Equality and Diversity

Q&A with our new Recruitment and Inclusion team

Our Recruitment and Inclusion Team have been working with three NHS trusts in Yorkshire to improve their workforce diversity and inclusion. Below, the team have completed a Q&A on their project to explain how you can get involved and get support... Names:   Ruth Armitage (they/them) - Recruitment Inclusion Officer   Emilie Akselsen (she/her) - Recruitment and Inclusion Coordinator  What support does the NHS Employment project offer?   The project is a

2023-01-18T15:24:50+00:0018th January 2023|Blog, Diversity, Equality and Diversity, Recruitment and Inclusion|

WY&H HCP anti-racism movement toolkit

West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (WY&H HCP) supports 2.7million people, including over 300,000 unpaid carers, living in urban and rural areas. 570,000 are children and young people. 20% of people are from minority ethnic communities. A WY&H HCP review in 2020 identified the need for an anti-racism movement aimed at WY&H HCP staff, organisations and communities. Our objective is to unite WY&H HCP colleagues and communities in

2021-06-04T11:00:09+01:004th June 2021|Diversity, Downloads, Equality and Diversity, News, Partnership|

Charity Touchstone placed 4th at UK’s most inclusive employer awards

Mental health and wellbeing charity Touchstone has ranked 4th in the Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers’ at a ceremony in Manchester last month. he Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers list awards UK-based organisations who promote employee inclusion at all levels of their businesses, including management, senior, executive and board level. Organisations entering the awards must demonstrate the promotion of all strands of diversity including age, disability, gender, LGBT, race, faith and religion. Touchstone,

2019-12-18T11:04:40+00:0010th December 2019|Awards, Diversity, Equality and Diversity, Leadership, News|

#PartnersInPride: Touchstone Taking Pride in Mental Health at Leeds Pride 2019

Another year, another fabulous show of Touchstone supporting the LGBT+ community at Leeds Pride! Partnering with Leeds Mind, Live Well Leeds, and Community Links, this year our #PartnersInPride saw a great turn out for the biggest parade ever seen at Leeds Pride, with 130 companies parading and over 60,000 spectators. P.S. Ours was the big red vintage bus, full of and surrounded by our celebratory colleagues and clients – and

2019-09-04T10:05:08+01:004th September 2019|Blog, Equality and Diversity, LGBT*|

Sharing Good Practice Working With BAME Clients In IAPT

In June here at Touchstone we were asked to present a workshop at the PWP National Networking Forum for IAPT in Birmingham. Aniysa Azam (Senior PWP) and myself (Deputy Manager) went and shared the Touchstone PWP team's learning over the last 6 years on topics of: common challenges in delivering a good quality and equitable service to clients from Black and Minority backgrounds and what Touchstone have done to overcome these challenges. We covered how to challenge

2019-08-05T10:38:45+01:005th August 2019|Blog, CBT, Equality and Diversity|

LGBTQI+ Have Your Voice Heard Feedback

St Georges Centre Leeds, 22nd June 2018 We successfully held a consultation event where all local mental health services were asked to promote the event and bring along their service users. As well as having lived experience speakers we had a few professionals throughout the day letting us know the good things that are happening in the city. Flyers were also handed out for months leading up to the day

2019-07-19T16:47:26+01:0019th July 2019|Equality and Diversity, LGBT*, News|

Touchstone “truly excels” as an employer

Yorkshire mental health charity Touchstone celebrates achieving coveted three star accreditation in the annual Sunday Times Best Companies to Work survey in recognition of its extraordinary levels of employee engagement. The charity, ranked 8th in The Sunday Times Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For 2019, was also given the Discovering Potential award for the third year running and the Giving Something Back award for first time. This is the seventh

2019-03-11T16:04:51+00:0011th March 2019|Awards, Community, Diversity, Equality and Diversity, News, Yorkshire|

International Women’s Day 2019 by Alison Lowe

International Women’s Day events are held worldwide on March 8 to celebrate women and their global contribution. Various women, including political, community, and business leaders, as well as leading educators, inventors, entrepreneurs, and television personalities, are usually invited to speak at events on the day, highlighting their successes to illustrate how much progress has been made, and often how much further there is till yet to go. Many students in

2019-03-08T10:05:46+00:008th March 2019|Blog, Community, Equality and Diversity, Events, Leadership, Yorkshire|

LGBT History Month – Laverne Cox

In celebration of LGBT History Month, Touchstone is profiling a different LGBT celebrity each week in the month of February. The chosen celebrity this week is Laverne Cox: twin; actress, television producer and LGBT advocate. Born in Mobile, Alabama, Laverne was bullied constantly as a child and describes how she attempted suicide when, aged 11, she realised she was attracted to boys but knew this would be seen as sinful

2019-02-25T09:00:30+00:0025th February 2019|Blog, Diversity, Equality and Diversity, LGBT History Month, LGBT*|

LGBT History Month – Vicky Beeching

Victoria Louise "Vicky" Beeching (born 17 July 1979) is an English musician and religious commentator. She is best known for her work in the American contemporary worship music genre, and has been described as "arguably the most influential Christian of her generation" due to of her Twitter following and appearances on BBC's Thought for the Day. Vicky Beeching is an avid blogger, writing on many difficult Christian issues such as

2019-02-22T15:00:49+00:0022nd February 2019|Blog, Case Study, Diversity, Equality and Diversity, LGBT History Month, LGBT*|