to fail to see the necessity of collecting someone's etnic origin on an accident form?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

I have had the joy recently of filling out a RIDDOR form regarding DS's accident last week.

Now I completely understand the circumstances regarding collecting ethnic origins to ensure that all members of the community are accessing certain services, but do we need to record the fact that a criss-section of society are having reportable accidents?

I'm sure that all data collected on forms needs to be relevant and pertinent to the reason it is being collected and I'm not entirely sure that my son's origin is anything at all to do with his head injury.

Or am I spectacularyl missing the point?

[sigh]

It irks me too.

Maybe they want to see whether all sections are reporting accidents?

Maybe it's too see if some ethnic groups are having reportable accidents more than others (not sure what they'd do with this info though!!)

I don't ever answer those questions. I don't ever fill in my gender/sexuality either.

Does ethnicity ever affect treatment? As in blood types etc?

Maybe having a record of this helps ensure there are enough medical supplies for ethnicities?

I often refuse to fill it in - if for nothing else than the categories are so arbitry that I can't see that they actually tell you anything ('white' - what on earth does that mean even)

I do feel guilt about it though, because I know that stats can be important - I'd just like them to be a bit better stats.

Not directly linked to ethnicity, but having English as a second language could be causing additional risks due to training etc.

Ahha.

So it's legistlation.

sigh.

Still fricking illogical though.

I thought it was in part to help identify the person involved. I may well be wrong it has been known once or twice.

I have filled in umpteen accident forms and RIDDOR reports as I own a business, and I just presumed that was what it was for.

I never fill in the part of forms asking about ethnicity. I see the same dentist every 6 months - I expect they know what colour I am!

Besides, the government is too bloody nosy - they do not need stats for everything. Surely it's obvious that people who have accidents will seek treatment.

Those irk me as well. On an accident form they're especially stupid. I am white, short and wear glasses. I'd have thought that when it came to accidents the first one is of much less relevance to the incident. I usually just tick other and write "European". Well it's technically true...

If people from specific ethnic backgrounds were suffering disproportionately from certain types of occupational injury wouldn't you want to know so something could be done?

It happens far more frequently than you would imagine...

That's the (real, practical, demonstrable) reason for ethnic monitoring on RIDDOR forms.

Cockle pickers. Chinese
Fruit pickers. East Europeans
Clothing workers. Asians
Carers. East Europeans
Domestic servants. Asians
Certain construction trades (lifts, stone masons, glaziers). East Europeans.

East Europeans will fall under the radar on the form I've just had from my hospital: it has a box for White British and a box for White Irish but no box for Other White; Poles and Polynesians and Swedes and South Americans will all end up sharing the box of Other (Not Listed).

Cockwomble- yes ethnicity does make a difference with some treatments, I believe. I get my information from watching 'house' and 'ER', however!

Doesn't explain why our hospital distinguishes very carefully between Asian (Pakistan), Asian (Bangladesh) and Asian (India) but lumps all Black Africans together and all Asian Others together. Can we explain that in medical terms? Are Jews and Japanese really more closely related than Pakistanis and Indians?

Surely if it was medical, they would be interested in a Jewish background and certain African backgrounds? And if it was social, it would make sense to distinguish Eastern Europeans from Australians. I've never seen an ethnicity form that actually seems to know what it is asking these questions for.

Not about close relationships but common disease patterns.

Epidemiology

We collect data like that at school. It is to ensure we offer the right support to the right groups. EAL children are a target group, as are BME. There are other groups we target too - such as boys, SEN, etc. The groups are identified by school, and some nationally too, as being groups that require additional input in certain things. We use the data to make sure those children receive the necessary support.

I would assume other agencies have specific reasons for such data collection also. It may be to check which groups are using services or it could be to make sure all groups are receiving the right support/services.

It's the same as collecting gender, postal area, etc.