Last Updated on October 21, 2025

A new resource has been published which shows how a focus on equality and human rights improves care.

CQC, alongside a number of partners, has published a new good practice resource Equally Outstanding, exploring how a focus on equality and human rights can help to improve quality of care.

Using case studies from the NHS, adult social care and primary medical services, it looks at how services rated Outstanding by CQC have prioritised equality and human rights and the positive effects this has had on the quality of care and staff engagement. The resource also helps set out the ‘business case’ for equality and human rights at a time when the whole health and care system faces significant financial challenges.

Human rights principles of fairness, respect, equality, dignity and autonomy should be at the heart of good care provision. Evidence points to a clear link between quality of care and whether people who use services feel their human rights are respected and they are treated equally. Analysis of 14,000 adult social care 'provider information returns' showed that services rated Good or Outstanding were more likely have undertaken some specific work on equality in the past 12 months.

There is also a link between whether staff feel they are treated equally and with respect and the quality of patient care provided. Case studies in Equally Outstanding show that where organisations value and support staff equally, this will help lead to better care. Equally, a care setting where staff do not feel valued and respected is more likely to experience absenteeism, high staff turnover and recruitment problems – with implications for both care quality and finances.

The resource describes some common 'success factors' in the case study organisations that have used equality and human rights to deliver Outstanding care. These include:

• A leadership committed to equality and human rights.
• Applying 'equality and human rights thinking' to quality improvement.
• Developing a culture of staff equality where staff are improvement partners in this work.
• Listening carefully to people using their service, including to their aspirations.
• Being courageous in their approaches to tackling difficult issues.
• Making external links to help them progress their work.

Equally Outstanding is aimed at managers of health and social care services, quality improvement and organisational development staff, Board members, frontline staff with an interest in equality and human rights, regulators, commissioners and policy-makers and people who use services and their representative organisations.

It was developed in partnership with Care England, Healthwatch England, National LGBT Partnership, NHS Confederation, NHS Improvement, Race Equality Foundation, Social Care Institute for Excellence and the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group. A number of other organisations also contributed their time, experience and expertise to this project.