Making Rights Real for Your Service Users 

 

There are a number of factors that the delivery of services in an equality-sensitive manner depends on. This section will deal with ethos, policies and procedures, and staff awareness.

 

Ethos

Discrimination is driven by a set of values and attitudes towards other people that allows for worse treatment of individuals or groups, based on a personal characteristic that the individual or group has or is perceived to have. If this sort of prejudicial attitude goes unchecked, it is highly likely to undermine the notion that every human being is of equal worth and dignity, and is the major obstacle to providing an equality-sensitive service that upholds every service user’s dignity and rights.

It is critically important that every organisation that works directly with people has a positive, rights-affirming ethos at its heart. Think of your organisation’s ethos as its set of values that permeates all aspects of everyone’s work. Leadership plays a major role in this endeavour – positive leadership on equality and human rights issues can set the tone for an organisation’s practice:

• by making absolutely clear what is expected from all members of staff in terms of the treatment of service users
• by respecting and being seen to respect the diversity of your workforce,
• by linking everyone’s equality and human rights practice to the organisation’s performance, reputation and economic viability and wellbeing.

 

Creating an ethos of equality and non-discrimination in your organisation is as much about the right values and attitudes as it is about effective communication. Where equality and human rights are merely an add-on that is done for reasons that are not communicated to every single member of staff, and indeed to service users, a tick-box approach is likely to emerge, and staff might resent what is done and be less than cooperative.

Policies and Procedures

Your organisation’s policies can be a strong statement of intent to provide your highest-quality service to all members of the community, taking its diversity into consideration and the different needs that this may bring. Your policies also set out the groundrules for staff and service users, and help make your service and your service users’ expectations match. Finally, your policies demonstrate that you are committed to meet your moral, professional and legal obligation to embed equality and human rights at the heart of your organisation’s work.

Equality and human rights can feature in a number of organisational policies; here is an indicative (yet not exhaustive) list of policies that you may wish to review as part of your organisation’s work towards the LGBT Charter Mark:

•   Equal Opportunities Policy/Equality Policy (employment and service provision)
•   Dignity at Work Policy
•   Transition at Work Policy
•   Maternity/Paternity/Adoption Leave Policy
•   Child Protection Policy
•   Complaints Procedure
•   Grievance Procedure

 

When making or reviewing your policies and procedures, there are a few things to look out for:

• Does your policy explicitly refer to LGBT people, or to sexual orientation and gender identity? Should it do so?
• Does it treat sexual orientation and gender identity issues on an equal footing with other equality strands?
• Does it name all strands (age, disability, gender, gender identity and expression, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation + perhaps other significant areas of attention where inequalities may be present: caring responsibilities, political opinion, marital or civil partnership status)?
• Who has responsibility to implement your policy and who is accountable to whom for its consistent delivery?
• Are there any actions or performance targets against key points of your policy?
• Are the key tenets of your policy reflected in your procedures and working practice?

 

There are a number of tools available to guide you through the process of policy-making and policy review. We would highly recommend that you use an Equality and Diversity Impact Assessment (EDIA) tool to equality-proof your policies and procedures. Please click here to have a look at Respectme’s EDIA tool which we recommend. We are currently developing our own Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessment model and this will be available here as soon as it has been completed (autumn 2008). Please get in touch with us any time if you would like us to help you kick-start your policy review process.

Staff awareness

Good equality and human rights practice requires the people who plan, design, deliver and assess your organisation’s services to have a sound understanding of the issues affecting the various equality groups and their interplay, as well as the human rights issues that are pertinent to the population you serve. Staff training is absolutely essential for any service that undertakes to improve its equality practice and a broad and continuous staff training programme is critical in ensuring that equality and human rights awareness permeates your service from senior management to frontline level, rather than sit in isolation with the Charter Champion alone.

Therefore, staff training is at the heart of the LGBT Charter of Rights Programme. Please check with our Charter Development Officer charter@lgbtyouth.org.uk how LGBT Youth Scotland’s training and practice development service can contribute to your journey through the LGBT Charter process.