National Staff Survey

NHS Staff Survey - update by division

• DCHS staff survey response rate – 68.1% (3068 completions)
• Bank staff survey 34.3% (97 completions)

By Division:

The annual NHS Staff Survey is one of the largest workforce surveys in the world. It’s sent to over 1.3 million of our NHS people each year and is completed by over 600,000 of them. This is the 20th year of the NHS Staff Survey and is run independently of NHS England and to the highest standards of quality and accuracy.

Your response to the staff survey is completely confidential and anonymous. After the Survey closes, everyone’s answers are gathered by the Survey Co-ordination Centre that manages the survey for the NHS. It then takes time to carefully check and analyse that exceptionally large amount of anonymous data. This gives a really accurate picture of what it is like to work in the NHS, which is used by numerous different organisations, as well as your own organisation, to make things better for you, your colleagues, and our patients and service users.

By giving just 15 minutes of your time you can help make the NHS the workplace we all want it to be. The survey runs from the 7 October until the 29 November. Please do fill yours in and make sure you have your say. It is important that our workforce from all backgrounds and experiences take part as the People Promise says: “We each have a voice that counts.”

You can read a summary of the questions that will be asked in the 2024 Staff Survey here.

There is a lot of good work going on within DCHS but there is always room to do more and make staff experience the best for all of us, regardless of where we work.  After the unique demands of the last 12 months, it is more important than ever that we share our views on our working experience and how it can be improved.

The NHS Staff Survey is a rich source of data to support understanding our working experiences. The data is publicly available on the NHS Staff Survey website and is well used by a wide range of organisations and teams, including HRDs and subject matter experts in the local NHS, NHS England (such as temporary staffing, retention), and equality and health inequalities teams, staff experience leads, CQC, staff networks, Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES), Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES), Freedom To Speak Up and National Guardians Office, Social Partnership Forum, and the Pay Review Body.

Listening to and acting on your feedback from the survey, help us generate better outcomes for our patients and improve staff experience of DCHS.

This year, DCHS is mandated to take part in the national bank survey, with tailored questions researched and developed to ensure they are relevant to their experiences.

If, as a bank only worker, you have worked for more than one NHS organisation in the past six months, it is possible that you receive more than one invitation to take part in the NHS Staff Survey. If you do receive more than one invitation, you are welcome to complete the Survey more than once, each time being careful to think about your experiences at the organisation that sent you the invitation.

Our independent contractor is Picker. Picker is a leading international health and social care charity who carry out research services. One of the reasons we use an independent contractor is to ensure the confidentiality of the survey.

If you would like to understand more about this, please have a look at the confidentiality fact sheet, produced by Picker here.

All colleagues will receive their NHS Staff Survey w/c. 07 October 2024. 

Invitations to take part in the survey will be delivered electronically directly to your NHS.net account from Picker and will contain a link. This link is unique to you and cannot be shared with colleagues. Responses can therefore be logged against each participant in a confidential way and reminders are only sent to those who do not respond.

If you need help completing the survey:

E: dchst.equality@nhs.net

Further information about the survey is available at: NHS Staff Surveys.

Staff survey results have been shared, and considered, across the organisation. Team level results have been shared with the colleagues that created them, staff networks, executive level leaders and the Board. Results have been used to inform and shape decisions throughout DCHS.

Focus group type listening events have been held across bank, nursing, therapy and physio teams to understand the staff experiences that sit behind the staff survey data. These focus groups have allowed services to develop in a way that has improved staff experience.

As examples:

• You said – the Loop system does not display enough information to allow colleagues to decide whether to apply for a bank shift
• We did – the information displayed on the Loop system has been expanded
• You said – Changes to the Trust estate were causing anxiety around security and changing roles.
• We did – Ensured that teas concerned with revisited by the Security and Health and Safety teams to ensure that you were comfortable ahead of changes.

Staff Survey results

• 2023 NHS Staff Survey results infographic

Staff Survey benchmark and breakdown reports

• NSS23 Benchmark Reports - NHS Staff Survey benchmark results
• NSS23 Breakdown Reports - DCHS NHS Staff Survey 2022 breakdown report

We would like to start by saying a huge thank you to everyone who completed our annual staff survey. Our overall response rate for substantive staff was 60%, up from 51% in 2023.

The results of the bank staff survey are not due to be published until April 2024. These will be added here when they are available.

We are committed to listening and acting on the information that you give us. Please see the infographic below, which compares our results to our benchmark group of community trusts.

Staff Survey results

• DCHS Staff Survey Results 2022 Infographic

Staff Survey benchmark and breakdown reports

• NSS22 Benchmark Reports - NHS Staff Survey benchmark results
• NSS22 Breakdown Reports - DCHS NHS Staff Survey 2022 breakdown report

We would like to start by saying a huge thank you to everyone who completed our annual staff survey. Our overall response rate for substantive staff was 51% and our bank staff at 21%. Unfortunately, response rates have declined in comparison to the previous year which stood at 62%.

The infographic below shows you how we scored and for each theme compares our results to our benchmark group of all fellow community Trusts.

A breakdown of results can be found in the '2022 Results and Reports' dropdown below.

For more information regarding this year's survey please do not hesitate to get in touch. 

Final breakdown by department and team

The results/reports from the 2021 NHS Staff Survey can be found by clicking on the bullets below:

• NHS England Full Report 
• NHS England Directorate Report 
• Quality Health Summary Report 

The infographic below shows you how we scored and for each theme compares our results to our benchmark group of all fellow Community Trusts:

The results/reports from the 2020 NHS Staff Survey can be found by clicking on the bullets below:

• NHS England Summary Report
• NHS England Directorate Report
• Quality Health Directorate Results (looks at question detail for each directorate)
• Quality Health Department Results (looks at question detail for each department)

For a full breakdown of the results, please see go to the National Coordination Cente website here.

Staff survey results infographic

FINAL response rate - 62.5%.

Update by division

DCHS response rate by division spreadsheet 

We listened to your views on the 2020 NHS Staff Survey, here's some of the things you said;

You said…

Covid testing should be conducted, regularly and consistently

We ensured…

All colleagues had access to testing kits, we developed a ‘how to’ protocol and agreed that all staff who are testing should do so on a Monday and Thursday.

You said…

Maintain remote consultations, using technology

We improved…

Our video consultation technology, support and guidance and we're now conducting around 1800 video consultations per month.