“What are the 6 Cs of care?”
It’s one of the most commonly searched questions in UK health and social care, and the short answer is Care, Compassion, Competence, Communication, Courage and Commitment, six values introduced by NHS England in 2012 that staff are expected to demonstrate in everyday practice.
That one-line answer is also where most explanations of the 6 Cs stop. Ask any nurse, carer or registered manager where the 6 Cs came from and most can list all six without pausing. Ask them how their home actually builds those six values into day-to-day supervision, and the answer gets a lot less confident. That gap, between knowing the list and embedding it, is where most of the real value in this framework sits. Zeltri exists to help close that exact gap, turning day-to-day practice into evidence a manager can point to, rather than something that lives only in someone’s memory.
This guide covers what the 6 Cs of care are, where they came from, how they differ from the NHS’s own core values, how CQC inspectors relate to them in practice, and a practical way to build them into supervision and appraisals rather than leaving them as a poster on the staffroom wall.
What Are the 6 Cs of Care?
The 6 Cs of care are six professional values that health and social care staff are expected to demonstrate in everyday practice. They were introduced by NHS England in December 2012 as part of the Compassion in Practice strategy, co-authored by then Chief Nursing Officer Jane Cummings, launched in the context of national concern about poor care, including Mid Staffordshire and Winterbourne View, both of which exposed a serious lack of compassion and dignity in care.
You’ll see the same framework written a few different ways: 6Cs, 6 C’s, 6 cs in care, sometimes even without the word “of.” They all refer to the same six values below, and care homes don’t need to standardise on one spelling, just be consistent within their own training materials.
| Value | What it means |
| Care | The consistent, individualised support a person receives throughout their life. |
| Compassion | How that care is delivered, with empathy, respect and dignity rather than mechanically. |
| Competence | Having the right knowledge, skills and training for the role. |
| Communication | Listening and sharing information clearly and honestly with residents, families and colleagues. |
| Courage | The willingness to speak up, raise a concern or try a new approach, even when it is uncomfortable. |
| Commitment | The follow-through, keeping care and outcomes improving over time, not just on the days an inspector is due. |
Are the 6 Cs of Care the Same as the NHS’s 6 Core Values?
No, and this is one of the most common points of confusion, confirmed as a live, recurring question people search for. The two frameworks share a similar spirit but are not the same list, were not published by the same organisation, and were not introduced in the same year.
| The 6 Cs of Care | The NHS Constitution’s 6 Core Values | |
| Introduced | 2012, Compassion in Practice strategy | Published with the NHS Constitution, used in NHS recruitment |
| Scope | Specific to nursing and care practice | Applies across the whole NHS workforce |
| The six items | Care, Compassion, Competence, Communication, Courage, Commitment | Working together for patients, Respect and dignity, Commitment to quality of care, Compassion, Improving lives, Everyone counts |
They overlap in spirit; both put compassion and quality at the centre, but they are not interchangeable, and a care home writing training materials or induction packs should be clear about which one it is referencing.
There are other values frameworks used in health and social care education and training, including BTEC care values and the Care Certificate standards. These overlap with the 6 Cs in areas such as dignity, confidentiality, communication and person-centred care, but they are separate frameworks and should not be treated as interchangeable.
How Do the 6 Cs of Care Link to CQC Inspections?
The 6 Cs of care were not created by the CQC, but they sit comfortably alongside the standards CQC inspectors assess, particularly under the Caring key question, which looks at whether people are treated with compassion, dignity and respect, and whether staff understand individual needs. A care home that can show real examples of Competence (training records, supervision notes), Communication (handover logs, resident and family feedback) and Commitment (consistent staffing, low turnover, ongoing CPD) is building exactly the kind of evidence an inspector looks for when forming a view on Caring and Well-led.
This is also where many care homes undersell themselves. The 6 Cs are usually treated as an induction topic, covered once and rarely revisited, which means the evidence of living them day to day often exists only in people’s memory rather than anywhere an inspector, or a new starter, can see it.
What Does Demonstrating the 6 Cs Actually Look Like?
Examples of the 6 Cs of care in practice are more specific than the dictionary definitions suggest, and real behaviour, not a textbook definition, is what inspectors and supervisors actually look for.
| Value | What it looks like in practice |
| Care | A carer adjusts a daily routine around a resident’s preferences, rather than the shift’s convenience. |
| Compassion | A staff member notices a resident is withdrawn and sits with them rather than moving on to the next task. |
| Competence | A care worker checks a care plan before administering support, rather than relying on memory. |
| Communication | A nurse explains a change in medication clearly to both the resident and their family. |
| Courage | A healthcare assistant flags a near-miss to their manager instead of staying quiet. |
| Commitment | A team keeps training, supervision and appraisal consistent through a difficult staffing period. |
These are the moments that are easy to describe in a training session and hard to evidence six months later unless they are captured somewhere at the time.
How to Embed the 6 Cs of Care in Supervision and Appraisals
Most care homes introduce the 6Cs once, usually at induction, and never structure them into ongoing staff development after that. A more effective approach treats the 6 Cs as a recurring thread through supervision and appraisal, not a one-off training module:
- Rotate one value per supervision session. Ask staff to bring one example from the past month against one of the six values, cycling through all six across the year. This turns an abstract framework into a concrete, personal conversation and gives managers a consistent structure for every session rather than starting from a blank page each time.
- Score each value individually at appraisal, rather than giving one overall “attitude” rating. A carer might be strong on Compassion and Commitment but need support on Communication, and that distinction is lost in a single generic score.
- Use real incidents, not hypotheticals, wherever possible. A genuine example of Courage, a staff member who raised a safeguarding concern, carries far more weight in a supervision record and in front of an inspector than a textbook definition repeated from memory.
- Keep a simple, dated log of these examples per staff member. Over a year, this builds a written history of how the 6 Cs show up in your specific team, useful for appraisals, new manager handovers, and demonstrating Caring and Well-led with real, dated evidence rather than a generic statement that “we follow the 6 Cs.”
This only works if the evidence is easy to find later, not buried in a notebook or a manager’s personal folder. Zeltri’s compliance tracking already gives homes one place for certificates and renewals; these supervision logs belong in the same system, not a separate one nobody opens until an inspection is announced.
Common Mistakes Care Homes Make with the 6 Cs
- Confusing the 6 Cs (or 6 C’s, as it’s often written) with the NHS’s core values, and using the two interchangeably when they are not the same framework.
- Treating the 6 Cs as a one-off induction topic rather than something revisited in supervision.
- Scoring all six values as a single blended rating instead of assessing each individually, which hides genuine strengths and gaps.
- Presenting the framework as a CQC requirement in itself, when in practice it is a values framework that aligns closely with the Caring key question, not a regulation with its own separate compliance test.
How the 6 Cs Connect to Person-Centred Care
The 6 Cs are not a separate initiative from person-centred care; they are what makes it genuine rather than procedural. A person-centred approach only works if staff actually bring Compassion, Communication and Commitment to every individual interaction, rather than treating a care plan as a document to follow rather than a person to respond to. A home that has already built the 6 Cs into supervision and appraisals has done much of the groundwork person-centred care depends on.
FAQs
Q: What are the 6 Cs of care?
A: The 6 Cs of care are Care, Compassion, Competence, Communication, Courage and Commitment, six values NHS England introduced in December 2012 for care staff to demonstrate daily.
Q: Are the 6 Cs of care the same as the NHS’s 6 core values?
A: No, they are two separate frameworks. The NHS Constitution’s 6 core values apply NHS-wide, while the 6 Cs are specific to nursing and care practice, introduced in 2012.
Q: Who introduced the 6 Cs of care, and when?
A: NHS England introduced the 6 Cs of care in December 2012, as part of the Compassion in Practice strategy, co-authored by then Chief Nursing Officer Jane Cummings and Viv Bennett.
Q: How do you demonstrate the 6 Cs of care in practice?
A: Through specific actions: adjusting a resident’s routine to their preference, explaining a medication change clearly, or raising a safeguarding concern instead of staying silent, not textbook definitions.
Q: How do the 6 Cs of care link to CQC inspections?
A: The 6 Cs align closely with CQC’s Caring key question, which assesses compassion, dignity and respect, though CQC did not create the framework and does not inspect against it directly.
Q: How can a care home embed the 6 Cs into supervision and appraisals?
A: Discuss one value per supervision session, cycling through all six across the year, and score each value individually at appraisal rather than giving one blended overall rating.