The outcomes from the staff survey often link to and often complement other initiatives and priorities.
NHS Constitution
The national SPF Staff Survey priorities support the NHS Constitution staff pledges:
|
Appraisal |
to provide all staff with personal development, access to appropriate training for their jobs and line management support to succeed. |
|
Stress, bullying, harrassment and violence |
to provide support and opportunities for staff to maintain their health, well-being and safety. |
|
Staff engagement |
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. |
The Boorman Review on health and well-being in the NHS
The Boorman Review was commissioned following the publication of Dame Carol Black's report on health and well-being of the working age population, Lord Darzi's report High Quality Care for All and the Department of Health's report A High Quality Workforce.
The report has now been published which sets out the results of the review team's work and thinking to improve the health and well-being of staff in the NHS. It also provides examples of best practice in the NHS and other organisations and highlights the benefits to staff, patients and the NHS from investing in improving staff health and well-being.
The SPF has been involved in the review through regular updates from Dr Boorman and input at its monthly meetings.
The Social Partnership Forum has issued a statement in response to the publication of the final report by Dr Steve Boorman on staff health and well-being in the NHS.
The Improving Working Lives (IWL) standard
Although the Improving Working Lives programme was wound up in 2006 after all but a few trusts had achieved Practice Plus status it is still seen in the field as being an important programme which led to a range of major changes in the service, all of which support the ongoing health, work and well being agenda.In recognition of this a sub group of the NHS Staff Council was set up to review the IWL documentation and update it to reflect the challenges which had been set since 2006.
The result was the Improving Working Lives Framework published on the NHS Employers website in 2009 as a guidance document to assist NHS organisations in assessing where they were in developing the range of services called for by the NHS Constitution and the Boorman Review. It provides an excellent basis for a programme of partnership working at local level.
NHS Staff Passport
The NHS Staff Passport is a toolkit developed by the Social Partnership Forum; designed to provide NHS staff with an easy to use, practical guide to the employment standards and rights they can expect when being transferred either to another NHS provider or outside the NHS to a provider who is contracted to offer NHS services.
The NHS Staff Passport also aims to give HR advisors, trade union representatives and managers an online tool that they can use to advise staff facing a transfer on the employment standards that they can expect.
The Staff Passport is currently being reviewed in light of the proposals announced in the Government’s Health White Paper.
QIPP
The staff survey has a cross-cutting role in demonstrating the link between staff experience and delivering productivity benefits. Engaged and involved staff that are supported to do their jobs effectively, informed by the pledges to staff in the NHS Constitution will ensure the right conditions exist for innovation and improved productivity. Further information on the QIPP programme can be found on the Department of Health website.
Regulators
Two key healthcare regulators use the results from the annual staff survey. The Care Quality Commission draws evidence from the survey for more than 20 indicators to support assessment of standards required for Registration. The evidence is also used to inform trusts individual Quality and Risk Profiles.
Monitor also recognises that engaging with staff and learning from feedback is a key driver for continuous improvement and requires key findings from the survey to be reported in Foundation Trusts' annual reports and accounts, including explanations and actions.
Supporting patient choice and public assurances
Staff feedback from the survey now supports patient choice with the NHS Choices website allowing comparisons across hospital trusts using the following information:
- Proportion of staff agreeing, if a friend or relative needed treatment they would be happy with the standard of care provided by the trust
- Proportion of staff feeling satisfied with the quality of work and patient care they are able to deliver
- Proportion of staff receiving job-relevant training, learning or development in last 12 months
- Proportion of staff that would recommend their trust as a place to work (this is also of interest to prospective staff who may be applying to work in a trust)
- The staff survey results are also described in advosry guidance for providers producing Quality Accounts as important context for the mandatory content.