RCOT shares the outrage of members, colleagues and friends, and condemns the murder of George Floyd, and continued injustices around the world. We stand in solidarity with our BAME members and colleagues against racism of all kinds.
To anyone who feels that we’ve been slow in putting out this statement, we hear you. But we wanted to truly reflect on this issue, what it means to us and our members. We’ve done a lot of listening and reflecting on our work so far. To be honest, we’ve also done a bit of soul searching.
The principles of diversity and equality are core to the practice of occupational therapy and are enshrined within the RCOT Code of Ethics. We believe that all people should be treated with dignity and respect, above all as equal members of society with the same choices, rights and privileges. Discrimination and prejudice have no place in our practice and no place in society.
As a professional body, we also know that we need a workforce that reflects the population we serve. We recognise that the occupational therapy profession lacks this diversity and we are committed to changing this.
So, what are we doing?
We want to influence the future makeup of the workforce, so we’re working on a project to promote occupational therapy to school children across the country, to encourage take up of occupational therapy as a career and particularly to help increase diversity of and inclusion within the profession.
We know that to appeal to a more diverse population of future occupational therapists, we need to make our messages relevant to BAME communities, through images and storytelling. So we’re refreshing our brand to ensure that it reflects the diversity that we know the profession and wider society needs.
Our partner Unison provides comprehensive resources on diversity and inclusivity in the workplace, which we encourage members to access.
We’ve been reviewing evidence and other sectors’ initiatives to address diversity and will be working with HEIs, NHSEI and other government bodies across the UK on initiatives to support people from BAME communities’ entry into the profession.
In all projects, we have processes in place to consider and promote diversity and inclusion.
But we can and should do more.
We know that to truly address these issues, we need to learn from the BAME community and we need the support and guidance of our members. Some members have already been in touch with great suggestions and we’re keen to widen the debate. As a first step, we’d like to ask members to share their view and join us in a BAME Big Conversation.
In the meantime, all other suggestions from members are welcome, please email hello@rcot.co.uk.
RCOT is committed to the principles of #BlackLivesMatter. We seek to support justice, healing, and freedom for all BAME communities across the globe.