The 6 Principles of Personalised Care

The Universal Personalised Care programme from NHS England was developed in response to a long-standing challenge in health and social care: services were often organised around systems, processes, and clinical needs rather than individual goals and preferences.

NHS England’s aim is to shift this model so that people are active participants in their own care wherever possible. Instead of care being something “done to” a person, it becomes something shaped with them.

For care homes, this is especially important. Residents are not just receiving clinical support. They are living their daily lives in a care setting. That means personal preferences, routines, relationships, and identity all matter just as much as clinical or physical needs.

Universal Personalised Care provides the framework that helps services make this shift in a consistent and structured way.

Each of the six principles plays a different role in supporting personalised, person-centred care. Below, we break them down with clear care home examples to show how they apply in everyday practice.

1. Shared Decision Making

Shared decision making means care is planned with the person, not decided for them. It involves presenting options, discussing preferences, and agreeing together on the best approach.

In a care home, this might look like a resident choosing how their morning routine is structured. Rather than staff assuming a set schedule, the resident is asked whether they prefer to wake up early or later, whether they want breakfast first or a wash first, and how they like to start their day.

When recorded properly in a care plan, these preferences ensure consistency across all staff and shifts.

2. Personalised Care and Support Planning

This principle focuses on creating care plans that reflect the whole person, not just their medical needs. In practice, a good care plan includes life history, personal routines, communication preferences, cultural needs, hobbies, and what the person considers a good day to look like.

For example, one resident may value independence and want to continue dressing themselves even if it takes longer, while another may prioritise social interaction and prefer support earlier in the morning so they can join group activities. Digital care planning systems ensure these details are visible and consistently followed by every member of staff, not just key workers.

3. Enabling Choice

Enabling choice is about ensuring people have real, meaningful options in how they live and receive care. In a care home setting, this might include choosing between different meal options, selecting activities, deciding when to go to bed, or choosing whether they prefer a bath or a shower.

The key difference between token choice and genuine choice is consistency. If preferences are not recorded and shared across staff, choices can easily be lost between shifts. When choice is embedded in care planning, care recipients experience continuity and autonomy in their daily lives.

4. Social Prescribing and Community-Based Support

Social prescribing is often associated with connecting people to external services, but in care homes it has a broader meaning. It is about helping people stay connected to meaningful activities, relationships, and experiences that support wellbeing. This could include visits from community groups, participation in local events, faith-based support, music therapy, gardening, or intergenerational activities with schools.

Even when care recipients are less able to leave the care home, social prescribing still applies through bringing the community in. The goal is to avoid isolation and ensure life remains rich, engaging, and socially connected.

5. Supported Self-Management

Supported self-management focuses on maintaining independence for as long as possible, even when support is needed.

In care homes, this might involve encouraging a people with early-stage dementia to continue choosing their own clothes, preparing simple snacks with supervision, or participating in their own personal care routines where safe and appropriate. The emphasis is on what the person can do, rather than what they cannot.

This approach helps maintain dignity, confidence, and identity, while also supporting better emotional well-being.

6. Personal Health Budgets and Integrated Personal Budgets

Personal health budgets allow individuals to have greater control over how their health and care funding is used. In care homes, this principle is most relevant for those who receive NHS Continuing Healthcare funding. In these cases, individuals may have more choice over how their care is delivered and what services are prioritised.

However, it is important to recognise that this principle does not apply to all care home residents. Its use depends on funding eligibility and individual circumstances. Even so, it reinforces the broader idea of personalised care: control and choice wherever possible.

The CQC’s Caring quality statement focuses on whether people are treated with compassion, dignity, and respect, and whether they are involved in decisions about their care. The 6 principles of personalised care provide a practical framework for demonstrating this in action.

Shared decision making, personalised care planning, and enabling choice are particularly important in inspections, as they directly evidence whether care is truly person-centred rather than routine-led. Care homes that consistently apply these principles are better able to demonstrate not just compliance, but genuine quality of care.

Delivering personalised care consistently across a busy care home is challenging without the right systems in place. Information about preferences, routines, and life history can easily be lost between shifts or buried in paper-based records. Digital care planning helps solve this by centralising all resident information in one place, making it accessible to every member of staff at any time.

This means personalised care is not dependent on memory or individual staff knowledge, but embedded into everyday practice across the whole team.

What are the 6 principles of personalised care?

The 6 principles of personalised care are shared decision making, personalised care and support planning, enabling choice, social prescribing and community-based support, supported self-management, and personal health budgets and integrated personal budgets. They define how NHS England expects care to be delivered in a person-centred way.

How do the 6 principles of personalised care apply to care homes?

In care homes, the principles guide how daily care is delivered, from involving residents in decisions about routines to ensuring care plans reflect personal preferences and life history. They also support independence, social connection, and choice in everyday living.

What is Universal Personalised Care?

Universal Personalised Care is an NHS England programme that sets out a national framework for delivering care that is shaped around the individual. It aims to move away from standardised approaches and towards care that reflects personal needs, goals, and values.

How do the 6 principles of personalised care connect to CQC inspections?

CQC inspectors assess whether care is compassionate, respectful, and person-centred. The 6 principles provide a structured way for care homes to evidence this, particularly through shared decision making, personalised care planning, and enabling choice.

How does digital care planning support the 6 principles of personalised care?

Digital care planning ensures that information about residents’ preferences, routines, and goals is consistently available to all staff. This helps deliver personalised care across every shift and provides clear evidence for CQC inspections.

Ultimately, the 6 principles of personalised care are about ensuring every resident is treated as an individual, not just someone receiving care. From shared decision making and enabling choice to personalised care planning and supported independence, these principles help create care environments that are more compassionate, consistent, and responsive to what matters most to each person.

Putting personalised care into practice consistently across every shift can be challenging without the right systems in place. Access Care Planning helps care providers capture and manage detailed, person-centred care records in one accessible digital platform, including resident preferences, routines, life history, goals, and wellbeing information.

This gives every member of staff the visibility they need to deliver more personalised, informed, and consistent care, while also supporting stronger documentation, improved communication, and easier evidence gathering for inspections. Combined with tools such as Access Smart Notes, providers can reduce administrative pressure and spend more time focusing on meaningful resident interactions.

If your care service is looking to strengthen personalised care delivery, Access Care Planning can help. Watch a quick demo today to learn more about our health and social care solutions or speak to our team about finding the right fit for your service.