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Press release: NHS Employers' response to RCN survey Working Well - At Breaking Point28 Feb 2006 In response to the survey results, Julian Topping, Head of Workplace Health and Employment at NHS Employers said: 'We know that there is an issue with workplace stress and bullying and harassment in the NHS but we are working with trusts to tackle it. The NHS has introduced a number of initiatives such as Improving Working Lives to try to give staff more work/life balance and to reduce the pressure particularly on nurses by introducing flexible working, changes to rostering and childcare provision, for example. There are already small signs of improvement, such as in last year's staff survey, but this is a long term-programme. We launched a stress campaign last year to help both NHS employers and their staff to recognise stress and deal with it effectively and we have been overwhelmed by the response. In particular we are working with the HSE to run workshops later this year to help trusts identify the problem areas and start to address them. Bullying and harassment is also high on our agenda for this year. Our healthy workplaces team continues to work with NHS organisations to ensure the culture is one where bullying is not tolerated. This work includes the development of new guidance for managers on how to identify bullying behaviour and how to prevent it which will be launched later this spring. We'll also be working with trusts to help them implement bullying and harassment policies and providing them with a framework for dealing with any incidents among their staff. The last staff survey results showed a small improvement in the number of staff experiencing physical violence, harassment, bullying or abuse on the previous year and we hope to see a similar improvement in the results when they are published shortly. These results will enable us to identify particular areas where we can develop our work programme to provide support to trusts.'
Notes for editors
* Under NHS Employers' stress campaign, How Are You Doing?, packs containing awareness posters and booklets were sent to every NHS trust in England. Contact detailsThe press office provides a comprehensive service to keep journalists informed about the work of NHS Employers. If you have a media enquiry, please contact the press office team:
For out of hours media enquiries, please contact the duty press officer on 07880 500726. Last reviewed 2 Mar 2006 |
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