The examples below provide insight into how other Good or Outstanding rated services are succeeding in this area of inspection.
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Kindness, dignity, trust
The provider always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.
People told us staff were kind. One person told us about how staff has supported them when they were in a time of crisis. Following any crisis staff always asked people whether their actions and support were how the person wished to be treated. People told us they had developed trust with staff. Our observations showed this and that people were treated with kindness, dignity and respect. Staff always knocked on people’s doors and waited for their permission to enter. Staff treated people’s personal property and space with respect. One staff member explained, “We get to know them [people], spend time with them. Make them feel better. Treat them as family and offer help. Really build relationships and have the time to do that.”
Staff notes when recording people’s care was dignified and respectful. However, when we spoke with staff some used an informal term rather than the expected professional language. We discussed this with the registered manager, who confirmed this would be discussed during team meetings.
Read more about this service .
Care provider: Cornerstone At The Park
Date published: July 2025
Kindness beyond job roles
The provider was exceptional at treating people with kindness, empathy and compassion and in how they respected people’s privacy and dignity. People and relatives told us that the support they received was vital to them and their families.
We saw numerous examples of where staff went over and above their roles. For example, staff took people out for their birthdays in their own time. One person had mentioned to staff that they had never tried a [name of fast-food outlet] meal but had seen it advertised on TV. The staff member brought them a meal from the [fast-food outlet] on their next call. We were told the person became quite partial to this and had a meal from there regularly.
Staff were highly motivated and demonstrated real empathy and compassionate understanding for people. For example, staff felt it was really important to celebrate people’s birthdays and people always received a card from the staff team on their birthday and tried to make big birthdays special for people. One person had a milestone birthday so 2 staff members took them to a local country estate for afternoon tea and champagne in their own time. The rest of the staff team completed a video for the person to watch on their birthday. This made the person feel very special and the family expressed their gratitude by making a cake for the staff team to share.
Read more about this service .
Care provider: Active 天美mvcare
Date published: July 2025
Kindness reduces restrictive practices
Without exception, people and their relatives spoke positively about their/ their family members support and the kind and caring nature of the staff team. Staff spoke about people knowledgably and with kindness and compassion. They always made sure people were happy with what was happening and how they were being supported.
The kind, caring and compassionate support staff gave to people had resulted in them being able to successfully live at the service for extended periods of time. This had not been possible for people in the past. Staff were incredibly knowledgeable about how to be kind and compassionate when people were feeling upset or anxious. People were living with very specific support needs, including how they showed how they were feeling when they felt upset or anxious. In the past, people had needed support with this in the form of physical support from staff members or through the use of PRN medicines, which helped them feel calmer.
For all the people living at the service, the need to use physical support or medicines had reduced significantly. This was because of the way staff supported people in a kind and respectful way when they felt upset, using words and language to help people feel calmer and giving them the space to feel better. The massive positive benefits for people not needing to be supported with restrictive practices as a result of this were amazing. People were now very happy and relaxed living at the service.
One of the providers key values was treating people with dignity and staff fully understood and embraced this value. People took part in activities that were very personal to them but still needed support from staff to take part in this. This had been fully supported by the management and staff team who handled this delicately and respectfully, fully supporting people to take part in these activities in a dignified way. We were shown multiple pieces of evidence showing the massive positive impact this had for people. Staff had also taken the time to make ‘profiles’ about themselves including what their preferences were and what was important to them. These were shared and on display for people so they could share in the understanding of how important being kind and compassionate to each other is.
Read more about this service .
Care provider: Pathway House
Date published: June 2025
Kindness empowers independent living
The provider was exceptional at treating people with kindness, empathy and compassion and in how they respected people’s privacy and dignity. Staff always treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. Members of people’s support teams were kind and caring. They knew people they supported and were able to communicate with them effectively. For example, a support team had learned a person’s own, unique language so they were able to understand and support the choices the person made. People were able to live independently with their core staff support team. We saw clear evidence people had made improvements since coming to the service and the support provided enabled then to make sustained improvements as people’s confidence and independence continued to develop. A family member told us, “[The members of staff] are special people in [person’s] life and in ours too. [Person] is living their life with opportunities we never thought possible and they are happy. We are so grateful. Long may it continue.”
Read more about this service .
Care provider: hcs Supported Living
Date published: June 2025
Building a family of trust
In this from the Care Exchange podcast, Aeon Anderson talks about how instilling working as a family within their mental health service and building trust is essential to providing good care.
You can listen to the full podcast . Access our whole Care Exchange series here.
Read more about this service .
Care provider: African Caribbean Community Initiative
Date published: May 2023
Independence for married couples
Staff used innovative and individual ways of involving people and their family, friends and other carers in their care and support plans, so that they felt consulted, empowered, listened to and valued. People were fully consulted about decisions that impacted on their care.
For example, there were married couples living in the home. Following discussions with them and their relatives it became clear none of them wished to share bedrooms. As such the provider accommodated them in rooms near to one another to allow them to easily continue with spending quality time together in privacy if they want to whilst respecting their choices.
Read more about this service .
Care provider: The Royal Star & Garter 天美mv - High Wycombe
Date published: January 2023
Creating a caring culture
In this from the Care Exchange podcast, Marlene Kelly explains how she helped to embed a caring culture when she joined the home as a new manager.
You can listen to the full podcast here and access our latest episodes of The Care Exchange here.
Read more about Marlene's service .
Care provider: Auburn Mere
Date published: January 2021
Stimulating memories
People were involved in the decoration of the property and the garden space. The house and garden had themed areas that were designed either to stimulate or entertain people. Other areas were designed to remind people of hobbies, holidays or occupations. For example, there was a caravan one person had requested in the garden to remind them of their holidays.
There was also half a car attached to the outside wall, which one person enjoyed cleaning, while another person who’d been a mechanic checked under the bonnet to tend to the engine. Others simply enjoyed sitting behind the wheel.
One area of the service was developing a children's play area for people's grandchildren and the local nursery school to enjoy. People told us they loved watching the children playing.
Read more about the service .
Care provider: Landermeads Care 天美mv
Date published: March 2020
Dignity, privacy and support for bereavement
Respect for privacy and dignity is at the heart of the service's culture and values. It is embedded in everything that the service and its staff do. People and staff feel respected, listened to, and influential.
Following the death of a very popular person at the service people who lived at the same accommodation were encouraged to speak to staff. A learning disability nurse was also available if needed to provide any further support.
People were made aware, through staff support, of further information including videos and easy read information regarding dying and bereavement. Staff also spoke to people and asked them in which way did they want to remember the person who had passed away. The collective decision was to have a memorial bench in which they could sit on and think of the memories of their friend.
Read more about the service .
Care provider: Creative Support - Doncaster Personalised Services
Date published: February 2020
Dignity at meal times
Where people required staff assistance to eat and drink, this was provided with great respect and dignity. Staff were unrushed, kind and patient, giving explanations as they talked with people and ensuring they were happy and relaxed.
Independence was promoted. For example, people who had trouble with their hand dexterity were enabled to eat independently by using plates with a raised lip to prevent spillage. The use of a customised apron, bespoke table mat and named place setting helped to personalise their dining experience and secure a high sense of dignity and self-worth.
Read more about this service .
Care provider: The Byars Nursing 天美mv
Date published: August 2019
Reducing anxieties
The provider has a pro-active approach to reducing anxiety and stress involving a range of specialisms/techniques from the whole team. This helps to keep people safe by enabling them to maximise their independence and wellbeing.
For example, staff use mirroring techniques, matching process (abilities, environment and staff), independent stimulation, helping people to feel worthy and proud, noise and visual stimulation assessments, reality acceptance, life history work and relationship care (discussed in the CQC focus on Responsive).
Various therapies such as pet, doll, massage and beauty therapy also helped people feel less anxious and therefore more able. Staff are extremely knowledgeable about each person, knew what could make them feel stressed and less able and knew how to support them, relating their care depending on how people were feeling.
Staff also placed a huge importance on ensuring people had a good nights’ sleep and rest. Night care plans reflected exactly how people wanted to be cared for. These were audited using a 52-point 'Care during the night' audit. The audit looked at exactly how people were behaving during the night and how their routine could promote effective sleep and therefore affect safety.
The provider had recognised how stressful being woken up and not having a good nights’ sleep could be for people, especially with dementia. The provider had invested in bedroom motion sensors as a result of auditing sleep, with best interest decision making involving people and families. These, along with detailed night care plans, reduced the need for regular night checks and the potential for staff to disturb people, as staff could monitor anyone getting out of bed who may be at risk if unsupported.
Read more about the service .
Care provider: Wisteria House Dementia Care Ltd
Date published: January 2019
Championing dignity
The service has established dignity champions to support the wider staff team. Champions help raise awareness, promote resources and ensure dignity is regularly part of meetings and creative solutions.
Care provider: Anonymous
Date published: April 2018
Ensuring people鈥檚 privacy
When personal care was in progress, a light outside the bedroom door or a notice was placed on the door to prevent interruptions and ensured people’s privacy and dignity was maintained. At other times, staff still knocked and announced themselves before entering.
Care provider: Anonymous
Date published: April 2018
Helping to keep warm and healthy in cold weather
During self-care week, we visited every person we support with a mug and a sachet of hot chocolate or latte. This was done by our supervisors and during the visit we carried out a winter warmth check.
The weather has become much colder and it’s very important that the people we support are kept warm by wearing warm clothing, eating hot food and drink and have their heating switched on.
The supervisors simply checked on these things and advised people on the best way to keep warm and healthy. We backed this up with a newsletter giving people advice on keeping warm and getting a flu jab.
Care provider: Bluebird Care North Tyneside
Date published: April 2018
Helping people feel comfortable at meals
Recognising how daunting mealtimes may be to someone who’s just moved into the home, each menu is regularly updated with a series of ‘conversation starters’ to encourage new and existing residents to build relationships on topical items.
Care provider: Anonymous
Date published: April 2018
Reducing social isolation with technology
The service used Remind Me (an electronic computer program for promoting reminiscence) during support calls and the digital hospital passport (emergency information available about the person before they arrived at hospital). The Remind Me system helps reduce social isolation that people with dementia can suffer by providing personally related content and matching them with relevant localised activities, services and support.
Care provider: Anonymous
Date published: April 2018
Providing a space to help with sleeping
To support people who had difficulty sleeping, the home had a night-time lounge which provided dimmed lighting, footstools, blankets, calming music and aromatherapy.
Care provider: Anonymous
Date published: April 2018
Working with dignity
Staffordshire County Council developed and delivered two training courses (an e-learning course and a one-day workshop combined with distance learning) to promote the idea of ‘working with dignity’ and encourage a more person-centred approach to care, particularly among the harder-to-reach social care workers.
The course promoted the importance of upholding dignity and promoting person-centred care, to the harder to reach social care employees, and included developing an action plan, to ensure that the learnings were immediately applicable and could be embedded into practice
.Attending the course helped students learn just changing some of the words they used when speaking to people who need care and support could greatly improve the care relationship, and in one case led to a student returning to their service and detecting poor practice around this issue by another employee, who was suspended.
Care provider: Staffordshire County Council
Date published: December 2014