The NHS Staff Survey

Every NHS trust in England, and many other NHS organisations, sends its staff the annual, confidential NHS Staff Survey. It asks about workload, management, safety, bullying and harassment, whether staff would recommend their organisation as a place to work or be treated, and whether they plan to leave. Results are published for each organisation, which makes it one of the few public, comparable measures of what it is like to work at a particular trust.

Who takes part

All NHS trusts in England take part, along with integrated care boards, some commissioning support units and a range of other NHS bodies. Most trusts survey every member of staff and a few smaller ones use a sample. The survey runs in the autumn, mainly online, with paper copies for staff who do not use a computer at work.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not use the same survey. NHS Scotland uses iMatter, a team-based staff experience tool, and NHS Wales runs its own staff survey. If you work outside England, ask your employer which survey applies.

What it asks

Since the NHS People Promise was introduced, the survey has been organised around its themes, plus measures of staff engagement and morale. The People Promise elements are:

• we are compassionate and inclusive
• we are recognised and rewarded
• we each have a voice that counts
• we are safe and healthy
• we are always learning
• we work flexibly
• we are a team

Within those themes the questions cover whether you have enough staff to do your job properly, whether you have had an appraisal, whether you have experienced violence, bullying or discrimination, how satisfied you are with pay and flexible working, and whether you feel safe raising concerns about patient care.

How confidential it is

An independent contractor runs the survey for NHS England, and your employer does not see individual answers. Results are only reported where enough people in a group have responded to protect anonymity, so in a small team yours may be merged with a larger group.

Free-text comments do go to the employer, usually with identifying details removed. Avoid naming yourself or describing an incident so precisely that you can be recognised. A specific concern about patient safety or wrongdoing needs a different route: your trust’s Freedom to Speak Up guardian, your manager, your union or the whistleblowing procedure. Protected disclosures have legal protection.

What the results show

Results come out as national figures, as benchmark reports comparing each organisation with similar trusts, and as local breakdowns that employers use internally. Over several years the national results have tended to show the same pressure points: staffing levels, workload, pay satisfaction, and violence and abuse from patients and the public in some settings. Scores vary widely between trusts and between staff groups within a trust.

The survey also feeds into national workforce equality standards, which compare the experience of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds and disabled staff with that of other staff.

Using the results when choosing a job

If you are deciding between trusts, spend ten minutes with the published results before an interview. Compare the trust with its benchmark group, not the national average, because acute, mental health, community and ambulance trusts have different patterns.

Questions worth checking in the results:

1. Would staff recommend the organisation as a place to work?
2. Do staff feel there are enough staff to do the job properly?
3. Have staff experienced harassment, bullying or abuse from managers or colleagues?
4. Does the organisation act fairly on career progression?
5. Do staff feel their organisation is committed to helping them balance work and home life?

Then ask about the results at interview. A manager who knows their team’s scores and can say what they changed tells you more than a polished answer about values would. The guide to moving between NHS trusts covers switching employer, and NHS trusts and foundation trusts explains the types of organisation.

What happens after the survey

Each organisation is expected to discuss its results with staff and act on them. In practice that ranges from trust-wide action plans to team-level discussions led by managers, and some trusts publish “you said, we did” summaries. Response rates are a signal too: a low rate can mean staff do not believe anything will change.

A problem that affects you directly, such as bullying or violence at work, needs a formal route as well. The guides to bullying at work and violence and aggression against NHS staff explain them. For support with stress and mental health, see staff wellbeing support in the NHS.

Filling it in

The survey is voluntary and can be completed in work time. Team-level results only appear when enough people respond, and without your team’s answers on record it is much harder for anyone, the union and the board included, to argue for change.