The Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) aims to improve equitable access, experience and outcomes for people from ethnically diverse communities.
It is a national anti-racism framework launched by NHS England and co-designed with services, patients, and carers
In February 2025, we launched our PCREF work with an event attended by Dr. Lade Smith, CBE, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Sean Duggan, Sussex Partnership's Chair, members of the Trust's Executive Committee, experts by experience, divisional managers, clinicians, and partner organisations.
By implementing PCREF, Sussex Partnership is taking the next step in our commitment to reduce inequality and inequity for people from racialised communities that come into contact with our services.
Embedding the framework
We will embed the framework in three ways:
- Through leadership and governance: our Trust board will lead on establishing and monitoring concrete plans of action to reduce health inequalities.
- With data: new data on improvements in reducing health inequalities will be published, as well as details on ethnicity in all existing core data sets.
- Through feedback: there will be visible and effective ways for our patients and carers to feedback, as well as clear processes to act and report on that feedback.
The Expert Delivery Group first met on 21 July 2025 in Brighton. Membership will expand over the coming months. The group supports SPFT by sharing lived experience, community perspectives, and voluntary sector knowledge. It will play an essential role in ensuring PCREF delivery meets the needs of local communities and reflects real experiences of race and mental health.
View the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework easy read
What is PCREF?
PCREF stands for the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework. It applies to all NHS mental health services. It aims to improve equitable access, experience and outcomes for people from ethnically diverse communities. PCREF is a national anti-racism framework for every NHS mental health trust, launched by NHS England and co-designed with services, patients, and carers.
How does it affect me/impact my work?
PCREF is a framework for the organisation to improve the experience of our workforce, services and patient and carer experience. As an outcome of PCREF you should see the place you work become more focused on anti-racist practice and culture.
What can I do to help implement changes?
You can raise issues of race and ethnic inequality in forums. Our local service will be using a data dashboard to track operational and mental health act data by ethnicity. You can get involved in improvement projects at a local level which include people from ethnic and racialised communities.
Staff can get involved by listening actively, making sure patients and carers feel heard, especially if English isn’t their first language and raising any inequality in treatment or access that you may be aware of.
Why do we need to address racial inequalities in mental health?
There are some stark inequalities in mental health around ethnicity. PCREF has developed a response to the enduring inequalities in MHA detentions. There are more inequalities relating to access, experience and outcomes in mental health care, combined with stigma, discrimination and racism in society - creating barriers to mental health and wellbeing.
Research shows that people from some ethnic minority backgrounds often don’t get the same quality of care as others. PCREF was created to close this gap and make services more equitable.
What does this mean for Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust?
SPFT is required to adopt PCREF in its governance so that the Board and the communities of Sussex are aware of what improvements are being made, how people and partners can be involved, and what the overall PCREF action plan looks like.
PCREF is a way of making sure the voices and experiences of marginalised communities are embedded in how we run our services. This way reducing inequalities is not just a short-term project but becomes part of the culture and practice of our organisation.
This page will be updated with further details of our PCREF work when available.
