A social care system involving all service users is impossible
unless it is underpinned by a human rights framework, the
chairperson of the Social Care Institute for Excellence said last
week.
Speaking at the launch conference of Shaping Our Lives, a service
user involvement project, Jane Campbell said that service users'
human rights were breached on a daily basis.
Campbell said that the practice of forcing older people into care
homes and discouraging disabled people from having intimate
relationships were two examples of people's rights being breached.
A right to a family and a right to a private life would be
"enshrined in the service" if a human rights basis was adopted, she
said.
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Meanwhile, two new research projects by Shaping Our Lives have
found that many service users regard user involvement practices as
patchy and tokenistic. The findings reveal that service users do
not feel respected by service providers and that there is a lack of
information on services, especially direct payments.
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Our Voice in Our Future and Shaping Our Lives can be
viewed at website
www.jrf.org.uk
