Cultural Ambassadors Programme Service Evaluation
What are we trying to do?
This service evaluation aims to examine the initial introduction of the Cultural Ambassadors programme within the Northern Care Alliance (NCA) NHS Foundation Trust in order to produce a report to help the NCA Board of Directors decide whether the programme should be changed or extended.
The Cultural Ambassadars programme has been running in NCA since 2019 and was designed to make sure there is no bias in recruitment and disciplinary processes. In the five years since it began, 69 Cultural Ambassadors were recruited. Each ambassador was trained to sit on recruitment selection panels for roles at an NHS Agenda for Change Band 8a and above, plus any disciplinary boards.
Why is this important?
When people are being recruited or are going through a disciplinary process, it is essential that they are treated fairly and equitably. The Cultural Ambassadors programme was introduced by the NCA as a way to make sure recruitment and disciplinary processes aren’t biased towards or against any groups of people. It aims to do this by:
- Improving fairness in recruitment and disciplinary processes.
- Reducing the number of underrepresented staff that are affected by the employment relations process.
- Improving the experience of underrepresented staff when going through the formal disciplinary process.
- Improving the experience of underrepresented applicants in the recruitment and selection process.
- Enabling dialogue prior to outcomes or decisions.
How are we doing it?
This service evaluation runs from December 2024 to the end of March 2025.
During this time, we will gather and examine information such as how long the Cultural Ambassadors process took to introduce, characteristics of the Cultural Ambassadors and people’s experience of the process. Data about Cultural Ambassadors activity and the outcomes of panels, as well as other routine data, will also be collected and analysed as part of the evaluation.
We aim to interview between 10 and 30 Cultural Ambassadors and/or panel chairs who have requested a Cultural Ambassadors to sit on their panels. We will ask Cultural Ambassadors their opinions on the programme, including their experience of the training, how they found sitting on the panels, and what they think the impact of the programme is.
We will ask panel chairs how and when they are using the Cultural Ambassadors service, what role Cultural Ambassadors plays on the panel and how the programme is having an impact.
All collected data will be analysed by the research team who will draw conclusions and recommendations. A report will then be shared with the NCA Board of Directors to help them make decisions on the future of the Cultural Ambassadors programme.
Who are we working with?
Contact information:
Programme Manager
Cristianne Bukhari
cristianne.bukhari@manchester.ac.uk