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On 27 March 2006, the former Minister for Care Services, Liam Byrne, visited Guildford Grange, Extra Care facility in Sheffield. He spoke with older people who use the facility as well as staff and managers from social services.

We heard from the older people present about their experiences of care services and how they felt they could be improved. Whilst being very positive about the care they received in Guildford Grange, the people we spoke told about times when their care us of times they felt their dignity was not respected. The importance of good staff was the key theme from this listening event, with the three key priorities of those present being:

- staff needing to have more time
- staff needing to have a better understanding of individuals needs
- recruitment and training of staff.

A number of priorities for service improvement emerged from the discussions that took place.

GP appointments, support for carers, homecare, staff training and care home inspections were all identified as key priority areas for health and social services if dignity in care was to be improved.

The Leeds participants said it was not just health and social care services that needed to be improved: a number of wider issues affected their dignity. These included social isolation, particularly when housed inappropriately, for example, in areas prone to anti-social behaviour. They told us of the general lack of understanding and appreciation in the wider community about the positive contibution older people can make to the community.

The Beth Johnson Foundation kindly agreed to host the listening event in Stoke-on-Trent.

Around 30 older people, their carers and key stakeholders from both the statutory and voluntary sector attended this event.

We received very rich feedback from the participants in Stoke about their experiences both good and bad and about how we could make things better.

Supporting older people to have a "voice" was a key theme in Stoke and participants felt that advocacy services had a big role to play. They told us about the care they received at their local hospitals and how they felt that their smaller local hospitals were much more responsive to their needs and better at promoting dignity in care.

Mixed sexed wards, staff training, poor practices at mealtimes, lack of stimulating activities, hospital discharge planning, GP services and end of life care were all discussed as areas that required improvements to drive up standards of dignity in care.

Comments made in discussion included:

The Connie Lewcock Resource Centre was the venue for the Newcastle-based listening event.

A number of key stakeholders attended the event alongside older people who were either resident at the centre or using the centre's day care services.

The older people we talked to liked the Connie Lewcock Centre and said it gave them the opportunity to mix with other people rather than being at home alone all day. They said this was very important to them.

Several older people said the attitude of staff was important in helping them maintain their dignity. They said they appreciated it when staff took time to listen and talk to them rather than rushing them. They told us they would like to see care workers being better trained, better paid and more easily available. They also said that seeing the same care worker regularly would help improve dignity.

The older people we spoke to at this listening event said they felt that dignity in care was at its worst in hospital care particularly in respect of bathing or showering, mealtimes and privacy.

The Tower Hamlets event brought together over 70 older people and key stakeholders at the Sundial Centre in Tower Hamlets, London. The Sundial Centre provides an integrated mix of health, day care, social and educational services for local older people.

We talked with older people about their experiences of care services, including their experiences of services in the community.

People told us that social isolation and lack of stimulating activities made them feel that the wider community did not respect their dignity.

Transport was a key issue in Tower Hamlets, as was safety in the community.

People told us they found it difficult to find out what is out there to support them and that they were not always aware of their rights. The voluntary sector organisations present told us they would like more support to enable them to provide more advocacy services for older people.

Comments made in discussion included: