Being mindful of ‘values’ in recruitment is to be at the heart of the Department of Health’s (DH’s) response to findings of patient mistreatment at the Mid-Staffordshire NHS, the department has confirmed.

This is laid out in the DH’s ‘Patients First and Foremost', the government’s initial response to the report of The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry.

Following the inquiry’s conclusion last month, Dean Royles, the chief executive officer of NHS Employers, the organisation representing employers in the NHS, told Recruiter that recruiting on values would be a key reaction. The report laid out yesterday further shifts the onus onto NHS bodies to deliver such a change.

The report also says that recruitment of strong leaders, including from outside the NHS, is a priority to ensure progress. Speaking at a conference last month, Royles admitted finding good outside talent had proved difficult for the NHS. In addition, the report suggests that “for the small number of leaders who let down their patients, their staff and the NHS, there is a mechanism in place which prevents unsuitable board level executives and non-executives from moving to new senior positions elsewhere in the system”.

Royles also described the need for change post-Francis [the report by Robert Francis QC into failings at the Mid-Staffordshire NHS trust] as “the world’s largest organisational development challenge” for the NHS.

Values-based recruitment will extend to medical students, the DH says. Education and training overseeing body Health Education England “will introduce values-based recruitment for all students entering NHS-funded clinical education programmes”, the ‘Patients First and Foremost’ report says.

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