Leeds & York Partnership Foundation Trust

A programme of human rights capacity building was commissioned by Leeds and York Foundation Practice Trust (LYPFT or ‘The Trust’) from the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) in the period of Autumn 2022 to Winter 2023. The purpose of this programme was to introduce and consolidate human rights legal knowledge throughout The Trust, with the aim of becoming an organisation founded on the principles of human rights.

The Programme

The programme of work involved:

A mapping meeting with the Trust’s board to get buy in for the Programme
A research and human rights knowledge sharing session with people who access services and their loved ones
A two-part staff capacity building workshop series with 300 staff across the Trust
An 8 part in-depth learning programme with up to 38 members of staff (‘Practice Leads’)
A human right focused policy workshop.

Staff Capacity-Building Sessions

4/5

attendees rated their understanding of the Human Rights Act at 4/5 afterwards versus 2.9/5 before

4.3/5

attendees rated their confidence using the Human Rights Act at 4.3/5 afterwards versus 3.4/5 before

93%

of staff said they would recommend the sessions to colleagues

100%

of staff felt more confident about using the Human Rights Act

Practice Lead Programme

4.5/5

attendees rated their understanding of the Human Rights Act at 4.5/5 afterwards versus 3/5 before

4.3/5

attendees rated their confidence using the Human Rights Act at 4.3/5 afterwards versus 3.4/5 before

100%

of staff said they wanted more sessions available with people they support

100%

of staff felt more confident about using the Human Rights Act

Participants said...

Every clinical member of staff should have access to this training

Staff Capacity-Building Session participant

I would highly recommend you attend a session with BIHR if able, and also read up on the Human Rights Act and find out how it fits your service and how you can apply it to practice, to ensure patients' human rights are being considered in decision making and being upheld. It's an eye-opening experience and the knowledge and skills you will gain from the training, will only better your own practice to help, improve your service and fundamentally, improve the quality of life for the patients in your care.

Practice Leads Programme participant

Stories of change

A member of staff mentioned how since taking part in this whole programme, they had noticed the particularly fixed nature of treatment in eating disorder wards. Previously, they had often thought that in eating disorder wards there was a more rigorous following of care plans as well as and a lot of blanket policies that felt unfair but hadn’t been able to raise this. After the course, they felt able to challenge this approach using the Human Rights Act.

Mary, a participant on the Practice Leads programme, had set herself the goal of being able to use the Human Rights Act to inform strategy. As part of her job role there was a need to rewrite an MCA policy, a safeguarding policy and a domestic violence policy. Despite significant push back due to time restraints, Mary was able to use the knowledge gained during the course to ensure that human rights were reflected in these new policies. Mary explained that is was the legal language learned in the BIHR programme that was instrumental in explaining to colleagues that a human rights approach was not an option, but a necessity.

Related information

Older man outside, smiling, with a support worker

Training for Public Bodies

Find out about our offers for public bodies and those providing public services.

Training for Public Bodies

Find out about our offers for public bodies and those providing public services.

Photo focused on an older man, smiling, talking with a support worker at home.

What duties do organisations have?

Read about the 16 human rights that public bodies have to respect, protect and fulfil wherever possible.

What duties do organisations have?

Read about the 16 human rights that public bodies have to respect, protect and fulfil wherever possible.

An older woman and man, sitting on a sofa, talking with a support worker.

Changing Systems & Policy

See the projects we've worked on with public bodies and policy-makers and how we've helped them embed a culture of respect for human rights.

Changing Systems & Policy

See the projects we've worked on with public bodies and policy-makers and how we've helped them embed a culture of respect for human rights.

Stay up-to-date

Get our newsletter

Get monthly updates on UK human rights law and our work, resources and events sent straight to your inbox.

Sign up now