iMatter Health & Social Care Staff Experience Survey 2024

My Team / My Direct Line Manager

Results are aggregated for each question presented under the heading ‘My Team / My Direct Line Manager’.

All the components in My Team/My Direct Line Manager are unchanged from 2023, with ‘my direct line manager is approachable’ scoring highest (88) and ‘I feel involved in decisions relating to my team’ scoring lowest (77).

Boards

Full Board data is included in the iMatter 2024 Data file^[10].

Across the Boards, most scores for My Team/My Direct Line Manager have either not moved or decreased by 1 point. The exceptions to this are:

• Healthcare Improvement Scotland, where all scores have decreased by 2 points or more. The biggest declines are in ‘I feel involved in decisions relating to my team’ and ‘I am confident performance is managed well within my team’, with both declining by 5 points from 2023
• NHS Western Isles score for ‘I feel involved in decisions relating to my team’ has declined by 3 points from last year

Several Boards have achieved improved scores for My Team/My Direct Line Manager, in particular;

• Public Health Scotland where all components have increased by at least 2 points. The largest increases of 4 points are in ‘My direct line manager is sufficiently approachable’ and ‘I feel involved in decisions relating to my team’.
• All components have increased in NHS 24, typically by 2 points, with ‘I feel my direct line manager cares about my health and well-being’ increasing by 1 point and ‘I am confident performance is managed well within my team’ increasing by 3 points.
• In NHS Orkney, ‘I feel involved in decisions relating to my team’ has not changed from 2022, but all other components have increased. The largest increases, of 3 points, are in ‘I feel my direct line manager cares about my health and well-being’ and ‘I have confidence and trust in my direct line manager’.

A Team Story from the NHS Lothian Blood Science Team demonstrates the importance of keeping staff informed, particularly when there is a lot of change happening within a department:

NHS Lothian, Senior Blood Science Team

“When Sarah started managing the Team, she introduced a weekly staff newsletter, as there were lots of changes happening within the department at the time. The newsletter is designed to keep all Lab staff up to date with latest changes across their department, including details of leavers and joiners, reminders of upcoming training courses and planned improvements and developments.

As a result of the Weekly Brief, each of the three Teams which Sarah manages decided to establish and compile their own local newsletters; ‘Noticeboard News’ ‘The Pillar Post’ and ‘Not More ‘Bloody’ Changes Newsletter’ (the latter being appropriate for a Haematology Team). It was agreed that the newsletters should not be onerous to complete, and staff have taken control of compiling and distributing their own copies. As well as informing staff on personnel changes, they include news of social events and celebrate birthdays and exam passes, and act as reminders for newly introduced systems or processes.

Some staff have been promoted and have moved onto new roles. They have taken this concept to their new departments, and it is great to hear it’s being spread to other areas.”

The East Renfrewshire CAMHS team in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have introduced ‘Sparkling Moments’ to their team meetings to support staff:

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, East Renfrewshire CAMHS

“A powerful but small addition to the weekly team meeting has been the introduction of sharing our ‘Sparkling Moments’. This is a standing agenda item encouraging staff to share their experience of a time in the past week where they have overcome difficulties in the course of their work, redefined problems, had small successes or breakthroughs, or have felt the support of others in the service in doing the same. 

As a team we have become better at recognising good and helpful clinical and team practice, especially with the knowledge that there is a weekly forum for its acknowledgment. This also has the effect of completing a long weekly team meeting with a sense of camaraderie, shared values and purpose, and a boost in mood knowing that others do notice when we are trying.”

NHS 24 have put actions in place to support managers in their roles within the Service Delivery Directorate where the top three scoring elements are those relating to line managers:

NHS 24, Service Delivery

“Actions taken in Service Delivery include undertaking initiatives to enhance national cross-site working and continuous improvement, promoting the importance of regular and meaningful 1:1s, scheduling regular CPD time for all team members and conducting monthly staff engagement sessions in each centre.

A pilot ‘buddy’ team approach was implemented to foster cross-site team building and continuous improvement within Service Delivery. This initiative aimed to extend support and knowledge to new managers through a structured team approach, leveraging the experience of established managers. Despite challenges like finding protected time for meetings, the initiative received positive feedback for enhancing manager roles and encouraging collaborative working. Aligned with the Transformational Board Programme, the initiative included training sessions and local levelling discussions, facilitating best practices and consistent HR procedures across the Service Delivery team. Board members have actively participated in staff engagement sessions and continue to conduct Patient Safety Leadership walkarounds to engage with staff across all centres.”

The Estates Team at NHS Ayrshire & Arran reflects on the role of the team to support others across the organisation. The story covers actions taken to improve the way in which a new system was introduced to make the process more efficient:

NHS Ayrshire & Arran, Estates Team

“A huge part of our day job is planned maintenance; this plays a pivotal role in ensuring the continued safety of our working environments. The meticulous reams of data input by Estates Information and Quality Support team ensures planned maintenance output is received every week from our CaFM system (Computer aided facilities management) Apollo. The opportunity has arrived to update the Apollo system replacing it with a newer CaFM system which promises a more modern, user-friendly system that offers more advanced functionality.

The team devised a new plan, a new way of looking at the issue, we processed mapped the journey we had to make (nod to the AAIFS team), we considered not only what we needed data wise but also who we needed. Getting everyone on board was exactly what we had to do. Our Head of Estates, keen to develop the plan further, helped us produce amazing core templates thanks to his years of experience and know how. We showed that Estates teams were willing to take the time to consider a different approach, our managers supported an innovative team and they took a chance that will continue to pay off and allows them to ultimately maintain their long term goal to provide quality workmanship and safety for us all.”

Staff Groupings

Local Authority staff score 1 or 2 points higher than NHSScotland staff on all My Team components.