Case Study: Human Rights in Healthcare

Ipsos MORI was commissioned by the Department of Health to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing a human rights based approach within NHS trusts. The evaluation adopted an action enquiry approach and focused on five pilot NHS trusts over a six-month period and followed a predominantly qualitative programme. This included:

• initial fieldwork involving face-to-face interviews with key stakeholders from each pilot;
• development of five separate evaluation frameworks based on the information collected in stage 1;
• quantitative evaluation;
• qualitative follow-up fieldwork; and
• analysis and reporting.

The evaluation supported the Department of Health to further develop the framework ‘Human Rights in Healthcare – Framework for Local Action’, improve awareness of human rights and produce a practical set of human rights tools for NHS organisations.