Improving the care older people receive

The Commission on Improving Dignity in Care has been established to help improve the level of dignity older people experience while receiving care in hospitals and care homes.

The Commission is trying to understand how and why services in some hospitals and care homes are currently failing to deliver dignity in care of older people, and what changes are needed to improve things.

The Commission wants to:

• understand the extent of the problem;
• identify the issues that are causing poor quality care for older people;
• understand what older people and their families want from care services;
• find examples of good practice within the health and social care system that are currently working well;
• identify guidance that supports improvement in care for older people;
• drive change and improvement; and
• develop practical, long-term solutions.

Feed your own views on social care into the consultation

The Commission has already taken written and oral evidence from service users and their representative, academics, and health and social care professionals and managers, who understand the day-to-day pressures of providing care for older people. Following the consideration of this evidence, the Commission has published a consultation report, which includes recommendations for how improvements can be made.

The Commission now wants to open up the consultation to include the general public, as well as professional bodies and those that work in the system, so that a wide range of views and experiences can be considered before the report is finalised.

The consultation is open until Tuesday, 27 March, 2012

To feed into the consultation, you need to first read the recommendations in the consultation report, and then visit the NHS Confederation website to send in your views:

Download and read the consultation report (PDF, 760KB)

Comments can be submitted online or by post. For details, visit the NHS Confederation website

What’s happening next?

The final report will be published by summer 2012, after which there will be a programme of work to encourage and support those working within the health and social care sector to implement the report’s recommendations. Further details on our plans for implementation will follow publication of the final report.

About the Commission

The Commission is a joint initiative from Age UK, the NHS Confederation and the Local Government Association (LGA). It includes representatives of patients and residents, experts from the world of nursing and medicine, and management of health and social care services.

The Commissioners are:

• Sir Keith Pearson JP, chair, NHS Confederation (joint commission chair)
• Dianne Jeffrey CBE DL, chair, Age UK (joint commission chair)
• Cllr David Rogers OBE, Community Wellbeing Board Chair, LGA (joint commission chair)
• Gillian Buck, service user representative
• Martin Green, Chief Executive, English Community Care Association (ECCA)
• Dr Elizabeth Kendrick, GPwSI Older people and Chair End of Life Clinical Innovation Team NHS NE, County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
• Lise Llewellyn, Chief Executive, Berkshire Primary Care Trust
• Professor Hugo Mascie-Taylor, Medical Director, NHS Confederation
• Professor Trish Morris-Thompson, Chief Nurse, NHS London
• Jenny Owen CBE, Deputy Chief Executive/ Executive Director Adults Health and Community Wellbeing
• Professor Heather Tierney-Moore OBE, MSc, RGN, Chief Executive at Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust
• Catherine Wescott, service user representative

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/home-and-care/improving-dignity-in-care-con...