When something feels wrong at work, knowing where to turn should not become another battle.
EDI Connect provides independent, culturally informed workforce support for Black, Asian and ethnically diverse professionals across the NHS, private healthcare and social care.
Whether you are experiencing discrimination, workplace conflict, disciplinary concerns, professional referral or barriers to progression, we help you understand what is happening, explore your options and access the right support before the situation becomes overwhelming.
Built for NHS, private healthcare and social care professionals and organisations.
Built by health and social care professionals with decades of system experience and lived understanding.
One platform. Support at every stage.
Workplace issues do not begin when a formal grievance is raised — and support should not begin there either. EDI Connect gives members 24/7 access to a digital support environment where they can understand what may be happening, explore their options, prepare for difficult conversations and request specialist support when the situation requires it.
Use the platform independently. Bring in professional support when you need it.
24/7 Member Access
Access guidance and resources in your own time.
Understand Your Options
Make sense of the situation before deciding what to do next.
Request Human Support
Connect with culturally informed professionals when self-guided support is not enough.
Navigate the Next Step
Access mediation, disciplinary guidance, coaching and specialist signposting.
The evidence
Why this matters
28.6%
of the NHS trust workforce is from a Black & Minority Ethnic background (434,077 staff, 2024)
15.5% vs 6.7%
BME vs white staff reporting discrimination from colleagues
48.8% vs 59.4%
BME vs white staff who feel they have equal access to progression
51%
of trusts: BME staff over 1.25× more likely to enter formal disciplinary
Source: NHS England Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) 2024 data analysis report.
EDI Connect — support built for Black, Asian and ethnic minority health and social care professionals
More than a place to speak. A way forward.
EDI Connect is a 24/7 digital workforce support platform — giving members ongoing access to culturally informed resources, guided next steps and a trusted route to professional support when they need it.
Speaking up is important. But what happens when you are not yet ready to raise a formal concern, do not know which route to take, or have spoken and still feel unsure about what happens next?
That is where EDI Connect comes in. We support the journey before, during and after someone raises their voice. Our role is not simply to listen or record another concern. We help professionals make sense of their situation, prepare for important conversations, navigate workplace processes and reach the right support — including mediation, disciplinary guidance, coaching and specialist legal or union signposting.
We do not replace HR, Freedom to Speak Up Guardians or trade unions. We help people understand which support they may need, when to access it and how to move forward with greater clarity.
Two clear pathways
24/7 access. Clearer next steps.
- Understand what is happening
- Explore your options in confidence
- Access guidance and resources anytime
- Prepare for meetings and difficult conversations
- Navigate grievance and disciplinary processes
- Connect with culturally informed specialist support
- Protect your wellbeing, confidence and career
This is a 12-month subscription. Membership is managed in the EDI Connect app from launch in November.
Earlier insight. Fewer preventable workforce losses.
- Give employees an independent route to earlier support
- Recognise recurring workforce patterns sooner
- Reduce avoidable escalation and formal disputes
- Strengthen trust in workplace support
- Improve wellbeing, progression and retention
- Retain experienced, skilled professionals
- Turn lived experience into practical action
How it works
Join the platform
Create your membership and access the digital support environment.
Explore your situation
Use culturally informed resources and guided pathways to understand your options.
Access the right support
Request professional guidance, mediation, coaching or specialist signposting when needed.
Secure your founding membership
Get 24/7 platform access from launch, practical resources and a trusted route to culturally informed professional support. £25/month or £300 for the year.
This is a 12-month subscription. Membership is managed in the EDI Connect app from launch in November.
What members get
What's included in membership?+
24/7 access to the digital support environment, culturally informed resources and guided pathways, and the ability to request professional support — mediation, disciplinary guidance, coaching and specialist signposting — when you need it.
How much does it cost?+
£25 per month, or £300 for the year — a 12-month subscription.
Do you replace HR, Freedom to Speak Up Guardians or trade unions?+
No. We help you understand which support you may need, when to access it and how to move forward with greater clarity.
Is it confidential?+
Yes. EDI Connect is independent and confidential — a trusted space to explore concerns, understand your options and decide your next step without pressure or judgement.
How do I manage my membership?+
This is a 12-month subscription. From our platform launch in November, you'll manage your membership — including payment details and renewals — inside the EDI Connect app.
Why EDI Connect
Culturally informed
Race, culture, belonging and professional identity are understood from the beginning.
Beyond listening
We help people understand, prepare, navigate and move forward.
Direct access
Professionals can seek support before the situation becomes formal.
Sector expertise
Our network understands health and social care systems and professional responsibilities.
Earlier insight
Organisations can identify recurring themes before they become costly disputes or workforce losses.
Independent & Confidential
A trusted space to explore concerns, understand your options and decide your next step — without pressure or judgement.
Reducing the human and financial cost of workplace conflict
EDI Connect helps organisations reduce the human and financial cost of workplace conflict, discrimination, suspension and staff turnover by identifying issues earlier and providing culturally informed support that helps people feel heard, understood and better supported towards resolution.
The result is greater trust between staff and leaders, improved wellbeing and retention, fewer avoidable escalations and healthier workplace cultures. And because what happens to the workforce ultimately affects the people they care for, better staff experience creates the conditions for safer, fairer and more responsive care for patients, service users and communities.
Built by health and social care professionals with decades of system experience and lived understanding.
Built for NHS, private healthcare and social care professionals and organisations.
Meet Our Senior Advisors & Leadership Team
EDI Connect is strengthened by the experience and insight of senior professionals who have spent decades working across health, social care, mental health, inclusion and community engagement.
Herbie Nyathi
Founder & CEO, EDI Connect · Former Staff Governor & Out of Hours Clinical Lead
With more than two decades of experience across the NHS and public sector, Herbie Nyathi has seen first-hand how workplace culture influences wellbeing, performance and retention. His own experiences of race, culture and belonging inspired a mission to help organisations create environments where Black, Asian and minority ethnic professionals feel supported, valued and able to reach their full potential.
Read more
Today, Herbie is the founder of a workforce intelligence and support platform designed to help organisations retain diverse talent and build healthier workplace cultures. Alongside a trusted team of professionals who understand both the system and the people within it, EDI Connect combines technology, lived experience and specialist support to help employees feel heard, supported and better equipped to move forward — while giving leaders the insight they need to strengthen inclusion, improve workforce wellbeing and retention, and address issues before they become costly workplace disputes.
Raja Chelvachandran
Senior Advisor · Former Mental Health & Social Care Professional
Raja brings more than five decades of experience across mental health, health and social care, with a career spanning learning disabilities, psychiatry, rehabilitation, community services, talking therapies, relationship and family therapy, psychotherapy and clinical supervision.
Read more
His commitment to equality and inclusion has been equally long-standing. He joined the Community Equality Matters Team and BME Group in 2007, contributed to the Ethnic Minority Forum in Hitchin, and continues to engage with the local health community through the GP Patient Participation Group for South Stevenage.
Raja brings EDI Connect deep clinical experience, therapeutic insight and a lifelong commitment to inclusion.
Sachdev Seyan
Senior Advisor · Former Carer Development Lead & Business Coach, HPFT
Sachdev brings almost two decades of experience within the NHS, supporting carers, staff and communities through his work with Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust.
Read more
As a former Carer Development Lead and Business Coach, he brings expertise in mental health recovery, social inclusion, coaching and change management, alongside a Postgraduate Diploma in Mental Health Recovery and Social Inclusion and qualifications in management coaching and mentoring.
Sachdev brings EDI Connect a practical, people-centred perspective on inclusion, development and organisational change.
Dr Gabriel Ngalomba
EDI Adviser · Mental Health Nurse · Researcher
Dr Gabriel Ngalomba brings more than 25 years of NHS mental health experience to EDI Connect, alongside a particular interest in race, culture and inequality within health and social care.
Read more
A practising mental health nurse and perinatal mental health specialist, Gabriel has spent much of his career supporting women and families experiencing complex mental health challenges. His clinical experience led to a deeper interest in the experiences of migrant women from Sub-Saharan Africa and the ways race, culture and institutional practices can influence people's experiences of health and social care.
His research in this area has contributed to the wider conversation about racism in nursing and health and social care. He is a published contributor to Researching Racism in Nursing: Reflexive Accounts and Personal Stories, writing about the experiences of Sub-Saharan African migrant women within British perinatal mental health services.
Alongside his clinical and research work, Gabriel contributes to public conversations about mental health, including through The Mind and Us podcast.
As EDI Adviser to EDI Connect, Gabriel brings together frontline NHS experience, research and lived understanding of culture and inequality to help ensure the platform remains grounded in the realities experienced by both health and social care professionals and the communities they serve.
Rumyana Nyathi
CEO, Coach Write Speak · Business & Leadership Consultant · EDI Connect Strategy & Development
Rumyana Nyathi brings nearly two decades of experience across health and social care, entrepreneurship and business development. After immigrating to the UK, she built her career within the NHS, progressing through nursing and specialist roles while experiencing first-hand what it means to navigate culture, inclusion and opportunity within a new professional system.
Read more
Today, as CEO of Coach Write Speak, Rumyana works with professionals and entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds, helping them turn their expertise into opportunities, businesses and assets they can own.
At EDI Connect, she brings together her health and social care experience, lived perspective and commercial expertise, with a particular focus on personal and professional development, leadership, partnerships and creating fairer opportunities for people to progress and thrive.
Bongani Madaka
EDI Connect Associate, London Region · Registered Mental Health Nurse (RMN, MSc) · Operational Lead, Hospital Liaison Service, NELFT NHS Foundation Trust
Bongani Madaka brings over a decade of senior mental health and addictions clinical practice to EDI Connect, alongside experience in NHS commissioning strategy and healthcare entrepreneurship. He currently serves as Operational Lead for the Hospital Liaison Service at NELFT NHS Foundation Trust.
Read more
Alongside his NHS practice, Bongani is Director and Commercial Principal of Tanzanite Care Solutions Ltd, a healthcare consultancy. This gives him a perspective on both frontline service delivery and the strategic and commercial pressures facing the sector. Based in London, with strong professional and personal ties to Africa, he brings an understanding of how workplace culture, race and career progression intersect for Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff.
As EDI Connect's Link for the London region, Bongani helps connect professionals across London's NHS trusts with the platform's members and services. He brings frontline clinical credibility and lived experience to its mission of building fairer, more inclusive workplaces in health and social care.
Angela Assor
Strategic Safeguarding Lead, Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust · EDI Advocate
Angela Assor is the Strategic Safeguarding Lead at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, providing strategic leadership in safeguarding governance, professional practice and multi-agency working to improve the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable adults and children.
Read more
Alongside her safeguarding responsibilities, Angela is a committed equality, diversity and inclusion advocate. Through the Advancing Ethnic Minority Network, she champions racial equity, inclusive leadership, workforce wellbeing and career progression for ethnically diverse professionals. Her EDI activities include mentoring emerging leaders, promoting psychological safety, challenging barriers to progression and creating opportunities for underrepresented voices to influence organisational culture.
Angela combines safeguarding expertise with a passion for empowering others, strengthening representation and creating a workplace where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Support through the platform — and beyond it
EDI Connect is more than a directory of services. The digital platform gives members an accessible first point of support, while our trusted professional network provides deeper intervention when required. Here are some of our additional resources and bespoke services.
Executive & 1:1 Coaching
Confidential coaching for leaders and professionals navigating identity, progression and workplace challenge — building confidence and clarity.
EnquireKeynote Speaking
Compelling, evidence-led keynotes on race equity, inclusive leadership and belonging that move audiences from awareness to action.
EnquireEDI Training & Workshops
Practical, culturally competent training on unconscious bias, inclusive management and psychological safety for teams and boards.
EnquireWriting & Thought Leadership
Articles, reports and ghostwriting that translate lived experience and data into ideas that shape policy and culture.
EnquirePrivate Consultancy
Strategic advisory for NHS and private health and social care organisations on WRES, culture change and measurable equity outcomes.
EnquireIndependent Workplace Disciplinary Investigations
Independent, impartial and unbiased investigations into workplace conduct and grievance matters — giving organisations fair, evidence-led findings they can trust.
EnquireKeynotes that move rooms to action
- Building Inclusive Workplaces that actually change outcomes
- From WRES numbers to real culture change in the NHS
- The human & financial cost of workplace conflict
- Inclusive leadership: creating psychological safety
- Turning lived experience into organisational learning
"Herbie has a rare gift for making people feel challenged and safe at the same time. Our leaders left with practical actions, not guilt."
— Director of People, NHS Trust
"The most honest, evidence-based session on race equity we've run. It shifted the conversation across the whole organisation."
— Head of EDI, Health & Social Care Provider
"Herbie's coaching gave me the confidence to step into a senior role I'd talked myself out of for years."
— Senior Nurse, NHS Foundation Trust
Talks, podcasts & writing
Where to catch Herbie next — and where to read and listen.
Contribute your expertise. Multiply the impact.
We're building a trusted network of established leaders, coaches, mentors, clinicians and EDI specialists who want to give back. If you have the experience — and the lived understanding — to support BAME professionals and protected groups in health and social care, we'd love to hear from you.
- Coaches & mentors with a track record of developing people
- NHS / health and social care leaders and Executive Directors
- EDI specialists, mediators and workplace investigators
- Clinicians who understand the realities of the system
Why partner with EDI Connect?
Real impact. Directly support colleagues navigating conflict, discrimination and career barriers.
A trusted platform. Reach NHS and private health and social care organisations through a credible, evidence-led brand.
Flexible contribution. Turn expertise into opportunity. Contribute your skills, shape meaningful work and access paid opportunities through the EDI Connect network.
Let's start the conversation
Whether you need support for yourself, access for your workforce or specialist expertise for your organisation, EDI Connect gives you a clearer place to begin.
When something feels off at work, but it is hard to name.
Your experience is not "just one story." When similar experiences are understood together, they can reveal where support is missing, where trust is being lost and where organisations need to act.
You can help shape a better approach to workforce support by completing our free, private two-minute Workforce Voices scorecard and pre-registering for early access.
