Ivan Lewis, Health Minister has introduced seven “Common Core Principles” to support self-care.
These new principles, developed in association with Skills for Care and Skills for Health, have been designed to help staff support people to live independently, stay healthy and make the most of their lives.
The principles aim to allow health and social care services to work in partnership and enable people to have better control and more responsibility for their own health and well-being.
These seven principles are as follows:
- Ensure individuals are able to make informed choices to manage their self-care needs.
- Communicate effectively to enable individuals to assess their needs, and develop and gain confidence to self-care.
- Support and enable individuals to access appropriate information to manage their self-care needs.
- Support and enable individuals to develop skills in self-care.
- Support and enable individuals to use technology to support self-care.
- Advise individuals how to access support networks and participate in the planning, development and evaluation of services.
- Support and enable risk management and risk-taking to maximise independence and choice.
The Common Core Principles are expected to aid staff across health and social care develop the skills needed to provide people with access to appropriate training, information and support networks.
They are aimed at, but not limited to, staff supporting individuals living with a long-term condition or with complex needs.