Promoting good practice

While remedying individual injustice is an essential part of what we do, we also help councils, care providers and other public bodies tackle systemic failures and improve the way they deal with complaints.

In many cases we ask local services in our jurisdiction whether other people are currently, or could be, affected by the same issues raised in a complaint. 

Drawing on our casework, we have identified some positive steps councils, care providers and other public bodies can take to improve services:

• When policies are designed, think about what steps are in place to ensure that meaningful consideration is given to individuals’ rights, and the impact of policies on people with protected characteristics
• Where possible, publish Equality Impact Assessment (or similar decision-making tools) online to help promote transparency of your decision-making and local accountability 
• Invest in training for officers and members so they are aware of the types of rights-based issues that they will encounter in their roles
• Take steps to ensure that officers record clear reasons when it is deemed necessary to interfere with an individual’s rights
• Proactively think about people’s rights when looking at complaints and concerns, irrespective of whether they are explicitly mentioned  
• Take steps to guard against standardised wording or box-ticking exercises, which can reduce rights-based considerations into a perfunctory exercise