People are always treated with kindness, empathy and compassion. They understand that they matter and that their experience of how they are treated and supported matters. Their privacy and dignity is respected. Every effort is made to take their wishes into account and respect their choices, to achieve the best possible outcomes for them. This includes supporting people to live as independently as possible.

Treating people as individuals

• We can evidence how the care and support we provide meets each person’s individual needs.
• We ensure that people are central to care decisions that are appropriate to their personal, cultural, social, and religious needs.
• We are committed to ensuring equality, inclusion, and human rights principles are central to the care we provide.
• Our managers and staff team understand people’s protected characteristics and how to provide care that meets these needs.
• We ensure our staff team receive training in equality and diversity and this is regularly refreshed so they know about the latest good practice.
• We use effective and clearly communicated policies and procedures to ensure people aren’t discriminated against on the grounds of a wide range of diverse needs.
• We prioritise understanding the preferences of the people we support and their needs in terms of assistance from our staff, their family, friends and/or advocates.
• We actively engage with the wider community to help raise awareness of the dignity, equality and diversity needs (e.g., raising awareness of disability issues at an open day event, speaking out about hate crime in the local press).
• Where appropriate, we involve families, friends, and advocates in supporting people to make decisions about their care.
• We ensure our managers and leaders create an open, relaxed environment where people, relatives and advocates can talk comfortably together.
• We’re proactive in sharing information about the wider help, specialist assistance and advocacy available to the people we support, their family and friend's support.
• We recognise and celebrate different religions and cultures, including key dates and events.

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