GIRFE Principles
GIRFE is a multi-agency approach to health and social care support and services from young adulthood to end of life care. It has 5 principles that have been developed for all professionals to use.
The GIRFE principles have been designed to reflect the standards and best practice required to successfully deliver meaningful change to health and social care services.
They can be embedded across health and social care services, as well as across other areas of the public sector and beyond, which impact a persons’ life.
The GIRFE Principles
The GIRFE PRINCIPLES ARE:
- I have the information I need to make decisions about my life, in a way that works for me, and I am supported to understand what options are available to me, and trusted to know what is right for me
- the people who support me take the time to listen and understand me as a person and we consider my whole life when making decisions about my life
- I know that I can be clear about what matters to me, and I trust that my choices will be respected and understood by the people who support me
- if I need to access services or support, I am treated with kindness, dignity and respect at all times.
- the people I am involved with work together with me and each other to share information, in a way that is accessible to me and develop a clear understanding of how to support my wellbeing
Within these principles, ‘I’ or ‘me’ can be substituted to include the addition of ‘my guardian’ or ‘my power of attorney’ where relevant.
The Principles as the foundation of the GIRFE approach
The development of the GIRFE principles has been and continues to be an ongoing iterative process. It has been vital to ensure that the principles themselves are person-centred, reflecting the ethos of GIRFE. Within the co-design of the principles, we have sought to:
- Understand people's experiences of accessing health and social care services in a range of different settings, across geographic and thematic areas.
- Embed their expertise and knowledge into each version of the principles.
This engagement includes individuals with lived experience and expertise in delivering services and has enabled rich collaboration across teams to consider the principles and how they should be expressed.
Principles in Practice - Learning Activity
Learning activity
Reflect on the principles above and then consider how they can positively impact on the person.
Review your current service and practice in line with the principles. How do they compare?
Plan how you can ensure the GIRFE ethos and principles are threaded through your service
Discuss the principles with your team. Can you rewrite them from a practitioner perspective? Can you transform them into a mission/vision statement for your service?
