Michelle Mitchell: An update on equality, diversity and inclusion at Cancer Research UK

Michelle Mitchell shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Beating cancer means beating it for everyone, which is why at Cancer Research UK (CRUK) we remain committed to becoming a more inclusive and diverse charity.

We’re pleased to have made substantial progress over the last three years and we’ll be outlining the ambitions for our refreshed long-term EDI strategy later this year. Though we have more to do, we also know how important it is to celebrate some of our successes and key achievements from the last six months.

Reduce cancer inequalities

Smoking is the biggest driver of cancer inequalities in the UK, so we were thrilled to see commitments from the UK government to reintroduce a Bill to progressively raise the age of sale of tobacco products. Importantly, this was confirmed in the King’s Speech after the general election, representing an important milestone in our campaigning. We now hope to see legislation submitted to the UK parliament as soon as possible and ultimately implemented across the UK to help bring an end to cancers caused by smoking, relieve pressures on the NHS and build a healthier future for everyone.

Despite the best efforts of NHS staff, many people face lengthy waits to find out if they have cancer and when they can start treatment, during what is already an anxious time. We published research revealing that people living in the most deprived areas in England were 33% more likely to wait over 104 days to start treatment than those in the least deprived. This is particularly concerning when it can take just weeks for some cancers to progress. We’re in conversations with the UK government to ensure they deliver a bold, long-term cancer strategy with targeted interventions that address inequalities in cancer care – as outlined in our manifesto, Longer, better lives.

Our research showed that the HPV vaccine has helped cut rates of cervical cancer across different social groups in England. Rates tend to be higher in more deprived groups, but this study demonstrated that well-executed public health interventions (like the school vaccination programme) can help to reduce health inequalities.

Develop a more diverse and inclusive research community

Through Cancer Grand Challenges(the global research initiative we co-founded with the National Cancer Institute in the US) we’ve awarded team SAMBAI £20m to take on the cancer inequities challenge. The team will generate a groundbreaking resource focused on breast, prostate and pancreatic cancer in people of African descent (typically more aggressive cancer types that are diagnosed at an earlier age in Black individuals) to help understand why diverse populations are affected by cancer differently. Working together with patient communities, they hope to use what they learn to develop much-needed targeted cancer prevention and treatment strategies for underserved populations.

In March we held our annual Women of Influence(WoI) event as part our commitment to champion women in cancer research. It’s now been ten years since the start of the WoI programme which, to date, has seen 90 researchers paired with leading businesswomen as mentors to help further their development.

We recently updated our guidelines for applicants and grant holders to incorporate disability and accessibility support. We did this with the National Association of Disabled Staff Networks to help ensure all researchers have the same opportunity to access our fellowships and grant funding.

Engage with people in ways that are inclusive, relevant and accessible

Our cancer information reaches millions every year, so we have a responsibility to make sure it’s accessible and understood by all. We continue to maintain a high standard here, with 99% of our new health and patient information webpages understandable to people with a reading age of 9-11.

We’ve also been developing bitesize social media content to help expand the reach of our cancer information. We created an Instagram Reel following Lauren from our social media team attending a cervical screening appointment to help address some common concerns and demystify the experience. Originally developed for Cervical Cancer Prevention Week in January, this was then reshared later in the year in collaboration with the NHS, helping spread the information even further. The content has now generated over 200,000 plays combined, making it one of our best-performing Reels.

We’re working hard to find new voices for our communications that represent the experiences of everyone affected by cancer. Since January we’re pleased to be working with 15 new media volunteers from ethnic minority backgrounds who wish to share their stories.

Build an inclusive and diverse culture for all our people

We’ve launched our new Disability in Recruitment guide to help make sure we’re being as inclusive as possible. Created together with members of our Health and Disability Network, our Inclusion and Wellbeing Team and reviewed by the Business Disability Forum, it includes things like how to write role profiles and adverts and using hearing loops for interviews.

We’re also pleased that this month we met our target of ensuring that at least 16% of staff are from an ethnic minority background for the first time. This is the result of significant efforts to drive improved diversity at CRUK and whilst we are very proud of this progress, we remain ambitious to go further and we will be reviewing our targets as part of our strategy refresh.

Alongside this is our ongoing work to ensure that all our people can succeed and feel like they belong. In January we launched training for people managers focused on building the mindset and skillset to become an inclusive team leader. Over 50 managers have attended the workshops so far and the feedback has been excellent, rated 9.4 out of 10 on average.

Achieve diversity across our governance, advisory and leadership structures

We’re pleased that we continue to meet our target of at least 50% of our Executive Board or Director level roles being held by female staff.

Progress on ethnic minority representation in leadership positions (Executive Board, Directors and Heads) is not happening as fast as we’d hoped. We’re currently at 7.3% (up from 4.7% in 2021) against a target of 12% by 2023, affected, in part, by lower turnover at these grades. We remain committed to developing a diverse pipeline of future leaders. Our second round of Ignite, a competitive development programme aimed at high potential, ambitious ethnic minority staff, has drawn to a close with great feedback from participants. Though we’re not where we want to be we’ll review this target, and the initiatives to help meet it, as we refresh our strategy.

Our Council (both Trustees and non-Trustees) conducted a diversity survey to better understand the current make up of Trustees. We hope to use this to identify any areas where we may wish to set meaningful KPIs and focus our efforts in future non-executive recruitment.

Looking ahead

Our work remains ongoing as we review and evaluate our EDI strategy 2021-2023 to develop a plan for the longer-term. Upcoming activity includes:

• Launching a long-term strategy for reducing cancer-related inequalities

• Welcoming the first cohort onto our Bridge to Academic Leadership programme for early career researchers, helping to increase diversity in the research workforce through ringfenced places for underrepresented groups

• Building on how we work with our networks to identify the barriers which different groups face and implement targeted interventions to address them

• Improving our leaders’ understanding of the experience of staff from minority backgrounds

• Analysing the 2024-25 annual survey of our information services users to identify audiences we may not be reaching and help determine priorities for future activity.”

Source:  Michelle Mitchell/LinkedIn

Michelle Mitchell is the first female chief executive of Cancer Research UK (CRUK), the world’s leading charitable funder of cancer research. In 2021/22 the charity had an income of £668m, spent £443m on cancer research and had approximately 4,000 staff and over 30,000 volunteers.

Before joining Cancer Research UK, Michelle was CEO of the MS Society for five years and a founding member of the Progressive MS Alliance: a global scientific and research joint venture and launched the STOP MS £100m appeal. Prior to that, she was Director General at Age UK, the UK’s largest older people’s charity where she worked for nearly a decade and was at the forefront of national debates on health, care and welfare.

Mitchell was appointed Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to Older People and the Voluntary Sector. She was named by Cranfield University as one of the 100 Women to Watch in 2018.