Advance care planning is a voluntary process of person-centred discussion between an individual and their care providers about their preferences and priorities for their future care.
These are likely to involve a number of conversations over time and with whoever the person wishes to involve. When advance care planning is done well, people feel they have had the opportunity to plan for their future care. They feel more confident that their care and treatment will be focused on what matters most to them in a personalised, holistic way and helps them to live as well as possible.
The purpose of this document is to set out six high level principles for advance care planning in England. It is for the person, those important to them, practitioners and organisations involved in supporting advance care planning conversations and honouring their outcomes.
All discussion with the person should convey a sense of ownership of the process. These universal principles should be used to drive improvements in inclusion, equality and diversity everywhere across the country.
The six principles for advance care planning are focused around:
- the person being central to the process, including deciding who else to involve
- personalised conversations about future care being focused on what matters to them
- outcomes of the conversations being agreed through shared decision making
- documented advance care planning being shareable
- opportunity and encouragement to review and revise the plan
- ability to speak up if universal principles are not being followed
