This month, colleagues across Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals (SaTH) have been celebrating Pride Month. Pride Month honours the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, USA. Pride Month is important for so many reasons. It highlights the great strides taken towards LGBTQIA+ equality, but it also reminds everyone that there is much more work to be done.

The Trust is fully committed to becoming a more inclusive place for colleagues, patients, and visitors, but to achieve this, it needs the support of the workforce.

How we got involved!

• We have held awareness stands for colleagues in our restaurants and libraries.
• Colleagues were encouraged to fill out pledge cards and pick up a rainbow badges from our libraries.
• Decorated our restaurants with Pride bunting, flags and projected the Pride flag on the RSH site.

Become an ally

An ally is not necessarily a member of an underrepresented group, but someone who takes action to support that group. They play a key role in promoting LGBTQIA+ interests and equality at work, so please consider whether this could be you.

Use of pronouns

Inclusive language creates inclusive workplaces, and by sharing your pronoun it makes it clear how you would like to be referred to whilst also helping to normalise conversations around gender.

As the Trust continues to mark Pride Month, you may want to consider adding your personal pronouns to email signatures. This can be a simple but powerful way to help raise awareness and demonstrate inclusivity.

Hayley Flavel, Director of Nursing, said: “EDI is everyone’s business and responsibility, so please help us in showing solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community and making SaTH a truly inclusive place for all.”