Our values and equality

We spoke to more than 6,000 staff, patients, their families and carers and together we developed our values.

Our values show that our commitment to equality is at the heart of everything we do.

Equality is about making sure that people are treated fairly. It is not about us treating everyone the same, but seeing people as individuals and recognising that everyone's needs are met in different ways. We must be sensitive, thoughtful and flexible in how we meet the needs of each person.

We do the right thing for every person and treat everyone with dignity and respect. We protect people's dignity and privacy and take action when we see these are being undermined.

We care for each other in every human contact in all of our communities and each of our hospitals.

Our equality objectives were developed by working together with our partners. We engaged with people from different groups, fostering good relations. The objectives are designed to ensure that our services are accessible to everyone and our employment practices are fair.

Our equality objectives sit within our Strategic Equality Plan and form the basis of our work. Progress is reported every year. You can find out more information about our equality objectives and Strategic Equality Plan by following this link.

We want to be inclusive and always improving. We will promote equality and human rights for everyone. We won't accept anyone being disadvantaged by any of the following (also known as protected characteristics):

Age, disability, faith or belief, gender, pregnancy or maternity, race, sexual orientation, being married or in a civil partnership, gender reassignment.