Isle Of Wight NHS Staff Survey Reveals Positives

The latest Isle of Wight NHS Trust staff survey has revealed an improvement in the quality of care, safety culture and the health and wellbeing support on offer to staff.

The latest results, published today (Thursday), show that morale and staff engagement are improving, with more people recommending the Trust as a place to work, along with an increase in the number of staff happy with the standard of care provided.

Areas of the Trust are setting the bar nationally, with the Ambulance Service recording some of the best results in the country, scoring highest in its category for 8 out of 10 key themes.

The national survey, which happened in autumn 2020, saw a record 60 per cent of staff or nearly 2,000 people share their views on a range of topics from line management to clinical practice.

Overall, the Trust has seen improvements across its workforce in six key areas: quality of care, safety culture, safe environment - bullying and harassment, health and wellbeing, staff engagement and morale.

The results show that more staff are happy with the standard of care provided and would be happy for friends and family, if needed, to be cared for by our teams.

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

“This is great news for our Island community as we see feedback on our quality of care and the friends and family test improving.

“We have seen an 15 per cent rise in the number of staff who would recommend the Trust as a place to work and this is encouraging news as the health and happiness of our team members is a priority for us.

“The people who work at our Trust have told us that things are improving and as we continue on our Getting to Good journey we will act on their feedback and make sure that they continue to be supported to provide the best possible care to our community.

"There is a lot of work to do to sustain this improvement and working with our partners will help make sure our services, and staff and patient experience keep getting better."

Other highlights in the report, where we demonstrate significant improvement, include:

Mental health and learning disabilities

• Safety culture
• Safe environment – bullying and harassment

Community

• Health and wellbeing
• Quality of care
• Staff engagement

Acute and Corporate

• Safe environment – bullying and harassment
• Safety culture
• Staff engagement
• Morale
• Health and wellbeing

The survey also highlighted several areas for improvement, including how the Trust involves staff in decision-making, how teams discuss their effectiveness and people’s experience of violence in the workplace.

Isle of Wight NHS Trust Chief Executive, Maggie Oldham, said:

“More people than ever had their say in the latest staff survey and these positive results show the progress we are making as a Trust, even as we respond to the challenges of COVID.

"Making sure people are happy and healthy at work is crucial to providing the high quality, compassionate care we strive for. So, it is fantastic to see that our staff feel better supported and that morale has improved.

"The people in our team make a positive difference every day and they are a credit to our Trust and I would like to thank them for all for their hard work.

“The wonderful support of our island community has meant so much to us during the last year and I am sure that it has helped people through some difficult months. So, thank you again for all your support.”