Sir, I read with interest the articles in the EDI themed edition of BDJ in Practice - many of which are excellent in highlighting the various and diverse issues affecting dentists and the dental team around equality of opportunity and equity of treatment in its broadest sense. Several of the articles also drew on the real-life experiences of diversity in dentally-related settings.

I do however wish to counter some of the arguments made by Professor Kevin O'Brien in his article on balancing the boards1 which I think also applies to a certain extent to your editorial piece. Both pieces tended to conflate diversity and representation, a common error which can lead to a great deal of unhelpful argument.

It is quite possible to have a committee or board with a great deal of diversity in its membership that fails to be representative. Conversely, it is quite possible to have a committee or board with excellent representation that fails to be diverse. Representation is defined by the criteria set in the constitution of the committee/board.

Representation in the context of the BDA will usually refer to craft, geography and often membership of other committees. In theory the constitution could also include criteria for diversity - usually defined on a quota system such as a minimum proportion of seats according to gender or ethnicity, these being the two most common criteria used in these cases; but could also include any of the other protected characteristics.

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©Tom Werner/ DigitalVision/Getty Images Plus

The Principal Executive Committee of the BDA, otherwise referred to as the Board for easy parlance, has 15 elected seats allocated in its constitution, each clearly defined according to geography. Directors are BDA members, voted onto the Board by their constituents who are ordinary BDA members. By law, they must be elected by members rather than appointed in any other way, because they are also the trade union executive as well as company directors.

The BDA previously undertook extensive consultation with its membership to gauge their appetite for a quota system to improve the diversity of the Board. The outcome was to reject any quota system. Clearly there are pros and cons to quota systems and some organisations have embraced them. However, the BDA is fundamentally a democratic organisation and chose otherwise.

We have certainly worked on ways to improve the diversity of the pool of candidates and the number of female candidates has increased in recent PEC elections. Candidates each provide a pen portrait whereby they can be assessed by voters for their suitability for the role of Director of the BDA based on their track record and competence. The votes cast are the ultimate arbiter of the seat winners. There has been a significant uptick in the number of female members of the PEC and we will continue to support our electoral processes to build on this improvement.

The criticism levelled at the lack of EDI-related content on the BDA website did give pause for thought. However, on reviewing the website, the problem is not the lack of content; it is to do with finding the content and knowing what to search for. A quick audit of content shows over 80 articles and several extensive collections that come within the EDI umbrella - ranging from racism to age, from disability to health inequality, from mental health to gender, from maternity to religion, and so on. This is a reflection on the fact some of the content is behind the paywall for members only. More so, it reflects the current structure of the BDA website, which I am pleased to report is being completely redesigned and restructured. When the new site goes live it will have a system that automatically creates hubs for different subjects.

There will be an EDI hub on the new BDA website which will be both a library and news centre for all things related to dentists and patients that have EDI relevance. It will also point to EDI-related training such as our online suite of EDI training modules that include handling discrimination and micro-aggressions and how to use inclusive language.2 The suite carries five hours of CPD and feedback has been very positive. We also have a new micro-course on Learning disabilities and autism.3

The BDA will continue to have a strategic focus on EDI in dentistry and further develop our services equitably and with due regard to our duties under the Equalities Act through the oversight of the EDI committee.

Co-Chair of the EDI Committee

Director of the BDA and PEC member