Staff at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals believe their workplace is safer, supportive and focussed on patient care, the annual NHS Staff Survey has revealed.
Results of the 2021 NHS Staff Survey, the largest survey of its kind carried out across thousands of NHS organisations across the country, are now available.
In total, a record 59% of staff at the Trust took the time to have their say despite the pressures of the pandemic. This means a total of 4,311 staff, the highest level of engagement the organisation has ever recorded and up from 49% in the 2020 survey, completed the annual benchmark.
Trust Chief Executive, Trish Armstrong-Child, who joined Blackpool Teaching Hospitals in September last year, said the results show clear improvements particularly relating to staff feeling safe in the workplace, but acknowledged there was still work to be done.
Figures show that 64% of staff would recommend the organisation as a place to work, 65% would be happy with the standard of care if a friend or relative needed treatment, and 77% believe care of patients / service users is the organisation’s top priority.
Trish Armstrong-Child said: “It’s so encouraging to see so many people taking time out to let us know how they feel. The Staff Survey results are a great way to benchmark ourselves against other NHS organisations, but to also get a real feel for how people are feeling within the organisation.
“We can see areas we must learn from – in particular related to the amount of additional hours staff are working and the way we carry out appraisals. We are committed to building on these results and sharing them across the Trust, focussing on the comments we received as part of the survey process as much as in the figures, and learning from them across all our divisions and teams.
“Following last year’s results, we took steps to make some major changes across the Trust, establishing a network of Health and Wellbeing Champions and introducing conflict resolution sessions. We know that we remain on an improvement journey, but it is heartening to see so many passionate colleagues working for an organisation they believe is really making a difference to the people they care for.”
This year the themes of the survey have been brought in line with the national NHS ‘People Promise’ – a pledge that everyone in the NHS will help improve the experience of working in the organisation.
These themes 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, Staff engagement, Morale.
In each of these themes, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals scored higher than the national average except one – the theme of We are always learning – where the Trust scored a little lower than the average.
The survey helps to benchmark performance across the NHS and help measure staff satisfaction across the range of themes.
The national results can be seen here.