What are the 6 C's in Health and Social Care?

Anyone working in roles that involve caring for and looking after people should ensure they are adhering to best practices while always endeavouring to give the highest quality of service. This entails providing compassionate and quality support while treating everyone with dignity and respect. To guarantee excellent levels of care across settings such as care homes, the NHS Commissioning Board devised a strategy known as Compassion in Practice. Devised by Jane Cummings, NHS England Chief Nursing Officer, this foundational national strategy introduced the six C's. These values serve as a reminder of how caregivers should be providing care.

When were the 6 C's introduced? The Compassion in Practice strategy launched in December 2012, developed by NHS England as a shared vision for nursing, midwifery and care staff across all health and social care settings. You can read the original strategy document on the NHS England website.

What are the 6 C's of Care?

The 6 C's of care are a set of values that need to be upheld by any health and social care staff that interacts with patients, residents, and members of the care sector. This includes registered healthcare professionals, clinical support staff, non-clinical staff, and nurses in nursing homes. All 6 C's are essential and must be implemented in order to provide compassionate and excellent care.

#1. Care

At the heart of every care provider should be the provision of excellent care. This should ensure that individuals receive the best possible outcomes, while also contributing to the improvement of the local care industry and community. All individuals receiving care should expect it to be tailored to their needs - regardless of their stage of life. In addition to treating ill health, prevention, early intervention and health promotion are equally as important. People should be provided with the necessary services to enable them to remain active, connected and independent - whether in their own home, a care home or elsewhere. As life expectancy increases, there is a growing need for long-term care and support of older adults. The 6 C's have enabled care providers to develop new ways of delivering integrated services to people, families and communities.

In a domiciliary care setting, for example, this means a support worker not only helping a client with personal hygiene but also checking in on their emotional wellbeing, encouraging social connection, and flagging any changes in their condition to the wider care team.

#2. Compassion

Compassion entails providing care through relationships based on empathy, respect, and dignity. It is essential that residents receive not only quality treatment, but quality care as well. Caregivers should treat those they are caring for with kindness, respect, and dignity, while also showing a genuine interest in the person and their experiences. This entails understanding an individual's needs and providing person-centered care. Demonstrating compassion also involves allowing the person to be involved in decisions about their own care and listening to their feedback and views.

In practice, a nurse demonstrating compassion might take a few extra minutes with a distressed patient before a procedure, acknowledge their anxiety, and adjust their communication style to help the person feel genuinely heard rather than processed.

Some practical actions that can be taken to create a compassionate care environment include:

• Listening to care seekers, their families and anyone else involved in their care
• Listening to and learning from feedback
• Communicating across different caregiving organisations to ensure people receive quality care
• Celebrating and sharing information, data, what works well and other best practices

#3. Competence

To be competent in the care sector, one must have the knowledge, expertise, and clinical understanding to provide excellent care. The 6 C's are an invaluable tool for recruiting individuals into various roles within the sector, as they allow employers to evaluate the personal values of potential candidates. Furthermore, these 6 C's are incorporated in many care qualifications, including the Care Certificate, the flagship induction standard for new health and social care workers in England, to help strengthen the quality of services for those being cared for.

Ensuring the right people are in your care organisation, with the knowledge, abilities and skills required to carry out their roles in a way that ensures care quality, safety and compassion, is critical. Through assessing and evaluating the skills, knowledge and understanding gained through experience and training, as well as staying up to date with the latest methods, research and approaches to social care, managers and other decision-makers can make sure they are making the best possible decisions for the person receiving care. To guarantee the highest standards of care are being met, processes and a culture of competence, learning and improvement must be embedded throughout the care organisation.

A care home manager, for instance, demonstrates competence by ensuring all staff complete mandatory training updates and by reviewing care plans regularly to reflect any changes in a resident's health or circumstances.

#4. Communication

Communication is a key component of successful relationships and high-functioning teams. It is just as important to pay attention and listen as it is to say and do things. Providing excellent care requires a variety of communication skills, such as customer service, handling complaints efficiently, and working collaboratively. Care staff on the frontlines are at the core of the communication process. They are responsible for assessing, reporting, and recording the care they provide. Information needs to be treated with sensitivity and confidentiality. Care staff must listen actively to the people they care for, colleagues, supervisors, and other organizations.

It is essential for healthcare professionals to possess strong verbal communication skills in order to effectively pass messages to co-workers, managers, other agencies, and their clients or patients. When individuals receive medical care, it is important for them to comprehend their condition and the next steps of their treatment plan, in order to feel more at ease. Hence, it is vital for healthcare professionals to convey this information in a clear and concise manner to ensure the well-being of their patients.

1. Listening skills. Having active listening skills will allow you to comprehend thoroughly what is being communicated to you by the people you are caring for. It is essential to be aware of their emotions, any new indications or pains they may be experiencing, in order to provide the best care.
2. Written communication skills. In order for a care plan to be understandable and consistent, it is essential that it is recorded. Detailed documentation is thus a vital component of nursing practice. Assessing, conveying, recording, and ensuring that these records remain secure are all necessary components of caring professions, and they all necessitate strong written communication skills.
3. Non-verbal communication skills. A key part of being a good communicator is recognizing what your patients are not saying, even if it differs from what they are expressing verbally. Their body language and facial expressions can often indicate if they are feeling pain, having negative emotions, or in need of extra help.

A community nurse visiting a patient with limited verbal ability, for example, will rely heavily on non-verbal cues and written handover notes to ensure colleagues have an accurate and up-to-date picture of that person's needs.

#5. Courage

Care workers need courage to do what is right for those they care for, to speak up when concerns arise, and to embrace new ways of working within the care industry. They must remain accountable for the care they provide, ensure the safety of their residents, and make judgement calls that will affect others. To contribute to improvements within the sector, care workers should be courageous enough to report any issues they may find, following the 6 C's of care.

A care worker who notices signs of abuse or neglect and raises a formal safeguarding concern, even when it involves a colleague, is exercising exactly this kind of courage. Courage also means advocating for a patient whose needs are being overlooked, or making challenging changes to outdated practices when the evidence points toward better outcomes. Whether it is a nurse, a social worker, or a care home team leader, speaking up and acting with integrity, even when it is difficult, is what separates good care from excellent care.

#6. Commitment

Commitment is the final value in the 6 C's framework, representing a dedication to patients and the continuous improvement of care. For health and social care workers, commitment means showing up consistently and making the well-being of those they support a top priority. This dedication ensures that care recipients receive reliable, high-quality assistance throughout their healthcare journey.

Beyond individual interactions, commitment involves actively participating in the ongoing enhancement of the care sector. Staff members demonstrate this by embracing continuous learning, sharing valuable insights with colleagues, and taking a firm stand against poor practices. By embodying commitment, care workers help build a resilient and compassionate healthcare system that adapts to future challenges.

In supported living, for example, a committed support worker builds trust with a resident over time, learns their preferences and communication style, and advocates consistently for adjustments to the care plan as the person's needs evolve.

The 6 C's are meant to create a united vision and shared values among the care sector, serving as a reminder of the principles that care staff believe to be essential. They also provide a meaningful way to measure the quality of care being provided, and all six values are of equal importance, each being essential for compassionate care.

The 6 C's and Person-Centred Care

Person-centred care places the individual's preferences, needs and values at the heart of every decision. The 6 C's are the practical expression of that philosophy in everyday health and social care work. When a care worker demonstrates Care, they tailor support to the individual rather than applying a one-size-fits-all routine. Compassion ensures that the emotional experience of receiving care is treated as seriously as the clinical outcome. Competence means the person can trust that those supporting them have the knowledge to keep them safe. Communication keeps the individual informed, heard and involved. Courage enables staff to speak up when something is not right for the person in their care. And Commitment provides the consistency a person needs to feel secure and genuinely supported over time. Together, the six values create the conditions in which truly person-centred care can be delivered, across every setting and every interaction.

Examples of the 6 C's in Health and Social Care

The six values are not abstract ideals. They shape real decisions and interactions in care settings every day.

• Care - a domiciliary care worker notices that a client seems more withdrawn than usual during a morning visit. Rather than completing the task list and leaving, they take time to ask how the person is feeling and flag the change in mood to the supervising care coordinator.
• Compassion - a hospital nurse sits with a patient who has just received a difficult diagnosis, acknowledging their distress and ensuring they feel supported before any further clinical steps are taken.
• Competence - a senior care worker in a nursing home updates their dementia care training after new guidance is issued, and shares key learning points at the next team meeting to raise standards across the whole service.
• Communication - a GP practice receptionist explains a referral process clearly to a patient with a learning disability, checks understanding, and follows up with a written summary to take home.
• Courage - a support worker raises a formal safeguarding concern about a colleague's conduct, knowing it may be uncomfortable, because their primary obligation is to the safety of the person they support.
• Commitment - a community nurse maintains consistent contact with a housebound patient over several months, building trust and ensuring that small changes in the person's condition are caught early.

What Care Settings Do They Apply To?

The number of people working in the UK adult social care sector for 2023-24 was estimated at 1.54 million. Around 1.2 million of these are in full-time equivalent jobs (similar to the NHS), including 865,000 care workers, 87,000 senior care workers and 36,000 registered nurses. There are also 135,000 roles directly employed by individual users of care services.

The 6 C's apply across the full breadth of health and social care provision. This includes hospitals and acute settings, GP surgeries and primary care, care homes and nursing homes, domiciliary and home care services, supported living and day services, hospices, and community nursing teams. Whether staff are delivering hands-on personal care or providing remote advice and support, the same values apply.

The Compassion in Practice strategy and the 6 C's apply to all care and support settings in the UK, including:

• Care homes
• Clinics
• Community services
• Dental surgeries
• Doctors and GP surgeries
• Home care and other home services
• Ambulances
• Hospices
• Phone and online advice
• Prison healthcare

The 6 C's also apply to the workers and volunteers within these care settings, including:

• Carers
• Disability support workers
• Home care workers
• Attendant care workers
• Personal care workers and assistants
• Volunteer carers
• Occupational therapists
• Community support workers
• Doctors and GPs
• Nurses
• Dentists
• Hygienists
• Paramedics

How the 6 C's Affect Social Care Providers

To guarantee optimal well-being in social care settings, care providers must reflect on the care they are providing and how they are managing their staff. The NHS 'Compassion in Practice' strategy outlines specific measures that providers must take to ensure quality care is being given. It is essential to emphasise that each interaction with a care recipient is meaningful and to ensure the best care is given. In addition, taking measures to improve the support for care staff will benefit their health and morale. Recruiting and retaining quality staff is a critical aspect of care, whether you are hiring for support roles or high-pressure positions like emergency medicine jobs. Showing that the organisation cares for the wellbeing and development of all employees ensures higher retention and better patient experience. Values-based recruitment has been proven to be more effective compared to traditional methods. This reflects a wider shift in healthcare talent acquisition, where hiring decisions are less about filling a rota and more about finding people who genuinely fit the values of the team. The 6 C's of social care can be used to assess whether potential candidates possess the right values to work in care. Creating and maintaining policies and procedures is a difficult and time-consuming process, requiring a great deal of expertise. Access Care Policies and Procedures is an effective solution that makes this process easier and helps meet regulatory compliance. It provides complete care policies and procedures for social care, with easy visibility on which staff have agreed to particular policies relevant to their role.

Frequently Asked Questions About the 6 C's in Health and Social Care

1. Who created the 6 C's of care?

The 6 C's were created by Jane Cummings, Chief Nursing Officer for NHS England, as part of the Compassion in Practice strategy. The strategy was launched in December 2012 with the aim of establishing a shared set of values for all staff working across health and social care settings in England.

2. When were the 6 C's introduced?

The 6 C's were introduced in 2012, as part of the Compassion in Practice strategy developed by NHS England. The strategy set out a three-year vision for nursing, midwifery and care staff and remains the foundation for how care values are understood and applied across the sector today.

3. Do the 6 C's apply to social care or only the NHS?

The 6 C's apply to all care and support settings, not only the NHS. They are relevant to anyone working in a caring role, including staff in care homes, domiciliary care, supported living, hospices, day services and community settings, as well as volunteers and non-clinical staff.

4. How are the 6 C's used in practice?

The 6 C's are used in values-based recruitment, care qualifications such as the Care Certificate, and as a framework for measuring and improving the quality of care delivered. Organisations use them to assess candidates, inform staff appraisals, and embed a shared culture of compassionate care across their teams.

5. Are the 6 C's mandatory for all healthcare workers?

The 6 C's are not enforced as a legal requirement, but they are embedded in NHS frameworks, care qualifications, and professional standards across the sector. All patient-facing health and social care staff, including non-clinical roles, are expected to demonstrate these values in their day-to-day work.

6. What happens when the 6 C's are not followed?

When the 6 C's are not upheld, care quality can suffer and individuals may experience neglect, poor communication, or a lack of dignity in their treatment. Regulatory bodies such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC) assess care providers against standards that closely reflect these values, and failures can result in formal action or loss of registration.

Summary

Create a culture that upholds the 6 C's of social care at every level, from new hires to managers and owners, and incorporate them into your procedures, such as handling complaints, responding to incidents, managing clients' records, and so on. Source and maintain personnel who understand and can adhere to the values of the 6 C's of social care. When you unite these two aspects of culture and people, each will start to bolster each other. People will support the compassionate culture and the culture will help them act correctly. This will help you become a care organisation that almost automatically delivers the finest quality of care service.