2022 NHS Staff Survey results for EEAST

I am writing to you to share with you the results of the 2022 National NHS Employee Survey which are published today here: www.nhsstaffsurveys.com/results/.

I am pleased to that not only did we see an improved response rate but we also saw a positive shift in our results in nearly all areas, with 46% of questions scoring better than in 2021.

I would like to thank all our people who took part in the survey. Nearly 60% of you took the time to engage in this - a sizeable increase on last year’s response rate of 48%, which gives us a much better picture of how people are experiencing life at EEAST.

Along with the answers to the survey questions, many of you also took the time to provide free text comments. It’s really good to see the passion and commitment to wanting to make EEAST a better place to work. These comments will be read and analysed and actions will be put in place to address the issues raised.

In summary, you told us that:

More of you received an appraisal in the last year (up from 47 to 53%) and these appraisal helped you agree clear objectives. However, there is more we need to do to improve your satisfaction with the appraisal process
An increased number of you believe that at EEAST we respect individual difference (6% improvement) and fewer of you are reporting discrimination from colleagues. However, we know from our recent survey of BME colleagues that too many of our colleagues feel that they do not have the same opportunities for progression and development. We have more to do and this is a key area for improvement with a 3-year Inclusivity Plan for the Trust
More of you believe that EEAST takes positive action in health and well-being. Initiatives such as our comprehensive health and well-being offer and access to the Headspace app have led to a 6% increase in scores in this area.
Fewer of you are experiencing bullying and harassment from managers with an positive shift of 5% I believe that our values and behaviours training, and Speak Up, Speak Out, Stop It campaigns have had a positive impact in this area

For more detail about our results in a visual format, please click here.

Of course I recognise that we have much more to do. We have seen decreases in the number of you who are happy with the standard of care we provide and the level of pay that you receive. While we know this reflects the national picture, my priority is to improve your working lives along with the care that we deliver for our patients. We also need to do more to ensure that we act on concerns raised by staff, patients and service users.

We communicated with you yesterday regarding the results of our surveys of colleagues from BME backgrounds. The results from that survey and the National Staff Survey draw similar conclusions in that BME colleagues feel that they have less access to career progression and fewer opportunities to progress. Both surveys also indicate that there is work to be done on colleague behaviours, team work and trust between colleagues.

We have a task and finish group in place to take forward a range of improvements from the staff survey and a 3-year Inclusivity Plan which will address issues raised in our survey of BME staff. Many developments are underway through Fit for the Future, for example our People Strategy Clinical Strategy and Our Time to Lead programme to develop our leaders.

Overall I believe that we are seeing positive and tangible improvements across the Trust. We have made good progress to improving our culture - as shown by our recent improved report from the Care Quality Commission and the lifting of sanctions by the EHRC and CQC. I truly believe that by working together we can continue to make EEAST the best place to work and receive care.

Tom Abell
Chief Executive

Published 9th March 2023