The Healthcare 100 - top 20 NHS organisations
Click on the link to find out more about the organisation. The full 100 list can be viewed on the Healthcare 100 website.You can find out more about the top performing PCTs, acute trusts, mental health and ambulance trusts from our Healthcare 100 homepage.
1. South Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust
2. NHS South of Tyne and Wear PCTs provider services
3. NHS Tees
4. Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
5. The Walton Centre Foundation Trust
6. Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals Foundation Trust
7. Derbyshire Community Health Services
8. The Royal Marsden Foundation Trust
9. NHS Derbyshire County
10. Yeovil District Hospital Foundation Trust
11. Burton Hospitals Foundation Trust
12. Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust
13. NHS Doncaster
14. Portsmouth Community and Mental Health Services
15. North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust
16. Salford Royal Foundation Trust
17. Aintree University Hospitals Foundation Trust
18. Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust
19. Stockport Foundation Trust
20. The Whittington Hospital Trust
See our overall winners page for more information about South Essex.
It’s been a tough year for many provider sides of primary care trusts with great uncertainty about their future. But this organisation has come through this period with flying colours and the support and even admiration of its staff.
They praise the “emphasis on leadership at all levels” and the regular feedback and training opportunities they are offered. “The organisation is dedicated to staff development and new/innovative ideas,” says one, while another says “I have been given the tools and support to truly measure and improve the service I manage”.
The organisation has evolved from three PCTs that shared an integrated management team; it is well advanced in taking services out of hospital and offering care at home, creating challenging but satisfying jobs for staff.
Leadership is also seen as important; the organisation supports it at every level, saying: “Despite continuous organisational change, reshaping plus a range of policy changes, staff are ‘can do’ and strive to achieve the best quality patient experience. This has been done through staff involvement in all changes, development at every level and supporting staff to see and lead the range of changes to meet the local and individual patient level experience... the staff are just the best."
It has also gone to great lengths to keep staff with long term illnesses or requiring drawn out medical treatment at work, making adjustments to ease their return to the workplace.
This is the top performing commissioner only PCT in our Healthcare 100 – and it puts its money where its mouth is by investing around £1,000 per employee per year in personal and professional development.
NHS Tees is the umbrella organisation covering four PCTs (Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton on Tees and Hartlepool), which all share a chief executive.
Organisational development manager Barbara Broadbent says: “The investment in our staff is investment to save. Our goal is to keep people here from induction through to retirement.”
It has recently set up a programme for emerging leaders and tries to spot “talent” from within to ensure everyone is developed to their full potential. As well as developing emerging leaders, it has helped staff in bands 1-4 enhance their qualifications through NVQs.
“We are a relatively small organisation so we can make our working relationship and communications with staff much more personal, engendering a focus on valuing staff,” it says. “Through this approach we more readily encourage and motivate staff to get actively involved in decision making and idea generating around potential improvements to services we commission. We also find that things happen quicker in our small organisation.”
Staff certainly value its small friendly nature; one employee says letters from the chief executive are addressed to people by name not “Dear colleague”.
And there is a feeling that they are engaged and can affect what the organisation does. “I have the opportunity to influence the vision, values and strategic direction of the organisation,” says one while another says they feel “empowered to have and take forward ideas.”
There’s a recognition that the changes of the last few years have been difficult but that it “wants to develop into a great commissioner” and has an “open, fair culture”. There’s also a lot of praise for managers and teams.
Staff engagement and development are at the heart of this trust’s strategy to improve its services, delivered from 70 sites across the south of London.
It has invested in e-learning, moved contracts between various higher education institutes to ensure the best possible quality, and sees staff training and development as crucial in recruitment and retention.
Many staff praise the specialist and generic training, and the teamwork and communication from managers. “I feel proud to work for an organisation with such clear and positive values – where the patient is at the heart of decision making,” says one.
Staff engagement is also a priority. “We have spent a lot of time developing really good working relationships with our trade union colleagues,” says Simon Hart, human resources director.
Focus groups have teased out staff concerns, and the trust is developing a staff engagement plan, praised by the national Social Partnerhsip Forum as an example of best practice. The trust makes its quality of services a selling point. Mr Hart sees staff ability to listen, talk and react with patients as crucial to that.
Rated best mental health services provider in 2009 by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, it is consistently rated as excellent or good by the Care Quality Commission. In the 2008 NHS staff survey it was rated best or second best of all mental health and learning disability trusts in 15 categories.
This specialist trust has “translated” the NHS Constitution into a document designed for its own constituency. The “Walton Way” was drawn up with input from staff and patients and provides a value based approach to the organisation’s work.
The trust has put considerable emphasis on partnership working with staff and has involved staff representatives in a number of initiatives across the trust, from discussions about the challenges it will face over the next few years to jointly handling our employee survey! Human resources director Amanda Oates says it is important for the organisation “to walk the walk” on employee engagement and involvement, rather than just “talking the talk”.
This is beginning to pay off with the highest response rate in three years for the national staff survey. Ms Oates also has an open door policy so staff can come in for a conversation – or just a moan.
The trust has just launched “dignity champions” and has increased its emphasis on this element of care. But it won’t stop there: “There’s an awful lot we want to do,” says Ms Oates. “But we want to do it through and with our staff. It is lovely to walk the corridors here but we are not complacent about it.”
A strong focus on “deep” employee engagement across the organisation makes this trust stands out from the crowd. Staff know its visions and values, and how it expects them to behave – through the “Blackpool way”.
Exit interviews are used to aid with staff retention – as an example, the stress management group recommended the use of open questioning as a method to tease out more information that could prove useful. One employee says: “Staff praise the ‘Blackpool way’, which means continuously improving the performance of the organisation through communication, management style, recognition.”
More than seven in 10 staff work less than full time, a sign of the organisation’s commitment to work/life balance. There are plenty of professional development opportunities, with more than 400 leaders across the organisation, all of whom have 360-degree appraisals. Staff engagement is a priority and provides many ideas on improving services.
“We believe that to be an excellent service provider we also need to be an excellent employer,” says this trust that aims to create a positive culture. Staff praise extensive training and development opportunities, and the sports and leisure facilities on offer. But what shines through is the satisfaction all staff (frontline and behind the scenes) get from providing a world class service to cancer patients and their relatives. One employee described this as “the sense that this is a special place”.
The annual staff survey is seen as a key performance tool in this primary care trust, which also has all staff meeting with the executive team every three months. It seeks to develop staff by having a talent management tracking process in place.
It also has a well-being strategy, supported by a steering group. “Staff engagement and wellbeing is of a high priority,” it says. More than 60 per cent of staff would recommend it as a place to work. All 80 leaders have been through a 360-degree appraisal in the past year to build an engaging leadership style and culture.
Accessible directors and senior managers who respect the opinions of staff help make this a popular place to work, with low turnover. New staff are quickly integrated with what has been described as an ethos of mutual respect and working as a united team. Staff say it is friendly – “in passing everyone smiles or says hello” – and their contribution is valued. “Very good daily communication from management downwards,” says one.
It was in the top 10 per cent of trusts in the annual staff survey, and believes in empowering staff to bring about improvements for patients.
Low absence rates and below average turnover are two indications that this trust is a good place to work. It aims to develop staff internally and has a system for internal succession planning: it uses exit interviews to identify potential problems in a work area and to confirm that succession planning is working and staff are moving on, having developed.
It also works hard to accommodate people who are or have become disabled, making workplace adjustments for nine members of staff over the last year and employing a switchboard operator with mental disabilities.
Openness and partnership working are hallmarks of this well regarded trust. Chief executive officer Mike Cooke holds open sessions with staff and there is strong service user and carer input into staff selection and service improvement.
The trust has also made significant adjustments to working hours and practices to accommodate staff who have been diagnosed with a variety of conditions. Training and development opportunities are good and staff praise the working atmosphere – “we work hard but there are also opportunities to laugh,” says one.
Staff benefit from a wide range of flexible working options. NHS Doncaster has good industrial relations, a high level of staff involvement and has seen its staff survey results improve this year.
It uses feedback when staff leave to inform a review of roles and job descriptions. Employees may also get the chance to undertake secondments with other organisations.
A running club, pilates and yoga sessions are just some of the incentives for staff in Portsmouth to live a healthy life. The organisation has recently merged with Southampton Community Healthcare to become Solent Healthcare. Staff are supportive, and are closely involved with everything that is done both strategically and operationally.
Disabled staff have been helped to stay in work – a nurse with back problems was moved to an administrative role but enabled to still share her clinical expertise with others, for example. Staff praise managers for maintaining the level of consultation and involvement in difficult times.
A range of benefits await staff at this trust including mediation and counselling services. An improving working lives group meets monthly, addressing items raised in the staff survey, as well as health and wellbeing issues.
The trust has also developed ways of recognising the success and achievement of staff members. “We believe in engaging staff, enabling them to feel part of the trust decision making processes, and their engagement in communications forums. We offer continuous development and support throughout their careers,” it says.
“A trust that staff are proud to work for, greeting each other with a smile” is how this organisation describes working life in Salford. As a teaching trust, it puts great emphasis on development and training. It also makes extensive use of leaver surveys, saying they are of paramount importance and facilitate change. Salford Royal is one of the country’s top performing trusts. Staff who have illnesses and disabilities have been helped to remain in work through changed hours and more flexible working practices.
Staff engagement is a strength of this large trust, which has used Social Partnership Fund money to cascade partnership working through the organisation. Staff say there are good opportunities to move up the ladder and appreciate the “honesty and transparency shown by the board.” “I feel my organisation values my work and recognises my personal commitment to my role,” says one employee.
With more than 17,000 applications received a year, this is a popular trust to work for. It has a string of awards and offers staff fringe benefits including law surgeries for family and elder care issues, and services to aid relaxation and well-being. Staff say they are encouraged to progress, and there is much praise for family friendly working practices and the opportunities for flexible working. The chief executive is an excellent leader with a clear vision for the organisation, says one employee.
Aiming to be the “employer of choice” locally, this trust celebrates the achievements and hard work of staff with a number of special events each year, including a gala evening. “We involve staff in decision making to enable them to feel engaged and valued,” it says. “Staff can expect opportunities to learn and develop, support from their manager, to be treated with dignity and respect and to make a real difference to patients.”
The Whittington says “shared friendship and mutual respect” among staff is the bedrock of its excellence. Staff say they can influence decision making, that senior managers are “visible and approachable” and there is excellent communication within the hospital. Many work in mutually supportive teams and there is much praise for the friendliness of the organisation – almost like “a cottage hospital in the middle of London,” says one.