Reading List

A curated Reading List to support and extend learning from Breaking Bad News for Residential Care Staff.

This course is written for residential care staff across the UK. The communication principles apply across adult social care, but legal and regulatory arrangements for capacity, safeguarding, duty of candour, and being open differ between the four nations.

1. Communication and Involvement

• NICE CG138 - Patient experience in adult NHS services
  Covers privacy, using plain language, checking understanding, accessible communication, and giving information in usable formats.
  https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg138

• NICE NG86 - People's experience in adult social care services
  Guidance on person-led communication, involving people in decisions, and plain language in residential and other adult social care settings.
  https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng86

2. Deterioration and End of Life Communication

• NICE NG31 - Care of dying adults in the last days of life
  Practical advice on who should explain prognosis, assessing communication preferences, including what matters to the person, and being honest about uncertainty without false optimism.
  https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng31

3. Incidents, Openness, and Follow-Up

• CQC - Regulation 20: Duty of candour
  England's guidance on apology, openness, identifying relevant persons, and follow-up after notifiable safety incidents.
  https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/all-services/regulation-20-duty-candour

• NHS England - Engaging and involving patients, families and staff following a patient safety incident
  Advice on tailoring communication and involvement after safety incidents rather than using a single standard approach.
  https://www.england.nhs.uk/patient-safety/patient-safety-insight/incident-response-framework/engaging-and-involving-patients-families-and-staff-following-a-patient-safety-incident/

4. Staff Support and Compassionate Follow-Up

• NHS England - Compassionate conversations: a guide to holding compassionate conversations with colleagues
  Guidance for team leaders and peers supporting staff after difficult updates, deaths, and emotionally demanding conversations.
  https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/compassionate-conversations-a-guide-to-holding-compassionate-conversations-with-colleagues/

5. Four-Nations Signposting

• gov.scot - Organisational duty of candour guidance
  Scotland-specific guidance describing the organisational candour framework used there.
  https://www.gov.scot/publications/organisational-duty-candour-non-statutory-guidance-revised-march-2025/

• GOV.WALES - The NHS Duty of Candour
  Signposting for Wales, where the NHS duty of candour operates under a different framework to England's CQC-regulated adult social care duty.
  https://www.gov.wales/nhs-duty-candour

• Department of Health Northern Ireland - Being Open Framework for Health and Social Care
  Northern Ireland guidance on open and honest communication in health and social care where England's statutory model does not directly apply.
  https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/publications/being-open-framework-health-and-social-care-northern-ireland

Use this Reading List to deepen your knowledge of privacy and accessible communication, difficult conversations about deterioration or dying, open communication after harm, and compassionate follow-up for people, families, and staff.