We’re pleased to be able to share the results of the annual NHS staff survey with you today (Thursday 7 March).
We think they’re pretty fantastic and reflect the continuous journey of improvement we are on!
It was the second consecutive year where our important bank colleagues were able to give their views too.
Let’s start with a summary of this year’s substantive colleague results.
Our People Promise (PP) scores pleasingly show an improving colleague experience in every single one of the elements. The majority (five out of seven) of our PP scores are now higher than our peer benchmark (mental health and learning disability and mental health, learning disability and community Trusts) average scores.
The PP elements which we have scored above the benchmark average are; ‘we are compassionate and inclusive’, ‘we are recognised and rewarded’, ‘we each have a voice that counts’, ‘we work flexibly’ and ‘we are a team’. For the third year running, our top PP score is ‘we are compassionate and inclusive’, with ‘we are learning’ being the most improved score. We have also recorded our highest score in five years for staff engagement.
If you’re unfamiliar with the People Promise, it’s a set of seven statements which underpin some of the main values that are important to people working in the NHS.
Most improved areas
When we look at the results in more detail we can see that some of our main improvements include:
- Opportunities for flexible working patterns
- Increase in the number of colleagues having an appraisal or other meaningful conversations linked to their development
- Colleagues recommending the Trust as a good place to work (this has increased significantly by 5% on last year)
- A reduction in people often thinking about leaving (again this has seen a 5% difference compared with 2022)
- Colleagues being satisfied with their level of pay
Areas for continued focus and improvement
As much as this is a brilliant piece of news, there are clear areas where we can improve and we take the less positive scores really seriously and this is where we will focus our attention:
- Colleagues experiencing discrimination at work from patients or members of the public has remained at the same level as 2022
- There have been more experiences of discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity
- Colleagues experiencing meaningful appraisal conversations that give clear direction and make them feel valued
- Colleagues experiencing work pressures as a result of inadequate equipment and staffing levels
- We have unfortunately seen declines across the board in our Fylde network and we will be building on the work already underway and we’ll be working with the Triumvirate and leaders to understand the concerns and experiences of our colleagues working in this area more, ensuring improvements are seen as a priority.
Discrimination is something we are already tackling through our Zero Tolerance campaign which is now being expanded to include all forms of discrimination, bullying and harassment. We will continue to support our colleagues to recognise, report and address any instances that do occur.
Work is also underway with developing a staff safety incident response plan to guide our approach to responding to staff safety incidents and reducing harm which includes supporting colleagues with trauma-informed approaches and musculoskeletal injuries following incidents at work.
A new question set for this year focused on unwanted sexual behaviour and unfortunately the results showed that both our substantive and bank colleagues experience this. This is going to be a priority for us as we implement the NHS’ Sexual Safety Charter, which places importance on the fact that we all have the right to be safe and feel supported at work.
Bank colleagues
The bank survey is slightly different to the main one, but we are pleased to say that all areas have seen an improvement in comparison to last year’s results. 17% of bank colleagues completed the survey.
Some of the most improved areas included:
- My immediate manager asks for my opinion before making changes that affect my work (13% increase)
- I am confident that my organisation would address my concern (12.6% increase)
- My immediate managers take an interest in my health and wellbeing (12.1% increase)
These improvements are great to see as our bank colleagues are an integral part of our teams, helping to keep our staffing levels safe and work together to make a difference to patient care.
Areas for improvement include:
- Time not passing quickly
- Colleagues feeling that their roles make a difference to service users
- Personally experiencing physical violence
This data will now be used to facilitate continued engagement and cultural improvement work for our valued bank colleagues and will be built into our existing bank experience improvement programme.
Over 100 teams within the Trust will be able to access more tailored results and we’ll work with our networks and directorates to ensure that there are opportunities for colleagues to directly influence some of the improvements we make.
Chief Executive Chris Oliver, said:
“I hope that these survey results, along with our recent CQC good rating, show our dedication and commitment to continuous improvement at LSCft. Colleagues are encouraged to contact me or go via the many routes we have to either raise concerns or suggestions as to how we can make working at LSCft even better.”
The full survey results can be accessed online.
