Equalities Commission launches guide to home care and human rights

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published an easy to understand guide to home care and human rights.

‘Your rights to home care’ aims to empower older people – by making sure that they know they are entitled to a home care service which respects their human rights, however funded.

It also aims to instruct people on what to do if those rights are at risk.

The guide follows the launch of the Commission’s ‘Close to Home’ inquiry report one year ago, which showed many older people are reluctant to complain about inadequate care.

Home Care inquiry lead commissioner Baroness Sally Greengross said: “We hope that this guide will offer a lifeline to older people and their support networks in helping them to understand what their rights to home care are. Choosing a home care service for yourself or a loved one can be a complicated and emotional process so any help the Commission can offer to provide clarity has to be a good thing.”

Gary Fitzgerald, chief executive of Action on Elder Abuse has found that older people often do not know their rights, and can find it difficult to raise concerns about the quality and reliability of their care.

“This easy to understand guide will therefore be a useful aid to ensuring that they can both understand and access their rights,” he said.

A spokesman for Unison called respect for service users’ human rights “integral to a dignified system of homecare and chimes with our own Ethical Care Campaign.” He said: “It is vital that homecare workers are provided with the necessary levels of training and support in their role and crucially enough time so they can provide the best possible care.”

While Michelle Mitchell, charity director general at Age UK, said the problem with care at home is that it takes place behind closed doors out of sight of local authorities or regulators.

She hopes “it will help give people the confidence to stand up for their rights and take action against poor care, abuse and neglect”.

The guide features:

• What to look for when searching for a home care provider

• Case studies with examples

• A checklist of rights home care users are entitled to

• Funding for home care services

• How to make a complaint

The guidance and ‘Close to Home’ Home Care Inquiry report is available at www.equalityhumanrights.com/homecareinquiry