Each year RCPCH publishes a snapshot of diversity data of our membership, volunteers and senior volunteers.
Back in 2020, as part of our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, we pledged to start collecting and publishing information about the diversity of our membership, volunteers and senior volunteers on an annual basis. Collecting demographic data provides important insight into the representation of our members among our volunteers and assists us in implementing initiatives that target inclusivity.
The questions we ask are guided by external resources such as census data and Daisy guidance. As part of our EDI programme we continue to review the questions we ask to ensure the data we collect can best inform our work.
Until recently, we have had a full diversity profile of around 9% of our membership. A priority in our latest EDI programme, Making EDI Everybody’s Business, was to increase the response rate to our diversity monitoring questions.
As of November 2023, members are required to complete the diversity monitoring questions when logging into their RCPCH online account. As a result of this change, we now have a full diversity profile of around 68% of our membership.
Professor Steve Turner, RCPCH President, said:
I am so pleased that our college has published an updated snapshot of the demographics of RCPCH membership. We now have details of protected characteristics on almost 70% of members – we had data on only 9% of members this time last year.
This is a great achievement, and I am very grateful to members for sharing this information. This doesn’t mean the job is done. Truthfully, this is perhaps the end of the beginning. In future we hope to have details on all members. Now is time for us to refocus, build our strategy and strive to provide an ever-improved value for membership.
Dr Bhanu Williams, RCPCH Trustee and EDI Trustee Lead, said:
It has been heartening to see the progress of our EDI programme. I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to complete their diversity profile, which will help us more fully understand the profile of protected characteristics across our membership.
Understanding member demographics has played a key role in our EDI work since its inception, guiding our differential attainment work, helping us update our volunteer recruitment process and identifying members for our reciprocal mentoring programme, which is now in its second phase.
These data allows us to further develop our understanding of RCPCH members and inform future College activity to ensure all aspects of College life are as inclusive as they can be.
For more information about our work on EDI as a whole, please see our EDI landing page.