Trust, Honesty and Communication – Outcomes from the NHS Staff Survey

The results of the annual NHS staff survey are now out for 2014. This is a long standing

survey that has been running with various questions for over ten years now. This means that there is now more than enough data to

see trends that are coming through and changes over time.

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This presentation looks at the survey results specifically in areas covering feedback and communications and only looks at the results overall – it should be noted there may be big

variations between trusts.

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The NHS commits to engage staff in decisions that affect them and the services they provide,

individually, through representative organisations and through local partnership working

arrangements. All staff will be empowered to put forward ways to deliver better and safer services for

patients and their families

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I KNOW WHO THE SENIOR MANAGERS ARE HERE

The first point is “do people know who they should be addressing their feedback to?” and given that responsibility rests with the senior management it is important that people know who they are. Over the years that this question has been part of the survey there has been a significant improvement (an increase of 14%) in the numbers that either strongly agree or agree that they do know who the senior managers are. There are however a significant number of staff who don’t appear to know who the relevant senior management are.

SENIOR MANAGERS ACT ON STAFF FEEDBACK

Knowing who the managers are is only half the battle. Having management act upon what is raised is the next step. Looking at the survey results those that agree with this statement has remained pretty much unchanged at around 30% for the last seven years. Looking at the flip side of this there are 30% of the respondents who still feel that feedback isn’t acted upon and another 40% that are undecided.

What the survey doesn’t tell us, of course, is whether individuals feel that they have the means to actually reach out to senior managers when they have feedback to give.

SENIOR MANAGERS ENCOURAGE STAFF TO SUGGEST NEW IDEAS FOR IMPROVING SERVICES

Given the pressures on the NHS to raise the quality of their delivery and at the same time reduce costs getting feedback from those on the front line as to how these improvements can be made is vital. However, those in agreement that staff are encouraged to make such suggestions has been in steady decline since 2003, down 11% over this period to 39% of respondents. This is possibly a little surprising given the technological changes in communications over this period.

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND STAFF IS EFFECTIVE

What is regarded as effective isn’t clear and is somewhat left to the individual to decide but what is clear is that after a period from 2007 to 2011 when this took a dip the numbers that agree this communication is effective is again on the rise.

The split between agree/disagree is about 30% to each – but still from a lowish base of only 40% agreeing that communication is effective.

Encourage and support all staff in raising concerns at the earliest reasonable opportunity about safety, malpractice or wrongdoing at work, responding to and, where necessary, investigating the concerns

raised and acting consistently with the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998.

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THE LAST TIME YOU EXPERIENCED BULLYING OR ABUSE DID YOU OR A COLLEAGUE REPORT IT?

Worryingly, over the 11 years that this question has been on the NHS survey, the number of respondents that have answered that yes they did report the incident has steadily fallen and now is below 50%. Of course the survey is just a simple snapshot and doesn’t allow for two way dialogues to find out what people feel that they cannot report.

THE LAST TIME YOU EXPERIENCED PHYSICAL VIOLENCE DID YOU OR A COLLEAGUE REPORT IT?

The number of people who say that where they experienced physical violence they reported it is at a higher level than 10 years ago, but there are still over 30% of the respondents that felt they couldn’t or didn’t report for whatever reason (and the number has actually reversed in the last 3 years). It would be informative to go back to this group and find out exactly why they didn’t.

MY TRUST ENCOURAGES US TO REPORT ERRORS, NEAR MISSES OR INCIDENTS

Well over 80% of respondents felt that their trusts did encourage them to report incidents that occurred and the number who agreed has been steadily increasing over the last ten years. But what happens when things are reported?

WHEN ERRORS, NEAR MISSES OR INCIDENTS ARE REPORTED, MY TRUST TAKES ACTION TO ENSURE THAT THEY DO NOT HAPPEN AGAIN

When things are reported the majority (just over 60%) believe that trusts do take action to ensure that similar incidents don’t happen again. The next step is ensuring that those that aren’t reporting incidents, as shown previously, understand that if they do steps will be taken.

This also leaves open the question as to whether action is not being taken or that this is not being fed back to the person making the report.

MY TRUST TREATS REPORTS OF ERRORS, NEAR MISSES OR INCIDENTS CONFIDENTIALLY

Sadly there are still stories of individuals being bullied when they do try to speak out so confidentiality is vital if people are to feel safe and secure in coming forward and reporting incidents. Over the last ten years the number feeling that their trusts would treat them confidentially has increased by 10% from just over 50% to over 60%, but again there are close to 40% who do not believe this to be the case.

Overall most measures of communication in the survey showed improvements but that there was

still some that felt that they couldn’t report or that the senior management wouldn’t act upon what

was reported.

Our SpeakInConfidence system is designed to help all organisations facilitate two way, confidential,

communications.

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Read more content like this every week on our blog:

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At WorkInConfidence we are all about providing a way for staff to

reach out to you to raise ideas, issues and concerns in a safe

environment by providing their feedback anonymously.

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