Category: Equality & Diversity

Workforce Race Equality Standard

2020 data analysis report for NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups

Source: The King’s Fund Health Management and Policy Alert

This report enables organisations to compare their performance with others in their region and those providing similar services, with the aim of encouraging improvement by learning and sharing good practice. The report hopes to provide a national picture of WRES in practice, to colleagues, organisations and the public on the developments in the workforce race equality agenda.

The IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities

A new year’s message

Source: The King’s Fund Health and Wellbeing Bulletin

This report examines the impact of the pandemic on educational, economic, social and health inequalities in the UK. It outlines data and evidence on the groups that have been most heavily impacted by widening inequalities and Covid-19.

The IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities: a New Year’s message

Key findings include:

  • The COVID crisis has exacerbated inequalities between the high- and low-paid and between graduates and non-graduates.
  • The crisis has hit the self-employed and others in insecure and non-traditional forms of employment especially hard.
  • Educational inequalities will almost certainly have been exacerbated by the crisis
  • Between March and July, mortality rates from COVID-19 were twice as high in the most deprived areas as in the least deprived.
  • The crisis has had very different impacts on different ethnic groups.
  • Through 2020, pensioners have on average reported becoming financially better off, whilst the young have borne the brunt of job and income loss. (The IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities)

To find out more click here.

Unequal impact?

Coronavirus and BAME people

Source: The King’s Fund Health and Wellbeing Bulletin

This report outlines the findings of an inquiry that aimed to explore the pre-existing inequalities facing people from ethnic minorities and how these inequalities have impacted on their vulnerability to the virus. It makes a series of recommendations to help mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on ethnic minority groups.

To find out more about the Women and Equalities Committee click here.

Mental Health

Have existing inequalities made mental health of BAME groups worse during the COVID-19 pandemic?

A survey by the mental health charity Mind found that existing inequalities in housing, employment, finances and other issues have had a greater impact on the mental health of people from different BAME groups than on white people during the pandemic

Read more here

BMJ Open

Racial and socioeconomic disparities in patient experience of clinician empathy: a protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Clinician empathy is a vital component of high-quality healthcare. Healthcare disparities may reflect a societal lack of empathy for disadvantaged persons in general, and recent research suggests that socioeconomic disparities exist in patient satisfaction with clinicians. However, it is currently unclear if there are disparities in patient experience of empathy from clinicians. The objective of this article is to systematically analyse the scientific literature to test the hypothesis that racial and socioeconomic status (SES) disparities exist in patient-reported experience of clinician empathy. 

Read the article here

Carnegie UK Trust

Race inequality in the workforce: exploring connections between work, ethnicity and mental health

This report, a joint initiative with Operation Black Vote and UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies, presents new data from Next Steps, a longitudinal study of the ‘millennial generation’ in England. The work reveals persistent issues around the relationships between employment, ethnicity and mental health and underlines that there are enduring inequalities in the workplace between ethnic groups. The report presents recommendations for actions – for government, for mental health services and for employers.

Read the report here

Report

NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard: 2019 data analysis report for NHS trusts

The 2019 Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) report is the fifth publication, since the WRES was mandated and covers all nine indicators. It also compares data against previous years. The report has the following key roles: to enable organisations to compare their performance with others in their region and those providing similar services, with the aim of encouraging improvement by learning and sharing good practice; and to provide a national picture of WRES in practice, to colleagues, organisations and the public on the developments in the workforce race equality agenda.

Read the report

Evaluation of the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES): Report on Initial Evaluation, January 2019

University of Sheffield and Lancaster University, September 2019

This document is an interim report detailing the first six months of an evaluation of the WRES. This is an independent evaluation, conducted at the University of Sheffield, in conjunction with Lancaster University, with funding provided by NHS England. Many aspects of addressing race inequality are specific to individual trusts and the historical and local context in which the organisations operate is important. It is particularly important to consider that it is too soon to expect to see significant change in healthcare delivery and outcomes as a result of the WRES; this will take years to bear proper fruit, and it is still the early stages of that journey.

• It is important that the WRES continues with the same commitment and momentum; it is vital to retain the same indicators and methodology so that trusts can learn as much as possible from their data, by monitoring change over time, and to help them embed the culture change that is needed to ensure greater race equality within the NHS

• It is essential that the future leadership of the WRES is considered a priority, both in terms of ensuring continuity at the national level and in terms of decentralised leadership so there is more expertise at a local level

• In order to maintain positive views of the WRES, steps should be taken to ensure that “monitoring fatigue” is kept to a minimum by allowing greater use of existing data and procedures. This may be particularly important for other initiatives such as the new Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES).

Click here to view the full report.

State of the nation 2018-19: social mobility in Great Britain

Social Mobility Commission, May 2019
The Social Mobility Commission’s State of the Nation 2018 to 2019 report highlights inequality in Britain and sets out key findings and recommendations.  The report finds that the gap in school attainment and income between the rich and the poor has barely shifted in the past four years.  Being born privileged still means you usually remain privileged, whereas there are significant barriers to social mobility for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Click here to view the full report.