What is an Enabling Enviroment?

Enabling environments are places that pay attention to relationships within the service and put relationships at the heart of what they do.

They can be anywhere, in any kind of service, from a wide variety of sectors.

Have you ever been part of a place which made you feel valued?

Have you ever met people who really supported you to develop and grow?

Maybe it was because you had a chance to develop yourself, maybe it was because you got to take on new responsibility, or maybe it was because someone listened to your ideas. All of these are indications that you are in an enabling environment.

Enabling environments recognise the importance and impact of the social environment on our well-being and personal development and harness the 'therapeutic' value of relationships between people through relational practice.

These environments are underpinned by a values-based standards framework.

What is the Enabling Environments Framework?

This relational framework has been designed and is provided to services by the Enabling Environments (EE) quality network at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The values and standards have been designed to be flexible and adaptive to support services to focus and develop on the quality of relationships within it.

This framework consists of 10 values, which are:

Belonging, Boundaries, Communication, Development, Involvement, Safety, Structure, Empowerment, Leadership, Openness.

All Enabling Environments will work towards these values, being an environment:

  • that sees the nature and quality of relationships are of primary importance (Belonging)
  • that has expectations of behaviour and processes to maintain and review them (Boundaries)
  • where everyone is supported to communicate in ways that enable them to be listened to and heard (Communication)
  • that has opportunities and support for self-development and growth (Development)
  • where everyone shares responsibility for the environment (Involvement)
  • where there is support in place to help everyone feel emotionally safe (Safety)
  • where engagement and purposeful activity is actively encouraged (Structure)
  • where everyone is encouraged to develop their personal authority (Empowerment)
  • where leadership takes responsibility for developing and maintaining an enabling culture (Leadership)
  • that is outward-looking and open to learning (Openness)

What is the Enabling Environments Network?

Enabling Environments (EE) is a quality network based on relational practice within the CCQI. Services can sign up and join the Enabling Environments network to be part of the network and use the standard framework.

The EE standards are agreed by the network, and the network uses training, consultancy, and peer/self-review methodology and an award process to promote high-quality relational practice. We work with members nationally and internationally and enable communication channels to promote best practice between services.

The network offers a quality improvement initiative that focuses on the quality of relationships and culture within services. The quality improvement offer includes self-directive self-assessment tools, unlimited access to training and online events, peer support and access to consultants* (membership type dependent). The network also offers an award process.

“The values depend on each other for meaning and for clarity. Taken individually, each value will enhance an environment, but it is not until they are all working together, jigsaw style, that they create an Enabling Environment”

Enabling Environments-Values and standards