Staff and patients from across the country came together to discuss what mattered to them in the NHS as part of the Next Stage Review led by Lord Darzi. This helped to develop these NHS Values which are now part of the NHS Constitution.
- Respect and dignity
- Commitment to quality of care
- Compassion
- Improving lives
- Working together for patients
- Everyone counts
Developing values at a local level
Working with the staff, many employers have developed their own local values. The following case studies look at the actions that have been taken to involve staff in the development of a set of local values, how this was done and offers tips for other trusts carrying out similar work.
Developing a values driven culture. South Birmingham Community Health are involving their staff in the development of a set of values and ensuring that they are aware of, understand and committed to them.
Our Values - building together. NHS West Midlands Strategic Health Authority has developed a strong values driven culture aligned to the NHS Constitution yet interpreted to make it relevant, meaningful and useful to the SHA's specific role.
Developing a patient first culture. In May 2009, West Suffolk Hospital launched Patients First as part of their aim to be first for patients and the community. Working with their staff, they are developing an understanding of practical behaviours needed to deliver this.
'Aspire to' - As their next step in implementing their organisational development strategy for their newly merged organisation, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust wanted to determine a common culture and identity to support delivery of their ambitious vision.
Why values matter
There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that strong organisational values can also lead to real, tangible improvements in performance.
Organisations that have more engaged staff also provide a better patient experience. By building values into everything that you do has been shown to significantly improve the patient experience, staff engagement and productivity levels.
NHS Institute toolkit
The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has produced a toolkit for NHS organisations to help them develop and implement their own local values. See our Living our local values page for more information.
Staff engagement
Our staff engagement pages provide all the latest news on staff engagement issues and the NHS staff survey. For a practical guide to improving staff engagement in the workplace then see our briefing paper, Improving staff engagement - a practical toolkit which was published in November 2009.