Today it’s Well Led: Governance, Leadership and Culture – hugely topical in the current health and social care sector. The stunningly beautiful London Golf Club in sunny Kent is the beautiful backdrop for my delegates made up mainly from the social care sector and acute NHS services. Today’s theme linking in to this is choice and control, and how mental capacity is managed in these areas.

All adults are presumed to have sufficient capacity to decide on their own medical treatment, unless there’s significant evidence to suggest otherwise. Capacity means the ability to use and understand information to make a decision, and communicate any decision made. A person lacks capacity if their mind is impaired or disturbed in some way, which means they’re unable to make a decision at that time. If someone makes a decision about treatment that other people would consider to be irrational, it does not necessarily mean they have a lack of capacity, as long as they understand the reality of their situation.

How we, as providers, promote choice and control, and train and support our teams to both understand and respect people’s rights to make choices, is a big determination in how we will be rated by the CQC, even more so now under the pending new single assessment framework.

The two quality statements below are just two of the numerous new standards that strongly focus on the individual and what they want, instead of what we as care providers believe they should have.

𝟣) 𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬𝘴
𝘞𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮.

𝟤) 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭
𝘞𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦’𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦, 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭-𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨.

At our workshops, we really drill into how leadership teams are vital in driving and embedding this culture and look at how to evidence this to prove you’re delivering outstanding, person-centered care.