The Dukes’ Club was formed to support colorectal training across the UK and Ireland. As such, we aim to support and promote colorectal trainees of all backgrounds through ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion. We recognise that inclusion is about the choices we make, the words we use and the actions that we take every day through interactions with colleagues and patients alike. It is essential that our members are respectful and open to ideas, perspectives and outlooks different from their own.
We strive to uphold and promote principles of tolerance and inclusivity to ensure no colorectal trainee is disadvantaged by personal demographics. Our members come from every walk of life and, therefore, to represent them effectively, this should be reflected in our Committee, as it has been over several years in a range of posts. The Dukes’ Club Committee will strive to create an organisation in which all colorectal trainees feel welcome, supported and valued, and, in return, we expect our members to uphold these values.
Our strategy promotes fair treatment and equal opportunity for all colorectal trainees and aims to identify and eradicate barriers that reduce participation or opportunity for minority groups. This includes ensuring diversity and inclusion through our meetings, events and courses, and ensuring diversity is reflected in our invited speakers and panels. We will stand up against any practice that derogates from these principles and support trainees that suffer prejudice or disadvantage.
We recognise that improvements to reduce inequalities across surgical specialties have been made through the work of a range of organisations in recent years, including:
- Association of Women Surgeons
- Women In Surgery (WinS) (Royal College of Surgeons of England)
- The Medical Women’s Federation
- NHS Employers Principles on Flexible Training
- Flexible Training in Surgery (Royal College of Surgeons of England)
- Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland Equality, diversity and inclusion programme
- Society for Physicians with Disabilities
- British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin
- British International Doctors Association
- The Association of LGBT Doctorsand Dentists (GLADD)
The Dukes’ Club aims to continue being an active partner to these organisations and others to continue to improve equality, diversity and inclusion.
Guidelines for Implementation of EDI Policy
All events delivered by The Dukes’ Club will aim to uphold the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion. These principles will inform the selection of speakers, topics and event location.
All elections to The Dukes’ Club Committee positions, awards and fellowships will be undertaken in a transparent manner, using closed voting and anonymised applications where possible. Marking schemata will be published alongside future application calls where appropriate.
Acknowledgement and thanks to ACPGBI EDI committee