South Gloucestershire health and social care staff set new standards of behaviour

Staff at Sirona Care and Health, an independent, not-for-profit organisation providing publicly-funded health and social care services, have come up with new standards of behaviour for its employees.

Chief executive Janet Rowse, 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 has 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.

“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, effective communication, caring and supportive and effective and professional.

For more information about the health and social care service visit www.sirona-cic.org.uk.