Working In A Person-Centred Way
The fifth Care Certificate standard: putting person-centred values into practice, promoting dignity and confidentiality, recognising pain or distress, and supporting identity, self-esteem and emotional wellbeing.
What this course covers
- What are person-centred values?
- Individuality, independence and privacy in practice
- Partnership, choice and dignity in practice
- Respect and rights in practice
- Promoting dignity day to day
- Confidentiality
- Case study: Walter's story
- Learning someone's history, preferences, wishes and needs
- Case study: Thomas's story
- Changing needs and planning for future wellbeing
- Reporting and raising concerns
- Responding to a colleague causing distress
- Restricted mobility and recognising pain or discomfort
- Taking appropriate action and removing factors
- Individual identity and self-esteem
- Promoting emotional and spiritual wellbeing
Person-centred values are the guiding principles behind every interaction you have while carrying out your day-to-day duties. They aren't abstract theory — they describe the specific qualities in someone that your practice should actively support and encourage, rather than quietly override.
Eight values sit at the core of this approach: individuality, independence, privacy, partnership, choice, dignity, respect, and rights. The rest of this course works through each in turn, along with what changes when they're genuinely put into practice — and what tends to go wrong when they're not.
Individuality
Individuality means recognising what makes someone genuinely themselves — their values, beliefs, specific health conditions, social circumstances, faith. What feels meaningful to one person may mean nothing at all to someone else, and treating everyone identically is its own kind of neglect.
Get this right and people sense that they matter, which supports them toward their own best potential. Get it wrong and subtle shifts in someone's mood or wellbeing become much harder to notice, simply because you haven't taken the time to actually know them.
Independence
Wherever realistically possible, support someone to do things for themselves — personal care, preparing food, moving around, returning to roles that matter to them, whether that's caring for family or paid work.
Get this right and you help someone maintain real skills and capability, which is genuinely rewarding for both of you. Get it wrong and you risk creating a dependency that didn't need to exist — quietly disabling someone through over-help rather than under-help.
Privacy
Give people the time and space to do things their own way, whether or not you'd personally choose the same approach, and respect the parts of their life they'd rather not share with you.
Get this right and you reinforce someone's sense of self-worth and control over their own care. Get it wrong and you risk real distress, and lasting damage to the working relationship between you.
Partnership
Agree care needs and plans together, as equals — never trivialise something that feels significant to the person in front of you, even if it looks minor from the outside. Consent comes before action, always; only staff specifically trained in the Mental Capacity Act can act in someone's best interests under Deprivation of Liberty safeguards.
Get this right and trust builds naturally, alongside someone's sense of their own worth. Get it wrong and you risk stripping away confidence, independence and freedom — potentially unlawfully.
Choice
Give people the real information they need, in a form they can genuinely understand, so they can make their own informed decisions — with particular care for anyone whose understanding is affected by dementia, a learning disability, or another condition.
Get this right and the balance of power shifts toward something more equal, where someone can take genuine ownership of their own care. Get it wrong and you risk breaching their basic human rights, and acting unlawfully in the process.
Dignity
Dignity means treating someone as worthy of respect in ways both large and small — using their title and surname until invited to do otherwise, keeping them covered appropriately during personal care.
Get this right and you build trust and rapport, reassuring someone that they matter. Get it wrong and you risk real harm to the relationship, leaving someone feeling humiliated or diminished — dignity is also written directly into the Human Rights Act.
Respect
Everyone has a basic right to courtesy and respect — something as simple as offering to remove your shoes in someone's home, or supporting someone well even when your own views and beliefs differ sharply from theirs.
Get this right and you demonstrate, in a very concrete way, that you value the person in front of you. Get it wrong and it's a breach of basic courtesy, your own professional code of conduct, and potentially discriminatory.
Rights
People using care services are protected by law — the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act among them — regardless of age, disability or gender. Every care worker should have at least a working knowledge of the core principles behind the Human Rights Act.
Get this right and your practice is grounded in law, and you become a genuine advocate for people who are often vulnerable. Get it wrong and you disempower the person you're meant to be supporting, potentially feeding into a wider cycle of harm.
People receiving care often feel real frustration at losing independence, privacy and control over their own lives. Part of your job is staying alert to how your own behaviour might land, so nobody feels quietly undermined — and part of it is actively encouraging people to do what they still can for themselves, especially where they might otherwise feel embarrassed at losing that control.
Eight areas are worth specifically checking whenever you're weighing up whether someone's dignity might be at risk:
- Choice and control — genuine input into how someone lives and the care they receive
- Communication — speaking respectfully, and actually listening to what's said back
- Eating — a meal that's both appetising and suited to what someone actually wants and needs
- Pain management — making sure anyone in pain, chronic or sudden, has proper access to relief
- Personal hygiene — encouraging self-sufficiency, while stepping in without fuss when it's genuinely needed
- Practical assistance — being available so nobody is left struggling alone
- Privacy — respecting personal space and confidentiality, only disclosing private information if someone may be at risk
- Social inclusion — supporting contact with family and friends, and participation in social life
Anyone using health or social care services in England is entitled to expect that whatever they share with their care providers stays confidential. That expectation of confidentiality is exactly what makes it possible for someone to be honest about intimate or difficult matters in the first place — and it matters just as much in social care as it does between a doctor and patient, particularly when planning someone's ongoing care and wellbeing.
It's worth holding two things in mind at once here: the duty to share information appropriately can matter just as much as the duty to protect it. Five principles guide how that balance works in practice:
- Confidential information about anyone using a service should be handled respectfully and kept confidential
- Members of a care team should share confidential information with each other where it's genuinely needed for safe, effective care
- Information shared for the community's benefit should stay anonymised wherever possible
- Someone's right to object to their confidential information being shared should be respected
- Organisations should have clear policies, procedures and systems in place to make sure these principles are actually followed
Walter's story
Walter is 81 and lives with a hand tremor related to Parkinson's disease. He lives alone but has a home care worker visit each morning, and attends a social club for older men three mornings a week — something he genuinely looks forward to. His home care worker arrives to find him unusually withdrawn, sitting in his dressing gown, and reluctant to talk about why he doesn't want to go to the club today.
Gently encouraged, Walter eventually admits he'd spilled tea down his shirt at breakfast, and simply couldn't manage the small buttons on a clean one with his hands shaking as they were that morning — he'd rather miss the club than ask for help with something so "silly." The care worker reassures him this is an entirely ordinary part of living with Parkinson's, not something to be embarrassed about, and asks whether he'd like her to mention it to his daughter, who visits weekly. Walter says no, but agrees she can make a note and keep an eye on whether it becomes a regular problem.
The care worker fetches Walter's glasses from the bedside table so he can see the buttons more clearly, and helps him choose a shirt with slightly larger buttons from his wardrobe, discussing the cold morning outside to help him settle on a warm cardigan too. She lets him attempt the buttons himself first, stepping in only for the last two he genuinely can't manage, and steps out of the room to give him privacy while he washes his face and hands. Once he's dressed and looking smart, she points out what a shame it would be to miss the club now he's made the effort — Walter agrees, brightening considerably, and she supervises him from the kitchen doorway as he makes his own tea and toast before leaving.
Where dignity was put into practice
- The care worker took the time to draw out the real reason for his reluctance, rather than assuming low mood or accepting a vague refusal
- She didn't trivialise his embarrassment, and used calm, respectful language rather than being dismissive of what felt like a big deal to him
- She offered — rather than assumed — to involve his daughter, respecting his right to decline while still agreeing to monitor the situation sensibly
- She gave him the chance to manage the buttons himself before stepping in, preserving his independence rather than simply taking over
- She gave him privacy for washing, and used ordinary conversation (the weather) to help him make his own choice about what to wear
- She encouraged, rather than pressured, his choice to attend the club once he felt ready
- She supervised rather than took over his breakfast, letting him retain that small piece of independence too
Every individual has their essential needs and preferences assessed when they first start using a service — but a great deal about someone's everyday life, including personal and medical history that no assessment fully captures, only becomes clear through actually working alongside them over time.
Building an accurate picture of someone's history, preferences, wishes and needs happens through ordinary day-to-day communication, regular review, and conversation with the people connected to them — and it genuinely benefits everyone's comfort and safety, care worker included, not just the person receiving care.
Thomas's story
Thomas has just been admitted to a small residential care home following a fall at home and a subsequent stay on a hospital rehabilitation ward. He lives with mild vascular cognitive impairment, and this is the first time he's lived anywhere other than his own house in over fifty years.
Grace, a senior care worker, is given the task of completing his initial care plan. She draws most of it from the hospital discharge summary and the pre-admission assessment completed before Thomas arrived. When she introduces herself and gently asks a few questions about his preferences, Thomas answers only briefly — he's guarded, a little disoriented by the unfamiliar surroundings, and clearly still finding his feet.
Over the following weeks, Thomas gradually settles. He begins chatting more freely with staff and striking up a friendship with another resident who, like him, used to keep an allotment. Staff learn he takes his tea strong with no sugar, prefers a boiled egg to cereal most mornings, and lights up when anyone mentions gardening. Grace realises the care plan she wrote in his first week barely reflects any of this, and sets aside time to update it properly now that Thomas is genuinely known to the team.
Why updating Thomas's care plan mattered
- His fall and hospital stay would have been disorientating and stressful, and his first care plan was inevitably written during that unsettled period
- This was his first experience of residential care, and adjusting to it was always going to take time he hadn't yet had when the plan was first written
- Trust takes time to build — Thomas was always going to open up more to staff he'd come to know and like, making later conversations far more revealing than the first
- His needs, preferences and mood had genuinely shifted as he settled in, quite separately from anything in his original hospital paperwork
- Continuing to build on the relationships forming around him directly supports his quality of life and his sense of safety in his new home
Changing needs
A care plan captures someone's needs at a point in time, but it will rarely capture everything — needs shift gradually as someone becomes better known to the service, across physical, emotional, social, spiritual, communication and support dimensions. Staying alert to anything that isn't yet reflected in the plan, and feeding that back, keeps the plan genuinely useful rather than a snapshot that quietly goes out of date. It also helps someone feel their changing needs are actually being noticed, not just processed.
Future wellbeing and fulfilment
People who are more vulnerable aren't always able to plan ahead or assert their own wishes unaided — they often depend on family, friends, and care and medical services to do some of that thinking for them. Part of your responsibility is fulfilling what's already agreed in someone's care plan, but also noticing and recording wishes and preferences they can't act on themselves, so their rights and choices are still honoured wherever possible.
You may not be the person supporting someone for the rest of their life — without properly recording their wishes and preferences, a future care provider has no way of knowing what actually matters to them. This is especially important for people whose condition may deteriorate over time, since a point may come where they're no longer able to express those preferences themselves.
If something is distressing a service user and you can't resolve it yourself, telling your line manager or supervisor is essential — not optional. Where appropriate, involving the person's family can help too, since they often understand the individual well enough to suggest workable alternatives you might not have considered. Do whatever can reasonably be done to address the concern.
Raising it within your organisation
For anything serious enough to need a direct conversation with your manager, find somewhere private to have it — a conversation overheard or half-understood by others can easily be misinterpreted. Your manager can then decide whether to discuss it further with colleagues individually.
Other channels
Sometimes a group setting — a strategy meeting, for instance — is actually more useful, since it allows different perspectives to surface in a non-judgemental way, without any one colleague feeling personally singled out or under pressure.
If wellbeing is genuinely being compromised
Discuss the concern with your line manager, or use your organisation's whistleblowing policy if a manager is the one involved. If a colleague has a closer relationship with the person concerned, it's worth talking it through with them too — and wherever appropriate, include the person's family in the conversation, since their perspective is often invaluable.
If you see a colleague carrying out a task in a way that's clearly causing a service user discomfort, part of your own duty of care is stepping in — calmly removing your colleague from the situation and explaining your concerns directly. They may simply not have noticed they were hurting someone, or not being as careful as the situation needed, and a calm, direct word is often all it takes to correct course.
Restricted mobility
People with restricted mobility often need extra support just to stay comfortable — anything from an additional cushion on a wheelchair seat through to a permanently adapted mobility aid. Make sure someone can shift their own weight or adjust their position where possible; where they can't, you'll need to help them do so.
Recognising pain or discomfort
People signal pain in different ways — verbally ("that hurts"), or non-verbally through a sharp intake of breath, a grimace, or simply becoming more irritable than usual. Some people become physically aggressive when in pain, as a way of trying to make it stop. Recognising this for what it is — and remembering it's genuinely out of character — matters more than reacting to the behaviour on its own terms.
Appropriate action
If someone complains of pain, the first step is usually trying to reposition them so their weight shifts off whatever's affected. If the problem persists, their care plan or treatment may genuinely need adjusting — which should be discussed with your line manager, and could include reviewing pain relief. Pressure sores are a good example of why this matters: staying in one position too long increases pressure on the skin, and that's exactly how sores start to develop.
Removing the factors causing discomfort
Stay attentive to how someone seems to be feeling, and always be ready to talk about it and help remove whatever's causing discomfort. If someone's clothing is wet or soiled, tell them gently and help them change if needed. If a bright lamp is causing them stress, simply reposition it out of their eyeline.
Spiritual and emotional wellbeing is about how someone feels, and what they believe in — whether that's belief in themselves, or something else that gives them hope and meaning. It grows from having a clear sense of individual identity, and the confidence to hold onto it.
Identity can be thought of as the characteristics, beliefs, preferences and lifestyle that make someone who they are — their way of life, their personality. Self-esteem and identity work together, giving someone the comfort to actually know and express who they are, which in turn supports their emotional wellbeing.
Without a solid sense of identity or self-esteem, someone can feel genuinely lost about how they want to live, or lack the hope and motivation that gives life a sense of purpose — and that takes a real toll on emotional wellbeing over time.
Combining person-centred values with genuine active participation helps someone move toward real spiritual and emotional wellbeing:
- Promoting individuality — build enough trust and rapport to actually know what's meaningful to this specific person
- Promoting independence — help someone reach short-term goals, and identify longer-term ones worth working toward
- Promoting choice — give people the information they need to pursue new interests and make genuinely informed decisions
- Promoting partnership — work with someone and their family together, supporting active participation in their own care
- Empowering the individual — help people build new skills, hobbies, interests and social connections that genuinely lift self-esteem
- Promoting positive risk-taking — support someone trying something new, and staying genuinely active in their community
- Being genuine, proactive, and showing initiative — bring these qualities to how you help maximise someone's functioning and self-esteem
- Supporting regained independence — help people build new skills and re-engage with family and community, supporting the balanced, purposeful life that helps them cope with new difficulties
Encouraging your service user, day to day
- Encourage gradual, active participation in everyday activities
- Offer real choices around food, clothing and activities, so someone feels genuine control
- Involve family and friends, so people feel confident expressing their own beliefs and opinions
- Support religious or lifestyle practices that matter to them
- Listen properly, so people feel able to say what they actually want and like
- Give honest, positive feedback on someone's personal progress wherever you genuinely can