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NHS survey says our staff feel empowered
Staff at our Trust have rated our organisation the best general acute in the country for giving staff control and choice over how they do their work, according to the results of the latest NHS staff survey, published today (26 February).
The Trust scored the highest rating in the country (61.1%) against other acute hospital trusts in England on this question, coming in well above the national average of 54%.
The report also highlights that staff feel more supported and better valued by their managers than in the previous year: ratings have improved for staff getting support from their immediate manager (up 2.5%); getting clear feedback on their work (up 2.1%); being asked for their opinion before changes are made (up 2.9%); and for feeling like their manager values their work (up 1.4%).
Jan Bloomfield, director of workforce and communications, said: “We’ve had a real focus on our leadership programme over the last year, including introducing some new supportive initiatives for managers and staff, so it’s fantastic to see this translating into real results. Our staff are our most important asset and we need to make sure they are cared for as well as our patients. It’s great to see these improvements in our manager support.”
Asked questions about the organisation, the care it provides, and the support they receive, 91% of staff agreed their role made a difference to patients (national average 89%), 84% said they are satisfied with the quality of care they give (national average 80%), and 78% said they felt enthusiastic about their job (national average 74%).
The Trust scored above the national average in 83% of questions, and for nine of the 10 overall survey themes – including health and wellbeing, morale, quality of care and staff engagement.
An improvement was also seen on the number of staff experiencing both discrimination and violence from patients, their relatives or members of the public; 3% experienced discrimination compared to 5% in 2017 (national average 2018, 6%), and 15% experienced violence compared to 18% in 2017.
Jan said: “These numbers are moving in the right direction, but we have more to do. No one should come to work and experience these behaviours from patients, or indeed from colleagues. As well as introducing a specialist restrictive physical intervention team to provide additional support and security for staff on our wards, we have introduced new support mechanisms for staff to share concerns, including ‘trusted partners’, who are a source of independent advice for colleagues.”
Chief executive Steve Dunn added: “We are delighted to have maintained our excellent staff survey results this year. We work hard to make sure that WSFT is a happy, healthy environment for our staff to work.
“We know that staff that feel engaged, happy and supported at work provide the best care, so we look very carefully at our staff survey as an indicator of the quality of care we give to our patients.
“That said we cannot be complacent, and there are of course areas where we need to improve. Our focus this year will be around reporting issues, whether actual or near-misses, creating a compassionate and inclusive culture, and ensuring leadership is visible and supportive across the organisation.”
Today’s published results relate to the national NHS Staff Survey 2018, for which WSFT was benchmarked against 89 other general acute trusts across England.
The WSFT staff survey respondents were randomly selected by an independent group (The Picker Institute), with 601 colleagues completing the 2018 survey.
The national NHS staff survey results are publically available at www.nhsstaffsurveys.com.
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