A1 - SUMMARISE HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE VALUES
What are values?
All health and social care practitioners are underpinned by a set of values which influence their working ways and the approaches which they adopt. The core health and social care values include:
- Be treated with dignity and respect.
Treating individuals with dignity and respect is essential for them to lead independent lives, this involves promoting self-respect and not insulting or humiliating them. It is OUR responsibility to promote respect, privacy and choice. It is important to see each individual as being unique with their own set of needs and preferences, which must be taken into account.
2. Have duty of care
You have a duty of care towards service users and those that you work alongside.
You must always work in the best interest of service users, which means considering all circumstances and preferences before making any decision on their behalf. As your duty of care, you will be expected to promote individual rights such as dignity, respect, independence and confidentiality. This underpins high quality care and supports us with person-centred delivery.
We must only carry out activities which we are trained in to maintain health and safety and ensure the wellbeing of individuals. We must also maintain patient safety and take actions to prevent harm.
3. Safeguard individuals
It is our responsibility to safeguard individuals with care and support needs to ensure that are safe and can live safely free from harm and abuse - this is also our duty of care.
Harm is when someone is mistreated emotionally or physically intentionally or unintentionally. If it is unintentional it could be an accident but if it is intentional, it can be classed as abuse. This is when someone is mistreated in a way which causes pain and hurt.
This a very important value as vulnerable people may not be able to safeguard themselves because they may have a disability, a condition or previous experiences.
4. Promote person-centred practice
Involves placing the individual at the heart of care planning. Includes care or support needs and preferences and ensure they are involved in their OWN care.
5. Work in partnership
Work with the individual and others, such as GPs, social workers or pharmacists.
Must work as one team to ensure effective verbal and non-verbal communication, understanding the roles and responsibilities of those involved and supporting the views, ideas, knowledge and skills.
Leads to trustworthy and respectful working relationships to build a supportive and productive environment. This in turn ensures that the care and support provided to individuals will meet their holistic needs and therefore promoting well-being.
6. Promote individual rights
Must support service users understand their own rights such as privacy and respect.
Give information in a format which can be understood to include how they should expect to be treated and behaviours which are unexpectable. By doing this, it ensures that service users are less likely to be abused, harmed or exploited and we are in turn safeguarding them.
Will give them confidence to report any unwanted or unsafe working practices.
7. Maintain confidentiality
Essential aspect of working in HSC and a key value to uphold.
Involves keeping individuals private information, such as, names, address, medical history and date of birth, private and not sharing with others unless their is consent and a need to share the information.
Is important to comply with current legislation, The GDPR (2018), but also shows respect towards the individual. This promotes trust and confidence in the service.
Confidentiality is not absolute and can be breached in certain circumstances, for example if there was risk to the individual or the public or a legal requirement.
8. Promote independence
Involves supporting service users to do as much as they can on their own without support.
To support this, we must identify their strengths and abilities and encourage and provide service users with the opportunities to utilise these.
Aim is to reduce dependency on others and therefore encourage development of new skills. This will allow them to reach their full potential and lead a fulfilled life.
The 6 Cs of care
The 6 Cs are a set of values required by all patient-facing health and social care staff. This includes not only registered healthcare professionals, but also clinical support staff and non-clinical staff who may come into contact with patients or members of the public.
Care
Care is our core business and that of our organisations; and the care we deliver helps the individual person and improves the health of the whole community.
Caring defines us and our work. People receiving care expect it to be right for them consistently throughout every stage of their life.
Compassion
Compassion is how care is given through relationships based on empathy, respect and dignity.
It can also be described as intelligent kindness and is central to how people perceive their care.
Competence
Competence means all those in caring roles mist have the ability to understand an individual’s health and social needs.
It is also about having the expertise, clinical and technical knowledge to deliver effective care and treatments based on research and evidence.
Communication
Communication is central to successful caring relationships and to effective team working. Listening is as important as what we say. It is essential for ‘No decision without me’.
Communication is the key to a good workplace with benefits for those in our care and staff alike.
Courage
Courage enables us to do the right thing for the people we care for, to speak up when we have concerns.
It means we have the personal strength and vision to innovate and to embrace new ways of working.
Commitment
A commitment to our patients and populations is a cornerstone of what we do. We need to build on our commitment to improve the care and experience of our patients.
We need to take action to make this vision and strategy a reality for all and meet the health and social care challenges ahead.
The Compassion in Practice strategy, including the 6 Cs, was devised by Jane Cummings, NHS England Chief Nursing Officer. It launched in December 2012.
