Our partnership human rights programme with West Midlands ADASS and NHSE Midlands brings together colleagues from local authorities, NHS trusts and Integrated Care Boards from across the region, focusing on supporting change for autistic people and people with a learning disability. The workshops aim to build staff's knowledge and confidence to recognise the role of the HRA in their work and use it as a tool to make and advocate for rights-respecting decisions in their work. We'll return to workshops in September, kicking off with a four-part human rights practice leadership programme to enable staff to support a culture of respect for human rights within and across their organisations. 

 48% of participants said they had not relied on the HRA in their work before or were unsure if they had. People told us that the thing that stopped them from using the HRA in their work was a lack of knowledge (25%) and a lack of confidence (25%) to use human rights law. However, after attending the 2-part workshops, 97% said they were more likely to rely on the HRA to make positive changes in their work, including challenging or changing decisions about someone's individual access to support or services. 

80% of staff were already supportive of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) before attending the workshops, but this rose to 100% after attending our capacity-building workshops, with one participant saying "It is a vital tool to ensure fair and equitable care for people with learning disabilities and autistic individuals." 

Participants had this to say about the programme: 

Our work with LYPFT has involved delivering human rights staff capacity building for staff at LYPFT across the service to learn more about their human rights’ legal duties, and how they can use them to inform their decision making when working with people with learning disabilities, mental health conditions and autistic people both in inpatient and community care. We hope that, by the end of the two-part workshops, participants will have an increased understanding and confidence of how to use the HRA in a practical way across all their actions.  

When we return to the programme in September, we will also be working with LYPFT to co-produce a human rights resource that staff can use to support them in making rights-respecting decisions in their work. It will include key information about human rights, as well as practical tools they can use to increase their confidence.  

Prior to taking part in the workshops, participants rated their knowledge of the HRA at 2.7 out of 5, meaning they felt their level of knowledge ranged from average to good. After taking part in both workshops, this increased substantially to 4.1/5. This is also true of their confidence, increasing from 3.2/5 to 4.5/5, showing that the workshops have made staff feel more comfortable in using human rights in their decision making. 

Similarly, 89% of participants said that, after taking part in the workshops, they would be more likely to rely on the HRA to make positive changes in their work. This included by challenging decisions about someone’s care (29%), working with public bodies and services to more effectively support human rights (29%), and to support people to campaign on issues that impact their rights (17%). One participant said, “Working with vulnerable people involves making decisions and a good understanding of the human rights act will support with these decisions.” 

Participants had this to say about the programme: 

 “It really made me think about how we support people, especially vulnerable individuals, and how important it is to involve them in decisions and respect their dignity.” “It reminded me that human rights aren’t just for courts or lawyers — they’re for everyday life and for helping make sure we treat people fairly and respectfully, whether we’re at work, at home, or out in the community.” 

“Is an eye opener on how they can be applied in dealing with complexities we encounter with working with our client group.” 

“The course is mind blowing” 

We are thrilled at the positive response to both programmes so far. Participants have increased their knowledge and confidence in using human rights to inform their decision making, and there is an appetite to learn more. More exciting still, is the outcome that more public services and care providers will be taking steps to uphold our human rights across their work. We look forward to continuing these programmes in September.