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Promoting Excellence In Psychological Health & Wellbeing

Introducing: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Resource Bank

Dr Margo Ononaiye, Widening Participation Lead PPN South East, and Tessa Thomas, EDI Research Assistant, have led a project to ensure ongoing commitment to increasing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) within the psychological professions. 

“I was hearing people doing good work, but there was nobody bringing together all the information and nobody giving a coherent language to what was being done. I felt that something as important as this needs a team behind it and narrative behind it to make it work.” – Dr Margo Ononaiye 

“There are lots of pockets of work being done but to make long lasting change there needs to be more integration into the profession itself with the people who make the decisions taking an active stance.” – Tessa T. Thomas

As an outcome of this project, the PPN is launching an Equality, Diversity, Inclusion Resource Bank, with the aim of providing aspiring, training, and qualified psychological professionals with a centralised resource. This tool showcases various support networks and widening participation initiatives within the psychological professions.

Resources have been collated for several protected characteristics, outlined by the Equality Act (2010), including:

The resource also hosts the PPN SE EDI Audit Tool, which has been devised for Psychological Training Programmes, Professional Bodies and NHS Trusts to evaluate and improve upon their existing EDI strategies. The tool is designed based on clear expectations, targets and the ability to rate progress with a reviewable action plan. 

There are clear guidelines available on how to use this tool:

Three versions are available to choose from: 

The EDI Resource Bank is by no means exhaustive and will continue to be updated to bring together good practices.

Further information about the project has been outlined in a report:

  • PPN SE Widening Participant SWOT Report (coming soon)

Find out more about Dr Margo Ononaiye’s experiences of race, class and leadership in Clinical Psychology here: 

  1. https://ppn.nhs.uk/our-work/news/item/race-leadership-and-the-changing-face-of-clinical-psychology  
  2. https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/i-no-longer-try-shape-myself-fit  
  3. BPS How Did You Get That Job in…? Facebook Live with Dr Margo Ononaiye (log in required) - https://fb.me/e/4U6aqSJSy