Influence, Allyship and Anti-Racism

Professor White was born and brought up on the Gower Peninsula and has lived in the Mid Glamorgan for nearly 40 years with her husband Andy. She trained as a general nurse in Swansea and practised as a theatre nurse in Wales and London.

Over her career of more than 40 years Professor White has held positions in nurse education, professional regulation, workforce development and quality assurance agencies in Wales, as well as Welsh Government. She was the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for Wales and senior adviser to the Welsh Government for just over a decade before retiring from that post in 2021. Since then, she has been – among other things – Chair of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s expert steering group (2022/23) revising the nursing and midwifery education standards, is an expert nurse adviser to the World Health Organisation (WHO) European Office and is currently the High Sheriff of Mid Glamorgan 2023-24.

Her conversation with Professor Roiyah Saltus focused on how best to influence policy, the importance of allyship and the role USW can play in pushing forward Wales’s anti-racist agenda.

Capturing how you have spent your professional life is difficult because you have developed, steered, and had senior-level leadership roles in many areas over your career. Please can you share three life lessons and three personal achievements linked to what drives you to make a positive change in people’s lives?

I think the earliest life lesson I experienced was one of dealing with failure and how overcoming a setback can be the making of you as a person. Like a lot of people, the path laid out for me did not go to plan. I did poorly at my A Levels through lack of study, and I felt ashamed of my lack of effort. This failure acted as a spur to always be the best version of myself, a feeling that I have had all my adult life. I decided to enter nursing rather than seek to go to university, which over 40 years ago was an apprenticeship not a degree as it is today. Once on the course I worked hard and rediscovered the appetite for learning that I had lost during my teenage years. I went on to complete numerous academic and professional courses, including a PhD study (completed in just under four years part time) and eventually became the head of the nursing profession in Wales. I came to learn that if you want something, you have to work for it!

My second life lesson is to have a little faith in yourself and have courage to step out of your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to have a go at something – stop that little voice in your head from dissuading you from saying yes to an opportunity. We tend to regret the things we didn’t do in life rather than the things we did do. For example, when on a two-year civil service leadership programme in 2009, I arranged to spend three months with the senior nurse leaders in WHO – two months in HQ, Geneva and one month in Copenhagen at the European Office. I learnt a lot from this experience but importantly it helped me develop relationships with numerous global nurse leaders, many of which I have maintained. I am now working with the new chief nurse adviser in the European Region and have helped develop strategies for nurses and midwives in Europe. I am proud to support nurses in other countries and to help the global development of the nursing profession.

My third life lesson is about understanding that not everyone will help you with your career, some people act as barriers and may actively try to hold you back. You must find a way to work around these people if you want to succeed at a specific goal. I had two instances, in different organisations, where the barrier was my line manager. It was upsetting at first, but it made me more determined to succeed. Don’t be put off if your first attempt fails, try a different approach. Finding an ally who was able to support me, particularly a senior colleague, was the turning point in both cases. Accept that sometimes you just need to change your role – life is too short to be miserable or frustrated in work. When I reached senior positions, I never forgot the importance of helping others to achieve their goals and to help them overcome the barriers they were facing, just as I had received help during my career.

I think stand out achievements for me are a mixture of personal ones, such as gaining my doctorate and becoming CNO for Wales, and professional ones. During my time in Welsh Government, I oversaw the introduction of things like the Nurse Staffing Levels (Wales) Act, employer-led model of supervision of midwives, established standards and commissioning of advanced practice programmes, and improved policies to support the acute care of people with learning disabilities. I am also proud of the work I did with colleagues to address system failures in NHS services, as this made care safer and raised standards, e.g. Trusted to Care review of care at Princess of Wales and Neath/Port Talbot Hospitals, and the review of maternity and neonatal care in Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board.

I have to ask you about one of your latest roles – I just have to. How has the journey as High Sheriff of Mid Glamorgan been for you?

It is a huge honour to be asked to be a High Sheriff and I feel privileged to hold this royal appointment for the county of Mid Glamorgan for a 12 month period. At the time of writing this, I am nearly halfway through my term of office and have done close to 100 engagements of one sort or another, including attend several royal visits. Building on the historic role of High Sheriffs (which dates back more than 1000 years) my focus needs to be on law and order, blue light emergency services, and supporting actions in the county that promote community cohesion and civic functions. To help me focus my attention I chose mental health as my theme for the year and nominated Cwm Taf Morgannwg MIND as my charity. I have met with various charitable organisations who offer support to people of all ages, as well as sitting in a Merthyr Tydfil Magistrate’s Court, visiting Parc Prison and South Wales Probation Services, and undertaken activities with officers from South Wales Police. I have even spent time in the custody suite at Bridgend Police Station to try to understand how some individuals suffering a mental health crisis end up there instead of in a health care setting.

What has been striking to me is the importance of the voluntary and charitable sector to the people of Mid Glamorgan. Our society really wouldn’t function without the selfless acts of so many individuals. It is both humbling and inspiring.

I have struggled to find opportunities to engage with people from different cultural backgrounds within the area. I have supported the Ethnic Minority Women in Wales Achievement Association for several years, including acting as a mentor. I was pleased to be able to attend their events as High Sheriff, even though they were held in City Hall, Cardiff, which is in neighbouring South Glamorgan. I plan to offer my services as a mentor again once my term of office as High Sheriff is over next March.

If you want to know more about High Sheriffs, there is lots of information on the High Sheriff website.

I understand you were involved with the development of the Welsh Government’s Anti-Racism Wales Action Plan (published in 2022). What do you think USW needs to do about this plan and ensuring that black history and an ongoing conversation about race is part of our broader EDI strategic landscape?

Over the years there have been previous attempts to tackle discrimination (in all its forms) in order to make the UK/Wales a place where everyone thrives and feels valued. It has been difficult to achieve real change and clearly discrimination, including racism, is still experienced by many, although I do believe we have made some progress. Governments have resorted to establishing laws and other punitive measures to try to tackle discriminatory behaviour. The law is a heavy-handed tool to wield and can only go so far.

I believe tolerance and acceptance in society can only come about by tackling people’s ignorance and ungrounded fears. The emphasis must be on increasing knowledge to drive understanding of our differences and of the cultural heritage groups of people living here. It isn’t about trying to make everyone act and be the same ‘to fit in’, nor is it about token representation – this won’t address the power and influence imbalance that remains with the (white) majority who set strategies and policies in most organisations. We should be celebrating diversity as with it brings new ideas and perspectives, but to do that we must improve everyone’s understanding. Storytelling and providing people a platform to share their experiences are effective teaching methods and we should use them in our education programmes. It is not for nothing that religious texts often use parables to impart moral or spiritual learning. Events that bring diverse groups of people together to talk is certainly something that needs to be facilitated.

I believe you need to explain clearly in all policies that relate to people’s behaviour what is expected of them. Leaders must act as role models and have no tolerance for transgressions if discriminatory behaviour or practices are observed. Individual objectives can be useful in focusing attention on changes that are needed. To ensure progress is being made, realistic milestones should be set, and data gathered accordingly so that the leaders of the organisation as well as external quality assurance agencies can measure progress. Lack of data often results in lack of challenge to the status quo and allows poor practice to remain in place. If people aren’t clear about what good looks like for themselves or their team and no way of seeing if progress is being made, it is no wonder that we fail to see change.

There is a part of the Anti-Racism Action Plan that calls for every organisation to actively identify and get rid of policies, systems, structures, and processes that produce radically different outcomes for ethnic minority groups than the majority white population. This, I would suggest, requires USW to look at every policy it holds and consider what impact it has.

We need to better support anyone who calls out racist/discriminatory behaviour or practices. As we have seen in the media recently, there are many services and organisations where not enough attention has been paid to dealing with individuals whose behaviour is outside of what is expected, e.g. police, fire service and even the President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation. When I was working on drafting the Anti-Racism Plan one of the things we (the civil servants involved) kept hearing was how difficult it was for ethnic minority people to challenge racist behaviour. They spoke of how they felt helpless and frustrated, due to the lack of guidance, support, and proper channels for redress. Many felt that a lack of transparency over complaints about racism and discrimination was feeding a racist culture in some public services.

USW, I am sure, will ensure anyone who has a problem is able to report it, is listened to and gets support when doing so, and that appropriate action is taken where necessary.

I have heard you present on Welsh politics and policies, and on the importance of finding ways of capturing the views and experiences of as wide a range of people and stakeholders as possible, as being key to influencing government. I am also aware of the many ways in your career that you have been an ally to racialised population groups in Wales and have found ways to centre their views as vital elements in evidence-building. What has driven this strand of activism and engagement? What lessons can allies at USW working to tackle the intersecting structural systems of oppression learn from your experiences?

I suppose my strong feelings about treating everyone fairly stems from childhood, as I saw my younger brother, who was small for his age, being bullied and had to step in on occasion to rescue him from harm. In adult life, as a registered nurse, I came in to contact with people from all walks of life and ethnicity. I saw first-hand what discrimination, victimisation, and prejudice does to people. If you say or do nothing when you see something discriminatory or potentially harmful happen, then you are complicit and just as guilty as the perpetrator. I strongly believe everyone has a responsibility to speak out in defence of those on the receiving end. As a professional nurse I also believe it is part of my ethical code of conduct to act when I see someone coming to harm or be discriminated.

When acting as an ally you first must understand what the issues are. It is the height of conceit to think you know what is best for other people. To help me gain better understanding of issues facing nurses from minority ethnic backgrounds I asked two practising nurses, who were in front-line low and middle grade roles, to reverse mentor me when I was CNO. Normally mentors are the ones in senior position, but in this case, I was ignorant of issues and needed help from people who had experienced discrimination and bullying first hand due to the colour of their skin. This was invaluable and I recommend reverse mentoring to all in leadership positions.

Now that I am semi-retired, I take every opportunity I can to suggest proper engagement and representation on any group, board, or panel I sit on. I also run a critical eye over policies and ask questions about their impact on marginalised groups. Allies do need support but really it is about a willingness to step forward and speak up on behalf of others that really counts.

I know that you sometimes finish with a quote relevant to the topic. In terms of our conversation today, what quote can we end with?

I am going to opt for a quote made by Maya Angelou, who was an American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist. She said: “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” I believe we should always try to lift someone up, not drag them down.