The 2022 NHS Staff Survey – Your voice counts

Colleagues are now receiving their 2022 NHS Staff Survey.

We recognise the level of change we have gone through as an organisation over the past year, and how hard we have all worked during these changes to improve our services for the people and communities we serve. Of course, this work is driven by you, our fantastic staff and we want to make sure that we create the very best possible conditions for you to feel that Mersey Care is a great place to work and is an organisation that responds to your needs in the best way possible.

But we can only do this properly when we hear your experiences of working at Mersey Care. Your feedback helps us to support you in your roles and to meet your personal and professional needs with our current priorities and strategic direction. We are therefore asking all colleagues across the Trust to take the time to complete the survey, fully and honestly, as it is important that we understand your real experiences and hear what you have to say. It’s sometimes an overused phrase, but I can assure you that your voice really does count.

At the time of last year’s survey, we were at the early changes of our “Together we are Mersey Care” plans. This year we have moved forward with our new operating model from 1 August 2022. This is the first opportunity for your voice to be heard as we start to work within our new divisional model.

Your views from the last survey helped to shape our work this year:

• You told us that you were feeling increased pressure on your workload because of staff numbers and resources. As a result:
  • We have invested significantly to improve our IT infrastructure and replace old equipment and implement new systems. In excess of £10 million has been invested in digital infrastructure and enhanced digital solutions over last 5 years, plus more than £5 million during the same period to ensure our staff have the right PCs, laptops and other digital kit to support them in their roles
  • Through our organisational change programme, “Together we are Mersey Care”, we are working hard to bring big improvements to how we deliver services, which will have a positive impact on your workload, removing some of the delays and inefficiencies you currently experience whilst doing your job
  • We have started to make improvements to our recruitment systems and processes, with more to come, which should reduce your administrative burden and help to relieve some of the pressure you have told us that you feel.
• Flexible working was another area of concern for many, so we have started our hybrid working project and will look to formalise the model across the organisation. We have introduced Eroster which should allow shift coverage and annual leave to be more easily managed
• The significant differences in employee experience we hear from BAME colleagues concerns us. We recently had a major re-launch of our Anti Racism Perfect Care Goal for zero acceptance of racism, discrimination, and unacceptable behaviours from and towards our workforce and our patients/service users, carers and families. We now have a clear strategic plan and overwhelming sign up for actions to develop this across the organisation
• We have refreshed our PACE documentation based on your feedback to improve the quality of appraisal so that they feel more meaningful. We have also updated the Learning and Development Plan within PACE, so it is much easier to discuss development opportunities with your manager. Additionally, our Scope for Growth talent conversations have been introduced across the Trust  
• We are proud that you have told us that you feel safe to report incidents at Mersey Care. We continue to be open and transparent, telling patients and relatives when things have not gone as expected and saying sorry when errors have occurred. Across Mersey Care our most reported incidents continue to be within the ‘low’ or ‘no harm’ categories. This provides a clear indication that the Trust continues to have a consistent level of reporting, demonstrating a safety focussed and learning culture
• We are committed to being a learning organisation, reviewing where things have not gone as expected, where we have not met your expectations or when errors have occurred. Our learning framework is supported by the Patient Safety Team serious incident clinics, complaint clinics, claims and inquest clinics - all of which have been introduced to provide peer support and guidance, ensuring learning is meaningful and shared across the wider Trust
• We have held a number of listening events across the organisation to help shape and improve the staff experience and these, along with our staff survey results from 2021, have led to our refreshed People Plan
• We offer a range of training and development opportunities to all staff such as our internal leadership programmes, a programme of in-house training sessions for role specific training, secondments, apprenticeships, shadowing, and regular clinical supervision. Additionally, this year we have accessed £1.4 million of external funding from Health Education England to offer continuous professional development and training
• We continue to invest in estates and continue our new building programme, and over the past 7 years we have invested over £300 million in our estate so that we have bright, modern environments in which to be cared for and in which to work. Our estates programmes have won numerous national awards and are a testament to the importance our working environment holds at the Trust.

In the survey we want to hear from you, whatever your role or background, so that the results reflect the experience of everyone. By taking part, you can help us to understand what it’s really like to work here and help us to improve Mersey Care both now and in the future. The more people we hear from, the stronger the data and the more clarity we have over what action is needed to improve. You really do have the opportunity to tell us what you think and we encourage every one of our almost 11,000 colleagues across the Trust to do so.

All your responses are anonymous and confidential. Please be assured that no one from your team or service, or the NHS, will be able to see your survey or be able to identify individual responses. All responses to the survey are handled by Quality Health on behalf of the organisation. Quality Health is an independent organisation employed by the NHS to gather views and their contract does not allow them to share any personal data about you as a respondent.

The majority of staff will be sent their survey by email. Please look out for an email from insightandfeedback@iqvia.com

We look forward to receiving the results in early spring and hearing your views.

Joe Rafferty                       Amanda Oates                                       Ian Raven

Chief Executive                 Executive Director of Workforce             Staff Side Chair