The Medical Schools Council welcomes Lord Mann’s review into antisemitism in medicine and the urgent call for collective action to address racism in all its forms across the NHS, to ensure that all students, teachers, staff and patients are treated with dignity and respect.
We are committed to supporting students from all backgrounds. Our existing EDI guidance Active Inclusion, Challenging Exclusions is a series of resources for institutions with advice on how to ensure that students from all backgrounds are actively included and able to participate and thrive at medical and dental school. Within the series there is specific guidance on supporting students from a faith background. The guidance presents recommendations across a range of areas including embedding accountability, establishing inclusive recruitment and selection practices, creating supportive and equitable learning environments, diversifying and decolonising the curriculum, addressing discrimination in clinical placements and promoting inclusive employment and career progression. Our most recent work currently being developed under the series is an anti-racism guidance for schools.
We support Lord Mann’s recommendations and have already agreed to work with him on how best to incorporate them within the guidance for medical schools on anti-racism. His recommendations will play an important role in shaping new resources and policy to help institutions tackle antisemitism effectively.
Antisemitism, like all forms of racism, is unacceptable. It is essential that the sector takes shared responsibility and takes coordinated action to challenge all prejudice and hatred seen across the NHS. It is only by taking a strong and collective stance on this that we can ensure our learning and working environments are safe, respectful and truly inclusive for everyone. We look forward to working closely with Lord Mann, medical schools and our partners across the sector to develop practical, evidence-based approaches that support students and staff, and challenge all forms of discrimination, wherever it occurs.