Dignity & Respect Policy

What does a dignity and respect policy cover?

A dignity and respect policy sets out how staff treat people as someone of worth in daily care, and what they must never do. It meets regulation 10, which says a care service must treat the people who use it with dignity and respect. It applies to all staff, including bank and agency workers, and to how they treat families, visitors and each other.

The template is written for care homes, home care and supported living. In a care home, each person's room is their private space. Home care staff are guests in the person's own home and respect their chosen way of life, and supported living staff respect each tenant's home and tenancy.

What staff do day to day

The policy statement turns dignity into habits under six headings: privacy, choice and control, independence, communication, visiting and relationships, and time to care. Staff knock and wait to be invited in. They give personal care behind closed doors with the person covered as much as possible, ask what name the person likes, and let people open their own post. If they do not have enough time to give care with dignity, they tell the manager.

Choice includes the right to make unwise decisions. Under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, an unwise decision does not mean a person lacks capacity, so staff respect it.

Practices that undermine dignity

CQC says some everyday habits are subtle ways of restricting people. The template lists them, and staff must never:

• make people use incontinence products because it is easier for staff

• keep walking frames out of reach to restrict movement

• make people use bibs or feeding cups without need

• make someone use a wheelchair when they are willing and able to walk

• deny people visitors, friends or food because of a lack of staff or time

Humiliation is a form of psychological abuse, and staff report it under the safeguarding policy. Poor dignity can also be a sign of a closed culture, where warning signs include staff belittling, excluding or taunting people.

Before you issue it

Delete the service-type lines that do not apply, and add your own examples of how staff protect privacy in your setting. Then link the policy to your care planning, consent and complaints policies.

Staff ask for consent before giving care, so this policy sits beside the Consent Policy & Procedure. People and families who raise a dignity concern are heard through the Complaints Policy & Procedure, and the Equality, Diversity & Human Rights Policy covers protected characteristics and human rights in more depth.