Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW) has today welcomed outstanding results from the annual NHS Staff Survey.
The results showed that for a sixth year in a row, more of our staff than ever would recommend the Trust as a place to work, and would also be happy with the standard of care if a friend or relative needed treatment.
The survey, undertaken by all NHS trusts in England, is focused on ten themes and is an important measure of what life is like for NHS staff. This year our scores in every key area were the same or better than last year’s survey, and in eight themes our scores were higher than the benchmarked national average for mental health and learning disability trusts like ourselves. Our scores improved significantly in six themes:
- health and wellbeing
- morale
- safe environment – violence
- safety culture
- staff engagement
- team working
Staff who responded said they felt that CNTW takes positive action to support their health and wellbeing, and we hope that further support which we have implemented in the past year will continue to improve this. Our Staff Psychological Centre launched in August 2020, offering a range of specialist psychological assessments and treatments. To support staff through the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, a confidential support helpline was also rapidly set up, and has since become a vital part of the regional Staff Wellbeing Hub, which CNTW supports as a member of the North East and North Cumbria Integrated care System.
The survey revealed a culture of safety and continual improvement, with very high numbers of staff reporting that they knew how to raise concerns about unsafe clinical practice, that they felt the organisation encourages staff and patients to report concerns or incidents, and that the organisation takes positive action on these reports to ensure that mistakes do not happen again.
Staff said they felt they were trusted and empowered to deliver the high standard of care they aspired to. They also reported that they feel well-supported and encouraged, both by colleagues and their manager, and that they get recognised for good work.
The Trust continues to perform well overall in the area of equality and diversity, with the majority of staff reporting that they feel the organisation acts fairly regardless of ethnic background, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or age. However, our ambition to improve this continues, and we are working closely in partnership with our thriving BAME, LGBT+, Disabled and Mind, Health and Wellbeing Staff Networks on developments that strive to make the Trust a great place to work for everyone.
Although scores for questions around staff feeling safe at work have improved significantly compared to last year’s survey, there are still a number of staff reporting violent incidents and abuse from service users. Violence and harassment towards our staff is unacceptable. We are working hard to improve this, using the data from this survey to continue to target our ongoing work reducing violent incidents where it is most needed.
We would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all of our staff for their unrelenting commitment to our patients over the last year. As the months have passed we continue to be in awe of how all of our staff are all pulling together as one team, supporting each other and working towards a common goal; to continue to provide the best possible care for those who need us.
Lynne ShawExecutive Director of Workforce and Organisational Development at CNTW
Lynne added, “We are proud that this teamwork and commitment to safe, high-quality care is reflected in our Staff Survey results. I was especially pleased to see from the survey that morale remains high – despite all the pressures and challenges we’ve faced at work this year, the number of our staff who said they look forward to coming to work at CNTW is higher than ever.
“We also welcome the opportunity to make improvements in areas where this survey has highlighted that we could be doing more. We will be carefully reviewing the detailed results to develop an action plan with our staff networks and trade union colleagues, doing everything we can to continue making CNTW ‘a great place to work.’”