Making It Real is a set of statements that describe what good care and support looks like, organised into six themes.
1. Wellbeing & Independence
2. Information and Advice
3. Active and Supportive Communities
4. Flexible and Integrated Care and Support
5. When Things Need to Change
6. Workforce
The statements are written from two different perspectives:
- The ‘I statements’ describe what good looks like from the perspective of someone who draws upon care and support.
- The ‘we statements’ describe what people who work in care and support should do to make the I statements real.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC), which regulates health and social care in England, has incorporated Making It Real I statements into their Single Assessment Framework as a way to focus on the things that matter to people.
This framework is used to assess providers, local authorities, and integrated care systems. Using Making It Real as a way to improve people’s experiences of care and support, and recording the way you have coproduced change, can help organisations to evidence the work they are doing to provide personalised care, health and support.
By recording the outcomes of individuals using Making It Real, organisations can therefore record information which might support them in a CQC assessment.
The LGA has produced a Must Know for lead members on CQC assessment.
Making It Real can help:
Organisations that genuinely want to get better at personalisation to look at their current practice against the statements, identify areas for change, and develop plans for action.
- Organisations achieve a more positive and productive relationship with people who use services.
- Organisations to meet their legal duties and contribute to raising standards.
- People have a really good conversation with local services that focuses on making things better.
- Support co-production between people, commissioners and providers.
- Guide organisations that do not directly provide services, in how to support the spread of personalised care and support.
Not all of the statements will be equally relevant to all people and organisations, and there will be some variation in how organisations use them within the overall approach.
Organisations and their staff have certain legal requirements which they must meet, for example around safeguarding. Making It Real can help organisations think about how to meet these legal duties and responsibilities through working in a person-centred way.