Discover the laws which help care workers promote rights and choices
Introduction
Have you ever felt that your choices have been ignored?
Have you ever felt that you have been treated unfairly, or worse than others?
Have you ever needed help when you’ve felt unsafe, or vulnerable?
If you answered yes to any of these questions you will understand how difficult it can feel to be ignored, discriminated against, disrespected or made to feel unsafe.
As a citizen, you have access to legal rights and protections which can help you to live a good life, be successful and feel safe and secure. This applies equally to everyone who uses a care service, and care workers can use their knowledge of the law to promote people’s rights and choices, while also helping them to stay safe. You’ll learn about several of these laws in this resource.
In this first section you’ll learn about a different Act in each topic.
You’ll learn about:
- the Human Rights Act 1998
- the Equality Act 2010
- the Self-directed Support (Scotland) Act 2013.
We’ll show you these in the order they were enacted (made into law). You’ll discover that the Acts work together to make things fairer for everyone in society.
While we’ve chosen these three Acts to look at in more depth, we’ve also referred to a number of other important resources in each topic’s ‘go further’ rows.
1. Human rights
Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world. We each have human rights from the day we are born to when we die. You will often see in news from around the world, and even here in Scotland, stories about how people’s human rights have been breached and how serious this is. Perhaps you can think of some recent examples?
In this topic we’ll show you some significant moments for human rights in history. Knowing this history can help you feel more confident when promoting human rights, or raising concerns if you think someone’s rights are not being respected. If you choose to start a career as a child or adult care worker you can rely/ draw on this knowledge at work and it can help you in your career as you provide good quality support, complete qualifications and develop new responsibilities.
We recommend you use MyLearning to record your notes. If you are learning in a group you may prefer to keep information about your protected characteristics private.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948
The idea of human rights has been around for a very long time, although an important moment in modern history was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by many countries in 1948 in the aftermath of World War II.
Play the video below to learn more about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The European Convention of Human Rights 1953
Following the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a newly formed Council of Europe drew inspiration from it when drafting the European Convention on Human Rights (‘the Convention’). The Convention established the European Court of Human Rights.
The UK is one of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states. The UK has signed the Convention and its decision to leave the European Union in 2020 has not altered this.
The Convention contains numbered ‘articles’ which guarantee specific rights and freedoms. Play the video below to learn about convention rights and how these led to the creation of the UK Human Rights Act (1998) which you’ll learn about next.
The Human Rights Act 1998
When working in Scotland or elsewhere in the UK you can refer to the Human Rights Act (1998) to guide your practice. As explained in the last video, this is the Act created by the UK parliament to bring rights set out in the European Convention into our own laws.
The Scotland Act (1998) also made sure that any laws passed by a new Scottish Parliament could be challenged and overturned by the courts if they were found not to be compatible with Convention rights.
The Act describes which human rights are protected and makes it unlawful for public bodies to act in a way which does not respect these.
Activity: human rights
Note: this activity explores human rights definitions and may be upsetting for people with lived experience of human rights breaches. Care should be taken if exploring the activity in a group.
Click on the icons below to learn more about each right that you have. Remember that these rights are also held by everyone you will meet in a child or adult care service. Our descriptions are based on information from the British Institute of Human Rights.
As you learn about each right, think about how you could respect and promote each one in your personal life and at work.
You can use the MyLearning app to take some notes.
Right to life
Freedom from torture
Freedom from slavery
Right to liberty and security
Right to a fair trial
No punishment without law
Respect for private life
Freedom of thought
Freedom of expression
Freedom of assembly and association
Right to marry and start a family
Protection from discrimination
The right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions
The right to education
Abolition of the death penalty
The right to free elections
Go further
Find more information about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) website.
Read more about the UK’s Human Rights Act (1998) on the British Institute of Human Rights website. There are more examples available to help you understand each right.
The Scottish Government policy page about Human Rights will tell you about the actions it is taking in areas like homelessness, social security and children’s rights.
The Scottish Government describe the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as “the global gold standard for children’s rights”. If you start a career in a childcare setting it’s likely that you’ll learn about the UNCRC and apply its principles in your practice.
2. Equal opportunities
We all want and need access to opportunities, services and supports which help us to make the most of our lives, be healthy, build our skills and achieve our goals. When accessing these we all deserve to be treated equally.
The Equality Act (2010) is a law which stops employers, places of education and service providers (including care services, hospitals, shops, transport agencies and leisure facilities) from discriminating against individuals. The Act helps UK society to protects the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all.
Everyone in Britain is protected from discrimination, harassment and victimisation under the Equality Act 2010. Play the video below to learn more about this.
Situations in which you are protected from discrimination
The Equality Act provides protection from discrimination:
- when you are in the workplace
- when you use public services like healthcare (for example, visiting your doctor or local hospital) or education (for example, at your school or college)
- when you use businesses and other organisations that provide services and goods (like shops, restaurants, and cinemas)
- when you use transport
- when you join a club or association (for example, your local tennis club)
- when you have contact with public bodies like your local council or government departments.
Discriminatory treatment can be a one-off action, or could happen as a result of a rule or policy. It doesn’t have to be intentional to be unlawful.
Activity – protected characteristics
As a care worker you can play an important part in identifying and challenging discrimination whenever it occurs. This will help you support people to have the best quality of life and equal access to opportunities.
Click on the buttons below to open a box with more information about each protected characteristic. These descriptions are informed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) which is Great Britain’s equality body (there is also a Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC). There are links to more information from the EHRC (including specific circumstances where it may be lawful to treat someone differently) in each description.
Take some notes about the nine characteristics. If you feel comfortable doing so, identify all of the protected characteristics that you have and consider why it is important that these are identified in the Equality Act.
We recommend you use MyLearning to record your notes. If you are learning in a group you may prefer to keep information about your protected characteristics private.
Gender reassignment
Race
Sexual Orientation
Marriage and partnership
Religion
Disability
Pregnancy and maternity
Sex
Age
Go further
The know your rights page on the EHRC website has more information about the Equality Act 2010 and how it protects the nine different characteristics.
If you are disabled you have a right to reasonable adjustments in employment, education and public life. You can learn more about reasonable adjustments on the ACAS website.
You can access many resources on the LGBT Health and Wellbeing website. This organisation works to improve the health, wellbeing and equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Scotland.
3. Choice and control
Self Directed Support (SDS) is about putting people in control of the support they need to live the life they choose. In Scotland, SDS is supported by a law which gives people (children and adults) the right to choose their own care and support. This law is the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013.
In the SDS approach, people’s needs are assessed by exploring the outcomes that are important to them (what they want to achieve) alongside eligibility criteria set by each local authority (the person must be assessed as requiring support to meet their identified needs).
An assessment of someone’s needs usually begins as a conversation with a social worker. For example, the person may want support at home each day with washing, dressing, and taking medication. One of their outcomes could be to live at home independently. You can learn more about outcomes and good conversations in our effective communication resource (available from the main menu).
Through SDS people who are eligible for support are allocated a budget by their local authority to meet their support outcomes. They can choose to arrange their support in different ways. Click on the buttons below to explore the four SDS options.
Option one
Option two
Option three
Option four
Play the video below about Chris’s story. Chris has chosen option one, a direct payment. The video shows what SDS can look and feel like in action for Chris, his family and the personal assistant (PA) he employs.
The Scottish Government is committed to SDS being the way that all social care must be delivered in Scotland, centred on human rights approaches and the voice of people’s lived experience.
The principle of choice and control applies to everyone. This means that in all situations, no matter which SDS option is chosen, care workers must always promote choice and control when working with people to achieve the outcomes that matter to them.
Imagine you are having your first conversation with a social worker about care and support you might need. You can imagine yourself in the conversation, someone you know, or someone fictional.
- What would you tell the social worker about what is important in your life and the outcomes you want to achieve from the support? (What would matter to you?)
- What would you want to have control over?
- How does it feel to imagine this conversation?
If you want to keep a record of your notes we recommend using MyLearning.
End of section
You’ve now completed the first section of this resource. Scroll down to find the next section.
We encourage you to take some notes on the MyLearning app as you go along of the things you find interesting, or answers to some of the activity questions. This could help you later as you prepare to start your career.
More sections in this resource
This resource has three sections to work through, all related to promoting rights and choices. Each of the sections includes a number of topics.
Understand how to promote wellbeing and safeguard people from harm
In this resource we explore wellbeing again from a particular perspective: safeguarding people from harm. Everyone has a right to be protected from harm, and feeling and being safe is crucial to wellbeing.
Identify how rights and choices can be promoted in a real care service
In this final section you’ll have a chance to imagine what it’s like to promote rights and choices in everyday practice. You’ll look around a bedroom, ensuite bathroom and stairway in a care home service and identify items in each room which provide care workers an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in this area.