Focusing on people with learning disabilities and autistic people

On Thursday 4 March, we launch the latest part of our public campaign - encouraging people to give feedback on their experiences, good or bad. Over the next few weeks we particularly focus on those with learning disabilities and autistic people.

Our research shows people with a learning disability and autistic people are more reluctant to give negative feedback on their care in case it increases pressures on staff or services. This is why CQC is calling on people with a learning disability and autistic people, and their loved ones, friends and carers to give feedback on their care..

CQC has made improving care for people with a learning disability and autistic people a priority, which is why Debbie Ivanova, the Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care is leading a new programme of work to transform the way they regulate services for people with a learning disability and autistic people.

• Debbie Ivanova, CQC says: “Listening to the lived experience of people with a learning disability and/or autistic people has to be at the centre of how we decide to regulate and improve care. It is so important to hear their voices and allow our approach to be shaped by this in order to properly address the challenges of closed cultures and inadequate care."
• Tom Purser, Head of Campaigns at the National Autistic Society says: “The CQC’s Out of Sight report last year found many shocking examples of undignified care. And our own research suggests two in three autistic adults don’t get the support they need. The care system needs urgent and properly funded reform. This must be informed by autistic people and their families’ experiences of health and social care services. We encourage people to share their feedback, good or bad, with the CQC.”.

Year-long campaign overview

Because We All Care is a year-long campaign led by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Healthwatch England in response to coronavirus (COVID-19). As the country pulls together to recover from the impact of coronavirus, Because We All Care aims to encourage more people to share their experiences of care to help the NHS and social care services identify and address quality issues and provide the best care possible.

If you work for a health or social care service or support patients and service users, join the campaign to help spread the word and help more people to have their say on health and social care! The campaign is supported by CQC and Healthwatch but anyone can take part, whether you run a social care or NHS service, work for a charity or just want to encourage more people to share their experiences of care.

Our research indicates that people support health and care services more than ever and want to do more to support them in the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis. This year-long campaign aims to harness this by supporting more people to have their say. We want to promote the positive benefits of sharing feedback on care - either with providers directly or third-parties such as CQC and Healthwatch - and how that can help services to provide the best possible level of care. Over the long-term, the campaign aims to help create an environment where sharing feedback on care becomes the norm.

How can you get involved?

We've produced a range of resources to help you get involved in the campaign, sharing content throughout 2020 and early 2021 to keep up the campaign’s momentum. You can also use the campaign yourself to get feedback from those you support.

The campaign will be promoted through a combination of traditional and social media activity to reach as many people as possible. You can help to support this by sharing the posts and materials to encourage feedback for your organisation, by:

• Sharing campaign messaging and assets on social media (outlined in this toolkit)
• Retweeting or resharing content from CQC, Healthwatch and other partners social channels

You can also adopt the campaign in your own work, to increase the level of feedback you receive for your service directly:

• Contributing case study stories
• Supporting the campaign on your website (e.g. campaign landing page or blogs)
• Using campaign templates to develop your own content
• Highlighting the campaign in other communications (e.g. newsletters)
• Referencing or supporting the campaign through owned press activity
• Putting up posters about the campaign in local service locations (e.g. waiting rooms).

Key messages

The key messages we want to communicate through this campaign are:

• Tell us about your experiences, to help improve health and care services for everyone
• By giving your feedback, we’ll be able to help improve services for everyone
• All feedback, both good and bad, can help improve services
• Visit our website to tell us about experiences
• It only takes a few minutes to fill in an online form

Posts for non-service providers

Twitter

• We want feedback on health from people with learning disabilities. 🧾 Fill in this form to share your experiences and improve care for everyone ➡️ https://bit.ly/feedback-on-care #BecauseWeAllCare
• We want to know more about experiences of health and social care from autistic people. We use your feedback to help improve care for everyone. Click here to fill in our confidential feedback form and tell us about your care ➡️ https://bit.ly/feedback-on-care #BecauseWeAllCare
• We want to know about more autistic people’s experiences of getting vaccines at the doctors. Contact your local Healthwatch to tell us about your care. #BecauseWeAllCare
• We want people with learning disabilities to tell us their experiences of vaccinations. 💉 🗣️ Speak to your local Healthwatch to help improve health 🏥 for everyone. #BecauseWeAllCare

Facebook

• We want feedback from people with learning disabilities. Tell us your experiences of health or social care. 🏥 #BecauseWeAllCare. Your feedback can help improve health for everyone. Fill in this form to tell us about your experiences during the coronavirus crisis. https://bit.ly/feedback-on-care
• We’re looking for people with learning disabilities to tell us how they feel about the vaccine. 🖱️ Click here to contact your local Healthwatch and help improve care for everyone. #BecauseWeAllCare
• 🗣️ We want to receive feedback from autistic people on their experiences of getting the vaccine. 🗣️ Talk to your local Healthwatch about your experiences to help improve care for everyone. 🏥 #BecauseWeAllCare

Instagram

• We want more feedback on health and social care from people with learning disabilities! 🖱️ Visit the link in our bio to learn how you can tell us about your experiences during the coronavirus crisis. #coronavirus #BecauseWeAllCare
• We invite people with learning disabilities to tell us 🗣️ about their experiences with vaccines. Contact your local Healthwatch to share your experiences. We will use your feedback to help improve care for everyone. #BecauseWeAllCare
• Find out how your feedback can make a real difference to health and social care by watching this video. We want to hear about any recent experiences of care – both good and bad - because you care about the NHS, and so do we. #BecauseWeAllCare #coronavirus #StayAlertrt

Posts for service providers

Twitter

• Giving feedback on care is vital to us for improving the health and social care that you receive. Tell us about your experience here [insert link to own feedback forms/website]. #BecauseWeAllCare
• #BecauseWeAllCare focus on encouraging all people to feed back about local health and social care services. Tell @HealthwatchE and @CareQualityComm about your care

Facebook

• We all care about the NHS but we need your feedback to help us adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic so we can provide you and your loved ones with the best possible care. Watch this video to see how sharing your experiences can make a difference. #BecauseWeAllCare.

Instagram

• Now, more than ever, we need your help to improve health and care services across England. Share your experiences with @CareQualityComm and @healthwatchengland so we can improve the standard of treatment you and your loved ones receive. Take a few moments to share feedback with us via the link in our bio #BecauseWeAllCare #coronavirus #StayAlert

.

Hashtags

When sharing CQC and Healthwatch social posts, or creating your own social media, please use the official hashtag: #BecauseWeAllCare. Each word should be capitalised to ensure the words can be read within the hashtag.