Eleni Bloy, SFSC Facilitator, Race Equality Foundation

How we are working to reduce parental conflict

Enhancing relationships has always been a core component of Race Equality Foundation’s ‘Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities’ (SFSC) parenting programme

Whether parents and other main adult carers live together or apart, evidence shows the benefit to children of ‘parenting partnerships’ being strong. Happy, secure adults have more energy and positivity to give and to model to their children.  

Emerging research has also shown that conflict between main carers, which sits below the level of domestic abuse and can be verbal and non- verbal, can be very harmful to children’s development. This type of conflict does not show itself as easily and is harmful when it is ‘frequent, intense and poorly resolved’.

BBC Newsbeat interview on mental health support

The Foundation worked with BBC Look North to produce a news story in which Gambinga Gambinga shares his story on not receiving mental health support when he needed it.

Gambinga's experiences and that of many other Black men, are experiences that must be heard. The inequalities which exist for Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, but particularly for Black men, exist throughout the mental healthcare pathway, from access to outcomes. 

Drawing attention to these inequalities is necessary at every possibility. Which is why we also utilised the opportunity to put the BBC in contact with Heather Nelson, the CEO of Black Health Initiative, a community engagement organisation working towards equality of access to health and social care. 

These strong networks are fundamental to advancing racial equality in mental healthcare, and across all public services. Our voices are louder when we work together.

Reimagining Care Commission reports

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have launched a report on how the social care system should be overhauled. Race Equality Foundation was part of the commission that produced the Reimagining Care report, with our CEO Jabeer Butt serving as one of the commissioners.

The recommendations include: simplifying care assessments, improvements and greater standardisation and choice in the personal budgets systems, and better pay and conditions for the care workforce.

Over 55s encouraged to share care experiences

The Care Quality Commission want people over 55 to share their care experiences with them to help understand the quality of care people get from services like hospitals, care homes, GP, or any other type of health of social care service. The feedback, good or bad, will help to improve health and social care services for everyone.  The campaign is a partnership between CQC and Healthwatch.  

You can share your feedback here: https://www.cqc.org.uk/give-feedback-on-care

Event on how to improve the recording of ethnicity in health settings

Our report “How can we improve the recording of ethnicity in health settings?” will be launched on Tuesday 31 January, there are a few tickets available for the webinar if you are yet to reserve a place.

Working in collaboration with us and the Wellcome Trust to improve estimates of ethnic health disparities, the ONS have published two important documents on this issue

Understanding consistency of ethnicity data recorded in health-related administrative datasets in England: 2011 to 2021  looks at the quantitative comparisons of ethnicity recorded in GP data, hospital data and the NHS Ethnic Category Information Asset.

Methods and systems used to collect ethnicity information in health administrative data sources, England: 2022 This desk review describes how ethnicity data is collected in 3 key NHS sources (GP, hospital and Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) and potential sources of error/bias).

Rose Drummond has written a blog for the ONS exploring how ethnicity recording differs across health data sources and the impact that has on analysis.