Sirona, the not-for-profit social enterprise, is working to make everyone who comes into contact with their health and social services to feel welcome, valued, supported and safe.
Staff who work for enterprise in South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset have come up with standards of behaviour for all who are employed by Sirona.
Janet Rowse, chief executive, has been a powerful influence in creating an ethos for Sirona that everyone can relate to.
She said: “When I meet new staff I ask them to have a real person in mind who matters – who will be their benchmark for whether what we are doing is good enough.
“For me it is my grandmother who, although she passed away a few years ago, is someone I talk a lot about within Sirona.
“She is my benchmark and when I watched how she was loved and cared for by others, I realised that it was often the small things that tell people we truly care.
“Earlier this year staff from many of our service areas came together as a group to describe what they thought this meant for staff on a day-to-day basis.
“It was clear that most people had chosen to work in health and social care because they wanted to make a difference to the people they came in contact with on a day to day basis; this meant they wanted people to feel welcome, valued, supported and safe whenever they are in contact with Sirona.
“As a result, we now have standards of behaviour developed by the group that we are applying to everyone working in Sirona; you deserve the best possible service from us and these are the behaviours you can expect when you are in our care.
“We will judge our success as an organisation on the experiences of those who use our services”, said Janet.
“We will therefore be monitoring carefully what people tell us about all aspects of our services and I regularly visit services to see first-hand how services are being delivered and to talk to those we are supporting.”
The four behaviours are:
- Courtesy and Respect: A welcoming and positive attitude, warm, friendly and interested in you and value and respect you as an individual so people feel welcome.
- Effective Communication: Listen to people and answer their questions, keep people clearly informed, involve people so people feel valued.
- Caring and Supportive: Attentive, responsive and take time to help, take responsibility for our own actions and mindful of privacy and dignity so people feel supported.
- Effective and Professional: Safe, knowledgeable and reassuring, effective care/responses from joined up teams and organised and timely, looking to improve so people feel safe.