Staff at the Race Equality Foundation are members of a number of specialist advisory groups, sharing expertise on a range of issues including health, social care, education and housing.

To find out more about the work of these groups, please use the links below:

• Adoption panel membership
  For further information, please contact Ratna Dutt
  Adoption panels operate to meet the needs of children looked after by the Local Authority, their birth parents or guardians and those who may wish to adopt a child.Ratna Dutt, Chief Executive of the Race Equality Foundation, is chair of a Local Authority adoption panel and vice chair of a second Local Authority panel. Both panels are based in inner city London, with sizable populations of black and minority ethnic people in general and black and minority ethnic looked after children in particular.


• Coalition of BME VCS organisations
  For further information, please contact Farah Islam-Barrett or Jabeer Butt.
  The Coalition of BME VCS organisations brings together many of the UK's leading black and minority ethnic voluntary and community organisations for the promotion of race equality.

• Equality and Diversity Council
  For further information, please contact Farah Islam-Barrett or Jabeer Butt.
  The Equality and Diversity Council is a sub-committee of the NHS Management Board, designed to put into practice a commitment to reducing inequalities and tackling discrimination and disadvantage.  The Council seeks to ensure equality of opportunity and treatment for both NHS patients and staff, and to develop 'personal, fair and diverse' services that comply with the Equality Act.

• HealthWatch England Advisory Group
  For further information, please contact Tracey Bignall
  The HealthWatch England Advisory Group is an advisory group which provides ‘bottom-up’ expert, practical advice and recommendations regarding the Government’s proposals for HealthWatch England.  Members of the Advisory Group come from a number of health and social care backgrounds, including representatives from the voluntary and community and equalities sectors.

• 'Instructions Not Included' Stakeholder Reference Group
  For further information, please contact Jabeer Butt.
  The 'Instructions Not Included' Stakeholder Reference Group advise Family Lives on the scope, design and delivery of the Instructions Not Included project, ensuring that it engages families from all backgrounds and organisations which support these famiies.

• Ministerial Advisory Group on the Mental Health Strategy
  For more information, contact Ratna Dutt
  The Ministerial Advisory Group on the Mental Health Strategy leads on overseeing the implementation of "No health without mental Health: a cross-government mental health outcomes strategy for people of all ages", which was published in February 2011.

• National Stakeholder Forum
  For further information, please contact  Jabeer Butt or Ratna Dutt
  The National Stakeholder Forum provides a 'long-term, strategic view in supporting development and implementation of policies in health and care outcomes'.  The Forum is led by Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health, and members come from a variety of health, social care and public health backgrounds. 

• Neighbourhood Approaches to Loneliness Advisory Group
  For more information, please contact Tracey Bignall
  The Neighbourhood Approaches to Loneliness Advisory Group was established as part of a three-year action research programme led by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.  The programme investigates the potential role of community activities to the well-being of people at risk of or experiencing loneliness; considering how involvement in these activities can in turn enhance community well-being.

• NHS Future Forum
  For further information, please contact Ratna Dutt
  The NHS Future Forum was created as part of the Government's 'listening exercise' on proposed reforms to the NHS.  The Forum is designed to inform the Government's decisionmaking through engagement with NHS staff, patients and wider stakeholders.

• Safe Network
  For further information, please contact Ratna Dutt
  The Safe Network (SN) is a National Safeguarding Unit, designed to support third sector organisations to have effective safeguards to keep children and young people safe from harm.
  
  
• Tenant Services Authority Equality and Diversity Board
  For more information, please contact Tracey Bignall
  The Tenant Services Authority is the independent regulator for affordable housing in England. They work with social-housing landlords and tenants to regulate and raise the standards of services for affordable-housing tenants.