NHS and the fight for human rights

Yesterday's Labour manifesto declared that the "NHS embodies our values of fairness and social justice" and talks of new guarantees to cares and more personalised care. It does not, however, mention human rights in relation to health. That reflects a wider failing, across many public services. Last year's inquiry by the Equality and Human Rights Commission into human rights and public services called for greater recognition that human rights are not merely abstract concepts but can be an effective tool for delivering organisational success and better services to the public. The question is, with public managers under increasing pressure because of cuts how much of a priority is human rights to public services. One organisation managing to retain a focus on human rights is Mersey Care NHS Trust, which provides mental health and learning disability services for adults in Liverpool, Sefton and Kirkby, as well as medium- and high-security services for a wider area. The trust was set up in 2001 and from the start has included human rights as part of its core remit, explains Lindsey Dyer, the trust's director, service users and carers. "In the period of consultation when Mersey Care trust was set up, service users and carers said they wanted a new kind of organisation, one in which they were partners," she says. The trust was unusual then, and still is unusual, in putting human rights at the heart of its strategy. How far has that got the trust, which employs 4,500 staff, in practice over the past nine years? "We have a good track record on involving service users and carers, but if you cut every single piece of work that we do at Mersey Care and ask whether you find human rights at the centre, like a stick of rock, I'd have to say no," acknowledges Dyer. "There is still work to do on developing very practical tools and making the strategy real and practical, day in, day out." But strides have been made. The trust has used the British Institute of Human Rights to train staff and help implement new procedures. Changes in policies and procedures have led to good results Service users and carers are involved, for instance, in all staff appointments at the trust , leading to greater priority on finding staff with qualities of empathy and understanding, rather than simply considering candidates' technical skills, while changes in policies and procedures have led to good results - in one survey, for instance, 89% of service users felt the use of a human rights approach had made an impact on their recovery. Last year, Katie Ghosh, director of the BIHR, wrote : "With budgets shrinking, managers and practitioners face stark decisions about the allocation of resources. A human rights approach can be a helpful guide, as it explicitly requires prioritisation of the most vulnerable people rather than those who shout the loudest." It remains to be seen whether other NHS trusts - and other public service bodies - will be able to follow a human rights approach.