iMatter Health & Social Care Staff Experience Survey 2024
Independent report by Webropol providing detailed information and analysis of staff experience in health and social care across Scotland. This report contains data from the 2024 iMatter survey.
Action Plans
Action Plans are a vital part of the iMatter process, where staff feedback is reviewed and actions are agreed to address staff concerns and opportunities for improvement.
Across Health and Social Care there has been an increase of 1 pp in the proportion of teams completing Action Plans.
The level of completion of Action Plans varies considerably across Boards. Among the National Boards, the highest percentage of teams completing Action Plans is 99% achieved by NHS National Services Scotland. Both Public Health Scotland and Healthcare Improvement Scotland have increased considerably the proportion of team completing Action Plans up 25 and 22 pps to 88% and 75% respectively. NHS Golden Jubilee has a notably lower Action Plan completion rate than last year, down 16 points.
Among the Geographic Boards the highest level of Action Plan completion is in NHS Orkney and NHS Dumfries and Galloway, increasing the percentage of teams completing Action Plans by 11 pps to 69% and 55% respectively in 2024. NHS Highland continues to have the lowest level of Action Plan completion (31%).
| Teams completing an Action Plan | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Movement from 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health and Social Care | 43% | 56% | 58% | 42% | 47% | 55% | 56% | +1 |
| National Boards (Patient-facing) | ||||||||
| NHS Golden Jubilee | 63% | 71% | 52% | 74% | 59% | 72% | 56% | -16 |
| NHS 24 | 14% | 66% | 54% | 58% | 56% | 62% | 92% | +30 |
| Scottish Ambulance Service | 72% | 86% | 82% | 41% | 62% | 71% | 65% | -6 |
| The State Hospital | 78% | 55% | 79% | 59% | 65% | 53% | 47% | -6 |
| National Boards (Support) | ||||||||
| Healthcare Improvement Scotland | 72% | 89% | 73% | 44% | 61% | 53% | 75% | +22 |
| NHS Education for Scotland | 73% | 82% | 93% | 83% | 80% | 83% | 87% | +4 |
| Public Health Scotland | N/A | N/A | N/A | 55% | 85% | 63% | 88% | +25 |
| NHS National Services Scotland | 78% | 76% | 88% | 90% | 90% | 94% | 99% | +5 |
| Geographic Boards | ||||||||
| NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 54% | 60% | 55% | 40% | 49% | 59% | 57% | -2 |
| NHS Borders | 26% | 75% | 70% | 48% | 44% | 53% | 56% | +3 |
| NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 13% | 46% | 58% | 20% | 30% | 44% | 55% | +11 |
| NHS Fife | 40% | 42% | 42% | 52% | 49% | 67% | 65% | -2 |
| NHS Forth Valley | 26% | 80% | 72% | 58% | 58% | 61% | 61% | 0 |
| NHS Grampian | 54% | 49% | 52% | 37% | 41% | 46% | 45% | -1 |
| NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde | 44% | 50% | 57% | 49% | 49% | 55% | 56% | +1 |
| NHS Highland | 29% | 48% | 49% | 10% | 30% | 28% | 31% | +3 |
| NHS Lanarkshire | 48% | 67% | 77% | 50% | 50% | 66% | 65% | -1 |
| NHS Lothian | 33% | 60% | 57% | 15% | 42% | 50% | 54% | +4 |
| NHS Orkney | 81% | 81% | 70% | 55% | 39% | 58% | 69% | +11 |
| NHS Shetland | 14% | 45% | 41% | 36% | 27% | 41% | 43% | +2 |
| NHS Tayside | 39% | 41% | 47% | 54% | 42% | 47% | 45% | -2 |
| NHS Western Isles | 12% | 14% | 13% | 31% | 31% | 59% | 66% | +7 |
NHS 24 explain how the rise in Action Plan completion is the result of other activities across the organisation linked to iMatter performance:
NHS 24
- “The implementation of the ‘Our Culture Matters’ programme, alongside the ‘Our Wellbeing Matters’ strategy and the rollout of Culture and Values Workshops across the organisation, has brought our Values and Behaviours Framework to life.
- Launch of Culture and Wellbeing Action Plans within each directorate, embedding ownership and supporting tailored actions to promote a healthy workplace culture.
- Embedding of Staff Experience Groups in main centres to proactively ensure positive staff experiences and foster working environments where everyone feels included, respected, and valued.
- The implementation of an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Workforce Action Plan which contains a wide range of work that supports an inclusive culture for all staff.
- The refresh of NHS 24 recruitment process, taking a values-based approach in all aspects, ensuring that our new staff are already engaged with our desired values and behaviours and how we prioritise these, from the earliest point.
- The launch of the Leadership Development Programme, incorporating ‘Leading with Courage’ and ‘Leading for Impact,’ has strategically enhanced our leadership capabilities, equipping leaders with the skills to better support and motivate their teams, fostering a more positive work environment and a culture of psychological safety.
- Ahead of the iMatter 2024 cycle, communications were shared outlining actions taken to address the lowest-scoring questions from the 2023 survey, highlighting key improvements implemented. This contributed to a 30% increase in iMatter action plan completion from 62% in 2023 to 92% in 2024.”
Healthcare Improvement Scotland has placed considerable focus on addressing iMatter performance and Action Planning is an integral part of that process, which is reflected in the increase in teams completing Action Plans from 53% to 75%:
Healthcare Improvement Scotland
“We are actively working on the areas set out in the action plan. Some examples of actions include;
- Development of Directorate-level action plans, to address local results.
- Development and implementation of pulse surveys (at Directorate-levels), to monitor progress of Directorate-level action plans.
- Curation of related people indicators, which offer insight into staff experience on a more regular basis.
- Leadership Lens sessions, planned to encourage greater awareness of / engagement in organisational challenges”.
NHS Orkney attribute their improvement in Action Plan completion to sustained engagement with staff:
NHS Orkney
“We carried out a lot of direct communication and engagement about action planning, including at multiple internal forums over a sustained period of time, and worked with teams to really get them to focus on the 1 or 2 things that would make the most positive impact.”
The considerable increase in Action Plan completion achieved by NHS Dumfries and Galloway in 2024, follows on from similar progress from 2022 and 2023. Commenting on the progress this year the Board referenced support that have been given to managers:
NHS Dumfries & Galloway
“This year NHS Dumfries and Galloway engaged with Managers ahead of the action planning window. The Learning and Development team created a quick guide for Managers to help them understand what was being asked of them which worked very well but we also found our key motivators within the services to communicate that guidance and the value that action planning brings to all high performing teams.”
The State Hospital Action Plan completion at 47% is one of the lowest across the Boards. Candid feedback from the Board, gives insight into the broader challenges they face around iMatter and Action Plan completion:
The State Hospital
“We have identified the reasons which may have impacted on our action plan completion rates dropping and are taking the following action:
We continue to address the apathy towards completing the survey and reassure and evidence the reported perception over lack of feedback or changes on the results.
We are aware that the time of year plays a part and are giving this consideration. Our distribution scheduling means that action planning falls during the summer holiday period which brings challenges in timeously scheduling meaningful quality discussions with representative groups of staff.
We are seeking to refocus on iMatter and to avoid survey fatigue to support participation in the iMatter survey. This follows the impact of engagement events last year: engagement with over 50% of staff to inform the development of a new OD strategy which is all about improving the health of the organisation, and an evaluation of the wellbeing strategy.
As a high priority, we are working with managers to develop their skillsets for sitting down and having meaningful conversations. This will support managers to feel more comfortable having conversations rather than shy away from addressing and discussing team issues.
We are committed to addressing these issues and are embarking on solutions to improve general engagement with our staff, which we are confident will go some way to improving iMatter response rates.”
NHS Golden Jubilee recognise the need for greater focus on iMatter in order to address the reduction seen in Action Plan completion in 2024.
NHS Golden Jubilee
“To continue to embed iMatter within the board we are planning the following:
- The Director of People and Culture and the Employee Director will lead an iMatter Board Report session for all colleagues on MS Teams in the autumn.
- iMatter reports are being shared with key groups including Staff Governance Partnership, Staff Health and Wellbeing for consideration on how results may influence work led by these groups.
- Work is underway to develop staff engagement training for managers.
- More regular communication throughout the year to ensure we can keep iMatter as a focus for all teams.”
Contact
Email: nationalimatterteam@gov.scot
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