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The General Pharmaceutical Council has joined other UK healthcare regulators in signing up to nine anti-racism principles formulated by the NHS Race and Health Observatory (NHSRHO).

Publishing its principles today, the NHSRHO set out its aims to ensure workplaces across the health system “are inclusive, compassionate and value everyone’s contributions”.

That includes “naming racism explicitly and consistently to advance race equity and commit to work actively to address racism”, listening to people working in health and care who experience racism so it can “co-produce” its work with them and “modelling the behaviours and actions it expects” from people in the NHS.

The NHSRHO also said it will encourage collaborative working amongst regulators to understand “how racism and other forms of discrimination operate” and co-create “strategies, clear and aligned goals and communications and share good practice”.

It promised to improve the use of data to better understand the extent and impact of racism, empower health leaders, providers and the workforce to improve working environments and ensure it “embeds the advancement of workforce race equality and inclusion” in health and care regulatory strategy, policy and standards “effectively”.

The NHSRHO pledged to use its “collective voice to influence national policy on workforce race equity and wider health inequalities” and set out transparent “indicators” to address racism and promote equality.

The principles are also being supported by the Care Quality Commission, General Medical Council, Nursing and Midwifery Council, Health and Care Professions Council, Social Work England, General Optical Council, General Osteopathic Council and General Chiropractic Council.

GPhC: Racism could result in fitness to practise proceedings 

The NHSRHO said the principles were created in response to a “compelling evidence base across the NHS, CQC research and other professional bodies’ reviews which demonstrate a strong correlation between people’s experience of discrimination and their ethnicity”.

Announcing its support for the principles and insisting it has “a zero-tolerance approach to racism”, the GPhC said: “Racism continues to be a significant public health challenge and has a profound impact on patients and professionals.”

It warned racism, bullying and harassment could result in fitness to practise proceedings “or other enforcement action”. Pointing to its five-year equality, diversity and inclusion strategy, the GPhC said it takes “all concerns about discriminatory behaviour that are raised with us very seriously”.

It also insisted its regulatory decisions would be “demonstrably fair, lawful and free from discrimination and bias” after its own data revealed Asian and black pharmacists were disproportionately represented in fitness-to-practise concerns it received.

The GPhC chair Gisela Abbam said: “Racism and discrimination have no place in healthcare, and as a regulator we have a responsibility to lead by example.  

“We are committed to taking meaningful action to embed the new shared principles for regulators on advancing workforce race equity in health and social care.”