Health & Social Care Staff Experience Survey 2023

Experience as an Individual

Results are aggregated for each question presented under the heading ‘As an Individual’.

All components within Experience as an Individual have increased from 2022 by either 1 or 2 points, as they did from 2021 to 2022. All scores are now at or above those seen in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highest scores are given for clarity of role and being treated with dignity and respect. There is greatest room for improvement in staff feeling involved in decisions and that their ideas will be acted on.

Almost nine out of ten staff agree or strongly agree that they are clear about their duties and responsibilities. Other components with very high scores are being treated with dignity and respect and being treated fairly and consistently.

Boards

Full Board data is included in the iMatter 2023 Data file^[9]. The range of scores across Boards for each component varies from 27 points for ‘I am given time and resources to support my learning growth’ to 9 points for ‘I am clear about my duties and responsibilities’

• ‘I am given time and resources to support my learning growth’, highest score is 83 in NHS Education for Scotland and the lowest score is 56 in Scottish Ambulance Service.
• ‘I am clear about my duties and responsibilities’ highest score is 89 in NHS Ayrshire & Arran and NHS 24, while the lowest score is 80 in Public Health Scotland.

Most Boards have seen increases in most or all measures within Experience as an Individual. NHS Western Isles has achieved improvement in all measures within Experience as an Individual, with the largest increases in:

• I get the information I need to do my job well, up 6 points to 84 this year
• I am given time and resources to support my learning growth, up 5 points to 75
• I have sufficient support to do my job well, up 5 points to 81

NHS Orkney have increased five of the twelve components within Experience as an Individual, by 3 points, 4 by two points and three by 1 point. This reflects the top organisational priorities launched recently within the Board:

• “Staff health and wellbeing - we are investing in a new Employee Assistance Service, including mental health first aid and psychological support for staff, as well as legal and financial support.
• Valuing and recognising staff - we are bringing back Long Service Awards, recognising retirements and staff awards.
• Involving staff in decision-making - starting with more clinical input in decisions via our new Senior Leadership Team (SLT) which is now in place. This will follow with quarterly extended SLT meetings followed by review of operational governance which will put staff voices front and centre.
• Listening to and acting on staff feedback - a 12-month programme of how we listen to and act on staff feedback is under development so that we can act on more real-time feedback, with improved communications and forums for listening in place with the CEO and Executive Team.
• Leading with kindness and living our values – we will have a real focus on values and behaviours and the ‘how’ we do things, including how we treat each other, recognising we have more to do here and need to be much more consistent. And we will have much more focus on leading with kindness and demonstrating visible and authentic leadership. Kindness and respect start with how we treat one another as colleagues.” NHS Orkney, Chief Executive

NHS 24 has seen decline in several measures, in particular:

• I am treated fairly and consistently, down 3 points to 78
• I am confident my ideas and suggestions are listened to and acted on, both down 3 points to 67 and 63 respectively

Team Stories can highlight how individual, focused actions, can improve the environment in which staff work:

“We didn’t have a space to call our own for storing equipment, or dedicated desk space, as we’re fully agile. This means that equipment is often stored in our cars as we go back and forth to homes and clinics, which is not ideal for staff as we’re already taking other things, such as our laptops, out and about, so it’s a lot to consider for each trip.

Amazingly, we’ve secured a large double cupboard at the Centre, which is solely for our team, and we can easily access it to pick up just the bits and pieces we need, and store the rest. This is only a small thing but has gone a long way to making the team feel that they are valued, visible and that their needs are being met by the HSCP.” NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Advance Nurse Practitioner Team, East Dunbartonshire HSCP

Following a wish-list suggestion to have George Clooney making coffee.

“On Monday morning George arrived (albeit it is a cardboard cut-out, as he’s a very busy man) and a Nespresso coffee machine and coffee pods. It made us all laugh and as a Nurse in The NHS for almost 40 years I still find laughter the best medicine I know. It still makes us all smile every morning when we go in to the kitchen and see George he has been a very welcome addition to an already very positive workplace.” South Ayrshire HSCP, NHS Ayrshire & Arran

In Healthcare Improvement Scotland, ‘I am given the time and resources to support my learning growth’ and ‘I feel involved in decisions relating to my job, have both declined 4 points to 72 and 74 respectively.

NHS Golden Jubilee has achieved a 4 point increase in ‘I feel appreciated for the work I do’ and ‘I am given time and resources to support my learning growth’ to 75 and 74 respectively in 2023.

Many iMatter teams are developing and sharing learning resources to support teams and activity within their Board and across organisations to share best practice. For example, the iMatter eLearning developed by NHS Fife has been adapted and is offered at a national level for all boards to access via Turas Learn. A Team Story from NHS Forth Valley illustrates how different solutions can be introduced to support staff in their roles and to develop their skills further:

“We have fortnightly staff meetings to discuss all matters within the team. The staff are excellent at sharing their learning and stories at these meetings.

We decided to introduce peer learning – the staff all picked another member of staff within the team to shadow during face to face health assessments. They chose staff members with different skill sets to learn from. This improved knowledge and understanding in many aspects of the assessment from clinical skills, mental wellbeing skills, social interaction, communication skills, employability and admin skills, to working with individuals with learning disabilities, young people, asylum seekers, justice service users and refugees.

This has worked well, the service continues to build and go from strength to strength with help from our HSCP colleagues and other partners throughout Forth Valley.” NHS Forth Valley Keep Well Team

NHS Forth Valley Audiology Team has taken a pro-active approach to ensuring staff are confident in their roles, that their ideas are listened to, and that they feel involved in decisions:

“Since December 2022 the team has closed its doors on the last Tuesday afternoon of each month and dedicated the afternoon to training.

TURAS forms the first part of the afternoon, allowing staff to catch up on mandatory training. The staff meeting follows this session, allowing staff to have more regular input into decisions and share ideas. The day also has a training need, so far this year we have had training from many of our Hearing Aid companies coming to visit, as well as our Health and Wellbeing team where we all joined in with some mindfulness (this resulted in our Wellbeing Wall in Stirling!)

This has vastly increased our capacity to meet and learn, and the team has come on miles as a result.

We recently were announced as the British Academy of Audiology (BAA) Team of the Year 2023 because of the work we have achieved.” NHS Forth Valley Audiology Team

Staff Groupings

For seven of the components Local Authority staff score 1 point higher than NHSScotland staff. NHSScotland Staff score higher than Local Authority staff by 1 point on two components:

• I am clear about my duties and responsibilities (NHSScotland 88, Local Authority 87)
• I get the information I need to do my job well (NHSScotland 82, Local Authority 81)

Details of scores for each of the individual Staff Groupings within NHSScotland and Local Authority are included in the iMatter 2023 Data file^[10].

• Within NHSScotland staff it is typically Ambulance Services staff who rate lowest and Senior Managers who rate highest.
• Within Local Authority staff Older People Services tend to rate the lowest and Senior Managers the highest.

The range of scores across all staff groupings is greatest for ‘I feel involved in decisions relating to my job’ at 28 points, from 58 among NHSScotland Ambulance Services to 86 among Local Authority Senior Managers. The smallest range is 6 points for ‘I am clear about my duties and responsibilities’, where the lowest score is 85 for Health Science Services and the highest score is 91 for Local Authority Senior Managers.