What care values underpin good practice, and why do they matter?
The care values that underpin contemporary care practice, what each value means in a care setting, and why applying them protects the health, wellbeing and dignity of service users.
An SQA Higher Care answer on the care values that underpin practice: dignity, respect, choice, confidentiality, equality, anti-discrimination, safety, privacy and independence. Covers what each value means in a care setting and why applying them protects service users.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
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What this dot point is asking
The SQA wants you to know the care values that underpin contemporary care practice, to explain what each value means in a real care setting, and to explain why applying them protects the service user. This is the foundation of the Values and Principles area and feeds straight into questions that ask you to describe, explain or evaluate practice.
The answer
What "care values" means
A service user is anyone who uses a care service, whether in a hospital, a care home, their own home, a nursery or a day centre. Because many service users are vulnerable - through age, illness, disability or circumstance - they rely on staff to protect their interests, which is why values matter so much.
The core care values
Dignity and respect
Choice, control and independence
Promoting choice means offering genuine options (what to eat, what to wear, when to get up) and respecting the decision even when staff would choose differently. This supports independence and control, which protect a person's sense of identity and reduce the learned helplessness that institutional care can cause.
Confidentiality and privacy
Equality and protection from harm
Equality and anti-discriminatory practice mean meeting needs fairly regardless of age, disability, race, sex, religion or any other characteristic. Safety means actively protecting people from abuse, neglect and avoidable risk, and knowing what to do if you suspect harm.
Examples in context
In a care home, a resident who is always asked what she would like for breakfast and is helped to dress in clothes she chooses is experiencing choice and independence; a resident whose door is knocked on and whose personal care is done with the curtain closed is experiencing dignity and privacy. The same values look different in a nursery, where respecting a child's choices and protecting information about a family is still the value applied, just in a different setting. This is exactly the transfer of values to practice that the strongest Higher answers show, because it proves understanding rather than recall.
Try this
Q1. Name three care values that underpin contemporary care practice. [3 marks]
- Cue. Any three: dignity and respect, choice and control, confidentiality and privacy, equality and anti-discriminatory practice, safety, promoting independence.
Q2. Explain why confidentiality is an important care value. [4 marks]
- Cue. It protects personal information, builds trust, encourages honest disclosure of sensitive needs, and is required by law and codes of practice.
Q3. Describe how a care worker could show respect for a service user's dignity during personal care. [2 marks]
- Cue. Cover the person, close doors and curtains, explain what you are doing and gain consent, and avoid talking over them.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of SQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
SQA Higher Care6 marksExplain why care workers should apply care values when supporting a service user.Show worked answer →
A -mark explain question. Markers reward developed points (a value named, then a consequence), not a bare list.
Strong responses name specific values and link each to an outcome for the service user: applying dignity and respect protects self-worth and avoids humiliation; offering choice supports independence and control over daily life; keeping confidentiality builds the trust needed for honest disclosure; anti-discriminatory practice means needs are met fairly regardless of background.
The discriminator is the link from value to benefit. "Care workers should be kind" scores nothing; "treating a service user with dignity, for example knocking before entering, protects their self-respect" is a developed mark.
SQA Higher Care4 marksDescribe two care values that should guide a care worker's practice.Show worked answer →
A -mark describe question: two developed values, marks each, or one value developed in detail plus one stated.
Choose any two from the recognised set and say what each looks like in practice: respecting dignity (treating the person as a valued individual, protecting privacy during personal care); promoting choice (offering real options and respecting decisions even when staff disagree); maintaining confidentiality (sharing information only on a need-to-know basis); promoting equality (meeting needs fairly without favouritism).
Accurate description, not just naming, earns the marks.
Related dot points
- Applying care values to practice: how care workers put dignity, choice, rights, confidentiality and anti-discriminatory practice into action in real care settings, and the consequences of failing to.
An SQA Higher Care answer on applying care values to practice: how care workers turn dignity, choice, rights, confidentiality and anti-discriminatory practice into everyday actions in care settings, person-centred care, and the consequences when values are not applied.
- The legislation and codes of practice that govern contemporary care in Scotland, what the main laws and codes require, and how they protect service users and guide care workers.
An SQA Higher Care answer on the legislation and codes of practice governing care in Scotland: equality, data protection, adult support and protection, the Health and Social Care Standards and the SSSC Codes of Practice. Covers what each requires and how it protects service users.
- Equality, diversity and anti-discriminatory practice in care: the types and effects of discrimination, and how care workers and services promote equality and challenge discrimination.
An SQA Higher Care answer on equality, diversity and anti-discriminatory practice: what discrimination is, its types (direct, indirect, prejudice, stereotyping), its effects on service users, and how care workers and services promote equality and challenge discrimination.
- Confidentiality as a care value: what it means, why it matters, how care workers maintain it, and the circumstances in which it can lawfully and properly be broken.
An SQA Higher Care answer on confidentiality: what it means, why it matters to service users, how care workers maintain it through need-to-know sharing and secure records, and the circumstances such as risk of harm in which it can properly be broken.
Sources & how we know this
- Higher Care Course Specification — SQA (2018)
- Higher Care - Course overview — SQA (2025)