NHS staff survey

A key element of national work on staff engagement is further development of the NHS staff survey. A national working group, bringing together representatives from the Department of Health (DH), NHS Employers, the NHS trade unions, staff survey contractors, Aston University and the Healthcare Commission is taking forward this project.

The national NHS staff survey has been carried out in its present form for the past five years. It provides the most reliable source of national and local data on how staff feel about working in the NHS and what staff experience in their working lives.

The group's immediate priority is to scope a programme of work to raise awareness and maximise the impact of the NHS staff survey at all levels.

The results of the 2007 NHS staff survey were published in April 2008, showing improvements in some areas such as the number of staff undergoing appraisal and numbers experiencing stress and violence.

However, employers, staff organisations and the Department of Health are unanimous that more needs to be done to secure further improvements. The Social Partnership Forum has also agreed that the priority areas for national joint working will be:

• appraisals
• stress
• violence
• bullying and harassment
• employee engagement.