Website of the Department of Health

Government action to improve dignity in care

Since January 2006, the Department of Health has taken a number of steps to take forward the Dignity in care agenda at a national level. 

 - The first step was to establish a world-leading research initiative with Comic Relief to investigate elder abuse, and to understand the extent of this truly distressing problem, so that we can tackle it effectively.

 - We then announced our desire to register all social care workers and our support for a consultation, led by the General Social Care Council, on how to do this.  We will be improving standards in social care, to ensure that those who work in this demanding, vitally important sector get the recognition they deserve.

 - The publication of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill to ensure safeguarding of both vulnerable adults and children came next.  Only those who are suitable will be able to care for those most in need.

 - We then announced a review of the National Minimum Standards for care, which will be advised by a new panel of dignity guardians.  These guardians include organisations such as Help the Aged, Age Concern, the Alzheimers Society, Which? and Action on Elder Abuse, organisations committed to upholding the needs of the older consumer.

 - On 1 April 2006, we introduced new regulations allowing the Commission for Social Care Inspection to focus their efforts on service providers that cause most concern, seeing the reality of care, and on concentrating resources where they can be most effective.

 - April 2006 saw the publication of A New Ambition for Old Age, which sets out the second stage of our ten year programme of reform.  This document (published by the National Clinical Director for Older People, Ian Philp) has clear priorities for improving services such as caring for older people with complex needs and improving dignity both in care and at the end of life.

 - We have underlined that dignity is everybody's business by asking health and social care regulators to put older people's dignity at the centre of their inspections.  We have asked the regulators, as well as doctors, nurses and older people's champions to join together with one goal: to make dignity in care a priority.

• A new ambition for old age: Next steps in implementing the National Service Framework for Older People

Work across Government on dignity in care

Dignity for older people is not just a health and social care issue.  Many areas of our public services will play a part in helping to improve the dignity of older people. The responsibility for some of the work we are taking forward to improve dignity for older people is being shared across Government. This includes:

 - the Social Exclusion Unit's (SEU) recent cross-Government action plan, A Sure Start to Later Life: Ending Inequalities for Older People (published in January 2006), which  is aimed at improving the quality of life and increasing, independence, dignity and choice for older people

 - cross-Government work being led by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to implement their long term strategy for older people, entitled Opportunity Age: Meeting the challenges of ageing in the 21st Century (published in March 2005).

• A sure start to later life: ending inequalities for older people (opens new window)
• Opportunity age: meeting the challenges of ageing in the 21st century (opens new window)