Protecting children from racism: urgent health system actions (20 April 2024)

Summary

According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, all children have the right to the highest attainable standard of health “without discrimination of any kind”. The UK has committed to upholding this right—but not all children in the UK are equally protected. Racism is a known risk factor for health in children, ranging from preterm birth and low birthweight, to major depression and asthma, and childhood is a vital period that can shape health throughout the life course. The authors of this Lancet article report on a roundtable discussion convened by Race & Health and the Race Equality Foundation in October 2023. The discussion focused on racism in the UK health system, with the aims of identifying key areas of exposure to racism in the UK health system for children, and the main barriers to uprooting racist structures and practices in the health system.

The roundtable recommended the following immediate actions:

• Adopt a human rights-based approach that upholds children's rights to the highest attainable standard of health without discrimination and abolish policies that undermine these rights for minoritised children.
• Incorporate anti-racist health and research practice into the health system's functioning and commissioning, including by increasing engagement during decision making, and co-creation of processes, policies, and procedures with minoritised communities to foster greater trust.
• Integrate anti-racist training within health-care curricula to ensure that the next generation of health workers have the information and skills to recognise and combat racism in the health system.
• Embed professional accountability to uphold anti-racist principles and practice into the health system, including by embedding anti-racism within the annual appraisal process as a professional requirement.
• Ensure that data and evidence collected and valued by the health system incorporate the voices and inputs of communities, delivering epistemic justice.
• End structural discrimination in institutions and systems that shape children's interactions with the health system, including social care systems, and separate policing and prison systems from health care.
• Uphold equality, diversity, and inclusion commitments and funding and allocate funding to dismantle racism and white supremacy in the UK health system.
• Co-create anti-racist and anti-oppressive services with minoritised communities, providing a viable alternative to oppressive systems and structures.