Human rights at the heart of our inspection regime

We are proud to support Human Rights Day today (Wednesday 10 December) and celebrate how people who use services are at the forefront of our regulation of health and adult social care in England.

The annual occasion honours the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nation’s General Assembly on 10 December 1948.

Within CQC, it is an opportunity for us to reflect on the changes we have made to how we inspect care services and how we are implementing our three-year strategy to integrate human rights into the way we work.

Malte Gerhold, Director of Policy and Strategy for CQC, said: “The Care Quality Commission has a crucial role in making sure care providers protect the human rights of people using their services. People who use services are at the heart of our new inspection model. As the quality regulator for health and adult social care, we have an important role to promote equality, diversity and human rights as part of services that are safe, effective, caring, well-led and responsive to people’s needs. This is why CQC has developed a human rights approach for its new model of regulating quality in health and social care. It is based on the human rights principles of fairness, respect, equality, dignity, autonomy, rights to life and rights for staff.”

The theme of UN Human Rights day this year is “Human Rights 365”. It celebrates the fundamental proposition in the Universal Declaration that each one of us, everywhere, at all times is entitled to the full range of human rights. So, we will consider human rights principles wherever we inspect. CQC’s role is particularly important for people that may face greater risk to their human rights or greater barriers to self-advocacy – such as detained patients and many people living in care homes.

Further details about our human rights approach are available here.