Healthcare workers from ethnic minority and migrant backgrounds experienced disproportionate harm during the COVID-19 pandemic, exposing deep-seated inequalities in occupational risk, health outcomes and job security.
Prior to UK‑REACH, England lacked large‑scale, longitudinal evidence capable of capturing how ethnicity, migration status and workplace factors interact to affect healthcare workers’ health, wellbeing and retention. Without this evidence, the NHS risked continued workforce attrition, widening inequalities, and loss of skilled staff essential for sustainable service delivery.
UK‑REACH became the largest and most ethnically diverse longitudinal cohort of healthcare workers in the UK, with around 30% participants from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Over five years, the programme evolved from identifying COVID‑19 infection risk by ethnicity, to examining long COVID impacts, vaccine immune responses (B‑DIRECT), and most recently workforce retention and wellbeing (I‑CARE and THRIVE).
UK-REACH data was provided as a written submission to the UK COVID-19 Inquiry. Findings have been also disseminated through peer‑reviewed research, parliamentary engagement, and in national datasets, including UK‑REACH becoming the first Longitudinal Population Study to join the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC) under its broadened purpose.
This work has directly influenced national conversations on NHS workforce sustainability.
Evidence from UK‑REACH underpinned a parliamentary roundtable on NHS staff retention, highlighting how pay, workplace culture, discrimination, long COVID, and lack of flexible support disproportionately affect ethnic minority and international staff.
Media coverage and policy briefings amplified findings that two‑thirds of NHS staff identify improved pay and better working conditions as critical to retention, reinforcing the urgency of workforce reform.
Practically, UK‑REACH has produced evidence that has informed NHS Trust-level discussions on retention policies, improved recognition of long COVID as a workforce risk, and strengthened calls for standardised occupational health and phased return‑to‑work pathways.
By improving understanding of modifiable drivers of attrition, this programme supports a more resilient, inclusive NHS workforce, benefiting staff wellbeing, patient continuity of care, and long-term service sustainability.
- UK Reach website: UK-REACH
- Leicester researchers take part in parliamentary roundtable on NHS staff retention (news story: LINK)
- Two in three NHS staff say improved pay is key to boosting retention LINK (a news story reporting findings published in The Lancet Regional Health: Europe; LINK)
- UK-REACH is first Longitudinal Population Study to join UK LLC under broadened purpose: LINK
- Migrant status compounds inequality for ethnic minority NHS staff, new study finds: LINK
- (news story reporting findings published in Sage Journals: LINK