NHS pay review body: twenty-sixth report 2012 - Official Documents

5.19 The 2011 NHS Staff Survey in England will run between September and December 2011
with nationally aggregated data available in late March 2012. The NHS Scottish Staff
Survey is undertaken biannually and will be next undertaken in 2012. The next Health
and Social Care Staff Survey in Northern Ireland is expected to take place in late 2011 or
early 2012.
The Health Departments
5.20 The Department of Health commented that the intention of staff earning £21,000
or less to leave the NHS had worsened between 2009 and 2010 from 2.52 to 2.62
(on a scale of 1-5 where 5 is highest). Figures had worsened very slightly for all staff
groups except nurses, where intention to leave had stayed the same. The Department
highlighted that the score for job satisfaction had remained consistently high and
increased again in 2010 and was the highest it had been in the last five years.
5.21 The Department commented that the opinion of staff earning less than £21,000 was
difficult to identify separately within the Staff Survey, but staff satisfaction for unqualified
nurses (who made up a large section of that group) was broadly unchanged at 3.48 out
of 5.00 in comparison to 3.49 in 2009.
5.22 The SGHSCD commented that the 2010 Staff Survey in Scotland showed that more staff
felt well informed, appropriately trained and demonstrated higher levels of employee
engagement than the previous survey. Due to initiatives such as Working Well and
putting into practice the Knowledge and Skills Framework in Scotland, the SGHSCD had
promoted an atmosphere where staff were encouraged to be healthy, motivated and
engaged.
Staff Bodies
5.23 The Staff Side pointed to individual staff organisations’ surveys which showed that
morale was falling year-on-year as staff reported increased workloads. The need for NHS
services was expanding and staff faced greater pressures and higher workloads, and
therefore respondents to surveys reported that their morale and motivation was falling.
The Staff Side concluded that a variety of surveys carried out by staff organisations, the
Department of Health and other organisations described a pessimistic picture with many
staff fearing for the quality of patient care.
5.24 The Staff Side noted that NHS staff were feeling under pressure from the impact
of high inflation and pay freezes. The Staff Side considered that this pressure was
being intensified by worries about pension reforms, job security and organisational
restructuring. The Staff Side highlighted that the NHS Staff Survey revealed that NHS
staff remained dedicated as ever to their work, with 89% stating that they were proud to
work for the NHS. However, the lowest levels of pride were among the groups that had
perceived the greatest decline in the quality of patient care and the Staff Side suggested a
dwindling of the dedication that the NHS relied upon.
5.25 The Staff Side considered that the main factors that kept staff attached to the NHS, such
as commitment to their job, enjoyment of their job and the pension scheme, had all
weakened in the estimation of staff. They considered that NHS staff attitudes to working
in the NHS were being shaken by the pay freeze, pension reforms, the impact of budget
constraints and organisational restructuring – and the long term effect of these factors
had yet to be felt.
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