Part 1: Ensuring that Trusts deliver their statutory and regulatory obligations.

Part 2: Implementation of a framework of national organisational competencies.

Part 3: Development and implementation of a service user and carer feedback mechanism.

Catalyst 4 Change is working in partnership with Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust (BSMHFT) on the Patients Carers Race Equality Framework to challenge racial disparities in mental health care

and improve access, experiences and outcomes for African and Caribbean communities.

See NHS Summary here >

Where did PCREF come from?

In 2020 NHS England (NHSE) and NHS Improvement published its first Advancing Mental Health Equalities Strategy, laying out plans for Mental Health Trusts to improve their understanding of the communities they serve and ensure that mental health services become more accessible and beneficial to everyone who needs them.

The strategy includes the NHS commitment to develop the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework which aims to ensure that Mental Health NHS Trusts work directly with ethnically diverse groups, and make sure their experience and feedback drives the changes NHS England aims to implement within NHS services. Learning from people with lived experience, and co-production, are critical elements of the framework.

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust was one of 4 national pilot sites that were working with NHSE to develop the national PCREF guidelines.

  From 2023 there will be a statutory requirement for all Mental Health Trusts to have in place, and implement, PCREF.

Community engagement!

In 2021 Catalyst 4 Change, the Association of Jamaican Nationals and Making Connections Work were commissioned by BSMHFT to undertake a series of consultations with Birmingham based African and Caribbean community members including those members who reside in psychiatric units and their carers.

We had carefully consulted over a 100 African and Caribbean people and about their experiences and views of accessing mental health services and also their support experiences.

This included service users, carers, community members and leaders.

PCREF Project Team

Sandra Griffiths - Business & Partnership Development Manager

Beverley Stephens - Community Engagement Manager

Elizabeth Cherrington - PCREF Advisor

Denva Jackson - PCREF Advisor

Rena Blackwood - PCREF Advisor

Mark Nelson - PCREF Advisor

For contact & information email: pcref@catalyst4change.org.uk 

We will  extend our engagement to ensure that our focus is strongly rooted in the experiences of

Black service users and carers. To do this will:

• Engage with the people who took part in the original focus groups to share our findings and hear their views on these and what needs to be done and how.

• Engage with other communities that have a distinctive identity that may have not been reflected in the earlier engagement process, particularly people from LBGTQ + communities, and specific African communities, namely Somali and West African communities.

• Develop group advocacy in both in-patient and community settings and co-facilitating conversations in these settings to identify common themes and the changes required to better meet people’s needs.

• Engage with the relevant BSMHFT forums to share the concerns and experiences of African and Caribbean people with mental health problems and their carers, develop ideas to drive change and improvements, as well as provide feedback to the groups/people who have shared their concerns and experiences.

And also to;

Facilitate local African and Caribbean Mental Health services and /or existing mainstream advocacy providers to deliver culturally appropriate independent mental health advocacy (IMHA), as required by the Mental Health Act and the NICE guidelines and Peer Support Advocacy.