Putting the person first
Early in 2000 Shaping Our Lives undertook a short project to assess users’ views on the codes of conduct and practice being introduced for social care workers and employers.
These codes will be brought in by the General Social Care Council in England, and parallel councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The views expressed reflect on the proposed codes and on the general qualities and standards that users want from social care.
The key recommendations of the project were
- Respecting users as people need to be at the centre of the codes of conduct and practice
- Code of conduct needs to reflect the particular points made by users in terms of timing and time keeping; holistic support; information provision; accessibility; equal treatment; control; and privacy and confidentiality
- Code of conduct should specifically set out conduct which is unacceptable in terms of abuse, breaches of trust and neglect of duty
- Code of practice needs to set out good practice in relation to full user involvement, including access to files and meetings; basic training for all staff; the maintenance of care plans and meeting of needs identified at assessment, with particular attention to people with multiple needs; response times; and providing information to users, particularly on issues relating to consistency of the service
- There should no variation in the codes between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
- The future process of developing, implementing and monitoring the codes should include full and ongoing user involvement to ensure the maximum effectiveness of the codes and the councils.
Click here to download a PDF of the Briefing Paper ‘Putting The Person First’, published about this project, or contact us.
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