The Commission on improving dignity in care was established as part of a joint initiative from the NHS Confederation, Age UK and the Local Government Association (LGA), to help improve dignity in care for older people in hospitals and care homes.

The Commissioners include representatives of patients and residents, experts from the world of nursing and medicine, and management of health and social care services.

View the members of the Commission.

Focus of the Commission

The Commission has been trying to understand how and why older people's care is failing on dignity and what will drive improvement.

Understanding the problem and the need

• understanding the extent and root causes of the failure to provide appropriate levels of care to older people and the aspirations of older people and their families in terms of care provided.

Establishing what really works

• collating existing tools and guidance that support improved levels of care for older people and identifying good practice examples across the health and social care system.

Driving change and improvement

• developing practical, long-term solutions to help tackle the underlying causes of undignified care.

Draft report and recommendations

The Commission published its draft report and recommendations at the end of February 2012 setting out ten key recommendations for hospitals and ten key recommendations for care homes to help them tackle the underlying causes of undignified care.

Final report and recommendations

The Commission held a month-long public consultation to gain feedback on its draft report and the Commission used the feedback received to help inform the development of its final report and recommendations. 

Read the final report and recommendations, Delivering Dignity, published on 18 June 2012. 

Chairs' foreword

In a joint foreword, the Commission co-chairs, from Age UK, NHS Confederation and the Local Government Association say: "We set up the Commission because older people and their loved ones deserve so much better. 

Major cultural shift

"Delivering dignity will mean changing the way we design, pay for, deliver and monitor care services as the numbers of older people in care continues to grow. Alongside the consistent application of good practice and the rooting out of poor care, we need a major cultural shift in the way the system thinks about dignity, to ensure care is person-centred and not task-focused. 

Empowered leadership

"This will require empowered leadership on the ward and in the care home, as well as a lead from boards and senior managers. It will also mean changing the way we recruit and develop staff working with older people. 

"We have to work with older people to shape services around their needs, and listen to patients and residents and their families, carers and advocates so we learn from their feedback and continually improve dignity in care." 

Evidence submissions

The draft report drew on the body of evidence that the Commission has been gathering since it was established in June 2011. This includes written evidence submissions from over 40 organisations, three days of public hearings and expert opinion from academic, medical and nursing reference groups.

You can see the full list of organisations that submitted written evidence as well as the transcripts from the oral evidence sessions.