Personalised care for people living with cancer

Personalised Care and Support Planning (PCSP) helps people living with cancer to take an active and empowered role in the way their care is planned and delivered, with interventions and care tailored around the things that matter most to them.

It is achieved through a series of supportive conversations in which the patient, or someone who knows them well, actively participates to explore the management of their own health and well-being in the context of their life and family situation.

Personalised Care and Support Planning will help you to:

• facilitate conversations with patients
• identify their needs (with Holistic Needs Assessments)
• develop a Personalised Care and Support Plan
• share the right information, at the right times
• signpost to local support services.

We've always championed a personalised approach to care. Building on our success with the Recovery Package, we are committed to supporting the NHS Long Term Plan to deliver PCSP for people living with cancer.

A Personalised Care and Support Plan ensures people’s physical, practical, emotional and social needs are identified and addressed at the earliest opportunity.

A Personalised Care and Support Plan will help you to:

• keep a record of conversations, decisions and agreed outcomes
• understand a patient's care and support needs, their life and family situation
• know what is required to make the plan achievable and effective.

We have designed a personalised care and support plan template, so that patients have a record of the discussions they’ve had, agreed actions and advice from their care team.

To develop a care plan, you will need to carry out an assessment of the person's holistic needs to understand how to support them. We've created tools and resources to help you carry out a Holistic Needs Assessment (HNA), on paper or electronically (eHNA).

Learn about Holistic Needs Assessments

A Cancer Care Review (CCR) is a conversation between a patient and their GP or Practice Nurse about their cancer journey. A CCR can help patients to:

• talk about their cancer experience and concerns
• understand what support is available in their community
• receive the information they need to begin supported self-management.

The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) requires primary care professionals to carry out a CCR at the time of a patient's diagnosis (within 3 months) and after a patient has received acute treatment (within 12 months).

We have developed guidance and electronic templates to help you support your patients.

Access guidance and resources

We're committed to delivering personalised care for people living with cancer, and we need your support to help us deliver it. On our Learning Hub we offer a free eLearning course called ‘What Matters to Me’, we also have Personalised Care and Support Planning webinars and Community of Practice events available in 2023.

Sign up to our Learning Hub