Inspire Values
Inspire Values
Inspire Scotland has the privilege of looking after some of Scotland’s brilliant young people (and sometimes brilliant young people from other countries). We are trusted to look after children and young people who have had some awful experiences, live away from their families, communities and friends, and we aim to look after them to the best of our abilities. With such a large responsibility, we want to do the very best we can to ensure that our young people have the best opportunities possible. We want to create an environment within all our homes where our young people feel cared about, are supported to work through their adverse experiences and trauma, whilst being nurtured, respected and valued for who they are.
When Inspire Scotland was first set up, a set of values were identified to achieve this vision. These values outline the expectations we have of everyone within the organisation from the directors, managers, administration, residential workers, maintenance support and cleaners. We expect everyone to embody our values and apply them to their work. These values are:
1. Clear expectations
2. Do whatever it takes
3. Having space
4. Being included
5. Being listened to
It is important to define our values and communicate them across the whole organisation to make sure that everyone involved in caring for our young people is committed to ensuring the best outcomes for them. The values aim to guarantee that care is consistent and provides a framework on how to interact, support and prioritise the best interests of our young people. This consistency helps to develop a sense of trust and safety for our young people and forms the basis of the important relationships forged with them. It is our aim that these values are applied when things are going well for young people, but particularly when there are challenges and difficult situations, as this is when they need our support, empathy and compassion the most. These values define the professionalism we expect from all of our staff and that a high quality of care underpins everything that we do to benefit our young people.
Our values provide a foundation to reflect on our practices. They offers a benchmark that we can measure our performance, to learn from our experiences and improve our service to better support our young people. These values can be used for individual staff members to reflect on their practice, as well as the organisation as a whole to identify areas to improve, learn and grow.
We apply these values to caring for our staff as well as the young people. We hope to create an environment where people enjoy coming to work, feel supported and cared for and feel a sense of belonging and pride. Where staff have clear expectations about their roles, do whatever it takes, have space, are included and are listened to, we hope they feel a sense of belonging to our organisation and are able to do the best they can for our young people.
Our value base provides the compass that directs the actions of our organisation, guides our decision making and interactions in a way that is caring, empathetic and compassionate, with the best interests of the young people we serve at the heart of everything we do.
