What Matters Most

The What Matters Most principles are there to make sure we are supporting people with a learning disability in the best possible way. We think it is important to really get to know each person and find out what things are important to the people we support.

What Matters Most 

The following principles are things to think about when planning how we can best support you:

• You knowing what your rights are and exercising them 

• You choosing how you live your life 

• You doing things that help you learn and grow 

• You having the confidence to try new things because you feel safe
• You getting the services you need to be healthy and well 

• You doing the things that you enjoy and that make you happy 

• You having the money you need and using it to help you to make the most of life 

• You keeping in touch with people who are important to you and meeting new people 

• You knowing your community and feeling a part of it 


What you can expect from us

We want to make sure we look at all this in a way that is useful to you, so this is what you can expect from us: 

• The best possible support to do the things that are important to you so that you can enjoy a good life
• We spend time listening to you so we know what this means for you
• We regularly ask how things are going and see if there are things that we can do better
• We ask you about how we involve the people who are important to you

Will anything be written down?

We will keep notes of what is agreed so we can make sure we get it right, this can include:

• An one page profile that makes sure we know what is important to you, and how to support you with this (we call this ‘About Me’)
• Some information about the things that you want to achieve
• A more detailed plan that helps your team know how to best work with you (we call this a ‘Support plan’)
• A plan that helps our teams to understand how you can learn new things and have more control in your life

How you can give us feedback

We want to make sure that you are happy and get the right support, this means we ask you regularly.

• Managers from Mencap will visit and check that everything is working well. They are really interested in what you think and will be very happy if you want to talk with them about anything that is working well or needs improving
• We will make sure that you regularly have the time to tell us about how things are and involve and listen to the people who are important to you. If anything needs to be changed in the way we work with you, this will be written down and shared with your team
• We know that some people may find it difficult to tell us what they want so we will make sure that your family and those people close to you will have copies of this and other useful information (we call this our ‘Working together’ families pack)

What support do our teams get?

We support our teams with information, advice and training so they they know how best to use these tools and plans. Mencap also provide guides for staff on how they can best work together with you and your loved ones to draw up the plans together. 

We want to make sure that our teams feel supported, and we know that there are times they may need some extra support. To help support our teams we have national teams offering support in Learning and Development as well as Quality and Practice. Through these national support teams, we offer support to help people find better and more effective ways of working.