The national NHS staff survey results are published today and, yet again, thanks to the incredible culture we have built at Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust based on kindness, compassion and putting people first, our results are fantastic!

It has been another challenging year and we know there is always more we can do to improve our working lives but, despite this, our people’s commitment to one another and to delivering outstanding patient care shines through.

The chart below summarises our results across nine overall themes (our results are the dark blue columns), compared to our 16 peer community trusts across the country. 

CCS is the best performing community trust nationally for our staff reporting that:

• We are compassionate and inclusive
• We each have a voice that counts
• We are safe and healthy
• We are always learning
• We work flexibly  

In the other 4 themes below - we were 0.1 mark below the top scoring community trust, which is amazing!   

• We are recognised and rewarded
• We are a team
• Staff engagement
• Morale

It is encouraging to see that the percentage of our people reporting they have experienced discrimination due to their ethnic background, gender, religion and/or age has decreased over the past 12 months. In addition, it is also heartening that the percentage of staff from minority ethnic groups who reported experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from patients, relatives or the public, staff or their manager/team leader or other colleagues has decreased in the last 12 months.

However, there is always room for improvement and we will soon be engaging with our staff networks and local staff side representatives to develop a plan of action. Initial ideas to focus on include: 

• Encouraging staff to report all incidents of violence, aggression, bullying and harassment, as well as strengthening support to individuals and our communications to patients/service users that violence, aggression, bullying and harassment will not be tolerated.
• Building on the changes implemented in our appraisal process to further explore ways colleagues can be more involved in decisions that directly impact their work.
• Reviewing what more we can do to prevent discrimination, with a particular focus on disability and sexual orientation.
• Continuing to embed a fair, non-biased recruitment and promotion culture.