Our equality objectives 2021-2025

We want to tackle inequality to make sure everyone has good quality care, as well as equal access, experience and outcomes from health and social care services.

This is in line with our strategy and our core purpose.

We also have a duty to publish equality objectives to meet Equality Act 2010 regulations.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has magnified and exposed longstanding inequalities in health and social care. Everyone in health and social care needs to understand their causes and take action to address them – including leaders who influence what happens locally. This is part of our strategy.

We've introduced a new way British Sign Language (BSL) users can get in touch. You can use it to give feedback on care or for any other type of enquiry.

SignLive is a service you can use to call people through a BSL interpreter. You sign to the interpreter using the camera on your phone, tablet or computer, and the interpreter speaks to one of our team.

You'll find us listed in SignLive's community directory. Calling us through SignLive’s community directory is free.

Find out more about this and other ways to contact us if you're deaf or hard of hearing

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have amended regulations so that, from 11 November 2021, anyone working or volunteering in a care home will need to be fully vaccinated against coronavirus (COVID-19), unless exempt.

The requirement forms part of the fundamental standards below which care should never fall. It will be monitored and - in appropriate cases - enforced by us.

We will not begin monitoring this until it becomes a duty in November. We will continue to use our existing assessment and enforcement policies and take a proportionate approach.

We've published a statement setting our our role during the registration and ongoing monitoring and inspection of services, and during any enforcement activity.

• COVID-19 vaccination of people working/deployed in care homes: the role of CQC
• DHSC operational guidance: Vaccination of people working or deployed in care homes
• The fundamental standards

Five X More is a grassroots organisation committed to changing Black women's maternal health outcomes in the UK. It was initiated in 2019 when two Black mothers came together with the dream of improving maternal mortality rates and health care outcomes for Black women.

Five X More is dedicated to supporting mothers with its campaigning work and  recommendations. It focuses on empowering Black women to make informed choices and advocate for themselves throughout their pregnancies and after childbirth.

Five X More will be holding their third awareness week 13th-19th September 2021. Watch out for more details on their website. Find out more about last year's campaign.