The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers (UK-REACH) is being undertaken to understand if, how, and why, ethnicity affects COVID-19 clinical outcomes in healthcare workers (HCWs). The study will also investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the physical and mental health of HCWs, primarily those from an ethnic minority background.
We aim to generate evidence quickly through five interlinked work packages.
You have been invited to take part because we want to hear from people of all ethnicities working in health and social care during COVID-19. You do not need to have had COVID-19 to join the study. We are especially keen to hear from people from ethnic minorities to understand why and how some groups have been particularly affected by the pandemic and their experiences of working in health care settings through this pandemic. We are inviting people from all job roles to participate in this study. You do not need to look after patients directly to join the study.
We are inviting health and social care workers to participate in Work Package 2 and/or Work Package 4 of our study. You could be part of the cohort study in Work Package 2 which entails filling an online questionnaire, and you could also participate in a qualitative interview or group discussion in Work package 4. Alternately, you could choose only to participate in either one of the work packages. If you are a key staff opinion leader working in a health care organisation (e.g. GMC, Royal Colleges), we also invite you to participate in the in-depth interviews held under Work package 3.
No, participation in the study is voluntary. It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you do decide to take part you will be asked to sign a consent form. However, agreeing to participate does not oblige you to remain in the study and you may withdraw from the study at any time and without giving a reason.
If you decide to take part in Work package 2, you will be asked to register online for the study, complete a consent form, and complete an online questionnaire. If you agree, UK-REACH will send you two further questionnaires over the following year. Each questionnaire will ask for some information about you, your health, work and home life, will take about 30 minutes to complete and can be done in parts if you wish.
In Work Packages 3 and 4, registration will be followed by online consent and filling of a short demographic data template. A research team member will then contact you for the interview/FGD which shall be conducted online and at a time convenient to you.
If you are already enrolled in another research study, including any research on COVID-19, this will not affect your ability to take part in this study. Similarly, if you wish to take part in another research study you can remain in this one. We will ask your permission to link your information from other studies to the information collected for this study.
In Work package 1 we will combine anonymised human resource databases with professional registration and NHS datasets to assess associations between ethnicity and COVID-19 diagnosis, hospitalisation, and death in healthcare workers in the UK.
In Work Package 2, we will use information you have provided to us in the questionnaires to understand changes in health outcomes, social circumstances and professional roles of people of different ethnicities working in healthcare settings, over forthcoming pandemic waves. As part of the consent process you will be asked to agree to your personal particulars (name, NHS number, address, date of birth, and gender) being used in order to obtain further information held and maintained by NHS Digital, other UK NHS bodies, and Public Health England. Your consent will also be sought to link the questionnaire data with data from your past and future medical records, from COVID-19 research study symptom trackers and apps (if you use these) and from other research studies you may be participating in to understand the long-term effects of the pandemic on your health.
Interview data from Work package 3 will help us to gain insight into the perceptions of key opinion leaders around key ethico-legal concerns of health care data linkage. The interview/FGD data from Work Package 4 will help us understand in more detail your experiences during COVID-19, including your views, challenges you have experienced, or things you perceive have put you or others at risk.
In relation to this project, data for Work package 1 will be stored securely in the SAIL-Databank which is a trusted research environment hosted and managed by the Swansea University and funded and endorsed by the Welsh government. Only approved members of the research team who have had appropriate training will be allowed access to data through a virtual desktop and no data will leave the databank. For Work package 2, personal and questionnaire data will be held on password protected computers in secure University of Leicester buildings. Any paperwork containing personal data will be kept in a locked filing cabinet. For Work packages 3 and 4, personal and interview/FGD data will be held on password protected computers in secure University of Leicester buildings. Any paperwork containing personal data will be kept in a locked filing cabinet. Further details about data privacy and data protection can be found in our Participant Information Sheets (PIS).
You can stop being part of the study at any time, without giving a reason, but we will keep information about you that we already have.
If you choose to stop taking part in Work package 2 of the study, we would like to continue collecting information about your health from central NHS records/your hospital/your GP. If you do not want this to happen, tell us and we will stop.
We need to manage your records in specific ways for the research to be reliable. This means that we won’t be able to let you see or change the data we hold about you.
You can find out more about how we use your information:
This research could help to improve understanding of the causes and consequences of COVID-19 infection, and therefore provide the basis for recommendations to the UK government on how to support healthcare workers in this and future pandemics. However there may be no direct benefit to you. If a new treatment or test were developed, there would not be a financial benefit to you.
There would be minimal risk to you if you participate in this study as all information will be used anonymously (no one will know that this information relates to you). However, we understand that the topics in the questionnaires and interviews/FGDs may be sensitive and it may be challenging to talk about some of your experiences or concerns, and we appreciate you sharing them with us.
It is very unlikely that you would be harmed by taking part in this type of research study. However, if you wish to make a complaint about the project, please contact: uk-reach@leicester.ac.uk.
You will be re-contacted for future research only if you consent for this. If you do not wish to be contacted for future research, you could say ‘no’ to this request while filling the consent form.
The UK-REACH study is led by Dr Manish Pareek at the University of Leicester. Our other academic collaborators are Swansea University, UCL, University of Edinburgh, University of Nottingham and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Additionally, the study is supported by our partners, General Medical Council (GMC), Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), General Dental Council, General Pharmaceutical Council (GPC), Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), Royal College of Midwives (RCM), NHS Confederation, British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), Sudan Doctors’ Union –UK Branch, Association of Pakistani Physicians of Northern Europe (APPNE), South Asian Health Foundation (SAHF), Health Education England (HEE), General Optical Council (GOC), Filipino Nurses Association UK (FNAUK), Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and NHS England & Improvement.
This study is supported by a grant to the University of Leicester from the MRC-UK Research and Innovation, and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) rapid response panel to tackle COVID-19 and by core funding provided by NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, a partnership between the University of Leicester and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.
Yes, this research has been approved by the London - Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee (REC) and received Sponsorship approval from the University of Leicester.
Periodic outputs from the different work packages will be produced at specified time-points during the full course of the project, with the earliest time-point at 3 months. A consolidated report, with findings from all the work packages and recommendations, will be produced at the end of the project in July 2021.
We will ensure that the findings from each of the work packages is reported rapidly and published on a public facing website. In addition, we will make our findings available to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and other policy-makers in a timely manner so that policy decisions can be made in near real-time. We will also publish the outputs of this research in peer-reviewed journals in line with the University of Leicester’s Open Access publication policy to enable us to share the results widely with the academic community.
The UK-REACH research team and the Chief Investigator would be responsible for publishing results.
Yes, we believe our work will be of direct relevance to policy-makers and professional organisations, providing evidence to inform responses to the current/future COVID-19 pandemic waves, as well as a framework within which we are able to investigate longer-term clinical outcomes on physical and mental health.
Our research is designed to identify key risk factors that may contribute to elevated morbidity and mortality in ethnic minority staff in healthcare settings as well as increased knowledge about access to support and key coping mechanisms to protect the mental and physical health of staff working in these settings. These will, in turn, inform a set of recommendations for protection of ethnic minority healthcare workers from COVID-19 related morbidity and mortality.
I-CARE stands for 'InCreAsing Retention of healthcare staff from Ethnic minority groups'. The aim of the I-CARE study is to identify the reasons that healthcare staff may wish to leave or change their jobs, and to suggest ways in which the NHS could retain more staff. In particular, we will be focusing on the experiences of healthcare staff from minoritised groups, especially in terms of ethnicity and migration status.
The study involves five different areas of work (Work Packages), including reviews of policy to retain healthcare workers, statistical analyses data collected from or about groups of health workers, and interviews with healthcare workers and managers. Specifically, the work packages are as follows:
You have been invited to take participate in either Work Package 3 and/or Work Package 4 because we want to hear from people of all ethnicities working in health and social care. We are inviting people from all job roles to participate in this study. We also welcome contributions from those who have left their jobs in healthcare as they may be able to provide valuable insights into what contributed to their decisions. Since the study is aiming to study the reasons that healthcare workers from minoritised communities may be thinking of changing or leaving their jobs, we encourage people from these communities to consider taking part. You do not need to look after patients directly to join the study.
We are inviting healthcare staff to participate in Work Package 3 and/or Work Package 4 of our study. Participants in the cohort study (Work Package 3) will be asked to fill in an online questionnaire — this may be the first time that you have filled in a questionnaire if you are new to the cohort, or you may have filled in questionnaires before if you are already part of the UK-REACH cohort study. If you are an existing member of the UK-REACH cohort already you will be invited to take part in the I-CARE Work Package 3 through your profile on the UK-REACH page.
Participants in Work Package 4 may be asked to participate in an interview or group discussion about their experiences.
No, participation in the study is voluntary. It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you do decide to take part you will be asked to sign a consent form. However, agreeing to participate does not oblige you to remain in the study and you may withdraw from the study at any time and without giving a reason.
If you decide to take part in Work Package 3 and you are an existing member of the UK-REACH cohort, you will be invited to fill in the I-CARE questionnaire from your UK-REACH profile.
If you decide to take part in Work Package 3 and you are a new member of the UK-REACH cohort, you will be asked to register online for the study, complete a consent form, and complete an online questionnaire.
The questionnaire will ask for some information about you, your health, work and home life, will take about 30 minutes to complete and can be done in parts if you wish.
If you decide to take part in Work Package 4, registration will be followed by online consent and filling of a short demographic data template. A research team member will then contact you for the interview which shall be conducted online and at a time convenient to you.
If you are already enrolled in another research study, this will not affect your ability to take part in this study. Similarly, if you wish to take part in another research study you can remain in this one.
In Work Package 3, we will use information you have provided to us in the I-CARE questionnaire (plus in previous UK-REACH questionnaires, if you are an existing member of the cohort) to understand factors that may be associated with healthcare workers’ intentions or actions to leave their jobs. Research Questionnaire data will be given a code number and will be stored separately from personally identifiable data. If you are new to UK-REACH cohort, you will also be asked for your consent to have your questionnaire data periodically linked to your electronic health records (existing participants have already consented). This process is described more in the Participant Information Sheet: importantly, researchers who will analyse your data to answer research questions will never be able to identify you, and healthcare records with your personal details attached never leave the NHS.
Information including your name and contact details will be stored securely and separately from your research questionnaire responses. Personally identifiable data will be used only for two purposes: firstly to enable linkage to your health records if you have given us consent to do this, and secondly for future contact by the team. Only a very small number of administrative staff will have access to your contact details and will use this to contact you about the study, for example to invite you top participate in further research, if you need help accessing your account, or if you have won a prize in the prize draw.
Interview data from Work package 4 will help us to gain deeper insight into the issues affecting retention. The focus group discussion data from Work Package 4 will help us understand how interventions proposed as a result of this research might affect staff.
In Work Packages 3 and 4, your personal details (name, date of birth, contact details) will be stored separately to any questionnaire, interview and focus group data you provide. All will be stored securely in the secure research drive at participating universities or in the Trusted Research Environment hosted by Secure eResearch Platform UK (SeRP UK) and accessed only by approved staff. Any other paperwork containing personal data will be kept in a locked filing cabinet. Further details about data privacy and data protection can be found in our Participant Information Sheets (PIS) and privacy policy.
You can stop being part of the study at any time, without giving a reason, but we will keep information about you that we already have.
If you choose to stop taking part in Work Package 3 of the study, we would like to continue linking your data with your health records. This is optional and you will be asked to consent before starting the questionnaire and you are able to withdraw any time.
We need to manage your records in specific ways for the research to be reliable. This means that we won’t be able to let you see or change the data we hold about you.
The PIS and privacy notice have full details of how we will sue your information but if you have any further questions you can contact us:
This research could help to improve understanding the reasons for healthcare staff wishing to change or leave their jobs, and therefore provide the basis for policy recommendations to the NHS and UK government on how to support and retain healthcare workers. However, there may be no direct benefit to you. If a new treatment or test were developed, there would not be a financial benefit to you.
For Work Package 3 you will have the option of giving your consent to be entered into a prize draw. Among those who consent to this and complete the questionnaire, 10 randomly selected respondents will win £250 in Amazon vouchers, 10 will win £50 in Amazon vouchers and 250 will win £5 in Amazon vouchers.
Participants in work package 4 and 5 will be given a voucher as a thank you for their time.
There would be minimal risk to you if you participate in this study as all information will be used anonymously (no one will know that this information relates to you). However, we understand that the topics in the questionnaires and interviews/focus group discussions may be sensitive, and it may be challenging to talk about some of your experiences or concerns, and we appreciate you sharing them with us. You can choose not to answer any question that you do not feel comfortable answering, and you may stop at any time. In addition, on the UK-REACH website, and within the questionnaire, we provide contact details for organisations that provide support for mental health and wellbeing, including some particularly relevant to healthcare workers.
It is very unlikely that you would be harmed by taking part in this type of research study. However, if you wish to make a complaint about the project, the I-CARE research manager Holly L Reilly (hlr21@leicester.ac.uk; 07425 611865) who will acknowledge receipt of the complaint, investigate, and report back to you within a reasonable period of time.
If you take part in the Work Package 3, you will be re-contacted for future research only if you consent for this. If you do not wish to be contacted for future research, you could say ‘No’ to this request while completing the consent form.
The UK-REACH I-CARE study is led by Professor Manish Pareek at the University of Leicester and Professor Kath Woolf at University College London. Our other academic collaborators are the University of Oxford, the University of Surrey, the University of Southampton, the University of Glasgow, and London North West University Healthcare NHS TrustAdditionally, the study is supported by our partners, General Medical Council (GMC), Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), General Dental Council, General Pharmaceutical Council (GPC), Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), Royal College of Midwives (RCM), NHS Confederation, British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), Sudan Doctors’ Union –UK Branch, Association of Pakistani Physicians of Northern Europe (APPNE), South Asian Health Foundation (SAHF), Health Education England (HEE), General Optical Council (GOC), Filipino Nurses Association UK (FNAUK), Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and NHS England & Improvement.
The I-CARE study is supported by a grant to the University of Leicester from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Yes, this research has been approved by the London - Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee (REC) and received Sponsorship approval from the University of Leicester.
Periodic outputs from the different work packages will be produced at specified time-points during the full course of the project, and summarized on the UK-REACH website. A consolidated report, with findings from all the work packages and recommendations, will be produced at the end of the project in March 2027.
We will ensure that the findings from each of the work packages is reported rapidly and published on a public-facing website. In addition, we will make our findings available to policy-makers in a timely manner so that policy decisions can be made promptly. We will also publish the outputs of this research in peer-reviewed journals in line with the University of Leicester’s and other partner institutions’ Open Access publication policy to enable us to share the results widely with the academic community.
Yes, we believe our work will be of direct relevance to policy-makers and professional organisations, providing evidence to inform improvements to policy and training. We are working with NHS stakeholders and professional regulators to feed findings from this study directly into planning and policy.
You can request a password reminder/reset on the log in page of the website.
If this isn’t coming through or you no longer have access to the email address you registered with, please contact us on uk-reach@leicester.ac.uk or by phoning 07425 611865 and we will help you to access your account. You will need to provide us with the email address that your account is registered with.
You can update your contact details in your member area on the website. If you are having trouble doing this you can email us on uk-reach@leicester.ac.uk or phone 07425 611865 and we will help you.
You can request a withdrawal form by emailing uk-reach@leicester.ac.uk , or phone 07425 611865.