LGBT history month

20th February 2020

By Peter Macleod, Chief Executive of the Care Inspectorate.

As you may know, LGBT History Month takes place in February each year. It is an important opportunity to celebrate and show support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) culture and history.

I support those in the LGBT community and work with colleagues to ensure that LGBT issues are considered as an inclusive part of our overall activities.

Hearing the lived experiences of those who identify as LGBT is humbling and puts things into perspective. My role is to help, and if I can, to stand shoulder to shoulder on making sure my fellow human is treated with equality and equity.

I want LGBT colleagues to feel the Care Inspectorate is an inclusive and supportive employer. I want to encourage LGBT people and LGBT allies to consider working for us as part of our strategy to become an employer of choice, which links to our new Strategic Workforce Plan.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights'. The Care Inspectorate believes LGBT equality is essential to human rights. Human rights are integrated into our work, they feature in our Corporate Plan, the Health and Social Care Standards and our Strategic Workforce Plan. Upholding and advancing human rights is everyone's responsibility. Our values of being person centred, showing respect and fairness help us to think about how we apply these rights when we connect with other people through our work. We need to support care service providers to improve their awareness and understanding of LGBT issues to improve the outcomes for people using care services.

Our LGBT Champion Charter Group helps to raise public awareness about the Care Inspectorate's support of LGBT rights by attending Pride events. It is important that we are visible externally as it promotes conversations with the public about LGBT equality in the care services we inspect. This helps to dispel myths and offer reassurances.

We are proud to be the first scrutiny and improvement support body to achieve the LGBT Youth Charter Foundation Award. We are now working towards the Bronze Award.

The LGBT Champion Charter Group are in early discussions with some inspection teams about running a potential test of change. The test will involve some of our inspectors wearing rainbow lanyards out on inspection to find out if this will result in positive outcomes for LGBT people in care services.

Research shows that wearing rainbow lanyards can help to create an environment where LGBT people feel safe to open up about their sexual orientation and gender identity. The wearing of lanyards will be entirely voluntary for staff of any sexual orientation and gender identity. The lanyards are a visual aid to indicate that the inspector is a safe listening ear who will offer support without judgement. The LGBT Champion Charter Group will keep you updated.

February is about celebrating LGBT History Month but as an organisation we focus on all areas of equalities through our Equality Outcomes, Mainstreaming Report and Action Plan and the work of our Corporate Equalities Group.