If you want your future care to reflect who you are, not just what diagnosis appears on a chart, an Advance Statement is one of the most useful documents you can write. This 2026 guide explains how Advance Statements UK families use every day can record care wishes, support best-interest decisions, and reduce guesswork for clinicians and loved ones.
An NHS guide to advance statements explains that this document sets out your preferences, wishes, beliefs, and values for future care if you cannot communicate them yourself. Under the statutory guidelines for mental capacity, decision-makers should take written statements into account when deciding what is in your best interests. That makes an Advance Statement practical, even though it is not legally binding in the way an advance decision is. If you want one secure place to build and store those details, you can start a secure record of your care wishes.
What is an Advance Statement in UK care planning?
An Advance Statement is your own description of what matters to you in future care. It can include the routines that help you feel settled, the people you trust, the foods you want or cannot tolerate, the beliefs that shape your choices, and the places where you would feel most comfortable being cared for. The NICE guideline on decision-making and mental capacity supports this person-centred approach, and Compassion in Dying’s advance statement guide makes the same point in plain language: the document is there to help others understand your quality-of-life priorities.
That is why an Advance Statement often matters most in the messy parts of care rather than the legal ones. When a ward changes staff, when a family disagrees, when dementia affects communication, or when someone is admitted suddenly, a written explanation of your values gives clinicians a starting point that is more human than a medication list alone. If you want to see how this fits into broader digital planning, Evaheld’s guide to dementia advance care planning and its advice on documenting healthcare wishes are both useful next reads.
How is an Advance Statement different from an ADRT or LPA?
The biggest source of confusion is assuming all planning documents do the same job. They do not.
| Document | What it does | Legal position |
|---|---|---|
| Advance Statement | Records wishes, values, routines, beliefs, and care preferences | Must be considered, but not legally binding |
| ADRT | Refuses specific treatments in defined circumstances | Legally binding if valid and applicable |
| Health and Welfare LPA | Appoints someone to make certain decisions if you lose capacity | Legal authority once registered and activated |
The NHS page on an advance decision to refuse treatment is clear that an ADRT is for refusing named treatments, not requesting them. The GOV.UK route for making and registering a lasting power of attorney explains how legal authority is created for an attorney. An Advance Statement sits beside those tools rather than replacing them. It tells people how to interpret your wishes, especially when circumstances are more complex than a simple yes-or-no treatment refusal.
This is also why many families benefit from linking the documents together. Your attorney should understand your stated values, and your values should help guide how your attorney acts. If you are still building that foundation, Evaheld’s article on the role of power of attorney in your estate plan and its guidance on appointing and preparing a substitute decision-maker can help you join the legal and practical pieces properly.
What should you include so the document is actually useful?
The best Advance Statements are specific enough to guide real care, but simple enough to be read quickly in a pressured setting. Age UK’s 2025 factsheet on advance decisions, advance statements and living wills and SCIE’s person-centred care guidance both point toward the same principle: describe the person, not just the paperwork.
Useful sections often include:
- Your core values, beliefs, and what gives life meaning
- Preferred place of care and what makes an environment feel safe
- Daily routines, sleep patterns, food preferences, and personal care preferences
- Communication needs, including how you like information explained
- People you want involved in decisions and people who calm or distress you
- Cultural, spiritual, or religious practices that should be respected
- Symptoms, treatments, or situations you especially want handled in a certain way
It also helps to say what matters when trade-offs appear. For example, would you usually prioritise comfort over aggressive intervention, familiar surroundings over repeated transfers, or quiet one-to-one conversations over busy ward discussion? Those details are often missing from formal legal documents but make all the difference in real care. If you need prompts for what to capture, Evaheld’s life care plan examples and medical care and end-of-life decisions guidance can help turn vague intentions into wording other people can act on.
When is an Advance Statement especially important?
It is useful for anyone, but it becomes particularly valuable when communication may become harder over time. The Alzheimer’s Society information on advance statements and dementia highlights how written wishes can help people with dementia express what matters before capacity changes. The Marie Curie overview of advance care planning makes a similar case for people living with serious illness, frailty, or progressive conditions.
Three situations make this document especially important:
Progressive illness or dementia
If memory, speech, or decision-making may change, it helps to write down preferences early while choices still feel straightforward. Evaheld’s articles on recording your story before dementia progresses and advance care planning in Queensland both underline the value of early, calm planning rather than crisis planning.
Hospital admissions and emergency deterioration
Emergency teams often have very little time and very little context. A detailed personal statement can help professionals understand what matters to you beyond the immediate event. The NHS page on DNACPR decisions shows how treatment choices can overlap with emergency planning, while ReSPECT for patients and carers explains how broader priorities can be summarised for urgent care. An Advance Statement will not replace a ReSPECT form, but it can inform the conversation that produces one.
Family disagreement or uncertainty
When relatives are trying to interpret what you would have wanted, a written statement can reduce guilt and conflict. The NHS England Universal Principles for Advance Care Planning emphasise that advance care planning should be person-centred, shared, and reviewed. That is much easier when your own words already exist. If you are preparing for those conversations now, Evaheld’s article on advance care planning in New South Wales and its guide on communicating wishes with family offer a practical way to begin.
How do you make sure people can find and use it?
An excellent document hidden in one drawer is still a weak plan. The Oxford Health guide to making an advance statement encourages people to record what they want to happen should they become unwell, but that only helps if the information is accessible. The NHS page on consent to treatment also reminds families that best-interest decisions depend on understanding what the person would have wanted.
To make your Advance Statement usable:
- Write it clearly and date it.
- Share copies with your GP, attorney, and close family.
- Keep it alongside your other care documents.
- Review it after diagnosis changes, hospital stays, bereavement, or changes in living arrangements.
- Make sure key people know where the current version lives.
This is where digital storage can help. A secure system makes it easier to update one version instead of multiple paper copies. If you want that structure, Evaheld’s Health and Care vault, the end-of-life planning life stage hub, and the broader Evaheld home page show how ongoing care planning, document storage, and family coordination can sit together. When you are ready to set yours up, you can open your private planning vault.
What does a strong Advance Statement look like in practice?
A useful statement sounds personal, not legalistic. It might say that you become anxious in noisy rooms, that you prefer female carers for intimate care, that music helps you settle, that your faith shapes end-of-life rituals, or that being outdoors matters deeply to your wellbeing. It can also say that if recovery becomes unlikely, comfort, familiarity, and family presence matter more to you than repeated transfers.
That kind of detail helps others make better choices under pressure. It also works well alongside formal records such as an ADRT, an LPA, a treatment escalation plan, or a ReSPECT form. If you are building your wider planning set piece by piece, Evaheld’s free and paid plan overview and its guidance on maintaining and updating your planning as life changes can help you keep the process realistic rather than overwhelming.
The goal is not to predict every clinical scenario. It is to leave enough guidance that the people around you can make decisions that still feel like yours. If that is the gap you want to close now rather than later, create your free health planning account.
Frequently asked questions about Advance Statements in the UK
Can an Advance Statement refuse treatment?
An Advance Statement cannot refuse treatment; treatment refusals belong in an NHS explanation of ADRTs. If you are sorting out both, Evaheld’s guide on documenting healthcare wishes clearly helps separate the practical and legal parts.
Is an Advance Statement legally binding in England and Wales?
An Advance Statement is not legally binding in England and Wales, but decision-makers should consider it under the legal requirements for considering patient preferences. Evaheld’s medical care and end-of-life wishes guide is useful if you want to make those preferences easier to apply.
Do doctors and nurses have to read it?
Doctors and nurses should take relevant written wishes into account when making best-interest decisions. NICE’s mental capacity guidance supports that approach, and sharing it early through start talking healthcare wishes guidance makes that far more likely in practice.
Should I still make one if I already have a Health and Welfare LPA?
You should still make one because your attorney needs guidance about your values, routines, and non-medical priorities. GOV.UK’s LPA registration guidance does not replace that personal detail, and Evaheld’s article on how power of attorney fits into future planning explains why the documents work best together.
What should I include if I have dementia?
If you have dementia, include what helps you feel safe, calm, respected, and understood. The Alzheimer’s Society dementia planning advice is a good guide, and Evaheld’s piece on recording preferences early in dementia is a practical companion.
Is a ReSPECT form the same thing as an Advance Statement?
A ReSPECT form is a clinical emergency care summary, while an Advance Statement is your broader personal guidance. The Resuscitation Council UK guide to ReSPECT explains the difference, and Evaheld’s end-of-life planning hub helps show how these documents can sit together.
Who should get a copy once I finish it?
Your GP, attorney, close family, and anyone central to your care should know it exists. That matches the advice in the Compassion in Dying advance statement resource, and Evaheld’s updating-your-planning guidance is helpful for keeping versions current.
How often should I review my Advance Statement?
Review your Advance Statement after any significant diagnosis, hospital stay, bereavement, move, or change in your priorities. That aligns with the Marie Curie advance care planning overview, and Evaheld’s advance care planning in NSW guide also reinforces the value of regular review habits.
Can it cover everyday preferences as well as end-of-life care?
An Advance Statement can cover everyday preferences as well as end-of-life care. SCIE’s person-centred care framework emphasises the importance of routines, identity, and lived experience, and Evaheld’s Health and Care vault overview shows how to keep those details with the rest of your care records.
What is the simplest first step if I have not started yet?
The simplest first step is to write what matters most to you, who should speak for you, and what kind of care environment feels acceptable. Then build from there using the NHS advance statement page, or set up your future care record today if you want a structured place to do that.
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