1.8 Kindness, Respect and Compassion

1. Introduction

Everyone deserves to be treated with kindness, compassion and respect. Staff in all organisations should care for adults with care and support needs in the same way they would want their own relatives or themselves to be treated in such circumstances.

Kindness, compassion and respect should be a part of the everyday care given to adults with care and support needs. Managers should make sure that staff are given the time to not only perform their duties, but to build relationship with the adults they are working with and their families. The care, compassion and empathy they give should be genuine; this is only possible if the right people have been recruited for the right post (see Safer Recruitment chapter) and the service has strong values at its centre.

There are too many distressing cases of adults with care and support needs who have not been treated with kindness, compassion, dignity or respect, for example Whorlton Hall, the Edenfield Centre and Winterbourne View. Some staff received criminal convictions and prison sentences as a result of their abuse and neglect (see also Ill Treatment and Wilful (Deliberate) Neglect chapter).

2. Kindness, Compassion and Dignity in Delivering Services

Services which are regulated and inspected by the Care Quality Commission, will be assessed against the following the quality statement:

‘We always treat people with kindness, empathy and compassion and we respect their privacy and dignity. We treat colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.’

Quality statements set out what the CQC expect each service to deliver. Privacy and confidentiality and emotional wellbeing are also important issues. (see South Tyneside Multi Agency Information Sharing Protocol and Promoting Wellbeing chapters).

Skills for Care note the following factors as being central to services which treat adults with kindness, compassion and dignity:

• ‘We can evidence that people feel cared for and that they are treated with respect and dignity. This is reflected in both day-to-day support and their care plans.
• We get to know what is important to each person we support to meet their emotional wellbeing needs and what they value about dignity and respect.
• We create an environment where people who need care and support feel that they belong to and are proud about the service.
• We ensure our residential environments and/or offices are well maintained with high standards of décor to provide people a dignified place to live, visit, and work.
• We create an empowering culture where people who need care and support are confident and comfortable around those who care for them.’

All staff should:

• recognise the diversity, values and human rights of each adult and their family members (see also Equality, Diversity and Human Rights and Safeguarding Adults and Culturally Competent Practice chapters);
• uphold and maintain the adult’s privacy, dignity and independence at all times, treating them as equals;
• provide care, support and treatment to adults in a way that ensures their dignity, and treats them with compassion and respect at all times;
• provide any support that adults might need to be independent and involved in their community, as appropriate;
• help adults maintain relationships with people who are important to them;
• put adults at the centre of their care and support by supporting them to make decisions;
• make sure that all communication with adults and their families is respectful and compassionate. This includes using the adult’s preferred means of communication and respecting their right to engage – or not engage – in communication;
• provide information that supports the adult’s involvement in safeguarding processes;
• address adults in the way they wish, including using their preferred name.

3. Person Centred Care and Support

Adults should be involved in and receive care and support that respects their right (or the right of their representative if they do not have mental capacity) to make or influence decisions about their lives and the services they receive,

Staff providing care and support should:

• explain and discuss care and support options with the adult and their family, in a way that makes sense to them;
• respect the adult’s right to take informed risks, while balancing the need for preference and choice with safety and effectiveness (see Managing Risk);
• ensure that the adult’s wishes and needs in relation to their care and support are established as part of their assessment and when developing and reviewing their care and support plans;
• promote and respect the adult’s autonomy, privacy, dignity, compassion, independence and human rights at all times by:
• place the adult’s needs, wishes, preferences and decisions at the centre of their care and support (see also Safeguarding Adults and Culturally Competent Practice chapter);
• respect the adult’s personal preferences, lifestyle and care choices;
• respect the preferences of adults who need intimate or personal care, including making every reasonable effort to make sure that this can be provided by a staff member of a specified gender;
• actively listen to and involve adults, or others acting on their behalf, in decision making and ensure there are clear records that evidence the decisions made and methods in which the decision was achieved;
• provide information to adults to help them, or others acting on their behalf, to understand their care and support, including the risks and benefits, and their rights to make decisions;
• know how to raise a concern or complaint about the organisation, and how it will be dealt with.

4. Staff Concerns

If a member of staff has concerns that a colleague/s is not treating adults in their care with kindness, compassion and respect, they should speak to their manager or a senior manager, if they think their manager is involved in any way. The manager should investigate the concerns and take action as required.

If the member of staff does not feel that the manager has taken their concerns seriously or investigated them properly, they should raise their concerns through other methods (see Whistleblowing chapter).