Tell us about your organisation
Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) is a Special Health Authority within NHS Wales. We sit alongside Health Boards and Trusts, and have a leading role in the education, training, development, and shaping of the healthcare workforce in Wales, in order to ensure high-quality care for the people of Wales.
Our vision is “to develop a skilled and sustainable workforce that improves care and population health”. Over 100,000 people work in the NHS in Wales and are pivotal to building a sustainable health and care system that meets the needs of the population.
Our purpose is, “as part of the NHS, to work with partners to plan, develop, educate and train the current and future workforce”.
Our added value to the system is our ability to develop national strategic solutions for workforce demand and supply.
Our Values - Respect for all: In every contact we have with others. Together as a team: we will work with colleagues across NHS Wales and with partner organisations. Ideas that improve: harnessing creativity, and continuously innovating and evaluating.
Why are you supporting the awards?
Our workforce strategy for health and care in Wales outlines our ambition that ‘by 2030 leaders in the health and social care will display collective and compassionate leadership’.
This means being inclusive, so to promote and embed inclusion within our culture we have created, with Social Care Wales, a set of Compassionate Leadership Principles for health and care in Wales. One of our Principles is to “Improve equality, inclusion and diversity, consciously removing barriers and boundaries.“ We are therefore consciously striving to be inclusive and ensure that the diversity of our leaders across health reflect the diversity of our workforce and the demographics of the population we serve.
Several members of HEIW staff have participated in the ‘Women in leadership’ programme with extremely positive evaluation, and in some cases resulting in career progression into leadership roles within our organisation.
Why does gender equality matter to you?
A significant proportion of our NHS clinical and professional workforce is female. Whilst a fair gender split seems to be reflected in our current talent pools of aspiring executive leaders, it is essential that we continue to create and promote fair and inclusive processes that enable gender equality, and equality of the other protected characteristics, when promoting and recruiting to leadership positions. It matters to us that diversity and gender equality is reflected across our boards, teams and organisations.
We promote ‘Women in Leadership’ and other Chwarae Teg development opportunities to our NHS Wales workforce colleagues through our HEIW Leadership Portal for Wales, Gwella.
Why do you support the work of Chwarae Teg?
Chwarae Teg provides a means of positively inspiring women to reach their potential through campaigns, events, programmes and recognition awards. It provides organisations an invaluable source of credible, expert knowledge and support that enable organisations to address inequalities. Chwarae Teg will help inform our policies, practices and systems so equality, diversity and inclusion becomes embedded within our culture at HEIW and across NHS Wales.