Human rights and people with learning disabilities

Human rights are to the basic rights and freedoms to which we are all entitled. The recent report ‘A Life Like Any Other?’ showed that people with learning disabilities do not often have their human rights respected.

BILD believe that people with learning disabilities and their families have, and should be able to enjoy on an equal basis, the same human rights as everyone else. As an organisation we are working towards adopting a human rights based approach in all our work, based on this important principle.

To reinforce our strong commitment, we have a Development Manager for Human Rights, Liz Brooks. BILD are committed to work in this area because we want people with learning disabilities to be valued equally, participate fully in their communities and be treated with dignity and respect.

Care home boss spared prison in abuse case

A CARE home manager with 23 years nursing experience has been given a suspended jail sentence after she physically used the arms of vulnerable residents with learning disabilities as "weapons" to punish another person in her care.
Jane Harris, 45, is the first person in the region and only the second in the country to be convicted since the provisions of the 2005 Mental Capacity Act came into effect two years ago making ill-treating or neglecting a vulnerable adult a specific offence.

You can read the full story on the Yorkshire Post website:

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Care-home-boss-spared-prison.5830017.jp
 

Court of Appeal upholds landmark decision for disabled people (David Allen v Royal Bank of Scotland)

The Court of Appeal on 20 November 2009 confirmed that the Royal Bank of Scotland had breached the Disability Discrimination Act by failing to provide access to its Sheffield branch for wheelchair users.

RBS had appealed the decision following a landmark judgment earlier this year in a case brought by David Allen, a wheelchair user, which was funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The original decision of the County Court was the first time that an injunction had been granted ordering work to be carried out on business premises to make a building accessible. Mr Allen was also awarded £6,500, the highest amount of compensation ever awarded in a case under the Disability Discrimination Act.

Mr Allen had brought the case against RBS alleging that he had been discriminated against because the bank was not wheelchair accessible. He had been forced to discuss personal details of his bank account with RBS staff on the street in full public view. He was also advised to use the nearest accessible RBS branch, even though it was ten miles away and amounted to a two-hour round trip by bus.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission funded the Sheffield Law Centre to represent Mr Allen.

Lord Justice Wall said in the ruling that the bank could have taken steps to provide access for those suffering from disabilities. He said: “The bank did not take those steps, giving as its reason not the disproportionate cost of carrying out the work, but simply the fact that it would lose the use of an interview room.”

The Bank must now undertake the building work at an estimated cost of £200,000.

Advocacy and personalisation in black and minority ethnic communities - let's learn from the PAST

BILD have obtained funding from the Department of Health for a project to gather stories from the Black and Minority Ethnic communities around good practice in advocacy and the personalisation agenda.

We have called the project the PAST project: Personal Advocacy Story Telling and are aiming to set up focus groups who we hope will be able to share their stories.

Find out more about the project on the PAST pages.

Human Rights Documentary from the ISIS Film Project

Recognising the obstacles facing emerging women filmmakers, The British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) - BILD’s partner organisation in our recent Human Rights conference - has partnered with the Documentary Filmmakers Group with funding from the Equality and Human Rights Commission on ISIS: a documentary production and training initiative designed to produce great human rights films and give talented women directors the skills they need to get ahead in the TV industry.

The film featured here is about the problems facing a mother with learning disabilities.

Mother's Day

Directed by Ana Tovey
Camera - Olivia Emes

Marie has already lost custody of two sons. Her determination to show she can be a good mother to one-year-old Charlie, despite her learning difficulties, is put to its final test at the Family Court.

Hearing from the Seldom Heard - a new resource

More details about the report, and the report's files available to download are now available on this website.

Equality and Human Rights Commission unveils findings of most comprehensive study into human rights in England and Wales

An overwhelming majority of the British people support legislation protecting their human rights and, where a human rights approach is incorporated into public services, both users and providers benefit, a major new Inquiry Report released earlier this week by the Equality and Human Rights Commission has found.

Witnesses told the Inquiry about innovative and exciting new human rights initiatives and called for more leadership in promoting the positive benefits a human rights approach can bring.

The Commission's Human Rights Inquiry is the most comprehensive research to date into the Human Rights Act's first 10 years. It brings together evidence from almost 3,000 individuals and organisations including service providers, service users and advocacy groups, inspectorates, academics, legal experts, politicians, the media and Government Ministers. The Inquiry held evidence sessions across England and Wales.

According to an Ipsos MORI survey of almost 2,000 adults commissioned as part of the Inquiry, 84 per cent of people said they wanted human rights enshrined in the law for themselves and their families and 81 per cent of people saw human rights as important to creating a fairer society.

In the first major study into how far public sector authorities have adopted a rights based approach to delivering services, the Inquiry found that where human rights were put at the heart of the delivery of public services, they delivered successful results.

More details available at - http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/fairer-britain/human-rights/human-rights-inquiry/

25 June 2009

BILD's human rights work gets off to a great start

Let’s Make it a Life Worth Living – Human Rights and Learning Disabilities
Friday 27th March 2009.

“There is a lack of awareness amongst public sector staff about not just how to respect the rights of adults with learning disabilities, but that these rights exist in the first place.”
Andrew Dismore MP

Jointly planned and delivered by BILD and BIHR (British Institute of Human Rights), this conference aimed to share practical ways to use human rights principles to provide a better quality of life for people with learning disabilities.

Over one hundred people attended, including people with learning disabilities, family carers, commissioners and professionals drawn from a wide variety of disciplines and backgrounds. The event was chaired by Mark Gray, (BILD’s Chair of Trustees) who stressed BILD’s commitment to developing a human rights framework that will provide the focus for all of our future work.

Andrew Dismore MP set the scene for the day by giving an overview of the work that the Joint Committee on Human Rights had done leading to the production of their report “A Life Like Any Other?”. He shared his anger at the many tales of avoidable discrimination, blatant hostility and neglect that his committee heard. In addition, he argued that there was a “yawning chasm” between the policies of “Valuing People” and “Valuing People Now” and peoples’ everyday experiences.

His recommendations for positive change included:

In summary, Andrew argued for “.....a national culture change, to recognise that people with learning disabilities have the same rights as everyone else. It’s not a question of being nice to “unfortunate people”. We must recognise their rights as equal citizens.”

The themes identified were taken forward by the rest of the conference.

Roisin Cavanagh of the British Institute of Human Rights challenged the whole conference to test their knowledge about human rights and the way it could be used to better support people with learning disabilities. Delegates worked in small groups and then shared their thinking with everyone. This was a very interactive session and allowed a wide variety of ideas and views to be discussed. Roisin continued this approach in her later workshop on key rights.

Tim Gunning of the Equality and Human Rights Commission briefly outlined the work of the Commission in this area and their skills, knowledge and information available to be used for support.

Linda Ward of the Norah Fry Research Centre shared her work with parents with learning disabilities. She framed this in a human rights perspective, outlining the challenges faced by parents needing the right support but where they may not be given the chance to develop their parenting skills.

All delegates had the opportunity to attend two workshops. These included:

The conference was successful in providing a challenging start to BILD’s work in this area, but also in identifying a wide range of issues, solutions and practical ways forward for delegates.

It was apparent that key to making the human rights agenda work for people with learning disabilities is providing information in a wide range of accessible formats, and providing opportunities for all involved to have opportunities to learn, think, share and take positive action.

Keith Smith
Chief Executive, British Institute of learning Disabilities

Build for the Future contributes to Joint Parliamentary Report on Human Rights

Build for the Future is a group of over thirty people with learning disabilities drawn from seven advocacy organisations:

• Somerset Advocacy
• Taking Part, Shropshire
• Our Way, Worcestershire
• Talk back, Buckinghamshire
• Options for Life, Walsall
• Culture Speak Out, Coventry
• Speaking Up for Action, Sheffield