Asking about the NHS core values is one of the most common NHS knowledge questions at medical school interviews, and several schools go further and score the whole interview against them. The values are easy to list and hard to talk about well: most applicants can name compassion and respect, but the marks come from defining each one, giving an example, and saying why it matters to the job. This article goes through why schools ask it, how to structure your answer, and an example of a strong one.
What are the NHS core values?
- Why are these values relevant to working as a doctor?
Why medical schools ask it
Understanding how the NHS works demonstrates you've engaged seriously with the system you want to join. The values are the part of that system you will be measured against from your first placement onwards, so interviewers use them to check two things: that you have done the reading, and that you can connect a value on a poster to a decision on a ward.
At some schools the values are the marking scheme. UCL's questions follow an NHS values-based approach, Hertfordshire's MMI assesses NHS values directly, Southampton scores applicants against criteria that include the NHS Constitution values, and Brighton and Sussex's example station asks candidates to name the six Cs. Even where they are not scored directly, a candidate who can anchor an answer to a named value sounds like someone who already thinks like a clinician.
What interviewers are looking for
There is no fixed list of content points for this question, but across NHS knowledge stations interviewers mark for the same things:
- At least three values named accurately. You don't need all six, but the ones you give should be the real ones, not a paraphrase.
- A definition and an example for each. The example is what shows you understand the value rather than having memorised it.
- The link to working as a doctor. Why these values exist, and what they change about how a doctor behaves when time is short or the situation is complex.
- Awareness that values and principles are different things. The Constitution has seven principles and six values; mixing them up is a common slip.
How to structure your answer
The NHS Constitution sets out seven principles (a comprehensive service for all, access based on clinical need not ability to pay, the highest standards of excellence and professionalism, the patient at the heart of everything, working across organisational boundaries, best value for taxpayers' money, and accountability to the public) and six values. The question usually means the values. The model answer below states them, defines each with an example, and reflects on why they matter:
1. Structure your answer
2. NHS core values - definitions and examples
1. Working together for patients
This means putting patients' needs first and collaborating across professions and organisations.
2. Respect and dignity
Every patient deserves to be treated as an individual, with their values and beliefs respected.
3. Commitment to quality of care
The NHS strives for safe, effective, and evidence-based care, and continuously works to improve.
4. Compassion
Healthcare is not only about clinical treatment but also empathy and kindness.
5. Improving lives
The NHS looks beyond illness, aiming to promote health and wellbeing for individuals and communities.
6. Everyone counts
The NHS ensures fairness and equity, valuing every person equally and reducing inequalities.
3. Reflection - relevance to working as a doctor
Example answer
A spoken answer of about seventy seconds, picking three values rather than reciting all six:
- State
- The NHS Constitution sets out six core values. The three I'd pick out are respect and dignity, compassion, and everyone counts, because I saw all three on my placement.
- Define
- Respect and dignity means treating every patient as an individual, with their values and beliefs taken into account. On the ward I watched a nurse rearrange a bay so an elderly patient could pray without an audience. Compassion is the recognition that care isn't only clinical: the registrar who sat down to deliver a scan result rather than standing at the end of the bed was showing it. Everyone counts means fairness, so treatment is decided by clinical need rather than by who shouts loudest or who can pay.
- Relevance
- They matter because they give a team shared expectations when things are busy. A doctor under pressure still has to decide who to see first and how to speak to them, and the values are the agreed answer to that. They also protect trust: patients can see a system that treats everyone by need and with dignity, and that trust is what makes them tell us the things we need to know.
Practise this question out loud
Try answering it with the AI interviewer: it asks the question, follows up on what you say, and marks you against the points above.
Common follow-up questions
The same ground is covered by several differently worded questions, and the follow-up is almost always "why does that matter to a doctor?" or "give me an example of that value in practice".
What are some of the key principles of the NHS?
Asked at Imperial, King's and St George's. This one means the seven principles rather than the six values. Pick three, define each, give an example.
Name three values in the NHS Constitution.
Asked at Leicester, Liverpool and Southampton. The same answer as the main question, stopped after three.
Can you name any of the other Cs?
Brighton and Sussex's example station, after naming compassion. The six Cs of nursing are care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment. They overlap with the Constitution values but are a different list.
What issues currently face the NHS in the 21st century?
Reported at four schools. The values are a useful frame here too: most NHS problems are a tension between two of them, such as everyone counts against best value for money.
How is the NHS funded?
Most NHS funding comes from general taxation and National Insurance. Care is free at the point of use, with limited charges in England such as prescriptions and dentistry.
Common pitfalls
Things to avoid when answering the question:
- Reciting the list :
- Six values named in a row with no definitions or examples is the weakest possible answer to this question.
- Confusing values with principles :
- "Free at the point of use" is a principle, not a value. Know which list you are drawing from.
- Examples that could be any job :
- "Working together" illustrated by a group project is weaker than a multidisciplinary team meeting you actually saw.
- No link to being a doctor :
- The second half of the question is why the values are relevant. An answer that stops at the definitions has done half the work.
- Treating them as slogans :
- Interviewers know the values can be hollow. Saying where they bite, such as when they conflict with limited resources, shows you have thought about them.
Which schools ask it
This wording is reported at the schools below. At UCL, Hertfordshire and Southampton the values are part of the marking scheme rather than a single question, and Brighton and Sussex uses them in its published example station.
Frequently asked questions
What are the six NHS core values?
Working together for patients, respect and dignity, commitment to quality of care, compassion, improving lives, and everyone counts. They are set out in the NHS Constitution for England.
Do I need to know all six, or all seven principles?
Three values with a definition and an example each will score better than six names in a list. For the principles, the same applies: pick three you can illustrate.
Are the NHS values the same in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
The NHS Constitution applies to England. The other nations publish their own values, which overlap heavily. If you are interviewing in Scotland, NHS Scotland's values are care and compassion, dignity and respect, openness, honesty and responsibility, and quality and teamwork.