Transforming Organisations

Somerset City Council

The programme was aimed at building the human rights capacity of Somerset County Council’s Adult Social Care service, thereby helping to embed a culture of respect for human rights within the local authority.

How we designed the programme

We designed this bespoke programme for Somerset County Council alongside leads in their Adult Social Care and Learning Development teams. Somerset leads identified the key areas in which Adult Social Care teams would benefit from human rights capacity building. Leads at Somerset wanted to support staff to use human rights to create better outcomes for people accessing services.

We took the key issues identified and created a bespoke four-part "Lunch n Learn" series delivered over 12 months to 355 staff.

About the programme

Each of the four workshops covered a different topic:

Workshop 1: An introduction to the Human Rights Act for Adult Social Care teams.

Workshop 2: The right to wellbeing, and to have a say in decisions about your care protected by the right to private, family life home and correspondence (Article 8).

Workshop 3: Human rights equalities and social justice with a particular focus on the No Recourse to Public Funds policy.

Workshop 4: Action-planning for sustainable human rights change within Adult Social Care services.

The impact of the programme

Participant on our Somerset 'Lunch & Learn' programme

"This workshop should be compulsory for people, friends, family and employees to remind us of our human rights and how we can apply them in our every day life."

Participant on our Somerset 'Lunch & Learn' programme

"I am sick of banging my head against a brick wall knowing that I am right but not having the words to challenge... it's about having the legal knowledge and the confidence."

Participant on our Somerset 'Lunch & Learn' programme

"If you need clarity on the Human Rights Act, this is the training for you."

The future of this programme

This programme ended in December 2022. We look forward to running similar programmes for Adult Social Care teams in need of human rights support. Please get in touch with us on training@bihr.org.uk.