Harjit has been in the NHS for over 20 years now, securing her first job as an Office Manager in CAMHS in Newham, after migrating from Kenya.  She joined NELFT in 2004 when she was appointed as a Clinical Governance, Patient Engagement Manager and Race Equality Lead.  Both risk management and race equality have been a challenge for her, however, there are processes in place to manage and mitigate risk, but seemed like the real challenge  to seek clear guidance and governance on who was responsible for embedding the principles of race equality.   In 2011 -2013 she played a pivotal role in the development of the NELFT Ethnic Minority Staff Network Strategy. 

The EM Staff Network Strategy became a baseline for the development of the Disability and LGBT+ Staff Network Strategies and is one of the reasons that NELFT is progressing on their EDI agenda.  This has been evidenced with the number of EDI awards that the team have won and more recently for Disability Confident.

Harjit holds an honours degree in Public Sector Management, which she achieved at City University; in the later years of her life, (she was pregnant with her second child, when she did it - like they say, it is never too late!)  Her priority is to ensure that the needs of NELFT’s patients are appropriately met and staff feel valued by having equity for all.

Harjit is engaged in various initiatives in the Trust as she feels strongly that everything we do should be linked with the EDI agenda.  She is keen to constantly improve what she is doing.