The National Staff Survey results for 2024 show that staff experience at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC) has remained fairly static and highlighted areas where there is more work to do.
NCIC saw a big increase in the response rate this year with almost 500 more people completing the survey than in 2023, that’s an increase of over 6% and is 3% above the national average.
In total there were 101 questions, of which, 81 questions stayed the same, 2 questions showed significant improvement since 2023, and 17 questions have declined in their scores.
Although there has been a decline in the scores for the three key questions compared to last year’s results, the improvement from 2022 to 2023 remains substantial, indicating that while we may have taken a step back, we have not returned to the previous scores seen in 2022.
When looking at how views have changed over the year on a question level, the results indicate that the most decline were in areas such as team work, compassionate culture, inclusion, and recognition.
The results on protected characteristics show that colleagues with a disability are 14.3% more likely to experience discrimination or harassment than colleagues who are not disabled and colleagues from an ethnic minority background are more likely to experience discrimination or harassment from patients, public and managers and colleagues.
Lyn Simpson, Chief Executive said, “I’m pleased that we have largely held onto the improvements made last year. We have dipped slightly in some areas which is a concern, but perhaps not surprising given the pressures we are currently facing.
“I’m grateful to all colleagues who completed the survey as it gives us a good picture of how they feel about their working experience. I want everyone that comes to work at NCIC to have a positive experience and these results will help us make improvements in the areas that matter most.
“It’s clear that we have work to do in a number of areas such as improving morale, addressing inequalities and improving appraisals. Only 31% of colleagues said that their appraisal helped them to agree clear objectives for their work. It’s important that colleagues all have a meaningful appraisal and we are about to launch a new appraisal policy, which is designed to address issues raised by staff so I’m hoping we would see an increase in those scores next year.”
Work is underway to develop local improvement plans. We are also setting up a new staff engagement steering group to plan the improvements that matter most and to build a culture of continuous improvement to make NCIC a ‘great place to work.’