The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK has implemented a policy requiring interview panels to provide a justification for hiring white job candidates over those from ethnic minority backgrounds, according to The Daily Mail.
The policy, which has been in place at the Royal Free in north London since July 2018 for senior positions and was recently expanded to all roles within the trust, requires panel members to write a report explaining why the white candidate was deemed “more suitable” for the role.
It does not apply the other way around, the Daily Mail report notes.
UK government officials recently vowed to push back against “waste and wokery” that costs the NHS billions in tax dollars, with trusts told to cut “diversity and inclusion” jobs to focus on frontline care.
The now-mandatory reports must also offer “justification” for not choosing an ethnic minority candidate and provide detailed “scoring notes” as evidence, as well as suggest ways for the unsuccessful applicant to “develop their experience, skills, or amplitude” for future consideration.
The report must be submitted to the trust’s chief executive within ten working days, or panel members will be named and criticized in the trust’s monthly Workforce Race Equality progress report.
Some staff at the hospital have described the policy as an unnecessary “tick-box exercise” that adds more bureaucracy to an already strained NHS and unfairly focuses on race rather than ability. “So justifying your decision based on where they might be from does take a lot of time because you have to revaluate your decision from a completely different perspective, based on race rather than ability,” the staff said.
A spokesperson for the Royal Free London emphasized the organization’s commitment to diversity and equal opportunities, saying, “We are committed to having a diverse workforce and we seek to ensure all candidates, irrespective of their ethnicity, have equal opportunities to work at the Royal Free London.”
