IMPACT collaboration with the Race and Health Observatory
White Ribbon Alliance UK is proud to be working with the University of Southampton and NHS Race and Health Observatory on a project designed to improve how health systems make decisions about maternity care.
At the heart of this work is the IMPACT Framework—a practical tool that helps services, commissioners, and policymakers examine how well their decisions are working for everyone, especially those most often left out or harmed by the system. That includes Black and Asian women and pregnant people, disabled mothers, neurodivergent people, young parents, migrants, and others whose needs are often overlooked.
What is the IMPACT Framework?
IMPACT stands for Inequities in Maternal Policy and Care Tracking. It’s a simple but powerful approach to reviewing maternity policies, strategies, and services through an equity lens.
It helps teams answer questions like:
Who is this policy serving and who is it missing?
Where might bias or exclusion be built into the system?
Are lived experiences reflected in how services are designed?
What could be done differently to make care fairer and more effective?
The framework can be used when reviewing existing policies, designing new ones, or tracking whether recent changes are actually making a difference.
What’s happening now?
We are working with NHS teams to test how the framework can be used in live settings. We are starting with a collaboration with the NHS Race and Health Observatory, whose Learning and Action Network supports local teams working to improve outcomes for racialised women and pregnant people.
We’re also developing a set of resources for national policy audiences to support wider conversations about accountability, transparency, and system change.
Why it matters
Many maternity services already recognise that outcomes are unequal. But recognition isn’t enough. Systems need clear, usable tools to understand where those inequities come from—and what can be done about them.
That’s what the IMPACT Framework is designed to do.
This work is grounded in one belief: equity shouldn’t be an add-on. It should shape every decision, from strategy to service design to frontline care.
We’ll be sharing learning from this next phase in the months ahead. If your organisation is interested in using or contributing to the framework, get in touch or learn more about the framework here.