Published on: 9 March 2018

Kevin McGee.jpgWelcome to this week's blog and I can hardly contain my excitement. Best Results Ever!! This year’s exceptional staff survey results have made me burst with pride! Well done everyone!

Out of the 32 key findings ELHT are in the top quarter for half of them! We also scored above the national average for staff recommending ELHT to others as a place of work and we are the fifth top performing Trusts in the North! This is a huge tribute to you, the amazing staff that work so hard for our patients, day and night, year on year. You all deserve to feel incredibly proud of yourselves; give each other a high five! Your compassion, your willingness to work hard to do a good job and your caring values has shone through in this report.

Over recent years we have put a lot of time, effort and resources in to making sure that ELHT is a happy, healthy environment for all our staff to work in. I know that staff who feel engaged, happy and supported at work provide the best care. And this shows in our engagement results, where we are in the top 20 per cent for staff satisfaction, staff contribution and working effectively as a team; only going to prove ELHT is a great place to work!

The health and wellbeing of our staff is hugely important to me, now more than ever before as our home and work lives get ever busier. We continually listen to our staff and recognise that they have a valuable contribution to make during their working lives. And this has resulted in much fewer staff feeling the effects of work related stress, placing us in the top 20 per cent of Trusts. Providing our staff with the tools and techniques to maintain good health and wellbeing reduces stress levels and creates a healthier, happier person! The introduction of the Engaging Managers project has also proved a success. An outstanding 92 per cent of staff reported receiving an annual appraisal – giving them time to discuss important topics such as progression and development. And further improvements have been seen in staff reporting good managerial communication, of being valued by managers and receiving support from their managers. Each of these indicators is above the national average.

The increased levels of Trust and manager support have also influenced the improvements made on the number of staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from colleagues. This year we are named third best in the North, with just 21 per cent of staff reporting issues, a big decrease on last year’s results and below the national average of 25 per cent. I am particularly pleased about this. No one should come to work and experience these behaviours from a colleague. A huge amount of effort continues to be put into making sure better support mechanisms are in place for staff. There is no doubt that the appointment of Jane Butcher, our Freedom to Speak Up Guardian, who staff can approach in confidence, has most certainly made a considerable impact on ensuring our staff are heard and supported. Whilst we will always strive for a workplace where no one experiences such issues, these results show that we are certainly going in the right direction and are outperforming many of our peers.

We have an open and honest culture at ELHT, and we want people to feel safe and encouraged to raise concerns. The results around errors and incidents key findings give us a valuable insight into our staff views and importantly, an understanding of where we need to focus our efforts and improve on. This year we have seen good improvement in the reporting of errors, near misses or incidents and also on the reporting of experiences of violence. We will be working closely with the directorates to analyse the results and assist in addressing areas of improvement at a local and Trust-wide level. These are positive steps forward and most importantly of all, show that staff feel more confident and secure in reporting instances and feel that there is more fairness and effectiveness in the procedures. These key findings are a big display of how strong we are as a Trust and give us solid foundations to build upon and improve further.

We look very carefully at our staff survey as an indicator of the quality of care we give to our patients. These results tell me, tell the local community and our NHS partners, that you are providing safe, personal effective care each day to our patients, that you support your colleagues and enjoy your roles at ELHT. Congratulations and thank you for being honest in your responses, and for continuing to show your true ELHT colours!