Do children’s ethnicities within a UK tertiary pediatric neuropsychology service (between 2018 and 2022) reflect the ethnic diversity of the population served?

Objective: This service evaluation aimed to explore the representativeness of the professional-reported ethnicities of patients referred to a Pediatric Neuropsychology Service for South West England patients between 2018 and 2022. Method: Anonymized data from 1,271 Pediatric Neuropsychology patients were collected, although only a subset of patients’ ethnicity data were compared to UK Census 2021 data due to high levels of data missingness. Results: Findings highlight the growing proportion of unreported ethnicity data for patients from 2018 to 2022. Comparisons of ethnicity to Census 2021 data were made for Bristol-based Pediatric Neuropsychology patients (n = 269). A Chi-Square test revealed that ethnicity data of Bristol-based Pediatric Neuropsychology patients’ significantly differed to expectations based on corresponding Census 2021 data (χ2(4) = 33.59, p < .01) with a medium effect size (Φ = 0.36). Results indicate that at a group level (i.e. “Asian,” “Black,” “mixed”), ethnic minorities were consistently underrepresented compared to Census 2021 data for Bristol-based Pediatric Neuropsychology patients, and more detailed differences were revealed when examining specific patient ethnicities. Conclusions: The results illustrate the importance of enhancing collection of patients’ ethnicities and doing further research to work toward increased transparency to inform equitable practices for pediatric patient populations with neurological conditions.