The national NHS Staff Survey results were published last week, and CHFT has seen a marked increase in how we support learning – one of the seven core People Promise elements we’re benchmarked in, against 124 other acute and community trusts.

We have also scored better than average in the ‘compassionate and inclusive’ element, alongside the ‘safe and healthy people’ element.

The results have also shown that overall staff morale and engagement is higher than last year, and our engagement index has increased, showing that colleagues feel more involved with the Trust.

In fact, all but one of our People Promise scores are better than, or equal to, the average.

Almost 2,700 colleagues gave their honest views this year and its clear to see that One Culture of Care, particularly in relation to People Promise ‘We are safe and healthy’, is something that colleagues really believe in.

Every colleague who took the time to fill in the survey is helping to shape what kind of place we want CHFT to be. The staff survey gives us a great opportunity to shout about everything we are proud of at CHFT, as well as sharing areas for improvement.

Improvement has been seen in teams who have embraced feedback from previous staff surveys and taken positive action to improve. This tells us that when teams work together to improve, their engagement and morale also improves.

So, what did colleagues say went well this year?

• We have seen a significant improvement in learning opportunities, with more colleagues being able to access training, as well as making headway in growing our own talent – helping to support colleagues in their chosen career pathway at CHFT.
• Our scores were better than other similar trusts in having an environment that is equal, diverse and inclusive.

The results showed that things could be better in the following areas:

• Whilst there are improvements in our line management sub score (which falls under the element ‘we are a team’), and we continue to strengthen this, time needs to be invested in building on our management development skills.
• Colleagues want us to look further at flexible working and supporting them to have a better work-life balance.

So, what next?

A Trust-wide plan of action is now in place, as we know that feedback from some areas was not as positive as others.

We’ll be having a real focus on the development of management essentials training and resources which will also address how we work flexibly to better support colleagues.

And as part of our One Culture of Care approach, we’ll also be holding listening clinics and back to the floor visits with senior managers.

Additionally, each division will be taking responsibility for driving improvements within their teams based on the results.  

You can see our results NHS Staff Survey Benchmark report 2022 (nhsstaffsurveys.com)

** CHS Ltd run their own staff survey, so are not included in these results.**