In light of the Francis Report, a national values based tool has been developed to make sure all Trust’s values match those of the NHS Constitution.

As a result, we’ve looked again at our core values and we‘re confident they do align with the wider values of the NHS. But, we have added some new statements (shown below in bold), so that we can be even clearer about what our core values mean to us. Some of the changes made are as a direct result of your feedback. For example, you told us you found some statements contradictory – “how can we do everything right first time, yet learn from mistakes?”

I’d like to thank you all for continuing to uphold our values when dealing with colleagues, patients, service users and their families. If we are to improve people’s lives by supplying high quality care, our values need to be at the heart of everything we do.

Michael Smith, Chair

Our new look Values…

Respect

  • We value people as individuals, working with them to achieve their goals
  • We treat people with dignity and kindness
  • We embrace diversity and celebrate difference
  • We make sure that nobody is excluded, discriminated against or left behind

Openness

  • We encourage and demonstrate honest communication
  • We ensure everyone has a voice
  • We speak up when things go wrong
  • We are open to change and new ways of working

Improvement

  • We make best use of our resources to deliver best value
  • We strive for ‘right first time every time’ and learn from our mistakes, acting promptly to put them right
  • We all take personal responsibility, challenging and supporting each other to find better ways of doing things
  • We embrace improvement in all its forms, from the small personal acts that make people’s lives better to full scale service improvements

Excellence

  • We provide high quality, safe, personal and effective services, delivered with compassion and kindness
  • Our service users and carers come first in everything we do
  • We deliver on our promises
  • We use and develop the expertise of our staff to provide the best possible service user and carer experience

Together

  • We work best through teamwork, celebrating our successes together
  • We view service users and carers as a part of our team, welcoming and acting on their feedback for our continued improvement
  • We work well with our partners for the benefit of the communities we serve
  • We make time for service users, carers and our colleagues