Shropshire hospitals unveil plan to make staff happier

They will set up breakfast sessions, staff awards and a system in which they will ask workers ‘how was work today?’.

It comes after Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) came in the bottom four of a survey on staff engagement among 38 trusts across the country.

Staff shortages, the Future Fit hospitals review and an inquiry into rates of deaths in childbirth have all had an impact on staff at hospitals including the Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal in Telford.

The survey of more than 2,500 staff raised concerns about bullying and showed only 60.6 per cent of respondents ‘would feel secure raising concerns about unsafe clinical practice’ – the lowest figure across the country.

Only 52.6 per cent said that ‘if a friend or relative needed treatment I would be happy with the standard of care provided’.

Now SaTH is to draw up a six month plan aimed at tackling concerns. It will draw up breakfast meetings with bosses and new procedures including a ‘feedback app’ to ensure their concerns are heard.

A ‘Freedom to Speak Up’ programme has been set up and a series of staff focus groups have already been undertaken to gain feedback.

Victoria Rankin, workforce director, said the trust was addressing the findings as a “priority”.

In a report before SaTH’s board, the trust’s organisational development team says it will use the results, CQC data and whistleblower feedback to improve performance, with a full delivery plan to follow in May.

The six-month plan aims to improve patient safety and employee morale.

The NHS staff survey, which was carried out between September and December, placed the trust 34th out of 38 acute trusts, and found a downward trend in four out of nine areas since 2017.

Findings

OD team member Charlotte Banks writes that the 2018 survey grouped its findings into 10 theme areas, but one of these – “morale” – was not included in the previous year’s findings.

Of the remaining nine, “no themes have shown significant improvement since 2017”, Ms Banks writes.

“Five themes have shown no significant movements since 2017 and four have shown significant declines since 2017.”

Three of the 10 overall themes in the 2018 report are significantly worse than the sector and national average scores.

“These themes are: Health and wellbeing; Safety culture; Staff Engagement,” Ms Banks writes.

She adds that in “safety culture”, SaTH’s score was the worst nationally.

The trust received an average score in the categories of “Equality, diversity and inclusion; Quality of appraisals; Bullying and harassment; and Violence”.

More than 2,500, or 45 per cent, of SaTH staff returned the questionnaires. This was a two per cent rise on last year’s rate and one per cent higher than the national average.

In a separate document, also due to go before the SaTH board today, Ms Banks and fellow OD team member Paula Dabbs write that the delivery plan has been drafted using data from the survey, the Care Quality Commission and information gathered under the Freedom to Speak Up programme.

“A series of staff focus groups have been undertaken to gain feedback over the detail of the plan,” they add.

“This plan will be monitored monthly through the Workforce Committee, with a full plan proposed for May 30, 2019.”

Workforce Director Victoria Rankin will present Ms Banks’s and Ms Dabbs’s reports to the SaTH Trust Board when it meets at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital today.

By Alex Moore, local democracy reporter