East of England Provider Collaborative

Two-part capacity building workshops

From March to May 2026, BIHR delivered a series of two-part workshops, available to 130 staff members working in mental health inpatient services across the East of England. The workshops aim to build capacity and confidence to use the Human Rights Act in local decision-making, exploring five important human rights with stories chosen to be as relevant as possible for attendees, and support on how to apply the law to reduce restrictive practice.

Five-part practice leads programme

From May to July 2026, a selected group of up to 60 practitioners across the 4 key services commissioned by the collaborative to undertake in-depth training in order to become human rights practice leads within their organisations. The workshops will delve into complex issues that frequently emerge in their work, allowing space for reflection and planning about how the Human Rights Act can be sustainably embedded across services to support a reduction in restrictive practices.

Now the programme has concluded, the Collaborative have a cohort of 60 skilled Practice Leads equipped to cascade human rights learning, support colleagues, and drive sustainable culture change.

Shared reflection spaces

From May to October 2026, BIHR has facilitated 5 shared reflection spaces for Provider Collaborative staff who had attended the two-part or practice leads workshops. These are informal two-hour virtual drop-in spaces where staff can come along to receive tailored support on rights-based issues they are working on, as well as space to reflect, problem-solve, and connect. It is an opportunity for staff to consolidate their learning, and increase their confidence in using human rights-based approaches in their work.

Development of 3 Decision-Making Frameworks and a Regional Resource:

From June to December 2026, BIHR are working with the provider collaborative to co-produce practical human rights resources that will support clinicians and practitioners across the 6 NHS Trusts in navigating complex decisions where people’s rights particularly in long term segregation or seclusion may be at risk—ensuring dignity, safety, and legal compliance go hand in hand.

3 Decision-Making Frameworks

Providers will choose the focus areas for each of the 3 decision-making frameworks, and each framework will be co-produced with Practice Leads, Experts by Experience, and Family Ambassadors. This ensures the tools are legally robust, practically useful, and grounded in the realities of lived experience. These frameworks ensure that the shift toward rights-respecting practice continues after the training sessions end.

Regional Resource

With the Provider Collaborative, we are co-developing and producing a region-wide recourse on long-term segregation and seclusion, ensuring it is fully compliant with the Human Rights Act and reflects best practice in safe, proportionate, and lawful care.

Together with the decision-making frameworks, this resource will form part of an updated, rights-based policy approach for the collaborative, designed not just for compliance, but for consistency, accountability, and long-term culture change.