Building on success in staff engagement

Results and benefits

SWFT was recognised as the top NHS employer among general acute and community health providers in England in the 2024 NHS Staff Survey. This builds on the trust’s achievement as HSJ Trust of the Year 2024, where judges highlighted staff engagement, inclusivity, and leadership.

The trust has seen sustained improvements in staff engagement, including ranking fourth nationally for recommended as a place to work. Vacancy rates have dropped from 7.96 per cent to 3.27 per cent, turnover is now below 10 per cent, and there’s been increased uptake of flexible working and wellbeing initiatives. Staff consistently report feeling valued, supported, and empowered to contribute to improvement.

As a member of the Foundation Group, a partnership with George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, Wye Valley NHS Trust and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, all four organisations face similar challenges and have a common strategic vision for how these can be solved. 

The Foundation Group model retains the identity of each individual trust while strengthening the opportunities available to secure a sustainable future for local health services. With over 20,000 staff across the four NHS trusts, SWFT benefits from system-level learning and resilience. All Foundation Group members improved their score in the We are always learning theme in the latest national Staff Survey.

What the organisation faced

SWFT provides services across four hospitals in South Warwickshire and delivers out-of-hospital community services to the whole of Warwickshire serving a population of more than half a million from various clinics.

Like many NHS providers, the trust faced growing operational pressures post-pandemic: increased demand, workforce challenges, and the ongoing need to deliver high-quality care. At the same time, staff expected more flexible, inclusive, and responsive working.

Balancing service delivery with meaningful staff engagement and retention, especially in a high performing, improvement focused organisation, presented challenges.

What the organisation did

Staff engagement is prioritised by senior leaders at SWFT, recognising that engaging staff at all levels through a number of communication methods is essential. 

The latest NHS Staff Survey results, for substantive staff, taken from 2,900 returned questionnaires in autumn 2024, saw the trust ranked higher in comparison to the national average and an improvement on its 2023 scores, across all seven People Promise elements and two themes of engagement and morale. The organisation was the highest scoring overall in its benchmarking group of 122 acute and acute community trusts.   

SWFT made significant steps to improve flexibility for its workforce. Reflecting on its ongoing efforts to be a very flexible employer, aligning with the long-term strategy to enhance staff health, wellbeing, and work-life balance.

Key focuses over the last 12 months to enhance flexible working practices, which have led to significant progress for SWFT, include:

• streamlined recruitment processes, using digital innovations to speed up hiring and enhance workforce flexibility
• redesigned flexible working and agile working policies to reflect the needs of a modern workforce
• flexible rostering rolled out to all inpatient areas at SWFT (23 wards), increasing staff shift requests from six to ten per roster
• rosters published with eight weeks' notice instead of six to support better work-life balance by providing staff more flexibility over their schedules
• improved flexible working arrangement records to improve monitoring to drive progress.

To support flexible working in the short and medium term, a flexible working group was created that included several representatives from different departments across the organisation. Its purpose is to monitor the progress and support new work streams surrounding flexible working. As well as this, the organisation's flexible working policy has recently been updated to reflect the current climate, and to further guide and support managers and staff applying for and be granted flexible working where possible.

SWFT has a feature on its staff portal where staff can submit anonymous feedback through a form. This is called the Rumour Mill and it serves as an internal communications resource where staff can anonymously ask questions that are difficult to resolve through standard channels. Coordinated by the communications team, the Rumour Mill receives an average of 165 submissions per month from staff members. This plays a vital role in transparency and recognising staff contributions.

A monthly Open to Change forum invites are sent to all staff to learn about improvement projects. Improvement is celebrated with a dedicated Foundation Group improvement week. All staff and place and system partners are invited. Across the week, there are multiple online sessions throughout each day for staff to attend for free. These sessions provide a great opportunity for staff to gain practical improvement skills, discover impactful projects, and connect with like-minded colleagues.

At SWFT, Improvement Week brings about positive change for staff to implement in their own work areas. During the 2025 event there were 20 sessions, which were attended by 1,856 people, a 47 per cent increase in attendance from 2024. 96 per cent reported they are planning to apply the lesson learned from Improvement Week, and 61 per cent reported an increase in confidence in improvement due to the sessions. 

SWFT runs regular Dragon’s Den-style sessions where staff can showcase and present their ideas, which can be big or small. Support and guidance to take ideas to the next stage of development are then followed up. In April 2024 there were 18 pitches to Dragons’ Den.

Health and wellbeing is also prioritised across SWFT with several work streams ongoing. This includes applying quality service improvement and redesign to the health and wellbeing service as well as shaping occupational health and wellbeing using auditable best practice guidance. In a research partnership with University of Warwick (UoW), SWFT and the UoW have begun a longitudinal wellbeing study to evaluate the impact of staff health and wellbeing services in order to better support employees at the trust, informing wider practice within healthcare. 

The equality, diversity and inclusion Team (EDI) rolled out cultural competency training in March 2024, and commenced psychological safety training in August 2024, the embedding of this at the organisation continues as a key action for 2025.

An anti-discrimination toolkit has been in place since March 2024 and the anti-discrimination helpline launched in July 2024. Staff listening sessions, facilitated by the EDI team with Freedom to Speak up (FTSU) and network colleagues have continued across the year. 

There have been a number of key engagement days led by staff, quarterly check-ins with internationally recruited allied health professionals (AHPs) and nursing staff, and the EDI team have provided safe spaces for those within their preceptorship period (nurses and AHPs) to talk openly at such a crucial early stage in their career. Staff networks continue to be well attended and supportive of staff, and the trust recently launched a new network for colleagues with neurodivergent needs.

Overcoming obstacles

Initial challenges included a lack of consistency in how staff experience was owned and actioned across divisions. By shifting to a divisional ownership model for the NHS Staff Survey, uptake improved and accountability increased.

Embedding flexible working required cultural and operational shifts, led from the top. Transparent communication and visible leadership helped build confidence and sustain momentum.

By making engagement part of the daily routine, rather than a repeated campaign, the trust ensured long-term traction and trust among its workforce.

Take away tips

Leadership: senior leaders must visibly prioritise staff experience and act on what they hear.

Flexibility: investing in policies, systems and teams to support flexible working improves wellbeing and retention.

Engagement: empower divisions and teams to take ownership of survey results and follow-up actions.

Feedback: tools like the Rumour Mill build trust when backed by transparency.

Celebrate: recognition and improvement events help embed a positive, proactive culture.

Collaborate: partnerships across trusts and systems accelerate learning and resilience.

SWFT has a strong foundation of engaged and highly motivated staff and a culture of continuous improvement and innovation, that enables the trust to drive productivity, deliver high quality care, and support partners across health, social care and the voluntary sector.

Contact

For more information, please contact Donna Elliott, people and workforce business partner at SWFT via donna.elliott@swft.nhs.uk.