Commission Funds New Human Rights And Equality Training For Care Quality Commission

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is to fund training in equality and human rights for Care Quality Commission (CQC) staff to ensure the human rights of people who use health and social care services are upheld.

The training builds on the organisation’s existing work in promoting and protecting the rights of service users in England ensuring they get safe, high quality care.

The Commission worked with the British Institute of Human Rights and the CQC to develop a comprehensive learning programme so that inspectors and other staff are fully equipped to identify threats, and also recognise good practice, in hospitals, care homes and other provider organisations.

For sectors such as acute hospitals, specialist mental health and learning disability services and residential adult social care, where the rights of service users tend to be most at risk, inspection teams will have role specific training.

Chief Executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Mark Hammond, said:

“Equality and Human rights are for everyone, and provide an important safety net for people in the most vulnerable situations.

“This training will help health and care professionals fulfil their human rights responsibilities with confidence, help ensure the needs of patients and service users are put first, and their human rights to dignity, choice, privacy and differing needs are fully respected.”

Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission David Behan, said:

“Everyone has the basic right to be treated fairly, and with respect and dignity. We want to promote equality, diversity and human rights in everything we do and tackle inequality where we find it – both in how we regulate and as part of our own culture.

“We know from our work there is variation in the quality of care and that not everyone gets the care they need. This imbalance must be addressed and working with our partners the British Institute of Human Rights and the Equality and Human Rights Commission will help us to achieve this.

“All of our inspections take into account human rights and equality and we must continue to embed a human rights and equalities approach across all our work.”