NDORMS has just been awarded the Athena Swan Silver Award for 2024. NDORMS first was awarded Athena Swan Bronze in 2013, before achieving Silver in 2015, and again in 2018. The Athena Swan Charter was revised in 2022, and NDORMS signed and committed to its transformed principles. The Athena Swan Charter is a framework which NDORMS uses to support, address and transform gender equality in the department and to identify areas for positive action.
On the renewal of Athena Swan Silver, Head of Department Professor Jonathan Rees said, “We are delighted to have been recognised by Athena Swan again for our commitment to gender equality at NDORMS. I’d like to thank our wonderful staff for making NDORMS a great place to work and my thanks to the team that supported and contributed to this important application. While this Silver Award demonstrates our positive work and ambitions for gender equality in NDORMS, there is still work to do. We have set out our action plan and pathway to achieving Gold status in the future and by working together I know we can achieve these ambitions.”
The Athena Swan application process and our ambitions for Gold have highlighted five priority areas in order for the department to continue its gender equality work.
- Representative population
To develop the pipeline and career opportunities to recruit female clinical academics at consultant level, and support their promotion to the titles of Associate Professor and Professor.
- Career Development
To invest and support the career development of our staff with special focus on our female academics and researchers.
- Wellbeing
To ensure a high-quality health and wellbeing support across the whole department
- Inclusive Communication
To work towards a more proactive and inclusive communication with the department led by the departmental leadership group.
- Bullying and Harassment
To reduce incidents of Bullying and-Harassment, especially amongst our professional, technical and operational staff group. To keep building a culture where everyone feels they belong and where difficult situations are managed while driving positive change.
NDORMS EDI Manager, Maria Granell Moreno, who led the application, said “The Athena Swan application has again been an opportunity for us to celebrate our successes over the years and to identify the challenges that still lay ahead. I am looking forward to implementing our ambitious action plan, to contributing to positive change and to making NDORMS an even more inclusive and equal workplace for everyone. I feel proud and lucky to work alongside a team who genuinely believes in change and are committed to it. Thank you to each and every one of you who have worked and supported this application, and who have reminded me that this is a team effort, and that change will happen if we join forces.”