Inclusivity Champion Award

Sponsored by Dignity Funerals, the Inclusivity Champion Award recognises the work of an individual in a hospice or palliative care organisation who, through a novel approach, has addressed inequality in their community and/or promoted equality, diversity and inclusion within their organisation.

The winners have been announced at the Hospice UK National Conference.

Leah from Pendleside Hospice was the 2023 Inclusivity Champion award winner

Winner - 2023

Leah, Pendleside Hospice

Leah’s collaborative project aims to raise awareness of Pendleside Hospice’s services amongst the minority ethnic community in Burnley and Pendle.

This award acknowledges the vital work done to recognise and celebrate what is important to the local Asian community in marking Ramadan and the significance of Iftar.

The Panel commented, “Hospices across the UK are keen to better understand the diverse voices of their communities and ensure more people know about hospice care and can access it if needed. It was clear that the development of trust built between the hospice and the community members has contributed to an increase in patient referrals, an appointment of a hospice trustee and an increase in volunteer recruitment. Well done Leah!”

About this award

We are interested in programmes and projects that have found new ways to:

Engage with minoritised groups in your area to drive positive change in your services based on lived experience.
Work to gain an understanding of what groups are not engaging with your services and why, including collecting/analysing data on this.
Diversify their workforces to be more representative of their community.

Particular value will be placed on innovations which have improved one or more of the following:

Engaging minority groups through public voice work to drive positive change based on lived experience.
Innovative recruitment campaigns and practices to attract more diverse candidates to the hospice sector.
Leveraging data to advance workplace diversity, equality and inclusion.
Career development programmes such as mentoring schemes that break down barriers for under-represented communities and drive positive change.
Diversity, equality and inclusion programmes that have improved an organisations overall employee engagement and sense of belonging and purpose.

What the judges were looking for

How original was the innovation?

Was it developed independently or in collaboration with others?
Did the activity improve any of the areas listed above?

What was the impact of the innovation?

Was there a measurable improvement evidenced with data?
Could improvements in diversity and inclusion be linked with better business results?

Knowledge sharing

Can this activity be shared to other hospices and palliative care organisations?
Have practical learnings been captured to help others undertaking a similar journey.