The Commissioner established the Rights of Older People Living in Care Homes Group in April 2021. The Group brings together organisations from across the UK that are working together to strengthen the rights of older people living in care homes and ensure that they and their families know and understand their rights and are able to exercise them.
The group is working together across the following key areas:
- Raising awareness of the rights of older people living in care homes
- Producing information about Human Rights and legal rights
- Promoting dignity, respect, and the upholding of rights
- Working with service and workforce regulators to embed Human Rights in inspection frameworks and within social care practice
- Increasing residents’ security of tenure
- Increasing care home residents’ access to independent advocacy, in particular for those residents without family or friends
- Developing a strategic approach to using complaints data to improve practice
- Influencing policy and legislation.
The Group has also supported the production of the guide Living in a Care Home in Wales: A Guide to Your Rights.
The guide was developed to help older people and their families to better understand the rights they have, what they can do if they are concerned that their rights are not being upheld, and details of organisations that can provide help and support.
The Rights of Older People Living in Care Homes Group includes the following members:
- Age Cymru
- Age UK
- Association of Directors of Social Services Cymru
- Care Forum Wales
- Care Inspectorate Wales
- Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland
- Equality and Human Rights Commission
- The National Care Forum
- Older People’s Commissioner for Wales
- Relatives and Residents Association
- Scottish Care
- Social Care Wales
- John Williams, Emeritus Professor of Law, Aberystwyth University and Chair of Age Cymru.