BME, minority, black, ethnic, leadership, forum, forums, network, networks

The national NHS Black and Minority Ethnic Leadership Forum was launched by the NHS Confederation and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in 2003. This forum drives the development of black and minority ethnic (BME) leadership and ensures a stronger voice for BME leaders and managers in the NHS.

The forum aims to:

• Listen and collate the views of members to inform and shape development programmes being developed nationally
• Listen, consult and inform views to influence policy
• Speak out on diversity issues and the wider policy agenda
• Provide a platform for national and peer networking to support members' development.

Membership

The forum has a two-tier structure for membership:

• Representatives, which include a mix of non-executive directors (NEDs), senior executives, managers, nursing representatives and academics.
• A wider network of interested managers, NEDs, nurses and academics also have the opportunity to comment on issues arising and feed in their views to the forum, primarily by e-mail. This network will form the pool from which future representatives to the forum will be identified.

The BME group is steered by an independent group of forum members that meets bi-monthly to guide the policy work and provide structure for the forum.