Job postings for EDI roles in NHS England show significantly higher salaries than those of specialist junior doctors. One EDI secondment role covering the southwest of England offers a pro-rata salary of £122,000 per year. Another position, a head of EDI at a London NHS trust, offers up to £91,336. In contrast, junior doctors earn between £36,616 and £70,425 per year, while consultants make between £105,504 and £139,882 annually.
Some senior EDI staff in health services have higher-paying jobs than those in clinical roles that require years of training. Last month, the North East London NHS Trust’s Integrated Care Board advertised a head of EDI role with a salary of up to £91,336.
Additionally, The Times reported that NHS trusts are offering training on unconscious bias, white allyship, and microaggressions. NHS England also provides a 60-hour course on inclusive workplaces, which includes education on British slavery and colonialism.
Between 2022 and 2023, NHS trusts spent £13.5 million on EDI positions, according to Freedom of Information requests filed by the TaxPayers’ Alliance. In 2023, then-Health Secretary Steve Barclay ordered a halt to recruitment for EDI roles after discovering a £96,000 job advert for a diversity-related position. He also directed trusts to stop hiring external consultancies for diversity training, but his directive was reportedly ignored by NHS officials, who have continued hiring for high-paying EDI roles.
Current UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting has criticized NHS spending practices, calling for an end to a “culture of overspending.” In response to the report, the NHS said that trusts should not be making “tokenistic gestures that don’t ultimately improve patient or staff experience.”
