The NHS Staff Survey 2019 was released this month.
The Board of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has claimed repeatedly that the mental health trust is ‘clinically-led’.
The NHS Staff Survey 2019 results prove once and for all that the claim that NSFT is ‘clinically-led’ is a LIE.
A clinically-led organisation would make a priority of employing staff who have face-to-face contact with patients during cuts, CQC failure and Special Measures. At NSFT, the opposite is true.
The dark blue line is NSFT’s performance.:
In other mental health trusts, the proportion of staff seeing patients has increased. In 2019, the proportion of NSFT staff seeing patients hit a record low.
A clinically-led organisation would make a priority of having enough staff to get the work done.
NSFT’s performance is the WORST and WORSE since the ‘new’ management took over:
Only one in four NSFT staff believe there are enough staff. This is the WORST performance and WORSE since the ‘new’ management took control.
There is a chasm between staff who see patients and those who don’t.
More than one-third of staff (37.7 per cent) who don’t see patients believe there are enough staff.
But only about one in five staff (21.9 per cent) who regularly see patients believe there are enough staff.
This isn’t what a clinically-led organisation looks like:
In a clinically-led organisation, staff can make suggestions to improve the work of their team/department.
Since the ‘new’ management arrived, performance has got WORSE. In 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, NSFT’s performance was bad. But not WORST as it is now.
In a clinically-led organisation, you would expect staff who see patients regularly to have more ability to make suggestions than those with no face-to-face contact with patients.
At NSFT, the opposite is true:
In a clinically-led organisation, staff can make suggestions to improve the work of their team/department.
Once again, NSFT’s performance is the WORST in the country and WORSE since the ‘new’ management took control:
Less than half of NSFT staff believe they are involved in decisions.
Again, staff with regular face-to-face patient contact have considerably less influence on their team / department than those who don’t see patients at all.
In a clinically-led organisation, staff can make improvements happen.
Again, NSFT is WORST and WORSE since the ‘new’ management:
Again, front line staff feel less empowered than those who don’t see patients at all.
Less than half of staff who have face-to-face contact with patients believe they can make improvements happen:
In a clinically-led organisation, staff are supported by their immediate manager.
Once again, NSFT is WORST and WORSE since the ‘new’ management took control:
Yet again, front line staff feel significantly less supported than those who don’t see patients at all:
In a clinically-led organisation, staff feel their work is valued.
At NSFT, less than one in four staff believe their work is valued, the WORST performance in the country and WORSE relative to other mental health trusts since the ‘new’ management took control (and remember we’re comparing to Antek Lejk’s time as Chief Executive).
Yet again, front line staff feel significantly less valued than those who have no patient contact:
A clinically-led organisation would encourage its staff at work.
Again, NSFT is WORST and WORSE since the ‘new’ management took control:
Yet again, front line staff feel significantly less supported than those who don’t see patients at all.
In a clinically-led trust, line managers talk to staff before making changes that affect their work.
Again, NSFT is the WORST in the country and WORSE since the ‘new’ management took control:
Yet again, front line staff feel significantly less supported than those who don’t see patients at all:
In a clinically-led trust, staff would know who their senior managers are.
Again, NSFT is WORST and FAR WORSE than the before:
Again, front line staff are significantly less aware of their so-called ‘clinical leadership’ than those who don’t see patients:
Less than one in three front line staff believe that communication between senior management and staff is effective. Hardly ‘clinically-led’:
Less than one in three front line staff believe that senior management involve staff in important decisions. Hardly ‘clinically-led’:
Less than one in four front line staff believe that senior management act on feedback from staff. Hardly ‘clinicially-led’:
All of this ‘clinical leadership’ has had a devastating effect on the health of NSFT’s own staff.
NSFT’s performance is the WORST for work-related stress in the country and the WORST ever recorded at NSFT:
Front line staff who see patients are much, much more likely to experience ill-health as a result of work-related stress. Hardly ‘clinically-led’:
A ‘clinically-led’ organisation would treat staff involved in an error, near miss or incident fairly. Less than half of NSFT staff believe this is true. It is the WORST performance in the country and WORSE since the ‘new’ management took control:
Again, there is a gulf between front line staff and those who don’t see patients:
All of this ‘clinical leadership’ has had a devastating effect on staff morale. The proportion of staff often thinking about leaving NSFT is the highest in the country:
We warned that the disastrous appointments in the radical restructure and the disgraceful re-employment of Amy Eagle as Deputy Chief Operating Officer on a doubled salary would preclude ‘clinical leadership’ and devastate staff morale.
This is exactly what has happened, whatever NSFT’s senior management and its mates at the Care Quality Commission try to stitch-up.
A NHS trust cannot function without its professionals.
The arrogance of the former Professor Jonathan Warren, Chief Executive, and Marie Gabriel, Chair of NSFT, is a catastrophe.
Pride comes before a fall.
No wonder former Professor Warren’s message to staff about the NHS Staff Survey 2019 was so terse.