This article is the first of a two-part series that explores a programme of culture change in care homes. A UK care home company sought the authors’ expertise to design and facilitate an independent programme of learning to encourage and support staff in two of its homes to become the architects of their own quality improvement.

The article reviews the literature that was an essential information base for the authors in their dual roles as designers of the learning programme and facilitators of its delivery to participant staff. The literature is necessarily broad in reflecting the nature and context of care homes, residents’ needs and wants from care, and the particular challenges that might be faced by care home staff and managers when making quality improvements. In the second article, the reality of running the programme in the two homes is described.