It’s a fact that diverse organisations perform better and innovate more quickly. Knowledge multiplies among people who are able to learn from their differences. That’s why we’re putting diversity and inclusion at the heart of the College’s future. Embracing difference isn’t just the right thing to do. It can inspire all of us to grow. And it will ensure our profession remains at the forefront of patient care for generations to come.

Our commitment

We commit to reform in order to increase diversity, inclusivity and accountability in everything we do and every decision we make.

Background

In March 2020 we launched our statement on challenging racism and challenging diversity, including a commitment to review diversity across our professional leadership. Recognising that representative leadership best serves our members and patients, we made a promise to identify any barriers to this and address them. To this end we invited the distinguished barrister and member of the House of Lords, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, to chair an independent review of diversity in the College’s professional leadership.

Following the sixteen recommendations made in the Kennedy Review published in March 2021, we launched our Action Plan in September 2021 to bring these to fruition. Kennedy recommended an objective of two presidential terms – or six years – for College roles to reflect the diversity of the wider-qualified medical workforce.

For many projects the start was inevitably about listening and learning, and we are at various stages of implementation, with many workstreams now being absorbed into ‘business as usual’ for the College and new activities being identified and started. Diversity has been put firmly at the heart of our strategy.

You will find more information about our overarching project aims below, and more about our progress and activities in How we’re changing .

Our staff, Council members and clinical leads have been working incredibly hard and passionately behind the scenes and although there is still much to be done, we hope that you can see the progress that has been made and our continuing commitment to the Kennedy recommendations.

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Resources

The Kennedy Report

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Project overviews and outcomes March 2023

Outcome we are committed to:

For our Council to be a diverse group of surgical professionals representative of, and accountable to, the College’s membership

What we have done:

We have surveyed members and reviewed governance arrangements in similar or benchmark organisations.

We have facilitated a number of conversations at Council about the mechanism of electing the President and Vice Presidents, representation for members across the regions and devolved nations, and the breadth of career stages. In April 2023, Council voted in favour of significant governance reform, including ensuring that at least one Vice Presidential place goes to a woman and providing greater representation across regions and career stages.

What you’ll see next:

A paper with additional proposed governance changes, including the election process for President and Vice-President, is being presented at our September Council meeting, with a vote taking place at the November meeting.

Outcome we are committed to:

For SAS surgeons to be respected and acknowledged for the contribution that they can, and do, make to the surgical team, the College and their profession AND to see that their opportunities to contribute are enhanced.

What we have done:

We have undertaken an audit of all our activities to ensure there are no barriers to SAS surgeons taking part in College life, a four-nation research programme and launched a SAS strategy and case studies.

What you’ll see next:

The creation of additional opportunities for SAS surgeons and the development of further online resources. We’ll be raising awareness of SAS surgeons and our work during SAS week, 9-13 October. Keep an eye on our social channels to get involved.

Outcome we are committed to:

For surgeons and dentists with parental responsibilities to have the same access to, and opportunities for, training and development as those who are not parents.

What we have done:

We have conducted an extensive consultation with parents in surgical careers, parents who have left surgical careers, those who are not parents – and don’t see that in their future, stakeholders and experts within this field to launch our Parents in Surgery report. We also commissioned an independent study by the Nuffield Trust to add to our research. Both reports identified a series of recommendations and areas of action.

We have begun to signpost valuable resources to provide support through the stages of planning a family, taking parental leave and flexible working.

What you’ll see next:

We are currently seeking best practice examples from individuals, trusts and other specialties, including interviews with changemakers within surgery. Following these, we will be facilitating a number of workshops in the autumn, aiming to discuss solutions and prioritising areas for action.

We will be launching a network enabling individuals to share experiences, resources and lean on supportive colleagues and peers and will be hosting online meetings this autumn to support this.

We’ll be starting work to prepare our digital tools and resources, where there are gaps.

Outcome we are committed to:

To have achieved a comprehensive understanding of the factors contributing to differential attainment in surgical exams, to inform focused projects to have addressed these factors by 2026.

What we have done:

We have conducted research analysing existing literature about differential attainment and a survey of recent MRCS candidates, which tested the six critical factors identified in the research. Following this, we plan to launch five workstreams to close the attainment gap. Read more.

What you’ll see next:

We’ll share more about the projects as they develop.

Outcome we are committed to:

To have catalysed high quality research that creates new knowledge and improved understanding of DEI in surgery.

What we have done:

Between March and June 2022 we offered the opportunity for surgical trainees to submit applications for our first Research Fellowship awards in Diversity Equity and Inclusion in Surgery.

We were delighted with the range of applications we received and the high quality and important research proposals they represented.

Following peer review in late 2022, we were delighted to make our first two Research Fellowship in DEI in Surgery awards.

What you’ll see next:

We’ll be sharing more about the projects as they progress.

Outcome we are committed to:

An increased awareness of opportunities to participate in College life among a more diverse pool of talent.

What we have done:

Following on from the success of the 2022 Grassroots in Surgery projects, we have had another successful year of applications and will announce the new projects very soon. We’ll invite all unsuccessful applicants to our annual Grassroots Roundtable event on 17 November, providing the opportunity to build relationships and facilitate learning for both the applicants and the College. Read more about Grassroots in Surgery.

What you’ll see next:

We will work with these organisations throughout the year to provide support and guidance and learn from our experiences with them for the next round of funding in spring 2024.

Outcome we are committed to:

For individuals from diverse backgrounds and with diverse opinions and beliefs to gain leadership roles within the profession, both inside and outside of College governance structures. For these individuals to engage, be themselves, feel that they belong and have equal status to all their colleagues. For women to have parity of esteem, opportunity and success within the College’s ecosystem and beyond.

What we have done:

We supported a survey by the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery in 2022 and continue to work with them, among others, to raise awareness of, and eradicate, sexual misconduct in our profession. We attended a WPSMS meeting at the GMC in May 2023 and are assisting in creating a report due to be published this autumn.

We have launched a refreshed Emerging Leaders programme, currently in its second year and receiving positive feedback. Applications for the next cohort are open and close on Monday 18 September.

What you’ll see next:

We’ll share the findings of the WPSMS this autumn, along with our take on the recommendations and how we, as a College, are committed to supporting the eradication of sexual misconduct in surgery. This will be a topic at our Women in Surgery conference on 14 September.

We’ll continue to develop our national model alongside strengthening and developing the alumnae network to provide additional opportunities post-programme.

Outcome we are committed to:

For the College to develop mentoring as a core surgical skill and as a ‘human’ element of the membership package.

What we have done:

We have launched initial mentorship resources as part of a mentorship toolkit.

What you’ll see next:

We will add additional resources including e-learning to the toolkit and will continue discussions on the next phase of the project with the mentorship steering group.

Outcome we are committed to:

For the College to make better informed decisions in making progress against all its DEI (and broader strategic) aims.

What we have done:

We conducted a census pilot in two trusts in autumn 2022, followed by a national census in spring 2023.

What you’ll see next:

We are analysing the results and will publish our findings in due course.

Outcome we are committed to:

For the College building to be an inclusive, stimulating and welcoming place, accessible to all visitors on-site and online.

What we have done:

The Hunterian Museum is now open, and we are working on our ongoing commitment to make the building as accessible as possible through improved signage and wayfinding. We have worked with Citron Hygiene, providing free period products in all female and multi-gendered toilets. We have made all our public toilets multi-gendered.

We received over 1800 worldwide submissions for our Faces of Surgery project after commissioning The People’s Picture to create a photo mosaic to be displayed at the Portugal Street entrance of our building, representing the RCS England community in all of its diversity.

New contemporary artworks have been installed in the building, and we are working on QR codes to tell the story of our artworks in the building.

What you’ll see next:

The unveiling of Faces of Surgery will take place this autumn, both in the building and online.

Outcome we are committed to:

For the College to be able to provide the appropriate support to LGBTQ+ surgeons and staff.

What we have done:

The Pride in Surgery forum has formally been brought into the College, and online content has been developed.

What you’ll see next:

The LGBTQ+ strategy is in planning stage.

We are in an explore phase, reaching out to stakeholders to identify the issues faced and gain a better understanding of the activities already happening to address them.

Outcome we are committed to:

To bolster and make the pipeline of medical students considering surgery more diverse, and to raise awareness of the College and the support we offer among students.

What we have done:

During the ‘explore phase’ of the project, we conducted research to identify three non-London medical schools to approach about participating in the pilot. The three schools that were approached were Anglia Ruskin University School of Medicine, University of Leeds School of Medicine, and University of Leicester Medical School. All three schools agreed to participate in a one-year pilot programme during the 2022/23 academic year.

Over the course of the 2022/23 academic year, we have held a number of activities focused on student engagement and widening participation. These included our So you want to be a surgeon? An introduction to surgical careers conferences and Cutting Edge Careers workshops for school and college students.

We also held our inaugural Future Surgeons 2023 conference in May, which was opened up to students from across the UK and internationally. 276 delegates from 61 different institutions joined the event in-person and online.

What you’ll see next:

We have now entered the pilot evaluation phase. The project steering group will be reviewing the quality and impact of all of our activities before reporting back to the universities and Council with our findings. A number of key recommendations on what the College should do next to continue to engage with future generations of surgeons and improve the profession’s diversity will be published in the autumn.

We will continue to report on our progress regularly, holding true to the long-term outcomes we are working towards. If you have any questions, feedback or wish to discuss any area of this work, we are keen to hear from you via email.