We understand that people who draw on care are the experts in their own lives and that there can be no one-size-fits-all in personalised support. Excellent care and support can only be achieved by adopting a strengths-based approach which understands a person’s unique history, current circumstances, future aspirations and what really matters to them.

What Matters is Camden’s approach to delivering strengths-based care. It is about building empowering relationships, putting people at the centre of decisions, and understanding what matters most to them. It requires that we identify individual and collective community strengths, using strengths-based models of practice to ensure people can fully participate as active members of their local communities, able to fully engage in work, education and leisure with opportunities to meet family and friends when they want to.

The vision, values and principles of What Matters lay firm foundations from which to build a strong and partnership model of community-based care that is informed by a robust quality assurance framework guiding continuous learning and improvement.

In Camden, high quality care and support means:

• People are placed at the centre of care and can achieve the outcomes that matter to them
• The relationship between the person using the service and the people delivering it is based on dignity and respect
• People are enabled to live independently as defined by them, with informed choice and control through access to appropriate care
• People have opportunities to participate in and contribute to the community, engage in activities that match their interests, and maintain quality relationships and friendships
• People feel safe, secure and empowered because their human rights are safeguarded
• People have a positive experience of care provided through relationships based on mutual respect and consideration, where they are supported to grow their strengths and where care is designed around their needs.