Publish date: 20 October 2021

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Thursday 21 October is World Values Day. Values are what matter most to us. They are our motivators, the passion in our hearts, and the reason we do the things we do.

In order to run well, every organisation needs to be clear about its purpose, what it is trying to achieve and why. We set these out as our vision, mission and strategy. Our values underpin all of this. They guide how we achieve our ambitions, how we do our jobs and how we work within our teams every day.

Together, our vision, strategy and values make sure we have shared objectives to work towards to improve the lives of those people and communities we serve. Each year we set out the detail of this within our operational plan.

CQC measures how well-led the organisation is during its inspections. When inspectors visit teams, they want to know staff are aware of our vision, strategy and values. Inspectors look for evidence staff and teams understand the vision, strategy and values and can demonstrate how their role and service contributes to the bigger picture. You may be familiar with our strategy wheel. We have updated this to reflect some slight changes to our long term vision and to include our CARES values.

Following the acquisition of North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Southport and Formby services, our values have been reviewed to make sure they remain inclusive and fit for the larger organisation. While the five high-level CARES values remain unchanged, the detailed framework that sits beneath them has been updated to reflect feedback gathered during the Mega Conversations in July.

Trust vision, strategy and values will be included in appraisal conversations, as part of the PACE / PDR framework, to connect individual performance and objectives to team and Trust vision, strategy and values.