Patient and carer race equality framework (PCREF)
We are proud to be the first mental health provider outside of the NHS to work directly with NHS England on its anti-racism agenda to improve people's experiences of using services.
St Andrew’s Healthcare has committed to NHS England’s first ever anti-racism framework, the patient and carer race equality framework (PCREF), for all NHS mental health trusts and mental health service providers to embed across England.
This mandatory framework will support trusts and providers on their journeys to becoming actively anti-racist organisations by ensuring that they are responsible for co-producing and implementing concrete actions to reduce racial inequalities within their services.
It is part of Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections. The PCREF will support improvement in three main 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.
The anti-racism framework brings ground-breaking change to the sector, building on progress achieved locally, 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.
Since St Andrew’s committed to PCREF we have been working tirelessly to ensure we are embedding anti-racism, equity, and cultural responsiveness across our services, among our workforce and among our patients and carers.
We have a diverse community and it’s important we all understand cultural differences, ensuring we listen and are respectful of each other at all times.
