NHS Staff Survey

Last autumn, 4,328 of our Mersey Care colleagues completed the 2023 NHS Staff Survey. The results were published in March and you can view a summary of what they told us in the 2023 Trust results overview.

Division, service line and team results are also available on the BIT. See the attached guide to accessing your results or Access the BIT Reports.

See the attached document.

The NHS Staff Survey takes place annually in October and November.

The People Pulse takes place each quarter, more information can be found on YourSpace.

Our survey provider will now submit our results to the National Staff Survey Coordination Centre for benchmarking (where the data is standardised and weighted). The NHS Staff Survey results are an Official Statistic. This means the survey is run, and its results produced, in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics as set out by the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA). As such, our results will be placed under embargo until March 2024 they will be published on www.nhsstaffsurveys.com/  .

Your information will be kept confidential and be annonymous.

Mersey Care does not have access to the responses/questionnaires or to any personal data (including names and addresses). The report that is sent back to the organisation presents the survey findings in summary form and does not reveal the identity of the staff surveyed.

The NHS Staff Survey is run independently and is done to the highest standards of quality and accuracy.

You may  receive a personalised log in or ID number, theseare used to ensure that reminder emails or letters are only sent to staff who have not already completed the survey and to tell them information such as the NHS trust/organisation/directorate that the person works at. This means that NHS organisations can receive reporting for a particular staff group, directorates, and departments which is essential for planning and implementing improvements. The report that is sent back to the organisation presents the Survey findings in summary form and does not reveal the identity of anyone who took part. To ensure anonymity, results are not provided for any group with nine or fewer responses.

All NHS Organisations are required to use an approved provider to run the survey on their behalf. This provider manages the responses received and keeps them confidential.

At this stage, respondents are not anonymous to the third party, so that reminders can be issued, however they are anonymous to the NHS Organisation.

Reminders are an incredibly important part of the process to ensure the NHS Organisation achieves good response rates, providing reliable representative data ‐ this is only possible if staff are reminded to participate.

When the survey closes and all responses are collated, the responses become anonymous and are processed as per the example below by the third party. The NHS Organisation will still not have access to data in this format.

Then, the  responses are turned into an aggregate dataset, which is used to produce reports for the NHS Organisation as per the below format. Your responses will always be reported in a grouping of 10 or more responses (see more on this below).

A small number of staff in the organisation receive the survey in paper format.

When paper reminders are issued, it is true to say that at a couple of intervals mid‐survey certain people at the Trust would know that a number of staff are yet to respond to the survey. However, by the time the survey closes, the Trust has no way of knowing whether those staff who received a reminder actually responded or not and would certainly have no way of knowing how anyone responded.

The NHS Staff Survey results can be viewed for the Trust as a whole, or as a breakdown report; grouped by Division, Service Line, Team, Staff Group, Pay Band or Demographic information

Reports appear as a grouped number of responses for each question, rather than showing individual responses. For example, see the below table which shows the number of people from the Multi Ethnic Colleague (MEC) Staff Group who indicated they are Satisfied or Very Satisfied to Q4A – How satisfied are you with the opportunities for flexible working patterns.

NB. this screenshot is taken from the national reporting system which uses the language BME. It is acknowledged that in Mersey Care we have chosen to use the language Multi Ethnic Colleague (MEC) and this language is used in our local reporting.

To protect your anonymity, for any breakdown report that is requested, there must be 10 or more people included in the grouping for a report to be produced by the system. Anything smaller will be a null return.

For example:

• • If there are less than 10 colleagues in a team, we would get a null return when requesting a team level report in the reporting system.
  • Reports on staff from a protected characteristic, such as Race, Disability, Sexual Orientation etc. are only possible where there are 10 or more people in the grouping – if there are less than 10, this would result in a null return for that grouping.
  • In a team with 40 colleagues, if 5 have stated that they have a disability, a team report broken down by disability would not be possible, the system would provide a null return.
  • In a team of 20 colleagues, with 8 colleagues who identify as MEC, a team report broken down this way would not be possible, the system would provide a null return.

However, for all of these examples, the responses of these colleagues will be included in all breakdowns where there are 10 or more people in the grouping. For example, the higher levels of reporting like Service Line, Division and Trust reports.

In summary, all responses count! All responses are included in our Trust results and will be included in further breakdowns, where there are 10 or more people in the grouping. The rule of 10 simply means that no one can produce a report on the results for a grouping of less than 10 people.

Participation is not compulsory, but our NHS people are strongly encouraged to use the opportunity to give their opinions and views about the organisation in which they work by completing the questionnaire. This gives each member of staff equal opportunity to have their voice heard.

It is important that as many people as possible complete the questionnaire to get a wide and representative understanding of the voice of our NHS People.

The People Promise sets out, in the words of our NHS people, the things that would most improve the working experience for us all – like health and wellbeing support, opportunities to work flexibly, and to feel we all belong, whatever our background or our job.

The people best placed to provide information against the People Promise are our NHS People through the NHS Staff Survey.

This will be the second year that the NSS will report on the seven elements of the People Promise as well as two longstanding themes: staff engagement and morale. The tailored questions for bank only workers are also aligned to the People Promise.

Everyone’s answers will be used to better understand people’s perspectives when it comes to working for the NHS and where more change is needed.

The NHS Staff Survey collects our NHS people’s views about working in their organisation.

The results are used to improve local working conditions, and ultimately to improve patient care.

The Survey is administered annually so views can be monitored over time. It also allows us to compare the experiences of our NHS people in similar organisations, and to compare the experiences of those in a particular organisation with the national picture.

All NHS trusts are required to participate in the NHS Staff Survey.

All staff, who have worked for Mersey Care since 1 September will be included in that year's survey; those joining after this date cannot participate until the following year. A full list of the criteria for determining eligibility is outlined in the survey guidance available on the Survey documents page.

Staff new to the organisation should answer the questions as best they can in relation to their current job within the organisation.

Bank staff

Bank staff who have been paid in the last six months (up to 1 September) for work or training by NHS organisation directly and do not have a substantive contract with the same organisation are eligible to complete the survey. 

Bank staff who are paid by an external organisation are not eligible.