A good vision and purpose is one that is based on information and insight from a wide range of sources. Bringing information together, stepping back as a group of stakeholders, and considering what direction it points you in helps to ground your vision and purpose in what really matters.
Sources of information required
There are a number of sources of information you may want to bring together to inform your vision and purpose.
Legislation, local and national strategies, and national policy – it can be helpful to bring the various priorities from these together to understand the direction you are heading. An example of this in action is from the mental health and substance use programme.
- analysis of local needs – understanding what your patients, service users and communities need helps you work out what your services need to do, look and feel like to meet the needs of your communities.
- a strategic gap analysis – brings together what people need, what the evidence says is good practice, along with an analysis of the status quo to identify the gaps to address through your change programme.
It is important that the analysis that informs your vision and purpose isn’t based on one or two information sources in isolation. Instead, it should triangulate information from a wide array of sources including operational data, staff insight, evidence from literature, views of staff and stakeholders, and views from lived and living experience.
A vision and purpose that seeks to address a single data point is unlikely to give you what you need to underpin change.