Scott Durairaj

Human rights monitoring has been placed at the heart of an NHS mental health Trust’s anti-discrimination policies in a move that it hopes will set a new standard for other NHS Trusts.

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has directly incorporated standards in the Human Rights Act 1998 as part of its statutory SES (Single Equalities Scheme).

The scheme seeks to ensure that people who use the Trust’s mental health, learning disability and substance misuse services are treated equally and with dignity and respect under universal human rights based standards.

The SES plans how the Trust will meet and exceed its legal equalities obligations. It sets out action plans to build equality and human rights into its services and policies in relation to the main equality strands of race, disability, gender, age, gender identity, religion, belief, sexual orientation and human rights - as well as additional protected characteristics arising from the new Equality Act 2010.

Every service change or policy developed affecting service users, carers or staff will now be assessed against testing human rights criteria to check it makes a positive contribution to individuals’ human rights or that it does not impact on one group disproportionately. Each of the Trust’s executive directors will take responsibility for monitoring a section of the SES.

Sussex Partnership’s SES includes a Human Rights Action Plan with 33 commitments based explicitly on the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998. For example, it pledges the Trust to “encourage and support service users to make ‘Advance Statements’ so that service users are able to make choices and decisions in advance about what they would like to happen to any aspect of their medical, personal, domestic or home life in the event of a crisis or loss of capacity (which will be inclusive of their Human Rights).”

Trust Chief Executive Lisa Rodrigues said:
“We’ve signed up to this, not because it is simply a legal requirement, but because the people we serve are among the most vulnerable in all sorts of ways. If we do not take equality, diversity and human rights seriously we might as well all go home.”

The Trust developed the scheme in consultation with people who use its services, its staff and the wider community across  Sussex. There is an emphasis on involving people who traditionally are not engaged with or listened to by the public sector, including the gypsy and travelling community, people with learning disabilities and the trans community.

Scott Durairaj, Professional Head for Equality, Diversity & Human Rights at the Trust, said:
“The Trust is becoming recognised nationally for its pioneering approach to equality and human rights issues within the NHS.

“We are helping to drive forward equality and human rights at every level in the Southeast Coast NHS region. Of special note is the fact that Sussex Partnership is the first NHS Trust in the region to integrate human rights into mainstream equalities performance monitoring.

“We have a long track record in striving for more robust anti-discrimination policies but the investment two years ago in a fulltime dedicated team has led to significant and positive changes in our practices.

“There have been some momentous leaps forward in our delivery of equality, diversity and human rights in the Trust over the last two years. We’ve worked hard to achieve improved levels of service for everyone, recognising that the law is soon to change widening and harmonising the protection offered to our communities and staff, but we are determined to go further.

“The Trust has been recognised by NHS Employers as an Equality Champion - an accolade held by only around 30 Trusts nationally. Meanwhile lesbian, gay and bisexual campaign group Stonewall have recognised our progress: the Trust is one of only five NHS Trusts to win a place in their top one hundred employers’ equality index.

“We approached the British Institute of Human Rights to help us embed human rights into our SES. It is a fundamental principle of providing healthcare that we pay close scrutiny to the human rights agenda because many of our service users are some of the most vulnerable people in society. We acknowledge that we are not doing this just because its law; we are doing it because, morally, we should be doing it.”

Katie Ghose, Director of the British Institute of Human Rights, said:
"Making human rights principles and legislation part and parcel of existing work to tackle inequalities is a practical and cost effective way for Trusts to be confident they are reaching the most disadvantaged people and treating everyone with dignity. Sussex Partnership is pioneering the practical use of human rights as an engine to drive improvements to their equalities agenda. I hope they inspire other Trusts and public bodies to see the relevance of human rights to the age-old challenge of keeping 'the human being in front of you' at the forefront of healthcare delivery.”

To view the action plan click here