Supporting Race Equality Week (REW) 2026
This week (Monday 2 – Friday 6 February) marks Race Equality Week, with the theme of this year’s awareness campaign being ‘change needs all of us’.
Throughout the week, there will be a series of events taking place, along with content being shared across various channels nationally to highlight the importance of ensuring everyone’s voice is heard to help enact positive change in our society.
As clustered ICBs across Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, and Nottinghamshire, we stand united under the values of the NHS Constitution – particularly those values of Respect and Dignity, Compassion, and Everyone Counts – and remain committed to creating a safe, inclusive culture across all three of our ICBs, and to take action where we see incidents of racism, discrimination, and inequality wherever it occurs
Executive Director of Quality (Nursing), Rosa Waddingham, said: “Race Equality Week is an important reminder to us all to remember and reflect the importance of ensuring equity is at the heart of everything we do, for our colleagues and for the communities we serve across Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, and Nottinghamshire.
“In recent months, we have seen rises in incidents of racism and abuse to BME colleagues across the wider NHS – this is absolutely unacceptable and is not something we will tolerate in our cluster.
“We will continue to work closely with our colleague networks and take what others have to say seriously, while engaging in honest and open conversations about what we can do to instil a truly equitable, safe culture for all.
“The values of the NHS Constitution are at the heart of what we do and who we are as NHS employees, and we must continue to ensure every effort is made to ensure our colleagues and communities are not excluded, discriminated against or left behind in any way.”
Harpal Kaur and Daniel Merrison, Chair and Vice Chair of the Derby and Derbyshire ICB’s Diversity and Inclusion Network (D&IN), issued a joint statement reflecting on the importance of events such as REW:
“Awareness weeks such as Race Equality Week are incredibly important not only to shine a light on the work which the network is proactively addressing, but also the work that still needs to be done to ensure colleagues of all communities, faiths, ethnicities, and backgrounds have an equitable voice and experience at work.
“This will ensure we are all moving in the same direction, and for us to build on the good work that has already taken place.
“In Derby and Derbyshire, we last year signed up to the UNISON Anti-Racism Charter, and our Network continues to play a central role in ensuring the voice of our colleagues is truly represented as we transition into the new way of working.”
Yuen Toh, Chair of the Connected Cultures Network at Lincolnshire ICB, added: “The NHS and care sector across Lincolnshire employs around 35,000 people, each of whom is unique, with different skills and different ethnic backgrounds and we are proud to be diverse.
“We work in your homes, your community, your local surgery, your hospitals, care homes, pharmacies, dentists, optometrists and many other places. We work hard every day across the whole of the county to do our very best to provide high quality care for the people of Lincolnshire.
“We are committed to looking after you, whoever you are and whatever your background. We respect and value all the people we look after across Lincolnshire, please respect and value all of us too.”
Events taking place
The organisation, Race Equality Matters, is hosting a free event on Wednesday 4 February at 12.30pm which will focus on three common challenges raised to achieving equality in the workplace: creating psychological safety, engaging more colleagues in race equality, and recruitment and career development of ethnically diverse talent.
A further closing event will take place on Friday 6 February at 12.30pm and will feature recaps from Race Equality Week as well as more of the work planned for the remainder of 2026.
Contacting your local ICB network
Derby and Derbyshire:
Find out more about the Diversity and Inclusion Network at Derby and Derbyshire ICB on the intranet.
Lincolnshire:
If you would like more information about Connected Cultures, please contact: yuen.toh@nhs.net.
To further support this across Lincolnshire, colleagues and volunteers can contact the One Lincolnshire Connected Cultures Network, which is for race, ethnicity and cultural heritage. Allies are also welcome.
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire:
You can contact the network via: nnicb-nn.RACEnetwork@nhs.net
Last Updated: Tuesday 3rd February 2026 – 4:33:09:pm
