The results of the national 2025 NHS staff survey have been published, giving us insight into what working in our hospitals feels like for our colleagues and where we need to improve.

This year, 47% of our staff – more than 4,000 colleagues – shared their experiences in the confidential survey, which runs across the NHS every year. It took place during an exceptionally busy time for our Trust, with record numbers of patients attending our A&Es and the introduction of our new electronic patient record (EPR).

Many colleagues told us they are proud of the care we provide and value the support of their teams and line managers. 88.4% of staff said they feel their role makes a difference to patients or service users.

Following changes based on feedback from previous surveys, we have also seen an increase in the number of staff who had an appraisal and felt that, as a result, their work was valued by the organisation. This result is now above the national average for that question.

However, the survey also highlights areas where we need to do better. Too many staff reported experiencing high workload, stress and burnout, with 36.4% saying they feel burnt out because of their work.

The results also show that 16.8% of staff experienced physical violence from patients or the public in the past year, while 29.6% reported harassment, bullying or abuse.

Fewer staff reported experiencing discrimination from managers, team leaders and colleagues, although we know there is still more work to do.

We will be working with colleagues across our clinical groups to address the issues raised and identify ways to improve staff experience both across the Trust and within individual teams.

Over the past year we have strengthened support for managers through our management essentials programme, refreshed key people policies and introduced a pre-investigation panel to ensure concerns are handled consistently and fairly.

We are also improving recruitment and career development pathways, and will launch an in-house mediation service later this year to help resolve issues earlier.

Matthew Trainer, our Chief Executive, said:

Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey, particularly during such a demanding period for our staff.

 

The survey helps us understand what we are doing well and where we must improve, and it will continue to shape the changes we make to improve working lives across our Trust