This Event Toolkit enables organisations to capture and celebrate positive feedback. It supports visibility of good practice and helps inform learning and improvement initiatives.
Legislative Requirements
Care Act 2014
Promotes diversity and quality in care provision, which includes listening to what people say is working well. Compliments are part of the broader duty to engage with service users and improve care based on their experiences. Promotes involvement of individuals in shaping their care.
Health & Social Care Act 2008
Compliments help demonstrate that care meets or exceeds expected standards.
Regulatory Guidance
CQC
Regulation 17: Requires providers to have systems for receiving and acting on feedback, including compliments. Focuses on continuous improvement through service user input. Vital source of learning and improvement. Compliments are equally important as complaints for understanding service quality. Services should encourage and welcome all feedback—positive, negative, or neutral. Feedback should be accessible to everyone, regardless of disability or communication needs. Leadership should promote a culture of openness, where compliments are used to reinforce good practice.
Care Inspectorate (Scotland)
Scotland uses the Health and Social Care Standards: My support, my life as the benchmark for quality in adult social care. These standards emphasise dignity, respect, and person-centred care—and they absolutely support the collection and use of compliments as part of continuous improvement.
Care Inspectorate (Wales)
In Wales, the Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) oversees adult social care services, and while there isn’t a standalone regulation for compliments, the framework strongly encourages collecting positive feedback as part of a broader commitment to quality and person-centred care.
CQC Key Questions
- Safe - Compliments often reflect positive experiences of care, dignity, and emotional support.
- Responsive - Compliments show that care is meeting or exceeding expectations and can be used to identify what’s working well.
- Well Led - Compliments contribute to a culture of learning and celebration, and their collection shows strong leadership and engagement.
- Effective - Compliments can highlight teamwork and coordination that lead to positive outcomes.
CI Health and Social Care Standards
- Compliments can highlight enabling attitudes and reinforce positive staff behaviours.
- Compliments often reflect respectful and valued interactions, which can be used to celebrate and replicate good practice. This explicitly encourages feedback—including compliments—as a tool for improvement.
- Compliments should be recorded transparently and shared with individuals if relevant.
CIW National Minimum Standards
Emphasise dignity, respect, and responsiveness—areas often highlighted in compliments and useful for quality assurance.
Statutory Guidance
- Captures positive feedback
- Encourage a culture of openness and continuous improvement.
- Emphasise the importance of learning from all feedback and sharing this with the team.
HealthCare Guidance
Department Health Social Care
Compliments are as important as complaints: They help identify what is working well and reinforce positive behaviours and practices. Encouragement is key: Services should actively encourage people to share compliments, not just complaints. Accessibility matters: Everyone should be able to give compliments, regardless of disability, language, or communication needs. Leadership responsibility: Organisations should appoint a senior lead for compliments, feedback, and complaints to ensure strategic oversight. Fairness and transparency: People should be assured that giving compliments or feedback will not affect their care negatively, and they should know how to do it easily.
Scottish Government Health & Social Care Directorate
Listen to people’s experiences, including compliments, to improve services. Use feedback to celebrate success and reinforce good practice.
H&S Service Group (Wales)
Compliments are recognized as a vital part of service feedback. To recognise high-quality work. People should be encouraged to give compliments as easily as they can raise concerns. Compliments should be recorded and acknowledged. They are considered part of the feedback loop and used in performance reviews and quality assurance. To motivate staff and reinforce good practice. To inform service improvement by identifying what works well.
NICE England/Wales
NICE Guideline NG86 – People's Experience in Adult Social Care Services
- Encouraging feedback: Services should make it easy for people to share their experiences—positive or negative.
- Using feedback to improve care: Compliments should be used to identify what is working well and reinforce good practice.
- Involving people in service design: Positive feedback helps shape services that reflect what people value most.
- Staff recognition: Compliments can be used to celebrate staff achievements and boost morale.
Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN)
Listening to people’s experiences. Using feedback (including compliments) to improve care. Promoting dignity, respect, and compassion. Focus on what matters to patients and service users. Improve consistency and quality of healthcare.
Evidence-Based Practice
- Provide clear channels for people to share positive experiences (e.g., comment cards, online forms, verbal feedback).
- Record compliments systematically and use them in staff appraisals or service reviews.
- Compliments are equally important as complaints for understanding service quality.
- Share positive feedback with teams to boost morale and reinforce quality care.
Key principles to follow:
- Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency: People must know how their compliment will be used.
- Purpose limitation: Only collect compliments for clear, specific reasons (e.g., service improvement, staff recognition).
- Data minimisation: Only record what’s necessary—avoid excessive detail.
- Accuracy: Ensure compliments are recorded correctly.
- Storage limitation: Don’t keep compliments longer than needed.
- Security: Protect compliments from unauthorised access or disclosure.
Toolkit Statistics
Research shows that compliments and positive feedback have tangible benefits:
- Emotional and motivational impact on staff: Positive feedback boosts morale, improves psychological wellbeing, and enhances job satisfaction.
- Improved care quality: Staff who receive regular positive feedback are more likely to maintain high standards and feel valued.
- Organisational learning: Compliments help identify what works well, encouraging replication of good practices.
- Retention and performance: Feedback contributes to better staff retention and performance, especially when combined with other support strategies.
Value Proposition Ideas
- Toolkit meets all statutory, regulatory, legislation, and best practices.
- Evidence compliments received.
- Evidence the sharing of compliments with the team.
- Learning Outcomes can be captured from positive feedback.
References
- Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 - CQC
- CI Health and Social Care Standards
- CIW National Minimum Standards
- Statutory Guidance - Wales (2014)
- Care Act 2014
- Health and Social Care Act 2008
- Data Protection Act 2018 (GDPR)
- Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
- Scottish Government for Health and Social Care Directorate
- Health and Social Service Group – Wales
- NICE guidelines (England/Wales)
- Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN)
- Acting on Compliments, Feedback and Complaints – Care UK
- Careopinion.org.uk
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