Manage dementia care practices within adult care — iCan Qualifications Limited End-Point Assessment Health & Social Care Revision
This subtopic equips senior care leaders with the skills to strategically manage dementia care services, ensuring that teams understand dementia's impact a
Topic Synopsis
This subtopic equips senior care leaders with the skills to strategically manage dementia care services, ensuring that teams understand dementia's impact and deliver person-centred support that promotes wellbeing. It focuses on effective risk management specific to dementia care and robust partnership working with individuals, families, and external agencies to enhance quality of life and outcomes.
Key Concepts & Core Principles
- Person-centred care: Ensuring that care plans are tailored to individual needs, preferences, and goals, promoting autonomy and dignity.
- Safeguarding: Implementing policies and procedures to protect adults at risk from abuse, neglect, and harm, in line with the Care Act 2014.
- Regulatory compliance: Understanding and adhering to CQC regulations, the Health and Social Care Act 2008, and the Fundamental Standards.
- Leadership and management: Differentiating between leadership (vision and inspiration) and management (planning and control) to motivate teams and achieve service objectives.
- Risk management: Conducting risk assessments, implementing control measures, and promoting a positive risk-taking approach to enhance service user independence.
Exam Tips & Revision Strategies
- Use real work-based examples that demonstrate your leadership in improving dementia care, such as implementing a new wellbeing programme or redesigning a risk assessment tool.
- Explicitly link your evidence to the unit learning outcomes and key legislation, such as the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Care Act 2014, to show depth of understanding.
- When providing evidence of team development, include before-and-after impact measures (e.g., staff confidence surveys, care quality audits) to prove effectiveness.
- For partnership working, go beyond theory—include signed agreements, meeting minutes, or joint action plans with external agencies to validate collaboration.
- Show a continuous improvement cycle: demonstrate how you have reviewed and updated practices in response to feedback, incidents, or new guidance.
Common Misconceptions & Mistakes to Avoid
- Assuming that dementia care is solely about physical safety and neglecting psychological, social, and emotional needs.
- Failing to tailor care to the individual, resorting to generic activities or interventions that do not reflect personal history or preferences.
- Underestimating the importance of environmental adaptations and sensory considerations for dementia-friendly spaces.
- Not documenting risk assessments thoroughly, especially the justification for positive risk-taking, leaving the service vulnerable to criticism.
- Treating family members as passive recipients of care rather than active partners, missing opportunities for valuable insight and support.
Examiner Marking Points
- Award credit for demonstrating a comprehensive leadership approach that aligns service policies with national dementia care standards and best practice guidelines.
- Evidence must include explicit strategies for developing the team’s knowledge of dementia and its effects, such as training needs analyses and reflective supervision records.
- Look for documented, co-produced wellbeing plans that show how the service promotes dignity, meaningful activity, and individuality for people living with dementia.
- Markers should identify risk management systems that balance safety and autonomy, including clear rationales for positive risk-taking decisions and regular review.
- Credit partnership working where there is concrete evidence of collaboration with families, advocates, and multi-agency teams, including communication logs and shared decision-making records.