Isle Of Wight NHS Staff Survey Highlights Further Improvements As Ambulance Service Leads The Way

The latest NHS Staff Survey results show that the Isle of Wight NHS Trust has seen positive areas of improvement over the past 12 months.

Highlights from this year’s survey show people who work at the Trust 'feel part of a team' and that it is increasingly becoming a more 'compassionate and inclusive employer', who recognises and rewards its staff.

The Trust has also been recognised as a 'safer and healthier place to work', as well as demonstrating improvements in opportunities to access the right learning and development.

The Ambulance Service continues to set the benchmark nationally by achieving the highest scores in the country across eight of the nine key themes of the survey, and this year the Mental Health service also achieved the highest score nationally in the area of learning and development.

Darren Cattell, Chief Executive at the Isle of Wight NHS Trust, said:

“These results highlight the progress we are making as we strive to be a great place to work, which in turn has a positive impact on the care and services we provide to our Island community. We are at, or above average, in six of the nine key themes of the survey.

“We always listen carefully to the feedback and our focus is firmly on where we can make a positive impact. We will continue our investment into building on the positives, as well as shaping our future plans to improve things for our people and enable us to continue to deliver high quality services and compassionate care.

“We know that all of our people come to work to provide the best possible care and the significant investments we are making into recruiting more clinical staff, improving our infrastructure and new digital systems, as well as our acute partnership with Portsmouth and our Community and Mental Health and Learning Disability partnership across the whole of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, will enable them to do this in the right environment with the right support and tools.

“The support of our community is also invaluable and this has continued throughout what has been a very challenging year as demand on our services and people continues to increase. I would like to thank everyone who continues to work hard to make the Trust a supportive, inclusive and compassionate environment.”

Across the NHS, response rates to this year’s survey were lower than last year, but despite all the challenges of the pandemic, operational pressure and COVID recovery, there was a strong response rate with over half of the Trust's staff (57%) taking the time to share their feedback.

The Trust said the results show it’s been another tough year, with issues related to pay and pressure of work, high on the agenda.

Last year, staff  said the Trust needed to improve how it empowers them to speak up when necessary, including reporting acts of violence - and this has been one of the most improved areas this year, but embedding a 'speak-up' culture is still an area of focus.

Julie Pennycook, Director of People and Organisational Development, said:

“The safety, health and wellbeing of our colleagues and patients is of paramount importance to us. Everyone should be able to work without fear of violence, injury, abuse or harassment. We have a number of measures in place to support our teams to speak freely and openly about any issues they face and we are committed to take action when they do.

“Our people told us that they are experiencing less discrimination which is very encouraging, and over the coming months we will be focusing more on supporting our underrepresented groups, providing additional support to staff when they are unwell and sharing information about the actions we take when concerns are raised. We are also working on plans to support our staff in a number of ways especially during periods of sustained pressure.”

The Trust is making several multi-million-pound investments developing the estates and digital infrastructure, as well as investing in the recruitment of clinical staff.