User Member Rights

The aim of good quality domiciliary care must always be to promote a way of life for User Members which permits them to enjoy, to the greatest possible extent, their rights as individual human beings. The following rights are fundamental to CCCV’s work. 

Privacy 

An individual’s rights to privacy involve being free from intrusion or unwelcome attention. We aim to maximize our User Members’ privacy in the following ways: 

  • Staff Members will enter a User Member’s property and rooms within the property only with express consent
  • A User Member has the right not to have to interact with or be interrupted by a Staff Member when, for example, they are entertaining a visitor or are engaged on an intimate activity on their own account 
  • We respect the fact that a User Member’s possessions are private and always act in accordance with the principle that our Staff Members are guests 
  • Our Staff Members respect a User Member’s right to make telephone calls and carry on conversations without being overheard or observed by a Staff Member 
  • We ensure that records of the service provided are seen only by those with a legitimate need to know the information they contain

Dignity

The right to dignity involves recognising the intrinsic value of people as individuals and the specific nature of each person’s particular needs. We aim to maximise our User Members dignity in the following ways:

  • We arrange for User Members who require assistance with bodily tasks such as dressing, bathing and toileting to be helped as far as possible by the Staff Member of their own choice and, if desired, of the sex of their choice
  • We ensure, if asked, that User Members receive the necessary assistance with dressing and maintaining their clothes 
  • We will try to provide help for User Members with make-up, manicure, hairdressing, and other elements of their appearance so that they can present themselves as they would wish
  • We aim to minimise any feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, and vulnerability which User Members may have arising from disability 
  • We treat User Members with the sort of respect which reinforces personhood and individual characteristics, addressing them and introducing them to others in their preferred style, responding to specific cultural demands and requirements, and aiming to maintain relationships which are warm and trusting but appropriate to the relationship of Staff Member to User Member 

Independence 

Independence means having opportunities to think, plan, act and take sensibly calculated risks without continual reference to others. We aim to maximize our User Members independence in the following ways: 

  • We help User Members to manage for themselves where possible rather than becoming totally dependent on Staff Members and others 
  • We encourage User Members to take as much responsibility as possible for their own healthcare and medication
  • We involve User Members fully in planning their own care, devising, and implementing their care plans and managing the records of care
  • We work with carers, relatives, and friends of User Members to provide as continuous a service as is feasible 
  • We aim to create a climate in the delivery of care and to foster attitudes in those around a User Member which focus on capacities rather than on disabilities

Security 

In providing services to people with disabilities, there is a difficult balance to be struck between helping them to experience as much independence as possible and making sure that they are not exposed to unnecessary hazards.  

Taking care for the security of User Members, therefore, means helping to provide an environment and support structure which offers sensible protection from danger and comfort and readily available assistance when required.  

This should not be interpreted as a demand for a totally safe or risk-free lifestyle; taking reasonable risks can be interesting, exciting, and fun, as well as necessary. We respond to our User Members need for security in the following ways: 

  • We try to make sure that help is tactfully at hand when a User Member needs or wishes to engage in any activity which places them in situations of substantial risk 
  • We hope to help to create a physical environment which is free from unnecessary sources of danger to vulnerable people or their property
  • We always carry out thorough risk assessments in relation to premises, equipment and the activities of the User Member who is being helped
  • Our Staff Members will advise User Members about situations or activities in which their disability is likely to put them or their property at risk 
  • The Staff Members are well selected, trained and briefed to provide services responsibly, professionally and with compassion and never to exploit their positions to abuse a User Member. 

Civil Rights 

We aim to help our User Members to continue to enjoy their civil rights in the following ways:

  • If User Members wish to participate in elections, we will try to help them access the necessary information and either provide or obtain any assistance which they need to vote 
  • We want to help our User Members to make use of as wide a range as possible of public services, such as libraries, education, and transport
  • We will encourage our User Members to make full use of health services in all ways appropriate to their medical, nursing, and therapeutic needs
  • We will provide easy access for our User Members and their friends, relatives, and representatives to complain about or give feedback on our services 

If we can, we will support our User Members in their participating as fully and diversely as they wish in the activities of their communities through voluntary work, religious observance, involvement in associations and charitable giving. 

Choice 

Choice consists of the opportunity to select independently from a range of options. We will respond to our User Members right to choose in the following ways:

  • We try to avoid wherever possible a pattern of service delivery which leads to compulsory timings for activities like getting up and going to bed
  • We will manage and schedule our services so as to respond as far as possible to User Members preferences as regards the Staff Members with whom they feel most comfortable 
  • We respect User Members eccentricities, personal preferences, and idiosyncrasies 
  • We hope to cultivate an atmosphere and ethos in our service delivery which welcomes and responds to cultural diversity 
  • We encourage User Members to exercise informed choice in their selection of the organization and individuals who provide them with assistance 

Fulfilment 

Fulfilment has been defined as the opportunity to realise personal aspirations and abilities. It recognises and responds to levels of human satisfaction separate from the physical and material, but it is difficult to generalize about fulfilment since it deals with precisely those areas of lifestyle where individuals differ from each other. We respond to User Members right to fulfilment in the following ways: 

  • We try to help User Members to participate in as broad a range of social and cultural activities as possible 
  • If requested, we will assist a User Member to participate in practices associated with religious or spiritual matters and to celebrate meaningful anniversaries and festivals 
  • We aim to respond sensitively and appropriately to the special needs and wishes of User Members who wish to prepare or are close to death 
  • We make particular efforts to understand and respond to the wish of any User Member to participate in minority-interest events or activities 
  • We will do everything possible to help a User Member who wants to achieve an unfulfilled task, wish, or ambition before the end of their life 

Diversity 

The UK’s social care services are used by people from a wide diversity of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Services therefore need to be accessible.

We need to make particular efforts to reach out to vulnerable people who might have been deterred from approaching agencies which appear not to relate to their special needs and aspirations and to demonstrate that we welcome and celebrate the wide range of people in the community generally and among the users of services in particular.  

We respond to User Member’s right to express their diversity in the following ways: 

  • Positively communicating to our User Members that their diverse backgrounds enhance the life of the community 
  • Respecting the ethnic, cultural, and religious practices of User Members 
  • Outlawing negative and/or discriminatory behaviour by Staff Members and others
  • Accommodating individual differences without censure
  • Helping User Members to celebrate events, anniversaries and festivals which are important to them