Announced in May 2020, the NHS Race and Health Observatory, an independent body hosted by the NHS Confederation and supported by NHS England and NHS Improvement was formally established in April 2021.

The organisation works to bring together research, evidence and insight around long-standing health inequalities affecting ethnic minority patients and communities and provides policy recommendations on the basis of that insight. It also supports the NHS and healthcare systems to implement its long term report recommendations.

Some current workstreams for the health body include stakeholder engagement, maternity and neonatal outcomes, mental health, data and digital access to healthcare as well as the challenges following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Observatory has a total of 15 board members. Marie Gabriel CBE is chair and Dr Habib Naqvi MBE is the director. This short animation explainer video outlines the Observatory’s main aims and priorities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pfNsHSlbFA