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Hello,
Welcome to the latest round-up of news from the Race Disparity Unit (RDU).
We're sending this a little later than usual to include news about the final report into COVID-19 health inequalities, which was published last Friday.
This is our final update of 2021. We'll send the next newsletter at the end of January 2022.
New and updated pages
November highlights
Minister of State for Equalities publishes final report on progress to address COVID-19 health inequalities
In June 2020, the Prime Minister asked the Minister of State for Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, to lead cross-government work to consider why COVID-19 had a disproportionate impact on ethnic minorities, and to assess the government's response to tackling these disparities and how this could be improved.
On 3 December, she published her fourth and final report on this work.
Thanks to award-winning analysis from RDU and new research backed by over £7 million in government funding, we now have a much better understanding of the factors that have driven the higher infection and mortality rates among ethnic minority groups. These include occupation, living with children in multigenerational households, and living in densely-populated urban areas with poor air quality and higher levels of deprivation.
'Powerful role' for analysis
In describing this analysis, Professor Sir Ian Diamond, the UK’s National Statistician, said: "The Race Disparity Unit won the ONS Research in Excellence award for their innovative work into the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on ethnic minority groups. This superb work has demonstrated how research can be used to tackle inequalities in our society, and the powerful role that analysis can have in informing decisions."
These insights have been crucial in shaping our response to COVID-19, including the vaccine deployment.
The report sets out a number of wider public health lessons to be learned from these experiences, which are reflected in the recommendations it makes, and which the Prime Minister has accepted in full.
This work will now be continued by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the new Office for Health Improvement and Disparities as part of the longer-term strategy to tackle health disparities.
Improving maternal health disparities – minister’s recommendations
The Minister of State for Equalities has given her recommendations on improving ethnic disparities in maternal health outcomes. She sets out her key findings, lessons learned, and recommendations going forward.
This concludes a one-year investigative project with the support of RDU’s policy and analysis teams.
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