The Care Inspectorate today marks international Human Rights Day, which sees the launch of Scotland’s National Action Plan for Human Rights (SNAP).
The social care and social work watchdog has been involved with the development of SNAP over the past year in the Drafting Group, a wide coalition convened by the Scottish Human Rights Commission and with members drawn from all parts of Scottish civil society. SNAP is a first for the UK, and in drawing up an Action Plan Scotland is following in the footsteps of countries like Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Finland.
SNAP has been developed because although Scotland has a good record of law and policy making that recognises people’s human rights, research and evidence has shown that often people struggle to realise human rights in day to day life.
Chief Executive of the Care Inspectorate, Annette Bruton, said: “I warmly welcome the launch of this action plan. Almost everyone in Scotland will use a care service at some point in their life. While most care in Scotland is good or better, too often our inspectors see people using a care service whose human rights are not being protected or promoted. A clear, widely-shared understanding of human rights is essential in delivering quality care. As well as a very clear set of standards that all care services should meet, I want a human rights agenda to underpin those standards, making best use of our inspectors’ professional judgment.”
Professor Alan Miller, Chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission said: “I cannot thank enough all of the members of the SNAP Drafting Group. We have all learned enormously from each other. SNAP goes beyond a traditional “tick box” type action plan and has developed into a transformative programme of change. Its vision is of a Scotland in which everyone is able to live with dignity. To delivering that vision a wide range of people and organisations will collaborate to achieve agreed outcomes and priorities, in a process which fosters innovation and service improvement. In this way SNAP will look to embed a human rights culture in all areas of life.”
SNAP runs from today until December 2017, and progress will be monitored between now and then.
The full Action Plan, Executive Summary and a special animation about SNAP is available online here – www.scottishhumanrights.com/actionplan
Follow on Twitter @scotrightsplan #snaplaunch