The values of your home/service will fall under one of 4 Core Values:

Dignity and respect

• Treating people with dignity and respect regardless of their culture, religion, age, race, sexual orientation or disability
• Accepting and respecting people’s individuality
• Take time to listen to people, protect and respect people’s confidential personal information

Learning and reflection

• Committing to learning and developing in their work, reflect on the work that is done, how it is done and the impact on those being supported
• Honest and transparent. Not afraid to say when they have done something wrong
• Open to learning from others. Willing to share knowledge and best practice

Working together

• Understand that improved outcomes can be achieved through people working together
• Putting residents first by working as a team with service users, their family, carers, and other professionals.
• Contributing to the home/service values and best practice

Commitment to quality care and support

• Able to deliver high quality services and aim to get the basics right all of the time
• Take responsibility and communicate
• People’s feedback is welcome to help learn from mistakes and build on success

How do I include values in our recruitment process?

Make sure to include your values in your job adverts. This promotes the values your organisations hold to potential candidates and will hopefully bring in suitable applications, not just from those with experience, but with those who hold the right values. Here are some examples of how to incorporate them into your job adverts:

“We are looking for people who care regardless of qualifications or experience. We care more about you sharing and demonstrating our values, which are:

• Seeing possibilities to make positive difference
• Valuing and celebrating individuality and diversity
• Supporting rights, needs, and choices
• Being responsible, sustainable, and innovative in our work”

“Duties to include:

To promote and adhere to the workplace values of caring, dignity and respect, learning and reflection, commitment to quality care and support”

“Above all we want someone that shares in our values. These are:

• A commitment to quality and being the best we can
• Treating the people we support with compassion
• Showing dignity and respect to the people that they will be working with
• Having trust and respect for all members of our team.”

For more support with writing job adverts contact the Proud to Care Team proudtocare@westsussex.gov.uk

Value based interviews use questions to ask for examples from candidates. This gives the candidates the chance to explain their experience, what they did in the situation, and the outcome. By using value based questions even if the candidate does not have a background in care they can use other examples to show how they incorporate values in their day to day life. You also have the opportunity to probe in order to get further information about the candidate’s answers by asking:

• What they did
• How they did it
• Why they did it
• What impact it had on them and others
• What they have learnt about themselves

This can help get more information and also creates a conversation dialogue, putting the candidate at ease and making sure you get the most from them in the interview. Value based questions can be used to compliment more standard interview questions. This gives a more well-rounded view of candidates exploring their experience, training, and values. It also helps establish if they will be a good fit for your home/service and if they will incorporate the values you hold.

We have included some example questions for value based questions and general interview questions in this pack for you to use and expand on for your own interviews.

What does a good or bad answer look like?

There are not right or wrong answers with value based questions but an insight into the candidate you are interviewing, what their values are and whether they match that of the home/service.

Here is what you want to be looking for from candidate’s answers:

Dignity and respect

• Do they spend time listening to people to get to know them and their needs?
• Do they respect people’s right to make their own choices and decisions?
• Do they help people to retain their dignity and respect their privacy?

Learning and reflection

• Do they reflect on the work that they do and the impact that has on the people they support?
• Do they accept and reflect on any feedback given and learn from it?
• Are they honest and transparent and not afraid to admit when they have made a mistake?

Working together

• Are they committed to working as part of a team and supporting others?
• Do they understand and respect that other people have different priorities and needs?

Commitment to quality and support

• Do they give people their full attention and help people when they need it?
• Are they warm, kind, reliable, empathetic, and compassionate towards the people?
• Are they flexible and able to react calmly to whatever goes on in the day?
• Are they able to follow agreed procedures and standards in your work?
• Are they able to identify when the support being provided to others is not safe or good quality and confident to raise concerns?

Some things you do not want to hear from candidates:

Dignity and respect

• They do not make time to welcome people or to get to know them and their needs.
• They do not respect people’s right to make their own decisions.
• They do not respect people’s dignity and privacy.
• They use jargon when communicating with people, and talk to people in a patronising, childlike or inappropriate way.

Learning and reflection

• They do not take time to reflect on work they have done or the impact that it has on others.
• They are dismissive and defensive about feedback.
• They blame others when things go wrong in work and do not admit mistakes.
• They are not willing to ask for support and help when they need it.

Working together

• They do not provide people with any choice.
• They give people false expectations about the choices and options that are available to them.
• They prefer to work on their own and do not work with or support others in the team.
• They do not respect or understand other’s needs and priorities.

Commitment to quality and support

• They do not give people their full attention or put them at the heart of what they do.
• They are intimidating, patronising, and unreliable.
• They lack compassion towards those you support.
• They ignore procedures and standards and cut corners.
• They do not take responsibility for ensuring the service provided is high quality and safe.
• They are not prepared to challenge others or to raise concerns when the support is poor quality or unsafe.

Values should not only be used in the recruitment process. They are at the core of the care and service you provide and are part of everything you do.

They can be used as part of the induction process to outline the values and behaviours you expect of staff from the outset.

They can also be incorporated into Supervision, Appraisal and Progression reviews. You can link values to specific objectives and even use them as examples of where a member of staff has excelled.

Include them in staff feedback; see how the staff feel as an organisation you are demonstrating the values and how to improve this.

Ensure management are also encompassing the values in their roles. This reflects well across the team and shows you are all working towards a common goal.

By implementing value based recruitment into your home/service you can help ensure you are recruiting the right people. Help improve retention, reduce absence, and most importantly improve the quality of the service you offer.

If you need any further support with interviewing or any other recruitment issues please contact us at proudtocare@westsussex.gov.uk

Below are some example interview questions both standard and value based you can use in interviews:

General:

• What three things do you need to be a good Care Assistant?
• What most appeals to you about this role?
• How do you deal with job-related stress?
• Why are you looking to leave your current role?
• What made you want to apply for this job?

Dignity and respect:

• What would you do if you saw a colleague treating a resident badly?
• How do you maintain client dignity and respect when delivering personal care?
• Can you tell us a time when you listened carefully to someone? (Follow up – what difference did it make to them, to you?)
• Please give an example of how you have worked with people to identify options and choices

Learning and reflection:

• Describe a situation where you made a mistake. What happened? What would you do differently another time?
• Tell me about a time you learned a new skill. How did you approach it and how did you apply your new learning?
• Could you give an example where you have learned from feedback?

Working together:

• What would you do if you had to work with a person you didn’t get along with?
• Describe a situation where it was important that you worked as part of a team.
• Describe a time when you put your needs aside to help a co-worker complete a task. How did you assist him or her?

Commitment to quality and care:

• Describe a time you managed someone making a complaint. How did you manage to address their complaint?
• Could you give me an example of a time when you have helped people who have required support or assistance?