What is the PCREF?

The Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) is a health inequalities framework that NHS mental health trusts and service providers have been asked to implement to improve services for people from diverse ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds.  In Lincolnshire, these include ethnic minority, Eastern European and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. 

Why is the PCREF needed?

Evidence shows that people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds are more likely to have poor health outcomes and experiences than those from the White-British population. Improving mental health care for people from these backgrounds has been a long-standing challenge for mental health services.

What does the PCREF involve?

The PCREF involves developing a better understanding of the needs of our communities, including who accesses our services and whether people from diverse ethnic or cultural backgrounds have equal access to support for their mental health.  We need to explore whether patient experiences and outcomes are poorer for these groups and, if so, the reasons why.

Patients from diverse communities must have access to culturally appropriate care. This means having the right training and policies in place so that staff are able respond to their needs.  It also means raising the profile of ethnically and culturally diverse staff to reduce racial discrimination in the workforce.

A core focus of the PCREF is co-production, which means working with local communities to produce services that meet the cultural needs of patients and carers.  We also need to work closely with our partner organisations, such as local authorities, charities and the police, to look at health inequalities and address disparities in experiences and outcomes across local healthcare systems.

An easy read version of the PCREF can be found here on the NHS England website.

What we have done so far

• We have implemented data reporting by ethnicity which will enable us to understand the representation of diverse communities in our services and to monitor trends over time.
   
• Through discussions across the Trust and with partner organisations, we have mapped our existing engagement with diverse communities and identified areas to improve on.
   
• We have reviewed our existing policies, practices and training to address inequalities experienced by staff and patients on the basis of their race or culture and identified gaps and potential actions.
   
• We have joined a national network of mental health trusts to share ideas and learn from good practice elsewhere.

What happens next?

Moving forward, our Trust Board will oversee and monitor action plans to reduce health inequalities among diverse ethnic and cultural communities. However, the PCREF is implemented using a partnership approach and a core focus will be to work with staff, patients, carers and communities to identify and address racial disparities in care and improve mental health outcomes.

PCREF reports

You can view all available PCREF reports for LPFT on the Equality reports and data page.