Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF)

The Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) is the first ever anti-racism framework from NHSE. We are proud to share that LYPFT have been selected to be one of the national early implementer sites. This work brings ground-breaking change to our sector and promoting a whole new dimension of coproduction, where individuals and communities are at the heart of the design and implementation of the services they need.

This work will enable us to focus our efforts and progress in our journey to becoming an actively anti-racist organisation by ensuring that we are responsible for co-producing and implementing concrete actions to improve racial equity within our services. It will also become part of Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections.

Why we need PCREF

We know that people who need help for their mental health, people with learning disabilities and those with neurodiverse conditions and wider protected characteristics endure inequalities which affect their health and lives. Visit our ‘Improving Health Equity’ web page for more information on our Improving Health Equity Strategic Plan (2025-29).

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the grim reality of health inequalities across the country – but for the mental health sector this has been a long-term trend marked by decades of stigma, rejection, and racism. Ethnically and culturally diverse groups are still facing barriers to access and their experience of services is likely to be worse than for the rest of the population. We know that despite higher prevalence of mental health issues, Black adults for instance have the lowest mental health treatment rate of any ethnic group, at 6% (compared to 13% in the White British group).

Our action plan

We will ensure that service users from racialised communities (and their families and carers) will feel more involved with our organisation and see opportunities to work in partnership to develop and review local PCREF plans.

We want to ensure that your voice is heard by those with the power to influence health and care services, including our Board or Directors. We will be reviewing your feedback to help improve racial equity in the services we provide and working together with our local communities to tailor our services to your needs.

You can read more about PCREF through NHS England’s website here. In summary, this work directs us to drive improvement in three domains:

• Leadership and governance: trusts’ boards will be leading on establishing and monitoring concrete plans of action to reduce health inequalities
• Data: new data set on improvements in reducing health inequalities will need to be published, as well as details on ethnicity in all existing core data sets.
• Feedback mechanisms: visible and effective ways for patients and carers to feedback will be established, as well as clear processes to act and report on that feedback.

As an NHS Mental Health provider of services, we are mandated to deliver against the PCREF and publish our plan of action by April 2025.

Click the link below to download our first iteration of our PCREF Action Plan.

LYPFT PCREF Action Plan 2024 – 2027

A note on language

The PCREF was co-developed with racialised communities, patients and carers. As a first step, it was important to set out the terminology related to the race and cultural identity of people from communities disproportionately impacted when accessing mental health services. It was important to acknowledge that current legislative terminology used to describe certain race and cultural identity do not always reflect people’s unique intersectional needs and lived experiences.

This document uses the terms ‘racialised communities’ which refers to ethnic, racial and cultural communities who are minoritised populations in England, have been racialised (Centre for Mental Health – Guide to race and ethnicity terminology), and who experience marginalisation.

The term ‘ethnically and culturally diverse’ refers to people with distinct cultural or ethnic identities, which can include diverse language groups and communities upholding specific cultural customs and spiritual beliefs.

The term ‘ethnic groups’ includes white minorities, such as Gypsy, Roma, and Irish Traveller groups (Central Government – writing about ethnicity), whilst recognising homogenising ethnic groups ignores the diversity of experiences between groups (NHS Race and Health Observatory – The Power of Language).