Further centralising the service user

Why?

How we understand a service user’s consent has been evolving and our new standards ask registrants to take a wider range of circumstances into account when determining consent. Standards on confidentiality have also been strengthened and reference emerging technology implications.

Specific standards:

Relevant standards are across several different sections covering confidentiality, communication, quality assurance and EDI.

Registrants must:

• 2.2: promote and protect the service user’s interests at all times
• 2.5: respect and uphold the rights, dignity, values, and autonomy of service users, including their role in the assessment, diagnostic, treatment and/or therapeutic process
• 2.6: recognise that relationships with service users, carers and others should be based on mutual respect and trust, maintaining high standards of care in all circumstances
• 6.4: understand the need to ensure confidentiality is maintained in all situations in which service users rely on additional communication support (such as interpreters or translators)
• 7.1: use effective and appropriate verbal and non-verbal skills to communicate with service users, carers, colleagues and others
• 7.4: work with service users and/or their carers to facilitate the service user’s preferred role in decision-making, and provide service users and carers with the information they may need where appropriate
• 7.5: modify their own means of communication to address the individual communication needs and preferences of service users and carers, and remove any barriers to communication where possible
• 7.6: understand the need to support the communication needs of service users and carers, such as through the use of an appropriate interpreter 
• 7.8: understand the need to provide service users or people acting on their behalf with the information necessary in accessible formats to enable them to make informed decisions
• 8.1: work in partnership with service users, carers, colleagues and others
• 8.5: identify anxiety and stress in service users, carers and colleagues, adapting their practice and providing support where appropriate
• 11.2: gather and use feedback and information, including qualitative and quantitative data, to evaluate the responses of service users to their care
• 11.5: evaluate care plans or intervention plans using recognised and appropriate outcome measures, in conjunction with the service user where possible, and revise the plans as necessary
• 13.11: engage service users in research as appropriate

Expectations of registrants:

• Registrants will already be offering care which is in the best interests of their service users
• These changes ask registrants to broaden how they think about those interests, and where service user’s needs might require closer scrutiny
• Every service user is unique, but registrants must be especially mindful of the needs of service users living with a disability or a health condition which impacts their ability to communicate
• Registrants should consider what additional steps they can take to ensure that a service user remains fully involved in their care
• Where a service user may not be able to be involved, registrants should document what steps they have taken to involve the service user’s carer, family member, and/or representative

Watch our #myhcpcstandards webinar on service user engagement: