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In 2020, all NHS organisations were instructed to name a single executive board member as their senior responsible person for tackling health inequalities. Across the NHS, there should now be over 450 dedicated health equality named leads in healthcare organisations. This report published by the independent NHS Race & Health Observatory in collaboration with The King’s Fund sets out recommendations to help ensure senior NHS officials responsible for improving health inequalities are able to make a difference.

Healthcare workers (HCWs), particularly those from ethnic minority groups, have been shown to be at disproportionately higher risk of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) compared to the general population. However, there is insufficient evidence on how demographic and occupational factors influence infection risk among ethnic minority HCWs. Researchers analysed data from 10,772 HCWs who worked during the pandemic to identify demographic and household factors that contributed to infection risk. Results from the UK-REACH study, co-funded by the NIHR and UK Research and Innovation, showed that healthcare workers' risk of catching coronavirus increased in correlation with the level of exposure to COVID-19 patients. Other risk factors included a lack of PPE access and sharing living or working environments with other key workers. Geographical differences were also seen, with healthcare workers in Scotland and South West England at lower risk of infection compared with those in the West Midlands. Intensive care unit staff were also at lower risk than those in other hospital settings.

The Collaboration for Change is a group of two UK universities, nine community organisations and two small and medium size enterprises, who have conducted research on how to improve vaccine uptake among ethnic minority groups. This report outlines the results of a co-produced research study by the Collaboration for Change that combines research, evidence and lived experience to understand and improve vaccine uptake in ethnic minority communities. The report highlights the following factors influencing vaccine uptake: Using trusted messengers to encourage vaccine uptake may be a useful strategy to increase uptake in communities with low vaccination rates A lack of trust in the organisations and individuals encouraging vaccine uptake impacts vaccine uptake across many ethnic minority communities People are less likely to accept the offer of vaccination if little culturally and linguistically appropriate information is available to them, especially when their concerns are not covered Alongside the report, the Collaboration for Change has produced some recommended strategies to improve vaccine confidence and uptake.