Background Making sense of the unprecedented degree of complexity in patient need, the health sector and in the communities we serve demands a close focus on strategic thinking and new ways of working to deliver excellent care and service. At St Leonard’s Hospice we have implemented a Strategy Balanced Scorecard System in order to help us do this.

Aims To build on our tradition of delivering excellent palliative and end-of-life care to our community through a process of strategic planning and change management, led at every stage by our shared values of excellence, integrity and respect.

Methods Draw on our shared values to meet new challenges. Implement a Strategy Balanced Scorecard System to capture and communicate strategic aims. Deliver the aims through a planned implementation process. Embed project management discipline in the implementation process. Build a process of formal review to support continuous improvement.

Results Though our implementation is at an early stage and has been impacted upon by operational demands arising from the pandemic, we see: a transition from fiduciary to strategic governance at Board level; increasing strategic focus at senior team level; an appetite amongst all managers and staff to revitalise our values by using them as practical decision-making tools. Our next steps are: to build on staff open forums with focussed consultation on our mission, purpose and values; review how information flows in our teams; embed values-driven problem-solving across our teams and use the Balanced Scorecard Dashboard to measure to improve continuously. Project management discipline will then support the delivery of our Strategic Aims as ‘One Hospice’ team.

Conclusion We still have lots to learn but the Strategy Balanced Scorecard System has proven a crucial tool in transforming our hospice’s approach to strategy and planning and in building a ‘One Hospice’ culture based on and driven by our shared values.