions and passive aggressive behaviour, towards staff, induced out of discriminatory behaviour from other staff and/or all people using Trust facilities.
- The processes and procedures to be used by staff to control these risks
- Managers’ roles and responsibilities for taking the required actions to control these risks
- Providing support to staff who have been involved in hate incidents and monitoring the implementation and effectiveness of the violence and aggression risk.
As well as the policy, there are posters, roll-up banners, and digital displays including:
- “Abuse Means” awareness posters for patients in public-facing areas
- “Who I am” awareness posters in staff areas
- Five Zero-Hate infographic posters for managers and staff with guidance on the definition of zero-hate, how to report hate crime to the police, and an easy-read flowchart for the policy
We designed our Zero-Hate Campaign alongside colleagues across UHMBT to ensure that everyone is clear on how staff can enforce the Zero-Hate approach, and highlight that staff will be suitably supported when such unfortunate events happen.
Our main guiding ethos is for UHMBT to continue being “a great place to be cared for and a great place to work”.