How our values shape our culture

Why are our values important to our culture?

This week is anti-bullying week, which also makes it the ideal time to think about our Trust values and what they mean to us.

We all know bullying is wrong, and can have a devastating long term impact. As a staff group, we will not tolerate it. Collectively, we chose our five core values based on the cultural changes that we wanted to see. They are:

• Care
• Teamwork
• Quality
• Respect
• Honesty

With the current focus on improving our culture, a question for us all is “what is my role, and what can I do to improve the culture of the Trust?”

It is everyone's responsibility to adhere to and apply the values of the Trust, without them we see a negative impact on our staff and patients that causes harm; from upset, mental health and welfare issues, to poor behaviour which can, and does, escalate in some cases to physical harm and abuse. There have been examples of this within casework and speaking up.

A key way we can prevent escalation of this type of behaviour is to ensure that we all live by the values, those five principles that we all agreed contributed to a healthy culture. Here are some examples of what we can and should all be doing, all of the time, with any one we come into contact with.

Care	Teamwork	Quality	Respect	Honesty
For patients, colleagues, team members and everyone we engage with through our work	Achievements are delivered better and quicker as a team	Take pride in working to achieve high standards	Always respect all individuals, including patients, colleagues and our partners	Be open and honest in relationships with colleagues
Behave with warmth, empathy and compassion	Working together brings expertise and knowledge from all into decision making and delivery	Recognise there is always room for continuous improvement	Value each others strengths, skills and differences	Act with integrity and fairness, ensuring that the standard you deliver is the standard you would accept
Consider the position of others and what could be impacting them - and how	Listen to each others views and ideas and give them all equal consideration	Learn from mistakes to improve things for the future	Listen objectively and take an interest in different views and ideas	Provide and receive constructive feedback on your behaviours and actions
Check in with individuals who you feel may be struggling	Ensure engagement and involvement within what we do	Appreciate the improvement journey we are on and support the approaches	Challenge a lack of respect in a supportive way

 

If you have any questions about our values or the ongoing improvement work please email CQC.group@eastamb.nhs.uk

Published 17th November 2021