Learning Together: Why partnership matters in anti-racist practice

By Dr Jacqui Dyer MBE, Living Expert by Experience

Black History Month creates an important opportunity to remember, recognise and celebrate. But I have always been drawn to a bigger proposition: Black history is every day.

Our histories, experiences, knowledge and contributions do not begin on 1 October and end on 31 October. Nor should our attention to racism, inequality and the conditions required for equity.

For me, Black History Month is perhaps most meaningful when it helps us ask what happens after the month is over. What are we learning? What are we changing? And what are we building that becomes part of everyday practice?

My experience of working with the Foundation of Nursing Studies (FoNS) has reinforced something I have come to believe increasingly strongly: meaningful change is rarely produced by organisations working alone. It grows through relationships, through learning together, and through a willingness to stay in the work when it becomes difficult.

Our work together centred on supporting NHS ward managers to engage with anti-racism and the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF), as part of a wider leadership development programme.

These were not easy subjects to hold. We were asking people to think about racism not simply as an abstract question of equality or organisational policy, but as something connected to leadership, culture, care, interpretation, power and accountability.

The workshops brought together historical and structural understanding, cultural competence and cultural humility, personal reflection, anti-racist practice and the responsibilities that come with PCREF.

But what I value particularly about the experience is that we learned together.

The programme did not remain frozen in its original form. We listened. We reflected. We noticed what was happening in the room. We navigated moments of difficulty and uncertainty through respectful and relational connection. And, together, the work evolved.

Our subsequent evaluation found that the programme became more structured and consistent over time while retaining its reflective and practice-based character. This matters because learning about racism cannot simply be something that is delivered to a workforce. If we are serious about changing practice, learning itself has to be capable of responding, adapting and deepening.

And the participants taught us something important too.

Their feedback suggested that the workshops were meaningful, challenging and relevant. They described learning that was empowering, necessary and valuable, and connected it with their development as leaders.

Yet perhaps the most important learning came through the self-assessment evidence. It suggested that the next frontier was not simply persuading people that racism exists or that anti-racism matters. The challenge was what happens when the work becomes uncomfortable: when harm is named, when intent and impact diverge, when defensiveness emerges, or when leadership requires us not to retreat into neutrality.

That discovery has stayed with me.

It reminds us that awareness is necessary, but it is not enough. The deeper question is whether learning helps people develop the capability to remain present, reflective and accountable when practice becomes difficult.

And this is where partnership matters.

FoNS supported and inspired us as we sought to meet the needs of a workforce who, in turn, care for people at some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. Their contribution became part of our own evolution at Oxytocin-Learning. We traversed some difficult terrain together, but did so through respectful and relational connection. The learning that emerged from that relationship was palpable.

What we discovered together helped us think more deeply about how anti-racism learning might move beyond workshops and moments of insight towards something more sustained: learning infrastructure capable of supporting practice over time.

That journey has now reached another important milestone. Our Phoenix Rising Anti-Racism Leadership programme has achieved independent Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accreditation.

For us, accreditation is significant not simply as a badge or destination. It represents another stage in building reliable learning infrastructure around work that cannot be accomplished through one-off training.

And perhaps that is one of the most important lessons I take from our relationship with FoNS.

If we want better experiences for patients, carers and communities, we have to care seriously about the conditions in which the workforce learns, leads and practises. And if we want that learning to endure, we need an ecosystem around it: trusted relationships, strategic partnerships, reflective spaces, evidence, accountability and infrastructure capable of carrying learning forward.

No single organisation can build that ecosystem alone. Strategic partnerships and networks allow different forms of knowledge, experience and capability to meet. At their best, they can help bridge the gap between what we know needs to change and the everyday infrastructure required to make change possible.

So Black History Month matters. It creates space for remembrance, recognition and celebration. But Black history is lived every day, and the work required to address racial inequity must be lived every day too.

Perhaps, then, the question is not simply what we do for Black History Month.

What are we building together that will still be present in November, in January, and in the everyday decisions that shape people’s experiences of care?

My experience with FoNS gives me hope about one answer: organisations willing to learn with one another, stay connected through complexity, and turn what they discover together into something stronger for the workforce, patients, carers and communities.

Because Black history is every day. And building more equitable futures must be everyday work too.