The gap between what organisations believe they are doing and what people experience is not always a communication failure. It can reveal how racialised harm becomes embedded, normalised and sustained.
The Esther Practice is an independent research and consultancy practice examining racialised harm within organisational systems.
Through research, pattern analysis and organisational diagnostics, the practice identifies how racialised harm emerges, how institutions respond to it, and where gaps exist between policy, practice and lived experience.
The focus extends beyond individual incidents to the organisational decisions, processes and structures that allow harm to persist, including how accountability is exercised and whether meaningful change follows.
For such a time as this - Esther 4:14
Contribute to the Research
Something is happening in your workplace.
You may not have the language for it yet. Or you may have tried to name it and been told you were wrong.
Racialised harm is rarely if ever recognised in the systems where it occurs.
The Esther Practice is gathering experiences of racialised harm across organisations and educational settings to identify recurring patterns, examine institutional responses and understand the conditions that allow harm to persist.
Experiences shared contribute to an independent body of research examining racialised harm within organisational systems.
Services.
For organisations ready to see what is actually happening, and to act on it: building workplaces where harm can be named without it costing the person who names it.
Avoiding these conversations is not neutral. It has a cost.
These figures come from what workers were willing to name in a survey. Most never told their employer: 4 in 5 did not report it, most often because they did not believe it would be taken seriously. Nearly half described treatment consistent with institutional racism. What organisations record is a fraction of what staff carry.
Sources: TUC (2022), Acas (2021), McGregor-Smith Review (2017). Latest available figures, checked October 2026.
The Esther Practice works with what’s actually there, not the version that’s been made comfortable for institutional use.
This is not about whether harm was intended. It is about whether it is present, whether it is structural, and whether it can be named with enough precision to be addressed.
The Esther Practice works across every sector: retail, hospitality, care, the public sector, professional services, and beyond. Racialised harm is not confined to any one sector, profession or organisational setting.
Different institutional settings. The same commitment to naming institutional racialised harm.
The Pulse Diagnostic
An initial organisational diagnostic that identifies emerging patterns of racialised harm and establishes where further examination may be needed.
What you receive: Pattern Summary
Schools
Examining patterns of racialised harm affecting Black children in schools, including how behaviour is interpreted, decisions are made and concerns are responded to.
Focus: Institutional practice, decision-making and accountability
The Gap Diagnostic
An in-depth examination of patterns of racialised harm, the organisational mechanisms that sustain them, and gaps in accountability.
What you receive: Full Pattern Report and debrief
Get in touch.
Start a conversation
There are different ways to connect with The Esther Practice. Whether you're exploring a collaboration, an invitation or an idea that doesn't fit an existing pathway, you're welcome to get in touch.
Organisational enquiries
Explore working with The Esther Practice
Questions about the work, potential engagements or organisational needs. The Esther Practice does not accept commissions where there is a conflict of interest with the practitioner's other professional roles. Any affiliation is declared on the intake form and clarified at the scoping call before any work is agreed.
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Collaboration & opportunities
Explore a partnership or collaboration
Research partnerships, community initiatives, events, practitioner conversations and invitations to contribute.
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Something else
Have something else in mind?
Get in touch. We'll find the right route together.
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