Key Summary
- REEG’s first year focused on reducing persistent racial disparities in maternal and neonatal outcomes.
- The advisory body successfully partnered with financial institutions to scale targeted funding pathways.
- To build on these initial interventions, Equalities Minister Seema Malhotra confirmed the group's mandate will be prolonged through the current Parliament.
The publication of the Race Equality Engagement Group’s (REEG) inaugural progress report, One Year of Action, has revealed the scope of the advisory body’s initial twelve months of targeted interventions.
Moving beyond high-level strategy, the group’s work has focused on delivering evidence-led, practical change to close systemic gaps in maternal healthcare and minority business funding.
In maternal and neonatal health, REEG has actively confronted the disproportionate risks faced by mothers from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Over the last year, the group convened specialised expert roundtables to bridge the gap between national healthcare policymakers and the lived experiences of affected communities.
These insights are now actively shaping targeted clinical guidance and local NHS trust accountability frameworks to ensure patient safety metrics are tailored to regional realities.
Simultaneously, the group has moved to dismantle entrenched financial inequalities hampering minority business leaders, with a strong focus on supporting female entrepreneurs.
By collaborating with delivery partners and the British Business Bank, REEG’s insights have supported structural shifts in the investment ecosystem.
To ensure these interventions form a permanent foundation for government policy, Equalities Minister Seema Malhotra announced that the group will continue its operations until the end of this Parliament.
The structural extension will allow REEG to transition from scoping out inequalities to strictly monitoring how individual government departments execute these new healthcare and economic metrics.
Seema Malhotra said: “Race inequality exists, and holds back opportunity; we are determined to tackle it. REEG’s efforts to amplify community voices, bring government into contact with leading experts, and champion effective, evidence-led work to improve equality for all is a crucial resource. Providing invaluable insights and constructive challenge, REEG has sought to ensure evidence of racial inequality informs solutions so that action works in practice and not just on paper.”
Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon OBE, Chair of the REEG, stated: “Action to address racial inequalities must be informed by the lived experiences of the communities that feel them. This report marks an important milestone in our ambitious work to improve race equality across the country. From health to entrepreneurship, this report presents the action being taken — locally, regionally, nationally — to tackle inequalities, and documents REEG’s contribution to delivering positive change on the ground.”
