The NHS Constitution is the document that sets out the principles and values of the NHS, the rights of patients and staff, and the responsibilities placed on all NHS employees. The six core values are frequently tested in interviews, either directly (“What are the NHS values?”) or indirectly by assessing whether your answers demonstrate alignment with them.
The Six NHS Core Values
- 1. Working Together for Patients: Patients come first in everything we do. The NHS works across organisational boundaries in the interest of patients.
- 2. Respect and Dignity: We value every person, whether patient, their families, carers, or staff, as an individual, and treat them with dignity.
- 3. Commitment to Quality of Care: We earn the trust placed in us by insisting on quality and striving to get the basics right every time.
- 4. Compassion: We ensure that compassion is central to the care we provide and respond with humanity and kindness to each person’s pain, distress, anxiety, or need.
- 5. Improving Lives: We strive to improve health and wellbeing and people’s experiences of the NHS.
- 6. Everyone Counts: We maximise our resources for the benefit of the whole community, making sure nobody is excluded, discriminated against, or left behind.
GMP vs NHS Constitution — what’s the difference? GMP is a regulatory framework from the GMC used to hold individual doctors to account. The NHS Constitution is a broader statement of values for all NHS staff. GMP is more specific and can result in sanctions; the NHS Constitution is aspirational and cannot be used for individual regulation. However, they share common ground: patient-centred care, compassion, respect, and professionalism.
How to use in interviews: Demonstrate the values, don’t just list them. Saying “I believe in compassion” scores nothing. Describing a time you sat with a distressed patient after your shift ended because they had no family visiting scores highly — that’s compassion in action.
- Resource: NHS Constitution & Values One-Page Summary (printable).