The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has published the findings of its first Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) survey of members as part of its five-year inclusion and diversity strategy.
The results provide a benchmark for future data collection and tracking progress.
RPS Chief Executive Paul Bennett said: “Our first EDI survey provides a snapshot of some of our membership and reflects our commitment to putting inclusion and diversity at the heart of our work.
“We will use the data as a benchmark for monitoring our activities around inclusion and diversity across our membership and the wider profession.
“The sample size of 7% means we are unable to draw immediate conclusions about the composition of our membership, but it provides us with a starting point for action. We recognise certain groups are under-represented in comparison to EDI data held by the GPhC on the profession, and will be exploring this further.
“We will continue to work with our membership so they can see the impact of our work on inclusion and diversity and the benefits of providing their data to us every year.
“Over time, as more members complete this anonymous survey, will hope to build an increasingly accurate picture of their diversity, helping us ensure our services are inclusive and accessible to all.”
Survey results
- The survey had a 7% response rate and the majority of respondents were pharmacists (71%), working in England (78%) and female (61%).
- Three-quarters of respondents (73%) identified as white, followed by those from Asian or British Asian background (17%) and then Black or Black British (6%).
- The majority of respondents were heterosexual (86%), and married (61%), with just less than one-third (29%) of the sample reporting that they had never been married or registered a civil partnership.
- There was a diverse spread across career stages and main area of practice, with 40% working in community pharmacy, 23% in hospital pharmacy, and 10% in general practice.
RPS will engage with members of its Action in Belonging, Culture and Diversity group and Early Careers Pharmacist Advisory Group to explore the results and discuss how to increase the number of members completing future EDI data surveys.