Voting rights are human rights
Barring distinctive and sudden occasions, there will probably be a parliamentary election within the UK this yr. Within the BASW Annual Survey of Social Workers and Social Work, 68% of social staff felt they’d a job to play in selling voting, however solely 19% had supported somebody to take action.
To help our colleagues to advertise folks’s proper to register and vote in elections, BASW, Learning Disability England, the National Principal Social Worker Network for Adults and Bradford Council, supported by the My Vote, My Voice campaign, have launched a Practice Guide to Promote the Vote.
Supporting folks to participate in democratic and political life runs by all domains of the Professional Capability Framework.
Framework for the liberty to vote
Skilled accountability recognises the worldwide nature of social work and the contribution social staff make in the direction of selling lively citizenship and involvement in political and democratic life.
Values and ethics place folks’s rights to autonomy and self-determination on the coronary heart of social work follow. If social staff help folks to vote, arguably the most important determination an individual could make, each different determination they make is smaller. What time I stand up, what I’ve for breakfast, the place I am going in the course of the day, who I like to spend my day with, what time I am going to mattress, these are all smaller selections than who will get to run the nation!
Range and equality: proof reveals these from the most marginalised groups within the UK, together with younger folks, these of Black, Asian or Minority ethnicity and disabled folks, are least more likely to register or end up and vote. Social staff’ dedication to inclusivity should not be restricted.
Rights, justice and freedoms: in a 2011 paper, the Workplace of the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights made the case that voting rights were arguably the most important aspect of participation in democratic and political life. If social work is outlined by a dedication to human rights, voting is the cornerstone of these rights.
Mitigating inequality
Information: the international literature on voting describes how detrimental attitudes in the direction of voting from help workers and lack data about cheap changes are the primary obstacles which disabled folks face when eager to take part in elections and vote.
This compares with the elevated probability that folks vote when supplied with entry to training, simpler to learn details about voting and encouragement from others to take action. Social staff are uniquely positioned inside built-in well being and social care settings to share our data and perceive about what works to take away obstacles to voting.
Essential reflection and evaluation: oppression is structural. Individuals with social care wants are disproportionately excluded from voting. Social staff are educated in tackling root causes of oppression.
Social staff are expert to sensitively intervene and work in partnership with social care workers, carers and relations, to verify no one is unlawfully excluded on grounds of mental capacity from with the ability to register and solid their vote in individual in the event that they select to take action.
Social work operates inside political domains: understanding the context inside which organisations work is prime. Growing your democratic abilities, influencing by being concerned in person led campaigns, comparable to promote the vote, supplies social staff with the chance to collaborate with others in solidarity.
Skilled management: this consists of growing your skilled curiosity, embracing and selling involvement in analysis and analysis.
Native motion, nationwide enfranchisement
That is the strategy we’ve got taken in our native authority, Bradford. Since 2017, we’ve got labored in help of native person led organisations, particularly Bradford People First and the School of Rock and Media.
This consists of:
-
Supporting folks with social care wants to know they’ve the appropriate to vote and take part in native and nationwide elections.
-
The place folks determine they need to train their proper to vote they’re supported to take action, both in individual or by different means (postal or proxy), with sensible help and assets.
We hope, having learn this weblog, you may need to discover out extra about selling the vote in your space. Our Practice Guide is a helpful place to start.
