Black colleagues may also be gay, female, disabled and Muslim, health chief urges staff to bear in mind

Leaked Black History Month message calls for greater ethnic diversity in senior ranks as one civil servant brands the focus on identity “creepy”

The message from DHSC permanent secretary Samantha Jones

Health staff were told to consider that black colleagues could also be “gay, female, disabled, Christian, [or] Muslim” in a leaked Black History Month message.

Samantha Jones, the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) permanent secretary, told officials that race was only one aspect of a person’s identity, adding: “That matters when we think about inclusion.”

In a Black History Month message accompanying a programme of events for NHS England and Department of Health staff, Jones stressed that: “A Black colleague might also be gay, female, disabled, Christian, Muslim, or have caring responsibilities.”

The message, circulated under the heading “A Note From Sam”, appears in internal Department of Health and Social Care documents seen by this publication.

A DHSC source told this Substack: “As a non-black, non-gay, non-Muslim civil servant I find the permanent secretary’s obsession with these identities creepy.”