According to national values in the Swedish social service act, the older person, who receive social service and care, should, as far as possible, be part of the decisions made on the caregiving. The older person should be given preconditions to live a life in dignity and maintain their independency and autonomy. The care provided should be of good quality and the older person and her/his relatives should be met with a good approach.

Former studies on eldercare have shown shortcomings in the way the work was organized and lack of routines for staff members. Research on first line managers in eldercare showed, person centred care is depending on a good working environment and a low level of stress. User participation is valued as important but organisational issues, lack of formal education and a need of administrative support is needed to work with a value-based leadership. There is a need to find new solutions on how managers can work through a value-based leadership to increase the quality of life of older persons.

Aim of this study therefore was to inspire, follow and evaluate the implementation of a person-centered approach in two municipal eldercare organizations in the south part of Sweden. Focus was on values and organizational changes towards an increased quality of life of older persons in need of social care. Further on focus was to develop an attractive work and healthy work environment and a sustainable leadership.

Study design was based on participatory research, where managers, staff members and older persons from different eldercare organizations took part in developing the research questions and participated in questionnaire-studies, individual and focus groups interviews and Future workshops, which were followed up in reflection groups. Booth qualitative and quantitative methods thereby were used. A reference group with representatives from the different organisations and external representatives from eldercare and researchers was created and took an active part in the project process from the early beginning. Due to the restrictions during Covid-19-pandemic, follow up meetings were done digitally.

Results point out important factor which hindered versus made the implementation of person-centred care possible, can be related to the organisational structure and the organisational culture. Important was, a clear value needed to be expressed at all organisational levels. This was shown by support from politicians and high managers to first line managers, which made their work with the implementation easier. Further on, reflection groups and an ongoing dialogue on values and ethical dilemmas among staff-members was important. Together the staff-members expressed a common will to include the older people in different decision of the daily work and care-giving activities. Further on results point out the Future workshop supported a creative process where staff members were able to come up with “own” ides and solutions to increase a value-based and co-creative care with high quality, which was able to fulfil in the different organisations.