Why we ask you for your Ethnic Group

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Ethnicity

Collecting Ethnic Information

Written by Maria Crosbie

Ethnicity is too often seen to be related just to the colour of a person's skin. In fact, it relates to individuals sharing a common racial origin, culture, language, religion and the like and not just their appearance.

Ethnic groups are now more commonly identified as a minority within a larger society; such as the African, Asian, Caribbean and Chinese people now living and working in Britain.

Everyone belongs to an ethnic group so all our patients and service users are being asked to describe their ethnic group.

We are collecting this information to help the NHS:

· Understand the needs of patients and service users from different groups and so provide better and more appropriate services for you.

· Identify risk factors - some groups are more at risk of specific diseases and some groups have specific care needs so ethnic group data can help treat patients and support service users by alerting staff to high-risk groups.

· Improve public health by making sure that our services are reaching all our local communities and that we are delivering our services fairly to everyone who needs them.

· Comply with the law as the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 gives public authorities a duty to promote race equality and good race relations and ethnic monitoring is important in making sure that race discrimination is not taking place.

The 16 ethnic groups used are standard categories for collecting ethnic group information. Using these codes will help us to compare information about the groups using our services with information from the census which tells us about our local population. The list of groups is designed to allow most people to identify themselves. The list is not intended to leave out any groups of people but to keep the collection of ethnic information simple.

It is important to us that you are able to describe your own ethnic group. If you need to complete any of the boxes labelled 'any other group' then please give some details so that we can better understand your needs.

You do not have to answer the question on your ethnic group but providing this information is very important. It will help us with diagnosis and assessment of your needs and it will also help us to plan and improve our service. Experience shows that when people are asked their ethnic group, the proportion of people who choose not to answer is small.

The information you provide will be treated as part of your confidential NHS notes. The NHS has strict standards regarding data protection and your information will be carefully safeguarded.

If you have any concerns or questions regarding this request or you want to make any comments or complaint about the collection of this information or the way in which you have been treated by staff requesting this information, please contact the Trust's Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS).

About our Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Network

The ASPH NHS Trust is committed to ensuring that the needs of all minority ethnic groups, whether employees or patients, are met. To achieve this, the Trust has setup an independent Black and Minority Ethnic Network (BME Network) to provide support for BME groups to increase the understanding of issues directly relating to them.

The Network provides a forum to discuss BME issues and also provides peer support to our staff. The Network is working with the Senior Management in the Trust to achieve:

Positive action to achieve proportionate representation of BME staff at senior levels in the Trust
Making sure that recruitment, promotion and clinical excellence policies are delivering fair outcomes for BMEs
Race equality in the workplace
Zero tolerance on racial harassment
Improved outcomes for BME patients / communities