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A recap on our campaign to support Digital Health Leadership and a continued plea to rethinking decision-making for a more inclusive future and workplace
Our motivation to raise the voice for leadership diversity. Why should we all care?
If the same types of people are always making decisions, how can we expect different outcomes? To create better services for under-represented populations, we must challenge our ways of working and actively address bias—both unconscious and conscious. Leadership diversity isn’t about "us" and "others"; it’s about recognising the blurred lines that shape our identities and experiences.
There is no time to be complacent. This urgency led me, Charlotte Lewis and Bernadette Clarke to launch a campaign in 2022, inviting conversations about the lack of diversity in Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) leadership within the NHS. We focused initially on the challenges faced by women, whose contributions often go overlooked.
In 2024, Nosheen Hussain joined us, we are now delighted to welcome Jude Williams, whose enthusiasm and energy will help bring our Manchester community together.
The way decisions are made in teams and organisations often follows predictable patterns because power remains concentrated among similar groups. This leads to missed opportunities for innovation, reinforced inequalities, and policies that fail to reflect the needs of diverse populations. To break this cycle, we must rethink who holds power, how decisions are made and what are the working practices people unconsciously or consciously follow.
At HETT North 2025, we held a discussion that highlighted why equity is crucial for clinical safety. It was important to frame inclusion not just as a moral or business imperative but as a clinical necessity. Seeing clinical safety becoming part of the broader equity conversation is, for me, an encouraging step forward.
Thank you to Angela Maragna and Maxine Mackintosh for joining us this time.
A Recap of The Digital Leadership Campaign
Our journey began in 2022, when HETT gave us a platform to discuss leadership and the barriers faced by women in the NHS. A special thanks to Sam Shah, who encouraged us to speak up and push for change. Many conferences discuss leadership, but often without addressing the lack of equity in these spaces. That’s why we focused our campaign on motivating these discussions and amplifying the voices of leaders – and I mean all types of leaders, junior, mid or senior colleagues. Our initial reflections were documented in our blog OHT Manchester at DALS22.
Since then, we have hosted nine workshops, roundtable discussions, webinars and presentations:
We have built a network of allies who share our passion for inclusion. Some have contributed to our learning, others have challenges us to start difficult conversations, and many have reflected on their own biases and areas for growth, including Ayesha Rahim, Dr Rizwan Malik, Paul Rice, Debbie Loke, Abigail Harrison, James Freed, Aasha Cowey, Hassan Chaudhury , Matt Newby, Jon Hoeksma, Christine Banks, Lauren Hoodles, Lisa Simmons, and many more. We extend our gratitude to our One HealthTech family and colleagues. Especially to Charlotte Misseldine, Angela Maragna, Charly Massey and Mary Yip.
HETT North 2025 – A focus on practical steps to increase leadership diversity
This year at HETT North 2025, we wanted to focus on actionable ways to overcome inequity. We explored two main questions:
How can we practically overcome the lack of diverse voices in decision-making?
What steps can we take to change who holds power and how they hold it?
Why are diverse voices missing from decision-making?
How do we ensure these voices are not just included but also heard and valued?
How can we prevent tokenism and make equity real?
What tools, resources, or examples can help make equity a reality in our work?
What policies or practices help remove barriers for underrepresented groups?
How can technology or digital platforms amplify diverse voices?
What metrics or benchmarks can measure progress toward equity?
The discussion brough together a diverse audience, including professionals from clinical, communications, commissioning, management, research, and marketing background. This allowed for a rich, multidisciplinary conversation on practical ways to increase equity from different perspectives.
Key Takeaways from our conversations
Inclusion requires more than good intentions—it demands deliberate action. For example, integrating translation features into AI-generated meeting summaries ensures that colleagues for whom English is a second language can fully participate. Language accessibility matters.
Structural barriers persist, such as unequal access to education, biased recruitment practices, and exclusionary networks that limit opportunities for underrepresented voices.
Shifting power dynamics requires more than token representation. Organisations must invest in leadership pipelines, rethink hiring criteria, and promote transparency in decision-making. Reverse mentoring and equitable information-sharing are critical steps.
Trust is built through genuine, long-term engagement. A culture of psychological safety and open dialogue ensures that diverse perspectives are meaningfully included—not just tolerated.
Diverse input leads to better, more equitable outcomes—including clinical safety. To achieve this, organisations must be willing to share authority, balance efficiency with inclusivity, and remain accountable for diversity efforts. Equity must be embedded into everyday practices, not treated as an isolated initiative.
The work continues – What can you do?
Inequalities persist, and there is still a lot of work to do. So, over to you: What steps can you take today to make decision-making in your team, your organisation or community more inclusive?
Let’s keep the conversation going—share your thoughts, connect with other diverse voices, be part of the change.
If you want to check other blogs on our campaign please go here: