Northumbria Healthcare maintains top performance in national NHS staff survey

The NHS Staff Survey results show that staff morale at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is the highest of any NHS trust in the country.

In addition, 93% of Northumbria Healthcare staff feel that their role makes a difference to patients/service users, 89% agreed that the care of patients/service users is the trust’s top priority and 92% said the organisation acts fairly with regard to career progression/promotion regardless of ethnic background, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or age.

These responses and those to the dozens of other questions provided by the sample of randomly selected staff saw the organisation come out on top in the acute and combined acute and community trust category, based on the survey carried out in late 2021.

Its response rate of 80% was the highest in the country in its category, with the results showing that Northumbria Healthcare has the lowest proportion of staff considering leaving or looking for jobs elsewhere and the highest who would recommend the trust as a place to work.

The annual survey, completed by all NHS trusts in England, focuses on nine themes and provides a detailed insight into how staff feel about culture, their wellbeing, levels of engagement and motivation, equality, diversity and inclusion, safety and quality of care.

For the 2021 edition, the survey was updated to align with the NHS People Promise, which aims to reflect what matters most to staff and what would make the greatest difference in improving their experience in the workplace.

Across the nine main themes in the new survey, Northumbria Healthcare has the highest scores in its category nationally in five – ‘We are compassionate and inclusive’, ‘We each have a voice that counts’, ‘We are safe and healthy’, staff engagement and morale.

In three other themes, its overall scores (out of 10) were also 0.1 off the highest nationally – ‘We are recognised and rewarded’, ‘We are always learning’, ‘We are a team’. In the final theme – ‘We work flexibly’, the trust’s score was still above the national average.

Chief executive, Sir James Mackey, said: “I am absolutely delighted that once again our staff survey results reveal such a level of support from our own people for the trust and what we do.

“This is even more pleasing as we know just how hard everyone has worked during a relentless two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. Given this ongoing pressure, it is no surprise that our staff engagement and morale scores are slightly down on the previous year, while remaining among the best in the country.

“There is a wide range of evidence that highlights how good staff and patient experience go hand in hand, which is why making sure our staff are happy and supported is so crucial.

“We know there is always room for improvement and we will continue to work with our teams to improve our offer to ensure we support staff well-being as best we can.

You can find out more about working for Northumbria Healthcare at https://www.yournorthumbriacareer.co.uk or see its current vacancies at http://jobs.northumbria.nhs.uk