Issues

A non-exhaustive list of issues raised during development of SNAP 2 includes:

• Duty bearers can struggle to understand and take a rights-based approach to policy-making, which results in inconsistent and piecemeal approaches, including in relation to rights holder participation.
• Scottish policy-making rarely takes an intersectional approach, and where it has been attempted it could be developed further. Practical, rights-based approaches are needed to embed intersectionality in policy-making as well as making positive and ambitious statements.
• Decision-making by Scottish public bodies can be opaque and more transparency is needed. This includes proactive approaches to Freedom of Information law and ensuring people have good access to environmental and fiscal information.
• An ongoing lack of awareness and understanding about unpaid carers’ rights, how to identify and properly engage with unpaid carers means that their rights and participation in decision-making are overlooked.
• In health and social care, people who access services should be able to make an informed choice about whether and how to do so digitally or not, and the workforce need relevant knowledge, skills and resources to deliver on their human rights obligations.
• Secure storage, access to, sharing, and ownership of health and care-related data are not well understood as human rights issues. People who access services should enjoy their rights to have access to data that is held about them by health and social care services, control over this data and how it is used.
• Some older people face numerous human rights issues. This includes – but is not limited to – inequality and discrimination, poorer health outcomes and access to public services, low incomes, food insecurity, barriers to independent living, good work and education, social exclusion, violence, abuse and neglect, and a lack of participation in decision-making.

Actions

• Develop a toolkit on a rights-based approach to rights holder and civil society participation in public policy-making that includes best practice examples. The toolkit will be tested and evaluated to ensure it is accessible, valued and used across different areas of policy-making.
• Co-produce a pilot project for secure personal data stores in two Scottish health board areas, that allow people to add to and share all or part of their health and wellbeing information with others, including public services and their delivery partners. Use the findings and recommendations to inform and support the implementation of rights-based secure personal data stores across all health boards in Scotland.
• Carry out a mapping exercise to identify and showcase good practice examples of transparent decision-making by Scottish public bodies, including full and proactive compliance with Freedom of Information law and the right to environmental information. Use the findings and good practice examples to inform, improve and support the implementation of rights-based practice across all public bodies in Scotland.
• Co-produce a programme with unpaid carers to improve understanding of carers’ rights, and how to identify and engage with unpaid carers. Use this programme to inform, improve and support the implementation of rights-based practice across all health and social care. Particular focus on unpaid carers whose rights are most at risk, including minority ethnic people and those on low incomes.
• Carry out a human rights review of the health and social care workforce’s role in promoting ‘digital choice’, particularly for those whose rights are most at risk. Use the findings and recommendations to improve the workforce’s digital skills in order to better respect, protect and fulfil the digital choice and human rights of people accessing services.
• Deliver rights-based intersectionality training and good practice models for Scottish policy-makers that are developed, monitored and evaluated in co-production with rights holders and civil society.
• Taking a rights-based approach, organise a national consultation and engagement process on the potential creation, role and function of an Older People’s Commissioner for Scotland.

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