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Posted on 7 Mar 2018

During 2017 we participated in the annual NHS staff survey giving all of our staff the opportunity to provide us with important feedback. We are absolutely committed to making the Trust a great place to work, and understanding how you feel about working at Nottinghamshire Healthcare and what is important to you is paramount in achieving this. 

 

Thank you to all our colleagues who took the time to participate in the survey. Our response rate was 47% - this is higher than the average for Mental Health, Learning Disability & Community Trust’s in England [45%]. This puts the Trust’s response in the ‘better than average’ ranking. 

 

Staff engagement levels have deteriorated from last year, and the Trust‘s score is a ‘below average’ ranking. Many of the surveyed staff felt that they would not recommend the Trust as a place to work or receive treatment. During the year we have worked hard to improve communications and engagement and these results do show that our staff have the confidence to tell us what they are feeling.

 

We scored best in the areas of  the percentage of staff working extra hours, which was lower; staff and colleagues reporting experience of violence; staff satisfaction with resourcing and support; staff reporting experience of harassment, bullying or abuse and the percentage of staff satisfied with the opportunities for flexible working.

 

It is pleasing to see that what has improved is a drop in the number of staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from patients, relatives or the pubic in the last 12 months.

 

The lowest scores, disappointingly, include: Motivation at work; percentage of staff reporting good communication between senior managers and staff; staff satisfaction with level of responsibility and involvement; staff feeling that they attended work in the last three months when feeling unwell due to pressure from a manager, peer or themselves; and staff confidence in reporting unsafe clinical practice. Some of this reflects the difficult organisational changes that have been taking place during the last year, particularly at the time the survey was undertaken in October 2017. We are committed to continuing with dialogue and engagement in terms of our Open Conversations and staff recognition. We are also looking at recruitment and retention and we will continue to take very practical steps to enhance our staff experience.

Ruth Hawkins is Chief Executive of the Trust: “This is a disappointing outcome from the national staff survey. Whilst our response rates are good which shows that staff are taking the opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with their experience of working here and the figures are not startlingly different from last year there has been a general downward trend which we need to reverse. I will be looking at the figures in more detail and discussing with colleagues how we can address some of the issues. I am hopeful that the culture work that is being taken forward around the organisation will have an impact, but we obviously need to do more and more quickly.”