Responding to a Centre for Mental Health report Pursuing racial justice in mental health, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, said:

"This report lays bare how experiencing racism causes poor mental health and prevents ethnic minority people from getting the help they need, when they need it.

"Trust leaders know much more needs to be done to tackle deep-rooted structural racism, bias and discrimination in health services which leads to worse outcomes and experiences for people from an ethnic minority.

"Action needs to be taken to remove the many barriers which prevent people from ethnic minorities accessing mental health care services. Offering information in community languages, providing interpreters and ensuring services are easily and widely accessible could all have a significant and beneficial impact.

"This report also underlines the incredibly valuable role local communities can play working in close partnership with the voluntary sector and NHS trusts to co-design and deliver mental health services to ethnic minority communities.

"There must be decisive cross-government action to tackle wider factors including poverty, poor housing and unemployment that mean poorer health for people from an ethnic minority."