Care services improve with over 3,000 dignity champions across the country » Communities » 24dash.com

The number of Dignity Champions across the country has risen to more than 3,000, Minister of State for Care Services, Phil Hope, announced today.

Dignity Champions, who include frontline staff, MPs and, most famously, Michael Parkinson, are volunteers who commit to make a difference to the way older people are cared for.

Minister of State for Care Services, Phil Hope said: "People want, and have a right to expect, services with dignity and respect at their heart, so I am delighted that we now have over 3,000 Dignity Champions dedicated to ensuring that dignity and respect are central to the care people receive."

Local Champion Brian Frisby led Northamptonshire County Council's 'In Control' pilot project that won the East Midlands Health & Social Care Award for 'Dignity in care' earlier this year.

The project tested out a new way of organising social care, where people are told how much money the Council would expect to pay to meet their support needs (a 'personal budget'), and then invited to work out and decide where, when and how their support is provided.

The Northamptonshire project worked with 17 people with a learning disability who needed somewhere else to live, with appropriate support. The project and its results were published in a report called 'This time it’s personal'.

Brian explains: "Northamptonshire's approach to dignity with people with a learning disability is to move away from thinking of them as clients, service users or people with special needs. Instead Northamptonshire is endeavouring to work with them as citizens who have the right to many of the things that most citizens take for granted"