Services
Services
DCES Our Mission:
We seek to Empower Individuals, Groups and Organisations to Engage in Activities which make
for a Constructive, Integrated and Cohesive Society.
This can be achieved through our desire to fulfil the following points:
◼ Engage positively with groups that others label "HARD TO REACH".
◼ Mentor the young as valued stakeholders in a cohesive society.
◼ Promote equality and human rights.
◼ Tackle exclusion, discrimination, social injustices and poverty.
◼ Contribute to social economic and cultural development.
◼ Celebrate and value all cultures.
◼ Connect, engage and be accountable to communities.
◼ Galvanise entrepreneurial spirit.
◼ Respond to the changing needs for cohesive communities.
◼ Empower communities by instilling confidence and capacity through information, advice and guidance.
◼ Influence Public Authorities to ensure they embed equality in their work and reach.
◼ Advocate for fair and deliberated equality in the workplace.
◼ Ensure civic participation and representation.
◼ Create opportunities for voluntary action.
We Debate, Argue, Advise, Create and Make it Real
We support local people in having a say in how health and social care services are designed and delivered. We take people's views and experiences to decision-makers (health and social care commissioners and providers) to show them what people think is good and what is not good. And we work with them to make improvements.
Also we work with local people in order to provide information and advice, help them find their way round the system and make them aware of their rights and the choices available to them.
We particularly want to help to make heard the views and experiences of people, groups and communities whose voices may not usually be as loud or as often heard as others. So each year we support a number of local voluntary and community groups to make those voices heard.
The following pages give a summary of each of the projects in the year 2014-2015 what they did, what they found out and what those voices had to say.
Together with the groups that have been involved, we will:
Share the findings with decisions-makers in our local NHS and local authorities, focusing on what people have told us: both what they think is good and what is not good. We will make recommendations about how services could improve as a result. Just as importantly we will follow up to see what changes have been made.
Our Skills
DCES has participated as advisors, representatives and co-respondents is a number of cases of discrimination, cultural/ xenophobic insensitivity and prejudice. We hold the value of equality of opportunity and treatment as central to our remit and we will use all the tools at our disposal to address discrimination even the perceived discrimination not covered by law.
We have mediated in work-place discrimination and bullying, which in 2 cases have resulted in finding working solutions that have been implemented with the culture of management adjusted to take the changing workforce into account. Several cases have been referred to legal entities to pursue through tribunals.
We are currently gathering information on the legality of housing benefit assessments for those who are self-employed and subjected to unfair treatment under the benefits arrangements currently in force. We are also helping those that have had ESA withdrawn after DWP assessments and one case has had full and unfettered ESA reinstated and 18 months of guarantees by the magistrates on the tribunal panel.
We are currently advising but not intervening on the provision of Social housing for some individuals but may seek or refer clients to a pro-bono service for further representation.
We have had several instances of remedial health and mental health with-held from clients and with the outcomes expected from the Needs Assessments currently undertaken by the CCG partnership soon to be published we will be asking for clarification on the legality of the lack of provision.
We are eager to work with the local police forces to address the disproportional nature of stop and searches reported to us and we hope that ground is made on our partnership arrangement as we have proposed.
