An NHS Trust has issued staff with a ‘wheel of privilege’ which could help them work out how lucky or marginalised they are.
The colorful diagram is used in an ‘allyship’ training program to illustrate the societal dynamics, with thin, white, affluent heterosexual individuals positioned closest to a central ‘power’ node.
In contrast, ‘Large’, dark-skinned individuals, those experiencing poverty, and lesbian or bisexual individuals are placed in an outer ‘marginalised’ zone. Gay men are depicted alongside individuals of average body size, lighter skin tones, and those facing financial challenges in a middle section of the chart.
Staff at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (SFHT) receive this chart as part of an optional ‘allyship’ training module, which complements the mandatory diversity training they already undergo.
But the Nottinghamshire trust was accused of peddling a ‘half-baked, intellectually vacuous’ notion of white privilege by Tory MP Sir John Hayes.
Sir John, who represents South Holland and The Deepings in the neighbouring county of Lincolnshire, said: ‘This kind of nonsense can have a vicious effect in that if you happen to be a white person who might be facing challenges – these could be health issues, or being widowed, or caring for elderly parents – that person could still be deemed to be privileged.
‘Yet if you are rich, black and portly you are still considered to be somewhat under-privileged (according to the wheel).’
Sir John said the wheel displayed a ‘lack of wit and wisdom’, adding: ‘On any such wheel that gauged wit and wisdom, whoever devised this chart would be on the outer edge of it.’
The wheel of privilege shared by Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
The Trust said it spent no money developing the resource, which was already widely available online. It said the wheel was handed out to help allyship training participants ‘to better understand privilege’.
In its Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) glossary of terms, SFHT describes an ally as ‘someone who uses their privilege from being part of a dominant group to take action to challenge oppression by supporting and advocating with the oppressed/discriminated against group.’
The wheel was adapted from a similar ‘web of oppression’ chart from a 2016 article by James R Vanderwoerd, Professor of Social Work at Redeemer University college in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and a ‘Wheel of Power and Privilege’ devised by teacher Sylvia Duckworth from nearby Toronto.
The wheel ranks groups such as trans, non-binary and those with significant neurodivergence in the marginalised outer ring, while cisgender men – people born male who identify as men –and the ‘neurotypical’ are on the inner ring of the wheel.
It features a total of 12 categories with titles including Gender, Skin Colour, Sexuality and Wealth. In the latter segment, those in poverty are in the ‘marginalised’ zone, those ‘struggling’ are in the middle section while ‘comfortable’ people are in the inner section closest to power.
Silver Voices, a membership organisation for senior citizens which campaigns for an improved NHS, accused SFHT of ‘gimmickry’.
Spokesman Dennis Reed added: ‘Staff should be aware that some people are marginalised in society but this seems over the top in terms of the number of categories and the importance of different categories.’
He stressed that the group appreciated the importance of equal opportunities but said some initiatives had now got ‘out of hand’.
The Trust runs Kings Mill Hospital (above) in Sutton-in-Ashfield
The existence of the wheel emerged in a response to a Freedom of Information request to the NHS trust.
It came to light days after a landmark Supreme Court ruling that biology defines whether or not a person is a woman, and that the term does not include biological men who identify as women.
Judges said a ‘woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex’.
Wednesday’s ruling was hailed as a ‘victory for common sense’, by Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
In their ruling, the Supreme Court judges stressed that the law still protects transgender people.
SFHT provides mandatory online EDI training for all staff which has to be completed when joining the trust and every three years thereafter.
In 2021, the trust introduced a ‘People EDI Lead’ – a Band 7 position earning between £43,742 and £50,056 in 2023/24. In 2023 a People EDI Officer position was also created on a salary of between £28,407 and £34,581.
A spokesperson for SFHT said: ‘Our hardworking NHS colleagues are at the heart of everything we do to save and improve patients’ lives across all of the diverse communities we are proud to serve here at Sherwood Forest Hospitals.
‘Training and education opportunities that are proportionate and offer good value-for-money are a vital part of the support we offer our colleagues to help them to keep doing what they do best — providing outstanding care to the patients we care for.’
